Jackson Lanzing, Colin Kelly, and Kev Walker understand the dramatic power of beginning ‘in media res’. Not only does the primary conflict of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1: Grootfall begin with its mysterious gears furiously turning, but so too do many of the smaller parts. Our characters – a now-classic lineup for the team, including Nebula and Mantis – are portrayed somewhere past the inciting incidents of their own, independent arcs: Gamora, a spiraling drunk; Rocket, alone playing Space Sherrif; Mantis, in possession of (and perhaps possessed by) a magical dress that makes her manically jump, Crazy Jane-like, from personality to personality. Hell, even Star-Lord’s mask seems to be mid-journey, one lens prominently cracked.
The team, last seen in their own title back in 2021, had been mixed up in The Last Annihilation, had been set up to be a sort of vast, cosmic Avengers (again), with far-ranging members beyond the core team. Some of those characters have been seen recently (Blackjack O’Hare and the Prince of Power were briefly featured in X-Men Red #16), but that larger crew otherwise is mysteriously absent from Grootfall, fittingly stripping the team back to basics for their new volume.
The larger, more dynamic mystery overshadows the conclusion of the last volume; it overshadows this volume, looming huge at the narrative forefront. Something terrible has happened to Groot – or, perhaps, Groot is something terrible.
Nearly every issue in this volume features a new planet facing a coming “Grootfall”, spaceborne flora colossi of massive, world-ending size. It is a plague, out along the planetary frontier in which Grootfall takes place, displacing broken remnants of planetary populations and causing mass extinction events.
The book dangles this threat as a mystery box on a string, a narrative hook drawing the reader along in a way that cannot be denied: you will read on because you cannot leave this story unresolved.
The massive mystery (and tragedy) of Groot does not take away time with our beloved characters; those independent character arcs, though barely flirted with, present their own compulsive hooks, stringing the reader along just as effectively as the world-ending larger plot. Everyone is suspended in personal anguish, revelations about (and resolution for) tantalizingly kept just out of reach. The larger epic does no disservice to its inhabitants.
Each issue dives into a new aesthetic, relying heavily on Walker’s dual skills of atmosphere and caricature (and Matt Hollingsworth’s pitch-perfect colors); the first issue is hazed by Spaghetti Western dust as the team performs the intergalactic equivalent of a great train robbery. Elsewhere, Drax and Star-Lord are dragged into a colonizer great hunt, suffering prim, imperialistic fools. There is a touch of Star Wars, a touch of tense spacewalk, and a pinch of vindictive wrath.
That is to say, it is 100% Guardians of the Galaxy, a near-perfect portrayal of the space scamps this version of the team is best known to be as they weather the down-and-dirty underbelly so often hidden beneath the impossibly vast epics of space.
Marvel Comics
Teasingly without a beginning, tantalizingly far from an end, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1: Grootfall exudes all the best qualities of the team – self-abusive, drunk, violent, and yet somehow heroic. It creates the perfect Space Western trappings, and it leaves the reader both heartbroken and yearning for more.
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