If Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 left you hungry for more, then this new standalone story featuring Marvel’s most popular cosmic characters from two of Marvel’s most legendary creators will easily fill that void. When the Guardians are entrusted with an important but seemingly straight-forward delivery, nothing can go wrong, right? Until everything starts going very wrong! Things might get a little more chaotic when the team meets the mysterious Mother Entropy: Who is she and what is her business with the Guardians?
When you think of cosmic Marvel comics, the first creator who usually comes to mind is Jim Starlin. Creator of Gamora, Drax and Thanos amongst others, his contributions to series including Captain Marvel, Warlock and Silver Surfer helped turn the cosmic side of the Marvel Universe into one of its deepest and exciting facets. Starlin in recent years has returned to Marvel to work on the cosmic side of things with several Thanos original graphic novels and mini-series. This time, he is taking on the Guardians of the Galaxy team put together by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning that have been made famous by the recent GOTG films.
As you can imagine, Starlin is right at home with these characters. He dabbled briefly with the Guardians in Thanos: The Infinity Relativity and proved he could handle Star-Lord, Groot and Rocket as well as his own creations Drax and Gamora. Story-wise, it’s exactly the sort of adventure that works best. The Guardians are out of pocket and a seemingly simple and lucrative solution ends up going bad. Whilst this isn’t too out of the ordinary, Starlin’s natural handling of the characters make this a very entertaining read with plenty of standout moments. The body swap sequence is particularly great with Star-Lord definitely getting the short end of the stick. Starlin also brings one of his favourite creations back in Pip the Troll, who again provides plenty in the laughs department. It all comes together to create a rather old-school vibe which fits perfectly with Starlin’s classic Marvel work, with a balance of humour and the odd bit of action/terror (Mother Entrophy is a particularly frightening villain/prospect).
Complementing this classic style is the art of Alan Davis. A long-time fan-favourite, he has contributed to more classic Marvel series than I can count (Captain Britain, Avengers, Uncanny X-Men, Captain America just to list a few). One of the best artists to have graced superhero comics, his ability to blend action and humour is second to none. His style is also a perfect fit for this kind of story and with Starlin having a similar approach to comic storytelling; he knows exactly how to play the story to Davis’ strengths. It’s always great getting to see Davis draw classic Marvel characters and it’s a rare case when the series features characters he hasn’t worked on, so it’s an extra treat to see his take on the Guardians.
Fans of classic style Marvel stories will absolutely love this series with two of Marvel’s all-time greats cutting loose on the cosmic side of things. Anyone who’s just looking for a great standalone Guardians story can’t do much better than this.
Guardians Of The Galaxy: Mother Entropy is out now from Marvel
9781302904883 – P/B £13.50
Post by Leo