Guardians of the Galaxy #1

(w) Brian Michael Bendis

(a) Steve McNiven (pencils) John Dell (inks) Justin Ponsor (colors)

After being somewhat underwhelmed by the oversized ".1" issue of this relaunched series, I was a little more encouraged by the contents of this issue, both in terms of the script and the art.

The story kicks off with a strong focus on Peter Quill, a.k.a. Star Lord, the leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy and the heir to the throne of the Spartax Empire. Of course, the only problem is that he has no interest in actually ascending to the throne, or talking to his father, J'son, the current king. Of course, this doesn't stop J'son from approaching him and telling him that Earth has been declared off limits to everyone in known space. This revelation, of course, enrages Peter as he is certain that by making this declaration, J'son has virtually painted a target on the Earth. Peter is therefore determined to protect the Earth, even if it means going against his father's wishes. Fortunately, he has more than ample help in the form of his fellow Guardians of the Galaxy: Gamora, Groot, Drax, Rocket Raccoon, and new recruit Iron Man (yes, Iron Man).

March was a bit of a banner month for Brian Michael Bendis, whose current monthly workload now includes this title, Ultimate Spider-Man, two X-Men books and the Age of Ultron miniseries that also launched last month. He is an incredibly prolific writer, and it is no wonder that books set in the Marvel Universe are continuing to thrive even in the wake of the departure of writers like Mark Millar and Ed Brubaker from writing regular Marvel U books.

The book wastes little to no time getting Quill into the thick of things with a tense confrontation with his dad followed by two fight scenes before the issue is done, as well as a pretty intense cliffhanger. People who love to moan about Bendis' propensity for doing talking heads books have absolutely nothing to worry about.

I'm also happy to note that artist Steve McNiven, whose work was a little hit-or-miss for me last month, is in top form here, from the confrontation Star Lord has with his father to the balls-to-the-wall action scenes later in the issue. Still, after having seen McNiven's bare pencils on a comics-related website, I am constrained to conclude that John Dell's inks, with due respect, do not quite do McNiven's hyper-detailed pencils justice. I would have been happier to see the likes of Mark Morales or Dexter Vines backing McNiven up here.

I think the reason for Iron Man joining up with the Guardians has been covered elsewhere, though of course I can't help but roll my eyes at such a blatantly commercial gambit which serves no other actual purpose than to boost the book's sales profile. Clearly, Iron Man is now the new Wolverine (a character who has been included in a ridiculous number of Marvel books, no matter how illogical his participation).

I realize this review is a little late, considering I was caught up with other things and had a lot of comics to read when I got this, but considering that this is a pretty high-profile book I still thought it worth churning out. Besides, I also wanted to point out how appalling the proofreading in these books is getting; at the second to the last page, Bendis has Gamora saying "you're" instead of the more appropriate "your." I can almost hear Ross Geller of Friends yelling "Y-o-u-apostrophe-r-e means 'you are;' y-o-u-r means 'your!'" at Bendis. That, and the fact that Kitty Pryde actually says "more better" over in the pages one of Bendis' many other books, All New X-Men, has me convinced that perhaps Bendis is working a tad too hard these days. That must be a heck of a mortgage.

In any case, grammatical sins notwithstanding, this book, being one of the only two books I will review out of the nearly dozen comic books I picked up in the last two weeks, is definitely worth following, if this inaugural issue is any indication.

4/5