CMYK Reviews

At its best, Marvel tends to be fun. This trade fits that description nicely.

This formation of the team features regulars Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Drax, and Gamora, along with The Thing, Kitty Pryde as Star-Lord, and Flash Thompson as Venom. Peter Quill is now the king of Spartax. And space still has a lot of baddies.

The two big foes of this arc are Hala the Accuser of the Kree and then a gangster named Yotat. These run almost immediately back to back on each other. This has pros and cons, at least dropping straight into the story like I did – the action flows constantly from the very beginning, but things are very underexplained. Hala is mad that the Kree homeworld was destroyed, which was apparently done by Peter’s jerk dad. This fact does nothing to slow anything down and is barely brought up beyond the Guardians expressing confusion they’re being targeted for it. Yotat doesn’t like Drax because, well, reasons?

This is far from a perfect book, and the flaws show with any amount of thought given to it beyond the page to page. A lot of stuff happens, just because. The Hala arc is almost immediately forgotten because Yotat shows up, and Yotat shows up because of a vaguely defined beef with Drax.

An aspect that is underplayed heavily, and it doesn’t make too much sense for the narrative (which is already hanging on by a string), is that Kitty Pryde & Peter Quill are engaged, but they don’t act like it much at all. This story would virtually be unchanged if this wasn’t even an aspect of it at all. There’s so much that could have been done with it but all it was used for was a throwaway gag. Pryde would still be motivated to help Quill without that hook.

But this works well as an action book, even if it doesn’t a plot book. If you’re here for lore, you’re going to have a bad time. If you’re here for some fun dialogue and big splashy fights, you’re going to get that at a high level.

The art in this is really quality stuff. There’s an abundance of beautiful splash pages throughout this. Schiti comes up with really great designs showing the weirdness of space culture and some really fantastic combat sequences. Isanove’s colors sing throughout, adding a lot of vibrancy that makes this a joy.

The Thing is a fun addition to the mix, with his personality sliding in nicely to play off of Drax and Rocket. Kitty doesn’t get a whole lot to do, though there’s a fun page of her convincing Rocket to go get Quill for help with a MacGuffin that is quickly forgotten. Flash Thompson is also present.

Again: this is popcorn flick fun. Works can transcend being that – Die Hard and Jaws are perfect examples of movies that aren’t particularly deep but are structured perfectly. This book doesn’t even flirt with doing that, but taken as what it is, it’s quite enjoyable all the same.

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Valerio Schiti
Colors: Richard Isanove
Marvel Comics

Rating is for each issue, #1-#5 inclusive.