Guardians of The Outhouse

As much as I liked the their film, I never had much of an interest in the Guardians of The Galaxy. But then things got interesting when after the 2015 Secret Wars the title came back with the promise of a new team dynamic. And that promise died halfway into issue #1. Let's talk about Brian Micheal Bendis' "Guardians of The Galaxy" on today's Current Issues.

Writer: Brain Michael Bendis
Artist: Valerio Schiti
 

The Guardians of the Galaxy have been around since 1969, but the team most people are familiar with was formed in 2008 by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. Save for Quasar and Adam Warlock the team is similar to the film version. When Brain Micheal Bendis (Ultimate Spider-Man, Secret War, New Avengers) started writing for the book in 2012 he had a pretty stable run, even peppering in other characters to join the team. Iron Man, The All-New Captain Marvel, The All-New Nova, Agent Venom, and former Spawn character Angela were all members of the team at one point or another. That might tell you that putting in established Marvel characters was a move made to grab more readers, but after their film came out The Guardians were spreading far. Along with their main book they had "Guardians of The Galaxy: Most Wanted", "Guardians Team-Up", solo series for Star-Lord, Drax The Destroyer, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Angela, Venom, and they even had a crossover event with The All-New X-Men. To further tie the Guardians to Marvel's Earth, Bendis established a romantic relationship between Star-Lord and Kitty Pryde of the X-Men. Quick tangent, but what is it with Kitty and guys named Peter? Piotr Rasputin, Pete Wisdom, Peter Quill, even Ultimate Comic's version of Kitty dated Ultimate Peter Parker! Weird fetish. Regardless, the Guardians are still sporting six titles and are not slowing down, they even have their own cartoon! But we're not here to talk about what they have, we're here to talk about what they offer.

Let's open with what the readers came to hear about: the roster. The team is led by Rocket Raccoon who is very proud to leading and won't hide the fact that taking Star-Lord's role makes him happy! Also, his new costume has an adorable hood. And you can't have Rocket without Groot! Though his redesign here makes him look semi-robotic and the vine dreads aren't doing it for me. I almost thought he was a new character the first time I saw him. Another veteran of the team is Drax The Destroyer, happily accepting his place as the team's tough guy despite the team having four tough guys. Venom returns to this roster, sporting the "pure symbiot" design I like so much. In the last run, Bendis sent the team to the planet where the Venom suit came from and explained that The Symbiots aren't naturally evil they just absorb the negative emotions of their hosts. This new look for Venom is reflective of Flash Thompson's progression into a full-fledged superhero. Next we have Kitty Pryde, former teacher at The Jean Grey School of Higher Learning and former X-Men member. This time around Kitty has taken Peter's mantle of Star-Lord because Peter is currently the king of a planet and has no time to be a hero. At first it kind of bothered me that Kitty became Star-Lord, maybe because I never liked the relationship between the two of them, but at least she brings something new to the table. It's always nice to have Kitty Pryde around, the further she's away from The X-Men the safer she'll be from Marvel Editorial. Finally we have the guy I came to see, Ben Grimm/The Thing former member of The Fantastic Four. While Reed and Sue are missing and Johnny is on The Uncanny Avengers, The Thing joined the Guardians. Pretty smart considering the Fantastic Four have traveled across creation. Bendis has written The Thing tons of times so he's still as fun as he's even been!

So if this new team is so fun to read, why aren't I happy with this book? For a title that offers a lot of new ideas, Bendis quickly backpedals in the story. You think the book is about this new team, but instead the first arc focuses on The Guardians helping Peter Quill save his planet Spartax from an insane Kree warrior. Okay, so Peter Quill is in the book, big deal. I'm sure he's just a supporting character. But hey, suddenly Gamora is here. So former member Gamora joins the story in which former member Peter Quill must save his planet. I get that Peter is important to the team, but if this story had to be written I think it should have been in Peter Quill/Star-Lord's solo book. If you're going to have a team book focus on one character you should focus on a character who doesn't already have a title to focus on them. It's like writing an Avengers story about Hawkeye, but while also having a Hawkeye book in publication. I just don't like how a team featuring a mutant, a symbiot soldier, a talking raccoon, a sentient tree, a man made of rocks, and Dave Bautista has to focus on a character who isn't on the team anymore and already has their own title. I would much rather read about this new team working together than follow this story. Maybe if it were the second or third arc I'd be a little more accepting. The previews for issue #6 show Peter Quill taking the Star-Lord mantle back from Kitty Pryde. So what? This cool new take on Kitty Pryde gets trashed after five issues because Peter Quill is so popular? Currently we have two people going by Hawkeye and two people going by Captain America, but on the cover for issue #6 there are not two Star-Lords, there is Peter/Star-Lord and Kitty in some generic space suit! As if to say, "not only are we retracting out idea, but we're actually stripping the character of any identity". It's like if five issues into the female-lead Thor title, Marvel said "Next issue the REAL Thor will come back". Oh, and just when you think the four issue long battle has ended and the Kree warrior is defeated-OUTTA NOWHERE-some other character shows up to fight Drax. Literally: Kree chick is down, everyone is relieved, and then BAM new villain attacks.

All complaints aside, Bendis still succeeds at giving every character dialog appropriate to them. He can still create an entertaining story and he treats characters with respect for where they came from. When you have a book that juggles Spider-Man characters, X-Men characters, Fantastic Four characters and cosmic characters you have to make sure every representative from those corners gets the proper treatment, otherwise you undermine a portion of Marvel's Universe. I'm super happy Bendis picked The Thing and Kitty Pryde and does them justice despite Marvel Studios not owning the movie rights to those two characters. And hey, they're both Jewish! Don't know why that's worth mentioning, but diversity makes people interesting apparently. And the art by Schiti is very nice. The colors are great, body proportions are great, every character has readable facial features. Just some solid work, can't say much else seeing as how this is a book that starts moving full speed a few pages in.
Sadly, I won't be following this book any longer. I did enjoy the book, just not as much as I had hoped. You have to remember that every character promised on the cover is one of my favorite characters. It's not often I see a team and go "there is nobody here who I don't love". And for the rich stories to explore between these characters to be overshadowed by a character who A. isn't on the team anymore, B. has a legitimate responsibility, and C. has his own book already, is such an unfair development. You know your team book is failing when solo books are doing better with your team (e.i. Drax The Destroyer). Bendis doesn't often miss the mark, and he surely doesn't miss here. I guess I was just hoping he was aiming at an apple when all he was trying to hit was the same damn target.
Thanks for reading!

Facebook: The Panel Biter
Twitter: @ThePanelBiter
Podbean: Panelbiter.podbean.com