GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY is on sale August 27, 2014.
The Good
Oh Richard Rider, where have you been? There's nothing like the long-standing death of a character to bring out the tears and frustrations in fans. Back during THE THANOS IMPERATIVE, we saw several characters, such as Star-Lord, Nova, Drax, and Thanos, meet their end. Not to long after, we saw all had returned, except Nova. We didn't even get an explanation as to how they returned. They simply showed up AVENGERS ASSEMBLE #4 and we were left wondering what was going on.
There was an issue (GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #8, I believe) where Gamora tried finding out the truth from Star-Lord. Now Gamora has decided to find out, once and for all, what exactly happened. She is forcing Peter Quill to finally reveal the truth.
What this involves is a flashback to what happened in between the pages in THE THANOS IMPERATIVE. We were left seeing Star-Lord and Nova rushing towards Thanos with the cosmic cube they had acquired. It then cut to three days later, at their memorial. Going back and getting to see what happened during that time is fascinating. With each page, you'll find yourself carefully reading every single word in anticipation of finding out the truth and not wanting to miss anything. Do we get all the answers? Keep reading.
Ed McGuinness' art is fantastic here. As you can maybe imagine, this final moment between the heroes and Thanos is pretty explosive. McGuinness tackles it all and you can almost feel every punch and impact. This issue looks as good as you'd want it to be.
The Bad
We are starting to get some answers but that's the thing, "starting." Readers (and likely editorial) wouldn't want this story/revelation to zip out. We've waited for some time so we'd want it done right. The problem is the way the solicitation reads, it felt as if we'd find out everything here. "Now, thanks to the events of Original Sin, the truth is about to come out!" Maybe that is accurate, "about to come out." It's mainly because I first became a Richard Rider fan in the 80s, I want to know what happened. Is it greedy? Selfish? Am I impatient? Maybe. This is a really good issue. It's cool going back to the Cancerverse to see the final moments with these characters. It just felt a little dragged out and kind of like a tease. Hopefully we will find out next issue.
The Verdict
The moment many of us have been waiting for, the secret behind what happened to Nova is coming. The good and bad thing is we don't get all the answers in this issue. As important as this story is to Richard Rider fans, it's not one that we would rushed or cranked out. Brian Michael Bendis takes us back to the in-between-the-pages moment from when we last saw Star-Lord and Nova together and their memorial. Ed McGuinness' art is great to see here and there's plenty of action to enjoy. If you're a fan of Richard Rider or have been wondering what happened to him, you'll want to see how it all plays out.