An intergalactic council passes an edict that states Earth is off-limits from outside interference and, in doing so, leaves it unprotected should any alien factions defy the order. Knowing how big of a target has been placed on his home planet, Peter Quill re-assembles the Guardians of the Galaxy to defend Earth if and when an invasion occurs. Sure enough, Badoon warships attack London and the Guardians are Earth’s only hope of defeating them.
Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 1: Cosmic Avengerscollects Guardians of the Galaxy #1-3 and #0.1, and Guardians of the Galaxy: Tomorrow’s Avengers #1, written by Brian Michael Bendis and with art by Steve McNiven and Sara Pichelli.
Cosmic Avengers begins with a re-telling of Peter Quill’s origin story. He’s the product of a brief love affair between the Earther Meredith Quill and the Spartoi J’Son. As a child, enemies of Spartax kill his mother and he grows up wanting nothing more than to “find a way off planet Earth.” His backstory is so hastily told that it skips over his adolescence and most of his young adult life. As a whole, it serves as a reminder of how stale his origins are. It ticks a whole bunch of tropes along the way and doesn’t do a great job of establishing what is new or special about Peter Quill as a character, which is a problem when you consider that he’s the focal point of this series.
The rest of the trade collects the opening three-issue arc of Guardians of the Galaxy. J’Son and the leaders of several alien races decide that Earth is no longer to be disturbed by any alien forces. The Badoon defy the decree and promptly invade Earth, knocking out communication systems in the process. Luckily, the Guardians of the Galaxy (with Iron Man as a member for some strange reason) are on-hand to fight off the Badoon. Unfortunately, this places the Guardians in violation of the decree as well. There isn’t a whole lot to this arc as it reads as a very standard invasion story, but it does feature a lot of great action. As mentioned previously, Peter Quill is the focal point here and he’s just not interesting enough to carry the book. Iron Man and Rocket are more dynamic characters, but the former is out of place and the latter lacks depth due to his singular role as comic relief. You’d be hard-pressed to find dialogue or development allotted to Drax and Gamora, both of whom are only tossed onto a page when something needs to be punched. Most egregiously, however, is the fact that Groot is absent for much of the storyline. Come on, he’s totally one of the best Guardians! For those expecting some kind of epic or even outrageously funny comic book, this fails to deliver on either. It very much reads as “Okay, we’ve got that movie coming out based on these characters, let’s put our ‘top’ writer on this and hope for the best. And let’s put Iron Man in it because apparently people won’t read this if he’s not in it.”
What almost makes up for the subpar writing is the art. McNiven and Pichelli really deliver top-notch illustrations that are superbly detailed and feel truly cinematic. All of the action sequences are absolutely incredible and are really my favourite aspects to this set of issues. There are some neat panels too during these scenes, where there’s a kind of zoom in effect to show the particulars of what’s going on in a larger scale. The characters all look fantastic and are fairly distinctive. Rocket is probably one of the most detailed characters and I can’t even begin to imagine how much time was spent drawing his fur, his teeth, and all the other little minute aspects of this critter. I also really like the design work that went into reimagining these characters from the last time they would have been seen. Instead of the blue and red uniforms of the past, they’re wearing more modern sci fi style armour (think: Mass Effect). Gamora’s white and black look is actually really iconic and makes me lament the fact that we haven’t seen it on film.
Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 1: Cosmic Avengers is sadly rather skippable and doesn’t offer the impact it should as the opening salvo of what should be a flagship title. Bendis stumbles to flesh out his ensemble and doesn’t manage to portray the majority as having any kind of personality. The opening arc itself is very paint-by-numbers and does itself a disservice by placing so much focus on characters like Peter Quill and Iron Man (the fact that Gamora isn’t the leader of the Guardians is always beyond me considering she has the most fascinating origins). With that said, the art is gorgeous and is helps to up the entertainment factor. If anything, this trade is fun when looked at through the lens of mindless entertainment. It’s not quite as funny as it should be, the characters aren’t as dynamic as we know they can be, and the story itself doesn’t do anything that any previous sci fi story hasn’t already.
RATING: C-
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