GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 1: COSMIC AVENGERS

The difficulty in reviewing comics series, especially ongoing series, is that they can start of extremely well, or poorly, and then drastically change in just a few issues. Often, the entire breadth of one writer/artists run can't be faithfully reviewed until it's over, and in the case of Guardians of the Galaxy, this is exactly what's happened. I jumped on board the new series with Issue one, and I was hooked. The art was solid, and Bendis, while not top of his game (see his and Alex Maleev's run on Daredevil for him in prime form), was still enjoyable, well-paced and, most importantly, faithful to the intergalactic, zany struggle that is Guardians. Even when they introduced Angela, which some folks may remember originally from Image Comic's "Spawn," clearly as a gimmick to sell more copies after the results of a hyped legal battle, I didn't feel like it was a serious enough blow to warrant concern. So far, so good.

The real problems started soon after, issue 6, I believe. Now we have an Infinity tie-in. Here's the deal with tie-ins: to me, they suck. I can handle one every so often, granted they're done right. But this: you have no idea what's going on, minus a "Previously in Guardians..." paragraph, which defeats the whole purpose of these books. I want to read the STORIES, not a summation. If I wanted to do that, I'd just Wikipedia the thing and save my money. Marvel has an insistence that you buy all of their books, at $3.99 a pop, or you'll just have to suffer. That's garbage to say they least, but still, I continued, in the hopes the series would move past this. As I said, ongoing series can be good, bad, good again, then get bad, and on, an on, so I wanted to believe this was just a slight droop. With this, though, it just kept getting messier and messier. Immediately following the Infinity event came "The Trial of Jean Grey" story line, which I didn't read (it may be good, and I'm not knocking the story if it is, I just don't want to read X-Men while I'm reading Guardians). In order to get the whole story, you'd not only have to buy Guardians, but X-Men books as well. Again, marketing and sales driven "art" at its finest. By the time the dust settled with issue 14, you're literally dropped back into straight Guardians stories, and expected to go buy all the preceding issues, or just settle for a summation.

Remember how I said the art was good? Well, it is. For this volume. And a few single issues. The art teams changed on this book so frequently that it was detracting. If you were hoping for the epic team of Bendis/Mcniven carrying you through many awesome adventures of Marvel's most beloved space pirates, guess again. I'm not saying the art is bad, most of it's not (minus Michael Oeming, blatant, lesser imitation of Mike Mignola that he is), it's just inconsistent, which detracts from the overall presentation. It was a real let down.

Then came four issues in which Venom was introduced as a member of the team. Really? There's a Venom book out there. I'll go buy it or Spider-Man if I want to read about Venom. I want to read Guardians of the Galaxy. But again, at least he was the only derivative from was other a story about Quill, Gamora, Drax, Groot, and Rocket, even though the story had no obvious direction that I can could tell, so I soldiered on.Then, low and behold, after four issues of straight Guardians, a trend I hoped would last for a while, we have the "Original Sin" tie-in come along, and everything is in chaos again. Summations abound. With that, I called it quits.

I realize this deviates from what happens in this single volume, and it has minor spoilers. Sorry, but understand that you're not getting a straight Guardians story after this. This volume is in fact focused almost exclusively on the Guardians, and that's wonderful. But before long, you're getting Iron Man, Nova, Captain Marvel, Venom, the list goes on. So, while I get that Marvel's big thing is the shared universe concept, and it definitely added authenticity and enjoyment years ago, now it's over-done, obligatory, and down right degrading to what could be a great space saga. Based on all of this, don't waste your time and money unless you're ready for some serious cross-reading and research to avoid confusion, frustration, and ultimately, downright disappointment. This volume alone isn't bad, but if you pick up this book, get hooked, and are hoping for more of the same or improvement in the adventures of the Guardians, you're going to be sorely disappointed, so I hope this helps you in advance.

3.5 stars

If you're a fan of Guardians of the Galaxy movie, you may find the disparity between this and that to be a bit strange. For one, the backstory has been changed. For another, Star-Lord is actually a Star-Lord and a prince. After you get past these changes, though, you may find that you really enjoy it.

I enjoyed this one, though not as much as I could have hoped. I was a fan of the film, and my enjoyment of that outweighs my enjoyment of this. But I still plan to continue because this was very good. All the characters are as great as I remember, and the plot was certainly interesting. It does seem more like fantasy than science fiction, which is a plus in my book.

The art was one of the best parts. I absolutely loved it and thought it did such a great job with all the characters. Facial expressions were obvious and well-rendered.

Overall, though, this gets deducted from the original four stars I wanted to give it because I just don't feel the great need to talk about it. It doesn't inspire emotions and it doesn't make me a bigger fan. I will be continuing with this series at some point, but it's not a top priority.

Well...the art was nice.

That's about the only redeeming element of the story proper - brief as it is - contained in this collection.

As a narrative, this feels entirely incomplete. There's no sense of theme, really, but that could be overlooked if Bendis had done what he normally does amazingly: character development and dialogue. The titular team is tragically underdeveloped. Peter (and his father, I should note) gets an interesting little back-story in the first issue, but for the most part we are given no reasoning for why this group of aliens has dedicated themselves to protecting the earth. Worse yet. none of them - with the slight exception of Star Lord - is given any time to act like a character with, ya know, thoughts and dialogue. These Guardians are primarily weapons with the ability to communicate battle banter and tactical direction. Rocket's wit from the Abnett days is reduced to variations of "Kablooey, murdered you." Drax and Gamora are completely replaceable 'warrior' cut outs.

Whether or not Bendis intended it, J'Son - Peter Quill's Spartax father - probably boasts the closest thing the collection has to a character arc. His intro - a meet-cute and romance with the spunky Ms. Quill - is by far the most charming component of the book, and it contrasts distinctly with his later presence as the manipulative antagonist of a king, making readers question his character in a more nuanced manner.

Oh - also - Iron Man is in this book. Is he necessary? Not even a little bit, unless your goal is to get buy-in for a lesser-known franchise which happens to be getting a cinematic reimagining by tying it to a well established character in both comics and the cinematic universe.

Like I said, though, Pichelli's art is beautiful. Her action is both detailed and kinetic, which is good because -of course - the vast majority of the book is action. It's a shame her ability to convey emotion through faces is barely put to use here.

In addition to the primary story arc, the collection also includes a few shorts about Drax, Groot, Rocket and Gamora, all of which are illustrated in distinctly different styles. Each of these stories - none longer than 9 pages - convey better character tales than the primary narrative, which I'm not sure is a testament to Bendis (and subsequently an indictment of his editors) or the opposite.

I was hoping for a space adventure like Star Wars, complete with interacting alien cultures, wise-cracking heroes, impressive battles, etc. All that stuff is here, I should say - it's just tragically underdeveloped.

I'll remain a Bendis fan, but my time with his Guardians will most likely be limited.

Bought it for my cousin and it was a great read! Since the movie came out, Guardians of The Galaxy has become well-known and popular. I would recommend this to any Avengers fans.

Gives you a great look into the Marvel Universe. A good start for someone new to comics and looking to start fresh. Artwork is amazing. Iron Man is also featured as a main character giving a real dynamic from his usual high tech savvy self. Lastly, the humor is great giving readers a hilarious read filled with lots of action.

I really regret purchasing this one. It was boring and dumb. I loved the previous TPB's with Major Victory, Cosmo, and Warlock.. Nope this is not even a 1/10th of that comic series. Don't waste your money.. Sorry (I don't even review stuff, but I was that sorry I bought it that I had to share)

Saw the movie, had to buy the comics, as Stan would say: 'nuff said.

Enjoyed

Exelent feeling in the hands, great materials and finish.

SPOILERS AHEAD:

By now, EVERYONE should know who Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy are, and if you don’t, where’ve you been the past few years? But when this book was originally published, I had an idea who they were, but had never read them because these are not MY Guardians of the Galaxy. I used to read the title years ago, but back then they were the Guardians of the 30th century and they were made up of Vance Astro, Charlie 27, Nikki, Yondu, Martinex, Starhawk and Aleeta (and those last two names I might not be getting right, it’s been a LONG time). So when I saw Marvel was publishing a new volume of the Guardians, I was intrigued. I enjoyed the old book a lot. Then I saw the team and didn’t recognize most of the members. Certainly this was not the team I was used to, so I skipped it.

To be fair, at the time I had no idea Brian Michael Bendis was the juggernaut writer that he is. Then one day after I’d heard the announcement of this movie, but before it had come out, I’m pretty sure, I saw this collection for $5 and, at this point having discovered Bendis and how much I love his work, I grabbed it.

Can’t say it’s the best collection I’ve ever read, but what’s here is entertaining. There’s just not enough of it.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Avengers contains only three issues of the regular series, #1-3, plus a “0.5” Peter Quill origin issue, and Guardians of the Galaxy: Tomorrow’s Avengers #1, which is really just a collection of 7-9 page stories highlighting the other members of the team, Drax, Groot, Rocket Raccoon, and Gamora.

And while I really enjoyed the 0.1 issue--it’s probably the best-written thing in the book--those measly little three issues of the main story are more a tease than anything else.

Peter Quill’s father, King of the Spartax system, proclaims earth off limits to any and all alien races, and tells Peter not to return there or he’ll be arrested. With the number of alien races who seem to be constantly vying for control of the planet, King J’Son has put the planet under his protection. Star Lord and the Guardians aren’t going to be told where to go, however, and they meet up with their newest member, Iron Man, before stopping yet another alien invasion over London.

The team saves the earth, yet again, but is arrested by the Spartax before staging a breakout and Peter broadcasting to all of the Spartax within range, “Ask yourself: if he’s willing to arrest me, his own flesh and blood, for doing the right thing…what exactly would he do to you grunts if you did anything to stand in his way? So chew on that puppy, my fellow Spartax warriors. Think about that when you take your next order. Think about the man giving them. Think about what’s in it for you.”

A sentiment worthy of a hero of Peter Quill’s reputation. Only problem is it’s the last two panels of the book. The story just ends right there. Just as it’s getting good. WHAT? Talk about a letdown. We just went through all of that excitement of a first act, got through a pretty tense second act with the Guardians escaping, and then it just ends?

No, I don’t think so.

I loved the book for as long as it lasted, but that ending is a total cheat and I don’t feel bad for spoiling it!

Art was split up among the main four books between Steve McNiven and Sara Pichelli, who both did some really excellent work. The scope is big and the set pieces are grand, with some pretty vibrant and exciting action scenes. Their character work is excellent without being overly flashy, and everything here just works perfectly to serve the story and make for one beautiful book.

The “Tomorrow’s Avengers” sequences were less impressive, with Michael Avon Oeming, Rain Beredo, Ming Doyle, Javier Rodriguez, and Michael Del Mundo on pencils. And none of them were bad, necessarily, they just didn’t shine like the McNiven and Pichelli art, and the styles were all just so very different, it made the book feel disjointed, to me.

Overall, I liked what I read here, I just wish there’d been more of it. Maybe scrap that “Tomorrow’s Avengers” bit and give us another issue of the regular series, something that provides a decent follow-up to the great story that preceded it. Seriously, there’s no third act. I got to the end of the book and felt really cheated. And I know I only paid $5 for it, but still. You’re supposed to leave the reader wanting more, sure, but don’t make them feel like you stiffed them. And that’s exactly what this book did. NOT the first impression you want to make.