One of the most anticipated relaunches of the Marvel NOW! world was released this week. Does it match “All-New X-Men and “Uncanny X-Men,” or is it more of “Age of Ultron?” Find out in the review below.
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Illustrated by Steve McNivenThere’s a new rule in the galaxy: No one touches Earth! No one!! Why has Earth become the most important planet in the Galaxy? That’s what the Guardians of the Galaxy are going to find out!! Join the brightest stars in the Marvel universe: Star Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket Raccoon, Groot and–wait for it–Iron-Man, as they embark upon one of the most explosive and eye-opening chapters of Marvel NOW! These galactic Avengers are going to discover secrets that will rattle Marvel readers for years to come! Why wait for the movie? It all starts here!
Brian Michael Bendis is a fairly polarizing writer, as any comic site comment section will tell you, but one thing is for certain: the man has talent. Whether you think that talent is to write great comics or just to annoy you, it’s undeniable that he has it. And lately at Marvel, Bendis has seen a bit of a hot streak: “Daredevil: End of Days” is wonderful, and his two X-Books are like ebony and ivory, living together in perfect harmony. While “Age of Ultron” may leave something to be desired, stock in Bendis is high right now.
It’s with that in mind that it’s so disappointing that “Guardians of the Galaxy” #1 isn’t better.
Here’s the thing: “Guardians” needs to come out the gate strong. This isn’t like Bendis and Maleev trying to relaunch “Moon Knight,” another lower-tier title in need of a fanbase. Guardians of the Galaxy is heading to theaters, and Marvel needs to make sure that the fans are going to come out in the same way they came to see the Avengers. What we’re given, though, is an issue that feels about as substantial as your average movie tie-in book, just without the added benefit of being throwaway. It suffers from a general sense of discord, not knowing fully what it wants to be: a new reader friendly title? A dark and gritty relaunch of a formerly lighthearted adventure book? A cosmic epic pulling from years of other stories? There’s no balance to all the qualities, and the book is full of opposing forces that clash in unfriendly and unentertaining ways.
Not only that, but — as annoying as it often is to see comparisons like this — the new first issue of “Guardians” doesn’t hold a candle to the last. The last found a clever way to introduce the team, their general mantra and the dynamic. It was a fun issue, completely unexpected in how gripping it was and led to a wonderful run in comics. With the latest relaunch, though, it seems like Bendis is trying to pack as much as possible into the issue to the extent it bursts at the seams, rather than laying out the book’s mission statement and why you should follow it. “All-New X-Men” and “Uncanny X-Men” had a good ebb and flow, a balance to why you wanted the book for continuity and why you wanted to book for characters; “Guardians” doesn’t have that, throwing instead a handful of random elements — Iron Man! Earth! Daddy issues! – and hoping that one sticks with you. It’s basically like a creme-filled donut that squirts all over your face when you bite into it: too messy.
Really, if one thing is clear from the first issue, the main reason to read the book further is the same reason you might buy “Justice League of America’s Vibe” – there’s a big name on the cover, and it’s going to be an important franchise book. After all, we’re not too far away from the Guardians movie, when you think about it. This book, alongside Nova, is a big concerted effort on Marvel’s behalf to get you into Cosmic, when Marvel’s Cosmic was already one of the best things they had when they weren’t trying. Now that they are, the book somewhat reeks of that element in a way that’s not enjoyable, and what was one of the most anticipated relaunches of the year so far becomes a big letdown.
Continued belowIt’s also a bit odd trying to understand the book’s mission statement. Cosmic Marvel is just that — Marvel set in the cosmos. Why the issue makes such a big push to connect the book to Earth is a bit hard to understand. It feels like Bendis or editorial is under the assumption that the only way to make a book relevant is to bring it to where all the rest of the heroes are, rather than just make it good. The book has a talking tree and raccoon as central characters; what more do you honestly need than that?
(And also, not to be sassy, but — Guardians of the Galaxy. There has to be more important things than more stories on Earth.)
All of that said, the best part of the book is the artwork. Steve McNiven has seemingly been a bit off his game, as seen in “Captain America” and “Nemesis,” but everything that made McNiven an exciting interior artist before is back now in “Guardians” – clear, bold lifework, intensely illustrated blockbuster action sequences and great, visceral characters. McNiven’s work has often been defined by a largely cinematic feel (partially due to frequent recent collaborations with Mark Millar), which seems particularly appropriate for the large scale this book seeks to inhabit. Bendis is also returning to a lot of his old writing habits in terms of lengthy spread-out verbal sequences, and while McNiven is better suited for the action portions of the book he still manages to make the talking head portions of the book just about as compelling as the fight scenes you really pay to see.
“Guardians” needs to be more than “Space Avengers,” but it’s not really given the star treatment the book deserves. Bendis can certainly write better stories than this, and the recent “X-Men” books are proof positive that he’s great at team introduction books (let alone any book of his career that had a #1 and featured a team). “Guardians” just feels sloppy, though, as Bendis is clearly walking a shaky line between following-up a critically acclaimed run and attempting to launch a book to a different fanbase. This is the type of book where you can slightly see the potential, as the characters are great and the possibilities of a space book are seemingly endless, and there’s stuff to look forward to in the future (Neil Gaiman!), but the first issue does nothing in terms of creating a good vote of confidence. Bendis showed us his version of the team dynamic before in “Avengers Assemble,” so reading this issue shouldn’t be the same as reading “Peter Quill and the Angst Bunch (plus Iron Man).” It should be a book about the Guardians, why the Guardians are awesome, why you should follow them for who they are and not just because they suddenly matter to what happens on Earth. But it’s not.
Final Verdict: 5.0 – Come for the art, maybe stay for the talking raccoon
