Guardians of the Galaxy #2

This was one of the Marvel Now! launches I couldn’t wait for and after the two really good .1 and 1 issues I couldn’t wait to see more from the Guardians of the galaxy and I wanted to see more of Bendis’s take on them and even though I’ve seen some more negative views on this series I’m loving it and I don’t see the hate the Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning was one take the whole point of Marvel Now! was to do something different and this is it.

Plot

The Badoon attack London and the Guardians are sent out to fight them to take down their ships and save London.

A while ago the leaders of several planets meet to discuss what to do with Earth and this eventually lead to the Earth is off limits law.

Review

Bendis still hasn’t managed to reach the level of quality of the point one issue but this is better than the last issue which was still pretty good but this issue tops it, it has a few minor points against it but overall this was a fun ride from start to finish ,and this really is blockbuster action on a city wide scale and a good time for all, displaying a great sense of the different characters and the dynamic of the team. I still have my reservations about this series because while I love All new X-men I do not want this and X-men to turn eventually into his later Avengers stuff, which I do not like at all I’d be happy if it just kept at this sort of quality level not having really good issues and then going to some average issues.

This really isn’t a book that goes small in scale of story and this isn’t a quiet book it is almost entirely action sequences and it like I said is a fun read with a lot of fun character moments in it especially about a few characters (which I will talk about later) but this really sets up the scale of the coming stories and I think this first arc was just intended to do just that show what this book will be like action based but have some nice character moments combined. I still believe that half the reason this book was created was because of the film I know a lot of people wanted a series but I doubt this would have been the top seller in March if not for the film. This fight is absoloutely littered with little jokes some of which are quite funny but there is a joke made by Iron man about Captain Britain it is in Iron man’s character but as I am a massive Captain Britain fan (I admit) and it kind of hurts me to hear this when this is a joke about how powerful he is and he is very powerful so I think Iron Man maybe should have considered that but it is in his character so I have no real problems with this scene. This fight though is also quite tense as well as funny because of what the Badoon have done around London and you immediately know that only the Guardians can do this and you wonder how this is going to turn out in the end. I do still question though Iron Man’s use in this series because it feels like he is thrown in for the sales (which is obviously the case) but literally the meeting last issue was by chance and I still don’t think Iron Man is adding much to the book he takes down a ship or two but I’m sure the team would do fine without him I think his role will become more prominent in later issues but so far I don’t think he should be here.

I did like how Bendis changed the focus of the characters in this issue from Star Lord to the others but mostly Rocket Racoon who by the look of it will have a new catchphrase each issue last issue it was Krutack now it is Blam Murdered you! It’s funny at first for what he says but by the end of it because Rocket Racoon says it so much in the space of a few pages it wears out a bit and if it was spread out more in the book I think it would have worked better.

There is another scene in this book set six weeks ago which while it adds some much needed backstory to the book it slows the book down considerably because this is an incredibly dialogue heavy scene with a two page spread with a whole string of speech bubbles going across this is needed backstory no doubt as this by the look of it sets up a number of coming stories and a certain Mad titan is front and centre as a picture in this scene hinting at much? Anyway the scene provides some good backstory but it slows the book down a bit and it isn’t as exciting as the main scene.

The art was once again amazing from Steve McNiven and Sara Pichelli who will be the ongoing artist from issue 4 onwards I believe, and I think McNiven drew the fight scene and Sara Pichelli drew the scene six weeks ago. I think I prefer McNiven because Pichelli only does a few pages so she cannot display really how good she is and some of the panels that McNiven do look so good especially the ones of Gamora and Drax and the scale that is displayed here is stunning especially in the splash pages and while I’m happy Pichelli will be on this I think McNiven has done a really good job on this arc so far and well the detail is outstanding apart from a few panels where it looks a little rough compared to McNiven’s usual stuff but overall it looks pretty good. Pichelli did a great job on what she did and I think she was perfectly suited to this more emotional scene and I love that double page spread she did which does look really good.

Verdict

I still love this series and this was a lot of fun to read I do think it has a few problems which stop it from being perfect but this still is a great book and I look forward to more and I think a lot of people would enjoy this series. This was a very exciting read with a good amount of humour put in to warrant a purchase and the art alone is good enough to buy it.

4 stars