By Brian Michael Bendis, Dan Slott, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Nick Bradshaw , Jason Masters, Todd Nauk, Cameron Stewart, David Marquez, Michael Oeming , Paolo Siqueira, Ronan Cliquet de Oliveira, Phil Jimenez, Dexter Soy, Gerardo Sandoval & others (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-636-6
Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Fabulous Fun for Cosmic Connoisseurs… 7/10
A few years ago a plethora of cosmic crises forced the champions and remnants of many heroic races to band together and save the cosmos. Although said crises were largely averted, some of those Sentinels of the Spaceways eventually got their band back together, determined to keep the universe a safe place. After a lot of quibbling they finally agreed to call themselves the Guardians of the Galaxy.
The boisterous, officially unaligned rabble were led by a half-breed Terran who was revealed to be the unloved son of J’Son of Spartax – undisputed ruler of an aggressively militaristic interstellar empire – and no friend of Earth…
Peter Quill AKA Star-Lord was aided in pacifying an unruly and increasingly martial universe by Drax the Destroyer, Rocket Racoon, Groot, Gamora (“Deadliest Woman in the Galaxyâ€) and extra-dimensional new recruit Angela whilst staying one step ahead of the militaristic Spartoi and their allies…
The self-appointed Guardians’ ongoing troubles stem from a recent compact of major interstellar powers and principalities. This coterie of rulers had formed a Council of Galactic Empires and unilaterally declared Earth “off limitsâ€; quarantined from all extraterrestrial contact, but that high-minded declaration hadn’t stopped some of the signatories from breaking their own embargo or being mightily ticked off whenever Quill’s crew kicked them off Terra and back into space.
Not long ago the situation worsened when Emperor Kallark of the Shi’ar (AKA alien superman Gladiator) informed his kingly colleagues that Jean Grey – former host to the overweening Phoenix Force – was back from the dead and he was going to try her for her crimes… even though, as a chronally displaced child, she hadn’t technically committed them yet…
With the Guardians’ timely assistance this venture led to another galling debacle and defeat for the Shi’ar by Earth’s X-Men. Individually every leader of the Council had reason to want the Guardians dead and thus they singly opened covert operations against them. Cold and distant J-Son, of course, had his own good – if undisclosed – reasons for wanting his son curbed and controlled, if not dead…
This treasury of space terrors and attendant sidebar tales collects Free Comic Book Day: Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy volume 3 #14-17 and Captain Marvel volume 7 #1 spanning June-September 2014, plus pertinent historic material from Amazing Spider-Man #654 (April 2011) augmenting and clarifying the big screen experience for new readers who might not know as much about the latest Earth-born addition to the squad whilst providing an immense amount of spectacularly bombastic fighting fun for all.
Following a most useful recap page, further enticing background is provided by ‘Welcome to the Guardians of the Galaxy’ by Brian Michael Bendis, Nick Bradshaw, Scott Hanna & Morrie Hollowell (from Free Comic Book Day: Guardians of the Galaxy #1, July 2014) as erstwhile Guardian Tony Stark runs down the history and capabilities of the stellar centurions before offering paraplegic war veteran Eugene “Flash†Thompson his vacated place on the team…
The story picks up in GotG #14 with the soldier – in his transmorphic guise of Agent Venom – beginning his tour of duty by visiting an armaments fair on crossroads world Knowhere with the intention of upgrading his weapons. The culture-shocked earthling is accompanied and watchdogged by resurrected (and cosmically reconstructed) fellow Earther Drax…
Whilst Flash is gone, however, the assembled forces of the Council strike, overwhelming the Guardian’s ship and capturing the skeleton crew aboard…
As Star-Lord awakens in custody on Spartax, elsewhere Gamora is ambushed by a bounty hunter she previously humiliated. Hauled off to Moord, homeworld of the Brotherhood of Badoon, she fully expects to die; but not soon and certainly not quietly.
On Knowhere, another sneak attack captures Drax despite Venom’s every effort to save his new comrade, and on a cell in Spartax, J-Son confronts his wayward heir with the (utterly erroneous) fact that nobody can save the Guardians now, before disclosing just what he needs from his son…
The second chapter (with additional art by Cameron Stewart) opens with Rocket under the scalpels of questing Kree vivisectionists, even as Gamora is being tortured to death by a legion of Badoon monsters on Moord. Drax awakens on a Shi’ar space station and finds himself on trial by Kallark for daring to aid the X-Men. The grizzled warrior’s only response is to challenge Gladiator to a duel…
Back on Knowhere Thompson is relieved to be rescued by a team of Avengers but soon smells a rat and discovers he has fallen into the shape-shifting hands of a band of Skrulls intent on separating him from the alien Symbiote which provides all his powers. In deep space the malevolent Brood, having tired of their examinations of Groot, jettisoned the tree being into space to fall blazing into the atmosphere of searing, arid hellworld Rigel 8.
Negotiations having stalled on Spartax, Peter Quill tells dad exactly what he thinks of him before leaping to his death out of a skyscraping citadel window…
Issue #16 (illustrated by Bradshaw, David Marquez & Jason Masters) furiously follows up as the tide finally turns in favour of the hard-pressed heroes. As the Skrulls fatefully learn the folly of messing with a symbiote and its chosen host, Gladiator at last gives Drax the death match he’s been demanding and on Moord inexplicably absent cosmic hunter Angela locates her missing partner-in-carnage Gamora. The resultant loss of (Badoon) life is incomprehensible…
Plunging to his death on Spartax, Quill is plucked from disaster by the just-in-time intergalactic Avenger Carol Danvers – a feat he smugly claims prior knowledge of – and discloses that his revelatory conversations with J-Son have been broadcast to the entire populace. With the whole empire aware of their ruler’s plans for – and opinions of – his subjects, rebellion begins to shake the homeworld…
In a far distant place the strategically savvy Kree Supreme Intelligence realises the tables have turned and orders his researchers to put Rocket back together, speculating that perhaps it’s time for the cagily conservative pragmatists to consider their options with the impossibly formidable Quill and Co…
With art by Bradshaw and Michael Avon Oeming, the Guardians portion of the collection concludes as Star-Lord and Danvers escape Spartax and begin rounding up their errant membership, assisted by freely offered intel from the Kree Supremor. However many – especially Groot and Rocket – are neither whole nor hearty…
Only one member remains missing and the reunited team wearily make their way to Knowere to begin their search for Agent Venom…
To Be Continued…
The remainder of this sterling chronicle offers a delightful plethora of additional insights and personal exploits beginning with the lowdown on Flash Thompson’s unique association with one of the most terrifying creatures in the universe…
‘Rebirth’ by Dan Slott, Paolo Siqueira, Ronan Cliquet de Oliveira & Greg Adams first appeared as a back-up in the monster-sized Amazing Spider-Man #654.
Once upon a time Spider-Man spawned an implacable enemy called Venom: a deranged and disgraced reporter named Eddie Brock who bonded with the alien entity Parker brought back from the Secret Wars.
The “high-tech smart-suit†was in fact a semi-sentient alien parasite called the Symbiote and almost ended up possessing and consuming the horrified hero until Parker escaped and destroyed it. Or so he thought…
Brock willing joined with the creature to become a savage, shape-changing, dark-side version of the Wallcrawler, but after numerous spectacular clashes, the arachnid adversaries eventually reached a brooding détente and Venom became a “Lethal Protectorâ€, dispensing a highly individualistic brand of justice everywhere but New York City.
Since then many other hosts have bonded with the ebony parasite, including Brock’s wife Ann Weying, Mac Gargan AKA the Scorpion, and even Franklin Richards and other members of the Fantastic Four.
Eventually the Government took control of the Symbiote and in this terse tale we see how the military then offered it – with many strings attached – to Flash Thompson: Spider-Man’s greatest fan and a war-hero who came back from Afghanistan without his legs.
A recovering alcoholic, Eugene became the star of a military black-ops operation which uses the Symbiote to carry out under-the-radar missions vital to US security.
In return, Thompson gets to be a hero (of sorts), feel useful again, serve his country and get out of his wheelchair prison for 48 hours at a time. Agent Venom even became a Secret Avenger, serving directly under Steve Rogers.
Of course there were drawbacks: the parasite is a voracious deadly menace, constantly seeking to permanently bond to its wearer, and is classed as one of the most dangerous entities on the planet. If the new Venom should go berserk or if the human host stays bonded for more than 48 hours, his war-room controllers will simply detonate explosives attached to Thompson’s body and start the project over with another volunteer. It’s what they had to do with the previous wearer, after all…
This is followed by the untitled story of how Avenger Carol Danvers finally deems herself worthy of her universe-saving predecessor and accepts the mantle of Captain Marvel (Captain Marvel volume 7 #1 by Kelly Sue DeConnick & Dexter Soy).
The process involves a titanic struggle against the Absorbing Man, a pithy pep talk from Sentinel of Liberty Captain America, mild mockery from Spider-Man and the funeral of her greatest inspiration before the cosmic champion heads of to the stars and a rendezvous with Star-Lord…
A fascinating peek into the “childhood†of an iconic star comes next as Andy Lanning, Phil Jimenez, Livesay & Antonio Fabela take us to Planet X to tell ‘Groot’s Tale’ before the marvellous madness ends with a tantalising glimpse of Things to Come as Dan Abnett, Gerardo Sandoval & Rachelle Rosenberg visit Earth circa 3014 and reintroduce Arnold Drake, Gene Colan & Steve Gerber’s original Guardians of the Galaxy in ‘Fight for the Future’.
As “oldest Earthman alive†Vance Astro, Jovian militia-man Charlie-27, crystalline scientist Martinex, Centauri warrior shaman Yondu and all knowing space god Starhawk brutally demolish a Badoon concentration camp on conquered planet Terra, they are searching for one particular prisoner: young Geena Drake whom the portents show holds the fate of humanity in her scabby teenaged hands…
Thrilling, edgy and ferociously fast-paced, this spectacularly seductive tome also includes a gallery of covers and variants by Bradshaw, Ed McGuinness, Mark Farmer, Justin Ponsor, Joe Quesada, Dexter Vines, Javier Rodriguez, Adi Granov and Alvara plus a bunch of electronic extra attractions provided by AR icon sections (Marvel Augmented Reality App) offering access to story bonuses and background bumph once you download the free code from marvel.com onto your smart-phone or Android-enabled tablet.
™ & © 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.