Right in time for the third and “final” Guardians of the Galaxy movie is Marvel-Verse: Guardians of the Galaxy. It’s a series by Marvel that is designed to be a lead-in from film to comics. At least that’s my interpretation. It’s not necessarily sold that way, but I’ve only reviewed 19 of these, so what do I know? In the latest Marvel-Verse, fans can find four stories that are fairly recent in the Guardians’ history, but each offers a little something to please fans of the films.
This collection features Guardians Team-Up #1-2 by Brian Michael Bendis and Arthur Adams, Guardians of the Galaxy: Dream On by Marc Sumerak and Andrea Di Vito, Guardians of the Galaxy: Galaxy’s Most Wanted by Will Corona Pilgrim and Andrea Di Vito, and finally All-New Guardians of the Galaxy #5 by Gerry Duggan and Chris Samnee.
Opening with Bendis and Adams’ two-part story, the Guardians of the Galaxy head back to Earth and soon find themselves teaming up with the Avengers. Customary to Bendis’ style, every character gets to chime in with a one-liner or clever comeback. Even though there are more characters than usual for an Avengers book, Bendis deftly navigates all of them, ensuring we’re never confused about who is taking or what is happening. The incomparable Adams is detailed as ever and manages to stuff the pages with many characters.
This is a great lead-in for fans of the films who want to jump into the comics. That’s partly because the entire Guardians team is very closely written to the movie versions, from their attitudes to some of the humor. They aren’t necessarily written outside of the comics versions, but you can see Bendis was writing them with a movie fan in mind. Add in the fact that there are familiar Avengers and plenty of Avengers you don’t normally see, and I could see this two-parter sparking the interest of a casual movie fan to read more comics.
Bendis stuffs this two-parter with Avengers, in a good way!
Credit: Marvel
Next up is Guardians of the Galaxy: Dream On by Marc Sumerak and Andrea Di Vito, an excellent one-shot that came out in 2017. It’s an extra-sized story that opens with Drax. Marc Sumerak writes clever dream lives for each of our heroes. Some are as you’d expect (Drax killing Thanos); others not so much (Drax ends up becoming a popular musician!), but all of them are fun and interesting. These dreams are explained via a rather fun villain who we haven’t seen too often who appeared in X-Men ‘92 Vol. 2, which is a nice blast from the past.
Sumerak writes each character well, and you’ll swear he’s been writing them for years. Overall this new story offers a fantastic action sequence and proof they can fight together. Artist Andrea Di Vito keeps each of the characters honest, and of course Rocket’s mechanical expertise is used to full effect. The art is certainly great and you’ll never see a wet Rocket quite like this. Even the villain looks spot on, foursome, and right out of the ’90s.
Next is “Galaxy’s Most Wanted” featuring Rocket and Groot on a mission together. They break up, join forces again, and generally show how they’re capable of defeating the worst of odds. It’s so short there’s not a lot to say, but fans of the movies will enjoy these two getting to team up without the rest of the team.
Closing out the collection is a one-shot from Duggan’s run on the series with the incredible guest artist Chris Samnee. This story is visually stunning, opening with a full page spread of Star-Lord when he was a kid chilling at a lake. Samnee draws an incredibly idyllic American summer moment. It’s a nice calm before the storm moment until the very next page drops you into some Star-Lord type action — AKA thieving things for the greater good of himself and his friends. The person chasing Star-Lord is a Nova Corps member who Samnee draws with a delicious comedic look. He’s rosy cheeked, missing some hair, and hard to take seriously, just as the story requires. The art throughout is very good at subtlety–like two aliens who have captured Star-Lord who have quite a unique but expressive look–but what everyone will be talking about is the integration of music onto the page.
Samnee and Duggan lean into the music for their story.
Credit: Marvel
Music is very much the center of this story, and you’ll see it in different formats, from the radio waves in space Star-Lord is tracking – he needs to find a broadcast from the ’80s to capture a song that was lost on one of his tapes – to his cassette box with a ton of tapes with personalized covers and writing. These tapes are showcased in a double-page spread with a ton of subtle detail, and fun callouts to real bands (though never directly quoted to avoid lawsuits) within jokes too. The final two pages do well to capture the lyrics of a specific song, and Samnee captures Star-Lord’s relaxed and go-with-the-flow vibe very well.
Music is very much a part of the movies so its usage here feels very tuned to the films, and it’s cool to see Duggan flesh out his music encyclopedia here. It makes sense he’d have more tunes, and Duggan takes Star-Lord’s love of music even further in an interesting way. He even gives Star-Lord a good reason to collect physical media! It’s a fun issue, and lovers of music will really dig it.
Running 111 pages long, Marvel-Verse: Guardians of the Galaxy is a little slimmer than past Marvel-Verse collections, yet packs a huge punch. The curation is good here, showcasing the team alongside Marvel’s mainstay heroes, focusing on the music, and even delving into the deeper side of these characters.
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