Quick Looks Part III: Guardians of the Galaxy #18 to 20 (spoilers)

(writer) Brian Michael Bendis
(pencils) Ed McGuinness, Valerio Schiti (some pages of issue 20)
(inks) Mark Farmer
(colors) Jason Keith

Peter Quill, a.k.a. Starlord, for some time, was believed dead, having trapped himself, Drax the Destroyer, and the missing hero Richard Ryder, a.k.a. Nova, in the dreaded Cancerverse with Thanos the Titan. Quill, Drax and Thanos have since returned from what was believed to be certain death, but Ryder has not. In the course of three issues, Quill explains what happened to Gamora, who had some kind of romantic liaison with Quill.

I'll be honest, I didn't follow this series before Bendis relaunched it with Steve McNiven last year, but it really felt like it was designed to sell the then-upcoming movie, from Star Lord's revised, mask-free look to the stories that didn't seem particularly n any kind of preexisting continuity. With the movie having come, seen and conquered, Bendis and crew now revisit some of the past of the title, and it's pretty gruesome.

I wasn't particularly a fan of Bendis' decompressed storytelling, which is on full display as he takes three issues to tell what is basically a two-issue story, but I will give him credit for telling a pretty moving story about a hero's last stand (at least, until some other writer decides otherwise). Richard Ryder makes a pretty heroic decision in the face of a pretty grisly fate, but personally, and even without any real attachment to this character, I wasn't quite happy with the denouement he was given, which really felt like an afterthought.

I get that there was some kind of imperative for the Nova title to be rebooted for younger readers, starring the (kind of annoying) character that Jeph Loeb created for the Ultimate Spider-Man TV series, but I don't believe that they had to dispatch with Ryder the way they did. But then, I'm not Marvel.

I only picked up this book for some Ed McGuinness art, and while I will say I was happy with what I got, I have to say I would have preferred for him to have worked with his more frequent collaborator Dexter Vines. Mark Farmer's softer inking style doesn't quite do Ed's pencils justice.

All in all, I really could have done without this in my collection, but at least, unlike the issues illustrated by Nick Bradshaw (and company) that came before it, this had a more meaningful narrative and some pretty good art.

6.5/10