The Thanos Imperative #1 – Review

By: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (writers), Miguel Sepulveda (artist), Jay David Ramos (color artist)

Canadian comic book reviewers maintain bold opinions, despite Memorial Day in the US! News at 11.

The Story: The forces of the Cancerverse (the universe where Death was defeated and life reigns uninterrupted) spew through the rift, into our universe, ripping through the strongest Kree defenses. At the same time, Thanos, a psycho so dangerous that sometimes Death throws him back, seems to be the key to facing the invasion. And, it only gets worse….

What’s Good: Sepulveda’s art, paired with Ramos’ color work, is awesome. Marvel has lined up a great art team that has delivered the goods. Rocket Raccoon looks positively feral as he stares down Thanos (with a threat to keep him alive!), while the space battle around the extrusion at the Fault is worth poring over for a good few minutes. My reading experience slowed even more to watch Gladiator fight one of the invaders head on. The villains are creepy and disturbing, and the Silver Surfer is distant and regal while staring at the same thing I was: the streamers of power spilling through the Fault like prominences on a star. Brilliant, brilliant work (no pun intended). I could go on about the art, but I don’t want to short-change the writing in the review.

Abnett and Lanning are quickly becoming two of my favorite writers. They have been delivering solid, surprising, cosmic-scale adventures in the Marvel U for years. They juggle tension, humor, death, epic invasions and personal losses in as deft a manner as any of the best writers of comics today. I’m not a huge Inhumans fan, but watching Medusa and her entourage react to the invasion had me fascinated. I loved the character moments between Richard and Robbie (and Namorita). I was riveted by all of the Thanos moments, and how different Guardians managed him, or filled their pants with bricks. The panel devoted to Thanos and Drax deserves a bit of a writing award for the freshness of the scene and the desperate, paradoxical longing that Abentt and Lanning have managed to soak into both characters. And I can’t miss mentioning the nods that Abnett and Lanning always seem to give to past classics, like the last-minute arrival of the Cancerverse Defenders.

Guardians of the Galaxy #25 – Review

By Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (writers), Brad Walker (artist), Andrew Hennessy (inker), Wil Quintana (colorist)

The Story: Thanos lives!!! And holy shit does he have an axe to grind…

The Good: Fellow critic Dean Stell and I were talking about this series the other day and we both agreed that one of the things that makes Guardians of the Galaxy (and really any of Marvel’s cosmic comics) such a fun read is how surprisingly accessible it is. Abnett and Lanning work hard to make every issue easy for new readers to jump into and rewarding for those of us that have been reading for awhile, and it never ceases to amaze me what a great job they do of walking that fine line month after month. It was also a great pleasure to see Walker back on the book. I never had a problem with Wes Craig’s art over the previous few issues, and am actually looking forward to seeing him come back to the book at some point, but I have to admit that Walker is the perfect artist for this comic.

Guardians of the Galaxy #21 – Review

By Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (writers), Brad Walker (artist), Andrew Hennessy & Victor Olazaba (inkers), Wil Quintana (colorist)

The Story: Following the events of last month’s issue, the Luminals have foolishly brought back an alien life form with them from their unwarranted expedition into The Fault. The Guardians want to send the abomination back to where it came from, the Universal Church of Truth wants to worship it as a god, and the alien wants to hibernate in somebody. Needless to say, it’s a bad day to be a Guardian of the Galaxy.

The Good: I’ll tell you what, taking a chance on this comic has been one of the best decisions I’ve made all year. I’ve picked up six issues so far (excluding the first two graphic novels I picked up to fill in the back stories) and every single one of them has been an astounding blend of political intrigue, manipulations, action, and science fiction ingenuity. With each new issue released under the “Realm of Kings” banner, you new information is revealed that makes the nature of The Fault all the more terrifying. Without giving anything away, let me just say that as a mild-mannered reviewer living with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, this issue’s revelation put honest to God chills down my spine and made my skin crawl. And shit, if you want to talk about terrifying, let me take a moment to talk about that alien life form. Abnett and Lanning, to their credit, somehow found a way to take all the utter creepiness of the movie Alien and condense it onto the printed page. Moondragon’s encounters with the xenoform are vile and disgusting, bringing to mind images of when the alien burst out of Kane’s chest in the movie. Abnett and Lanning excel at getting across the repulsiveness of life on the other side of The Fault and what a genuine threat it poses to our universe, and if they can pull that off with one measly alien, I can’t wait to see what they have in store when the story kicks into high gear.