There are a lot of comics out there, but some stand out head and shoulders above the pack. With “Don’t Miss This,” we want to spotlight those series we think need to be on your pull list. This week we are looking at the soon-to-be-concluded run of “Guardians of the Galaxy” written by Donny Cates and illustrated by Geoff Shaw and Cory Smith.
Who is this by?
If you’ve been paying vague attention to Marvel comics these last few years, chances are you’ve heard of Donny Cates. He’s been writing about Thanos, Doctor Strange, and a whole mess of your favorite characters. Most significantly though, he’s been doing great work on “Venom,” where he’s added tremendous depth to the mythos of the symbiotes and given Eddie Brock the first personal arc I’ve brought myself to care about in years and years. Cates subscribes to the Jason Aaron school of silly pulp. His ideas seemed like they were dreamed up in a 13-year-old’s notebook, but he’s got a wonderful sense of character voice, and that’s what makes him such an excellent fit for “Guardians.”
Geoff Shaw is a stalwart partner of Cates’. They did an Image series called Buzzkill, and Shaw has done art for at least half of Cates’ Marvel books, including “Thanos,” “Marvel Knights,” and “Cosmic Ghost Rider.” Shaw is proud of his Mike Mignola influence, and he likes to draw a lot of clean characters and deep shadows. Cory Smith has been doing art for the second arc of the series. He’s managed to become a fairly prolific Marvel artist in just a few years with simple and appealing character work and very dynamic framing.
All around, these guys are very much the kinds of guys who do Marvel work in 2019 for better or worse. This is what Marvel wants their comics to look like, and I’ve been enjoying the hell out of the company this year.
What’s it all about?
In the fantastic first arc, Thanos is dead, but has laid one final trap. In his holographic will, he claims that he planted his soul in the body of one cosmic space hero. And so the seeds of distrust are planted! Multiple teams of Guardians form and dissipate as they try to figure out who to trust, but the main book follows Captain Groot, Star-Lord, Beta Ray Bill, Cosmic Ghost Rider, Moondragon, and her wife Phyla-Vell. It’s the first time in years that the team hasn’t included Rocket Raccoon, Drax, and Gamora, but all of them are potentially carrying the seeds of Thanos’ resurrection.
The second (and final) arc brings back the Universal Church of Truth, with a new plan more convoluted than ever before! Things take a turn towards the melancholy as old wounds catch up to the Guardians, and they put everything on the line for the umpteenth time. Even though it’s a familiar team and a familiar foe, Cates makes the story feel momentous like maybe this time, the Guardians are truly doomed.
What makes it so great?
Okay, rant time: the Guardians of the Galaxy would be nothing without the seminal run by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning in the mid-2000s. It’s one of my favorite Marvel comic runs of the last 20 years, it is the basis for the hit movies, and all superhero fans should check it out. But, as often happens when the popularity of the adaptation outpaces the original, the comic started playing the hits. In an effort to be easy for movie fans to get into, the “Guardians” comics became a bland xerox of itself. Under Brian Michael Bendis, the series jettisoned most of the cast and worldbuilding (galaxybuilding) in the name of familiarity. So Star-Lord fought his dad a lot of times, Gamora tried to get the infinity stones from Thanos, Drax forgot that he was in the process of reconnecting with his daughter.
This feels like the first time since 2010 that “Guardians” is a proper ongoing comic that takes place in the universe the series established. Cates has such a good grasp of the various character voices that they shine through, even when he puts them in unfamiliar circumstances. The wisecracking Star-Lord? He’s mostly really sad in this, but you still recognize him as Peter Quill. Groot? That tree can freaking talk in full sentences now, but he’s still the heart and soul of the team.
Continued belowThe best part are the small ways that Cates forces the two recent eras of “Guardians” (pre and post movie) to work together. The Nova Corps has been destroyed and reformed so many times at this point, it’s nice to see someone take note of it. My favorite development has been the romance between Star-Lord and Gamora. In the original run of the comics, Gamora went through a few guys but none of them were Star-Lord. Then the movie built them up, and the sexual tension jumped straight into the comic. But it never did the work. In these issues, we finally get some natural progression and for the first time on the page, the two of them have chemistry.
How can you read it?
“Guardians of the Galaxy” by Donny Cates is about to be unceremoniously axed. On the one hand, that’s a damn shame. It’s good superhero comics, that takes as much time with character relationships as it does with the mechanics of Gamora’s sticky bombs. On the other hand, Cates is going to take over “Thor” from Jason Aaron, and “Guardians” is getting Al Ewing, and they could not be better suited for those respective books. So you can read Cates’ “Guardians” in issues, or trades, or Marvel Unlimited, or however you get your comics. Or you could wait a few months and get both paperbacks, and enjoy the book that way. However you read it, these twelve issues will make you believe in the Guardians. All of the tragedy, all the silly gags, all the mind-bending adventure, it’s right here in two excellent stories.
