REVIEW: All New Guardians of the Galaxy #1

Back together again and back in outer space, the Guardians of the Galaxy are out to kick butt and chew bubble gum. And they only have a couple wads of bubble gum left. The reformed team is away from Earth just in time for fans to grab an issue before heading to the movie theater to see them on the big screen. It’s almost like there was a marketing plan going on.

I’ll let my cynicism rest because I actually enjoyed the issue. Their first job now that Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket and Groot are back on the Milano is to rob the most fortified bank in the universe. Garry Duggan has fun with the big heist story which is only a preview of the craziness to follow.

It turns out that they were hired by the Grandmaster who wants to stick it to one of the other Elders of the Universe, the Collector and prove that he has the bigger collection of oddities from around the universe and other places. The Grandmaster quickly doubles crosses our heroes and set them out to steal more stuff from the Collector. Since the Grandmaster is usually more about how he can play with other beings, I suspect that whatever the Guardians managed to get from the Collector will only be a mcguffin in a bigger game.

Duggan also lays out the mystery of why Baby Groot is still… baby Groot. Groot has grown back faster in the past but something is stunting his growth now.

I liked how Duggan ( Deadpool, Uncanny Avengers) didn’t waste a lot of time with the setup and just started in the middle of the action. The story is fun and light-hearted, Even when the Guardians realize that they have been boned by the Grandmaster, the story still manages to not wallow in despair as everything is shifting on them.

Aaron Kuder (Green Lanterns Corps, Death of X) does a great job with the art in this book. He handles the fights well with a minimum of support from dialogue, but you never lose track of who is banging on whom. Also he has created a couple full pages of the Grandmaster and his ship that I don’t want to spoil here. Kuder has the harder job of working in the visual puns in ways that don’t interrupt the flow of the story and he succeeds.

Is this a perfect issue? No. But, this issue has almost everything that you would want from a Guardians books. The team is back together again and while they fight and bicker among themselves like old times, there are a lot of changes that they will have to face among each other. This is a good read for while you are in line or waiting for the trailers when you go see the Guardians’ movie this weekend.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artist: Aaron Kuder
Colors: Ive Svorcina
Letters: Cory Petit

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Andy Hall

Sent from the future by our Robot Ape overlords to preserve the timeline. Reading and writing about comics until the revolution comes. All hail the Orangutan Android Solar King!