Written by: Donny Cates
Art by: Geoff Shaw, David Curiel, and VC’s Cory Petit
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: April 17, 2019

We are four issues into this first arc now and I am really trying to find the hook to get me excited to read this book. There are a ton of cool characters and a bunch of things that Donny Cates is tying up, so why am I not into it? Well, having cool characters is one thing, but having too many and not enough space to utilize them is another and while this is wrapping some of Cates’ stuff up, it doesn’t feel like a Guardians book to me…yet. I am hoping that after these first six issues, we move on to something that feels fresh and new.

This issue opens on Halfworld with the Guardians arriving to find Gamora. It’s an explosive meeting and Beta Ray Bill gets the short end of the stick while Cates shows us all how much of a bad butt Gomora is.

After Groot has a really nice moment with his former teammate, they head to the ship and there are a bunch of really funny moments here. The mention of Groot’s punk rock look and the question about why Peter named the new ship “Ryder” made me laugh out loud. Then we get a very brief face-to-face with Starlord and Gomara that is interrupted by Nova.

By interrupted, I mean he just crashes into the ship and it doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to realize what and who will be following… Yep, Gladiator and his gang are in the house and it’s time for a galactic royal rumble!

There are so many characters in this book at the moment and that leads to an awesome looking fight thanks to Geoff Shaw and David Curiel and while we get some one-on-one moments going on, they are with the characters we know and always get. I wish we would get more of the side characters who just seem to be there for the cool factor alone. You know, like Cosmic Ghost Rider!

Bitching aside, the issue ends with a pretty crazy cliffhanger and this is probably my favorite issue of the series so far. I still want so much more and while we still aren’t getting much forward story progression, there were some funny moments and the fight looked really cool.

Final Thoughts:

While I want so much more from this book, Donny Cates and Geoff Shaw have some fun this issue before giving readers an awesome looking battle royale. This book still doesn’t feel like a standalone Guardians book, but I will wait until after this first arc to get too mad about that.

8.0/10