Guardians Of The Galaxy #7 Review

Written by: Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing
Art by: Kev Walker
Colors by: Matt Hollingsworth
Letters by: VC’s Cory Petit
Cover art by: Marco Checchetto
Cover price: $3.99
Release date: October 11, 2023

Guardians Of The Galaxy #7 sends Hulkiling and Wiccan on an exploratory mission to discover what happened to the Guardians. What they find is not what they expected.

Is Guardians Of The Galaxy #7 Good?

Now that the unnecessarily long mystery surrounding Grootfall’s nature and origins is over, Guardians Of The Galaxy #7 gets to the business of shaking up the galaxy after the Guardians’ mission to save Groot failed… or did it?

When last we left the Guardians, they made a last-ditch effort to dive head-first into Grootfall to connect with Groot and hopefully stop the terraforming genocide of multiple worlds in the Manifold Territories. The issue got lost in heaps of esoteric mumbo jumbo, but when all other attempts at connecting with Groot failed, the Guardians dived into the mouth of the beast, getting crushed to death for their efforts.

Now, Hulkling and Wiccan arrive on one of Grootfall’s terraformed worlds to find out what happened to the Guardians. They find the Guardians, or technically a Groot-reconstructed version of the Guardians, who have become part of Groot’s mission to bloom. The Groot Guardians only have one message for Hulkling and Wiccan – tell the galaxy to stay away until Groot’s great work is done.

To Lanzing and Kelly’s credit, this issue feels more centered and purposeful. The major headache with the first six issues largely resulted from the poorly constructed mystery surrounding Grootfall. You get the impression that Lanzing and Kelly had an idea where they wanted to go but stumbled badly getting there. Now that the series is hitting the next milestone, the path forward is clear. It’s a shame that such a bad start impacted sales rankings on this title to a point where it likely won’t recover.

What’s great about Guardians Of The Galaxy #7? The idea of a Guardians team that is and isn’t the Guardians is an interesting concept. The situation is vague enough that you can’t quite tell if Groot’s development is positive or negative, so the anticipation for what comes next is high.

What’s not so great about Guardians Of The Galaxy #7? The ending is a little odd. Wiccan and Hulkling take the “leave us alone” message back to a galactic council for consideration, but the vote is overridden by a lone dissenter (no spoilers). If this character has a grudge against the Guardians, why would he or she suddenly show up now with intentions to attack Groot when Grootfall has been going on for over a year? The heel turn doesn’t make much sense in the context of the story.

How’s the art? It’s fine. Kev Walker’s style is an acquired taste, but now that Gorrtfall is in its next stage, the whimsical edge to Walker’s style makes more sense. Still, Hulking and Wiccan look Mignola-esque at times, but overall, the comic looks good. Not great, but good.

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 #7 enters the next phase of Grootfall’s development with a new status quo for the Guardians, new promises of galactic conflict, and better potential. Lanzing and Kelly, despite a rocky 6-issue start, seem to have found their footing, and I’m interested to see where the story goes next.