Guardians of the Galaxy #2 – Review

By: Brian Michael Bendis (Writer), Steve McNiven & Sara Pichelli (Penciler), John Dell, Mark Morales, Steve McNiven & Sara Pichelli (Inkers), Justin Ponsor (Colorist), VC’s Cory Petit (Letterer)

The Review: Something about Guardians of the Galaxy still seems a little…off. It’s definitely an enjoyable read but Bendis doesn’t quite seem as at home with space opera as he does with the more earthbound drama of books like All New X-Men, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man or (and I know this is a bone of contention) Age of Ultron. A big hint lies in that this, his first story arc, is centred entirely around Earth and its position of Universal importance. 2008’s GOTG crew never set foot on Earth once and was no poorer for it. The much maligned Green Lantern movie could barely slip the surly bonds of Earth and look how that turned out. When you’ve got an  entire universe at your disposal – a limitless expanse of planets and alien cultures for your cast to explore – ditching your characters on Terran soil at the first opportunity ends up feeling a little uninspired.

Guardians of the Galaxy #1 – Review

By: Brian Michael Bendis (Writer), Steve McNiven, John Dell (Artists), Justin Ponsor (Colorist)

The Story: Peter Quill meets his father and has an argument with him. After, he meets Iron Man and fights some Badoon.

The Review: Take a good look at the ‘’Story’’ section up above. This may sound like a very brief summary of what happens in this issue, which this section usually serves for, but unfortunately this is pretty much spot on what happens here, without spoiling the ending.

Indeed, one of the major flaws of this first issue would be the decompressed nature of the story, as Bendis really takes its time with a lot of things. Decompression isn’t necessarily a bad thing in comics, as some storylines can be enhanced by a longer structure and some emphasis on reaction from the core cast of the book. However, decompression can also seems like a cheap attempt at making a story that could be told in two to three issues longer, to fill out a trade, something that we also call ‘’writing for the trade’’. Now, this would be much too soon to properly classify in which category GotG will fall in, but judging from this issue, it would seem that the latter would be the correct answer.

Guardians of the Galaxy #0.1 – Review

By: Brian Michael Bendis (Writer), Steve McNiven (Penciler), John Dell (Inker), Justin Ponsor (Colors), Cory Petit (Letterer)

The Review: The following things will occur during the course of this review. First, I’ll obviously be giving my heartfelt opinion on Guardians of the Galaxy #0.1 – my treatise on the best flavour of Ramen Noodles will have to wait for now (in brief though: Chicken). Second, I will muse somewhat on how awesome it is to have Bendis back on such winning form – when he’s writing like this, the Marvel Universe is a much better place. Thirdly, I will use the term “cosmic restructuring” again and again and again – because this series is undoubtedly the keystone of that process, the linchpin of Marvel’s interstellar ambitions.

This cosmic restructuring has its beginnings elsewhere. Iron Man #6 technically kicked things off by relocating the Armored Avenger to Space (not that this changed much other than the landscape and the suit, but hey, it was a start). Nova #1, released last week, was far more integral to the