Guardians of the Galaxy #3 Review

Written by: Collin Kelly, Jackon Lanzing
Art by: Kev Walker
Colors by: Matt Hollingsworth
Letters by: VC’s Cory Petit
Cover art by: Marco Checchetto (cover A)
Cover price: $3.99
Release date: June 21, 2023

Guardians of the Galaxy #3 slowly pulls back the curtain on Grootfall and the plague of terraforming meteors that create death and destruction wherever they land.

Is It Good?

Yep, that’s the one big idea from Guardians of the Galaxy #3. You learn a little bit about Grootfall when Quill agrees to participate in a royal hunt sponsored by his sister. To be clear, you don’t get any of the backstory or purpose of Grootfall, how it came to be, or what it’s trying to do, but you learn a little something.

When last we left the Guardians, they tried to broker a temporary truce and evacuation of two warring nations within the Manifold Territories before the next Grootfall meteor shows up. Unfortunately, the need for war trumped the need for survival, so the Guardians left unsuccessful. Now, Quill reluctantly agrees to participate in a Partax hunt on a world devastated by a Grootfall meteor. When the opportunity presents itself, Quill manages to connect with the mega-Groot on the planetoid for a little insight into Groot’s mind.

On the whole, this issue is mostly weird, slightly confusing, somewhat frustrating, and mildly illuminating. In short, it’s a mixed bag because you get just enough story to give you more than a tease about what’s going on but not enough to be satisfying.

Quilll attends a Spartax hunting party at the behest of his sister to make her happy. That’s fine.

The Spartax hunters seem unaware or unconcerned the selected hunting grounds are on a planet where Grootfall recently occurred, which should wipe out all life on the planet. That’s weird and confusing.

When the hunting party discovers a mega-Groot, Drax fights the hunters to keep them from destroying it. Quill uses the opportunity to connect with the mega-Groot to try and reach its mind to find out what happened. You see snatches of ideas and thoughts, but all you really get is that Groot is in there somewhere, and he has the desire to see Rocket. That’s frustrating and a teeny bit illuminating.

Right now, this series is a tough sell. Lanzing and Kelly are trying to draw out the mystery as long as possible, presumably for some big payoff. However, there aren’t enough clues to make the mystery interesting, and the Guardians’ adventures are odd (not in a good way) while they try to figure out Grootfall. The net effect is a comic that’s more cumbersome and frustrating than entertaining.

We recently saw how Lanzing and Kelly tried to pull off a complex plot in the Captain America “Cold War” event, and the final issue failed miserably because they couldn’t work themselves out of a corner. I fear this series is headed for the same fall if they can’t figure out that a frustratingly unanswered question is no substitute for a complete story.

How’s the art? It’s good. No complaints. Kev Walker and Matt Hollingworth do their best to make the surreal Quill/Groot mind meld make sense, and it does. The character designs for the Spartax hunters are memorable, and the action is exciting.

About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.

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Bits and Pieces

Guardians of the Galaxy #3 gives readers a tidbit about the nature of Grootfall during a contrived Royal Hunt, which is more information that readers got out of the previous two issues. The issue as a whole is weird, but a small clue is better than no clue. Still, the lack of entertainment or answers, tips the scales away from satisfying to frustrating, making this series an increasingly tough sell.