Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 1: Cosmic Avengers

One only has to look at the subtitle for this volume to see what Marvel’s intentions for this series are.  Granted, that’s not a bad thing as the “Guardians of the Galaxy” are ideally suited to be an Avengers team IN SPACE.  Iron Man is even onboard for added legitimacy.  It’s also clear that the company is serious about making this into an A-list title in the run-up to the movie since they launched it with Bendis as the writer and Steve McNiven as the artist.  The inclusion of the writer alone not only solidifies the “Avengers” connection, but gets me to care about it as well.  So the question becomes, “Was this all worth it?”  What’s here is entertaining enough, but there’s not a whole lot of it to indicate that this is going to be something really special.

I think it’s worth mentioning that this first volume appears to follow on from the arc of “Avengers Assemble” that Bendis did a couple years back.  The reason I say “appears to” is because I never got around to picking it up.  $35 still strikes me as too much to pay for an eight-issue storyline.  Fortunately, even without reading that story it’s no problem at all to follow what’s going on here.

In fact, the volume kicks off with a new take on the origin of Star-Lord as we see J’Son, King of Spartax, crash-landing in a semi-remote part of the Colorado Rockies that happens to be occupied by one Meredith Quill.  After some initial tension, the two warm up to each other and become very close while they’re repairing his ship.  So close, that after he leaves she gives birth to his son who she names Peter.  Though the kid is bitter about having a dad who just up and left his mom, it doesn’t change the fact that he’s Spartax royalty and that there are plenty of aliens in the galaxy that would gladly see him dead for it.

As far as origin stories go, it’s alright.  Peter Quill is effectively established as a hothead who will jump to the defense of others without a second thought, and one who is clearly interested in the fantastic as well.  Ironically, the decent rapport Bendis builds between Meredith and J’Son winds up working against the story later on given how the Spartax King is portrayed in his later years.  He seems to genuinely care about this Earth woman and to have a genuine amount of sensitivity as well.

These traits are decidedly absent in his later years when the story jumps to the present and he meets up with his wayward son Peter in a bar.  J’Son has come to tell the Star-Lord of Spartax that there’s a new rule in the galaxy:  Leave Earth alone.  Ostensibly it’s so that the planet will be able to develop into one that is able to be a part of galactic civilization.  However, Peter sees his father’s new rule as simply painting a giant target on the planet for the less scrupulous races of the galaxy to take advantage of.  Races like the Badoon, who are the first to show up and start attacking the Earth.  Now it’s up to Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax the Destroyer, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, and Iron Man to make sure this new rule doesn’t eventually lead to the planet’s destruction.

If nothing else, the three issues of the series collected here — Star-Lord’s origin was the #0.1 prologue issue — do a good job of balancing action and intrigue.  We get some well-staged fight scenes courtesy of McNiven as the Guardians take out a Badoon ship in Earth orbit, only for a large number of them to escape to London where the fighting continues.  There’s a nice layout trick in the second issue that follows the actions of each member of the team over a series of horizontally-arranged panels and successfully conveys the fact that there’s a lot going on in the battle.  Even if part of it is just watching a bit of Groot stuck in a pot.  Fighting against the Spartax makes up the rest of the Guardians adventure, with Peter finding a fun way to stick it to his old man at the end.

It’s a nice moment and solidifies Peter as “first amongst equals” in what is meant to be a team book.  That is to say, Peter gets the most development and the best lines, with Iron Man and Rocket following close behind.  Regrettably, Gamora, Drax and Groot wind up being defined only as “badass alien female fighter,” “badass alien male fighter,” and “that violent tree creature who only says his name.”  Given that the book is built around a superhero team, it’s disappointing to see half of it essentially relegated to the background for this volume.  This is something I’d like to see Bendis work on for future volumes.

The rest of the story involves J’Son and the other heads of the major galactic civilizations trying to figure out what to do with Earth.  While the order to leave it alone is genuine, the actual reasoning behind it is less straightforward and certainly not in the planet’s best interests.  Amusingly, Bendis leverages a lot of general Marvel Universe history as perfectly good reasons for why Earth should be wiped out.  (Though he’s wrong about Galactus:  The Devourer of Worlds did try to consume the home planet of the Dire Wraiths in the pages of “Rom:  Spaceknight” and failed.)  If you’ve also read Hickman’s “New Avengers,” then there’s also a good sense of dramatic irony to be had here since J’Son would actually have a legitimate reason for his agenda if he knew about the incursions of other Earths into this reality.

These scenes involving J’Son, and the other galactic leaders — who include Gladiator, Freyja, the Supreme Intelligence, the Brood Queen, and Y-Gaar of the Badoon Brotherhood — are also notable for their verbal jousting as well.  It’s clear from the start that this collection of personalities is a volatile one, but they’re all interacting via hologram so they can’t actually hurt each other.  Much to Y-Gaar’s disappointment.  So they let their words and looks do the cutting.  Though it’s clear that J’Son views himself as the head of this collective, I like the fact that the rest of the group is not blind to this fact.  As for what they’re going to do about it, that should be interesting to see.

Now four issues makes for a thin collected edition and the rest of this volume is filled out by the anthology issue, “Guardians of the Galaxy:  Tomorrows Avengers.”  It features four short stories spotlighting Drax, Groot, Rocket and Gamora so that we can learn a bit more about them and in some cases, find out how they hooked up with Peter for this incarnation of the Guardians.  While I talked about my disappointment with how some of these characters were handled in the main story, these shorts don’t really do a whole lot to rectify that.  They all feature some nice art from Mike “Drax” Oeming, Ming “Rocket” Doyle, and Mike “Groot & Gamora” Del Mundo and that’s their main selling point.  Pitching Drax as someone who is able to withstand the supposedly quite deadly, but coming off as incredibly arbitrary, Rigellian Mind Thrust, and as someone who joins up with Peter because he’s desperate to do something worthwhile doesn’t do a whole lot to endear him to me.  Gamora’s is just one extended-yet-nice-looking fight scene, and Groot winds up being the deus ex machina from space for an alien farmgirl.  Only Rocket’s generates any actual curiosity as we’re told that there’s “another like him” out there in the galaxy.  Whether or not this leads anywhere interesting, or will even be followed up on… Well, I guess we’ll find out eventually.

With regards to the art on the main story, McNiven demonstrates why he’s one of the better superhero artists out there.  The man knows how to deliver large-scale action, as seen in the battle over London, without sacrificing detail.  Of course, the detail he invests in his work is one reason why he has never been able to stick to a monthly schedule, and that’s why we have Sara Pichelli pitching in on issues #2 & #3 here.  She’s also a great superhero artist, as seen in her collaborations with Bendis on “Ultimate Spider-Man” and “Spider-Men” and this is no exception.  Most of the scenes involving J’Son and the Galactic Council are from her, and she makes these dialogue-heavy, character-driven scenes interesting to look at with her panel layouts and expressive characters.

This first volume does offer a good mix of action and intrigue on a galactic scale with some excellent art all around.  Regrettably, it skimps on characterization for a good portion of its cast.  Bendis is usually very good at that kind of thing, so I’m hopeful that he’ll show us that there’s more to Gamora, Drax and Groot over the course of his run.  As it is, I’m entertained enough to see where he’s going with this, but I’m not convinced yet that it’s going to lead somewhere as exciting as the places his best superhero stories have taken us.