"Guardians of the Galaxy: Somebody's Got to Do It"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Guardians of the Galaxy: Somebody’s Got to Do It” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            When the technological alien race the Phalanx began their invasion, the alien race the Kree needed a team to stop them. The Phalanx infect and assimilate with organics to subvert them into their collective. The Kree recruited Terran space adventurer Peter Jason Quill/Star-Lord, Kaliklak warrior Bug, Shi’ar murderess Deathcry, Celestial Madonna Mantis, Terran hero Gabriel Vargas/Captain Universe, enhanced life form Rocket Raccoon, and Flora-Organism King Groot for the mission. They had to go into a Kree facility on the Kree capital world Hala that was infested with Phalanx and destroy their replication machine with no technology since the Phalanx were able to control all technology, which meant they had to go in with basic weapons and uniforms that dampened their heat signatures to avoid detection by the Phalanx. Rocket and Groot formed an immediate bond, but Deathcry did not approve of Captain Universe saving her life as it went against Shi’ar creed. As they battled the Phalanx, Captain Universe and Deathcry got into an argument that ended in the friendly fire demise of Deathcry. Groot was also blown up by the Phalanx, but was able to survive as a sprig offshoot. Captain Universe had to cleverly use the power of the Uni-Force that gave him his abilities to defeat the Phalanx and complete the mission. However, the Kree were not quite so eager to give up on this new team.

            Following the Phalanx Conquest, Star-Lord was able to convince Mantis, Rocket, Groot, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, Phyla-Vell/Quasar and Adam Warlock to form a strike force to protect the galaxy from future threats such as another invasion. They took up a base at Knowhere, the severed head of a Celestial and established a liaison with Cosmo, the head of security at Knowhere and used the Continuum Cortex to provide rapid transit via passport bracelets. Their first mission pitted them against the Universal Church of Truth, who used their beliefs to give them strength, on their Templeship the Tancred, to destroy the Font and prevent it from falling into a fissure. Another fissure opened around the vicinity of 56 Hydronis, which the team investigated, where they discovered Vance Astrovik/Major Victory of the Guardians of the Galaxy, a spacefaring team of adventurers from an alternate future. The team took him in, but he was suffering from a form of amnesia. He knew he was there for a purpose, where and when he belonged, but he couldn’t remember why. Another fissure opened near Binary Stasis Twelve Dyson Sphere, an artificial habitat shell with s caged sun at its heart. The team, now christened the Guardians of the Galaxy, attempted to come to the rescue of its fifty-two hundred inhabitants, but they had all been fused into one biomass. The Universal Church of Truth attacked again, while on Knowhere, a villain called Starhawk attacked and damaged the Continuum Cortex, preventing the Guardians from using their teleport passports. The team was able to survive, but Gamora was severely burned.

            Back on Knowhere, it was discovered that there were Skrulls, a species of shapeshifting aliens, who had infiltrated the station and that anyone could be a Skull. This caused great distrust among the Guardians, and the Administrative Council on Knowhere gave the team a hard time for setting up shop upon Knowhere without permission. Drax attacked three Luminals, leading to suspicion that he might be a Skrull. Quasar discovered Drax setting up synaptic disruptor charges, while Starhawk reappeared, this time in a female form, claiming the future tense was in flux and claimed she had to destroy Knowhere to save the future tense. Meanwhile, Warlock discovered Cosmo hiding a group of Skrulls on Knowhere. Before anyone could attack, Drax set off the charges, temporarily killing everyone on Knowhere so he could locate the Skrulls. Upon revival, the Guardians were able to apprehend Starhawk. Cosmo was able to convince the Guardians of the Skrulls upon Knowhere’s innocence and purpose upon Knowhere. Following this, Drax revealed the secret truth behind the forming of the Guardians of the Galaxy, a secret Star-Lord and Mantis had been keeping the whole time, a secret that imploded the entire team.

            Rocket and Groot stayed with the Guardians, adding Mantis and Major Victory as active members, and recruiting Bug to the team. The Guardians went up against the alien race the Badoon, who conquered the galaxy and exterminated the human race in Major Victory’s future. Meanwhile, Warlock and Gamora went off after the Universal Church of Truth, which Warlock intended to lead, while Drax and Quasar went off in search of a girl named Cammi who had a mysterious importance to Drax. Meanwhile, Star-Lord went after the Kree to protect them from the Skrulls, but was caught by Ronan the Accuser, who accused Star-Lord of crimes against the Kree and banished him to the Negative Zone, where Star-Lord ran afoul of Blastaar, newly crowned King of the Negative Zone. Blastaar ordered Star-Lord to get him into 42, the Initiative Prison located in the Negative Zone, so Blastaar could enter it to access its portal to Earth so he could invade. Star-Lord broke in, where he was taken in by vigilante Jack Flag and his crew, who refused to believe his story about the Guardians of the Galaxy. Meanwhile, Drax and Quasar went to Titan, home of the Eternals, to ask Mentor if he could locate Heather Douglass/Moondragon, Quasar’s lover and Drax’s daughter, but instead Mentor killed them both. Star-Lord was able to contact the Guardians of the Galaxy to break him out of 42 and prevent Blastaar from entering Earth, while Warlock and Gamora met with the Matriarch of the Universal Church of Truth to convince them to believe in him, but the Matriarch had a coccoon that contained another Adam Warlock, lending doubt to the authenticity of the Adam Warlock that had been trying to sway the Universal Church of Truth to his sway. While in their death state, Drax and Quasar ran into Maelstrom, who tried to steal the Quantum Bands from Quasar and feed them to the Dragon of the Moon, a creature that Heather had transformed into upon her death.

            Okay, that’s the synopsis with as minimal amounts of spoilers as I could, but let’s face it, it’s hard to review a 400+ page book with multiple stories without giving away spoilers. Anyway, let’s talk about my opinion about this book for a little bit, then I’m going to give a numeric score to this book and tell you if I personally recommend this book to you or not. So, I will say that I found this book to be relatively enjoyable. Personally, I’m a fan of the Guardians of the Galaxy, so reading about how the modern team formed was actually quite pleasurable to me, and it was an experience I liked. I thought the Annihilation: Conquest – Starlord story was well-written. His ragtag team was quite interesting to read about, and their adventure was entertaining to read. I liked the stories about the fissures. The Secret Invasion tie-in story was quite enjoyable to me, and I really found the ending to be quite a shocker and thought that was brilliantly written. The remaining adventures were all fun to read, and I had a fun time while I did. Now we’re going to talk about the art. Modern Era Epic Collections often tend to have multiple artists, and that can often hurt my enjoyment of the consumption of these graphic novels. I have to say, I honestly have no complaints about the art. I found all the artists to have done an excellent job, and it was consistently pleasing to my eyes.

            Now, before I go into my numeric score, there is something I have to discuss first, that being accessibility. When I say accessibility, what I mean is how easy it is to just pick up, read, and understand this book, even if you have little or no prior knowledge about the Guardians of the Galaxy or Marvel Comics. I will say this book is pretty accessible. Yes, it occurs during two events, those being Annihilation: Conquest and Secret Invasion, and that often hurts understanding of a Modern Era Epic Collection, but in this case, I honestly don’t feel it’s a problem. Annihilation: Conquest – Starlord is actually a four issue limited series and is pretty much stand-alone, so not actually reading the rest of Annihilation: Conquest really doesn’t feel like a hindrance in my opinion, and I will tell you that I never read the rest of Annihilation: Conquest myself and was able to follow this story just fine. As far as Secret Invasion goes, this doesn’t impact the rest of the event, which takes place on Earth, so not reading the rest of Secret Invasion will have absolutely no effect on understanding the tie-in issues contained in this book. Yes, there are a few things knowing more about Marvel would help with, such as the existence of 42, which stems from Civil War, but if you’ve never read anything Marvel before and are looking for a place to start, I feel like this is actually a pretty safe bet for you. And if you’ve never heard of the Guardians of the Galaxy and think this sounds interesting, I think you’d be able to pick up this book pretty easily and get most of what is going on in the story.

            Okay, it’s time to go into what I feel is honestly the most important part of any Tim Cubbin review: the numeric score. My scoring system is extremely basic: I score on a scale of one to ten. One is the worst score I can give and means that this book probably truly deserves to be avoided at all costs and if you want to read this even after I’m telling you how horrible this is, I truly pity you. Ten is the highest score I can give, and that means that this is one of the best books I have ever read, and it should truly be read by everyone as soon as is humanly possible. Now, while I did find it enjoyable, I will say that I don’t feel like it’s anywhere near a ten. It was good, truly, but it was far from perfect. Honestly, if I have to give it a numeric score, and of course I obviously do since this is a book review, I’d have to give it a score of… an eight. Hey, that is still really good. I’m a pretty harsh scorer; I’m not in the business of just giving out tens. In all honesty, a default starting score is a nine, so since I didn’t find this perfect, I had to give it an eight. And that’s also good because I found no fault with the art, which could easily have brought the score down to a seven or even a six potentially, so getting an eight is actually pretty impressive. So, I say to the writers and artists of this graphic novel, excellent job!

            Now, as promised, I’m going to tell you if I recommend this book personally, and regardless of if I give it my personal recommendation or not, to whom do I recommend this book to. Now, you can pretty much guess that by the way I’ve been talking for the past three paragraphs that this book is going to get my recommendation, and if you’ve made that guess that I do, you are completely correct. This book emphatically gets my recommendation. As for to whom I’d recommend this book to, if you’re looking for a graphic novel of cosmic adventures, this is the book for you. If you’re a fan of Marvel from the movies or cartoons or video games or shows and are looking for a graphic novel to get into, I feel like this is an enjoyable book for you. If you’re a Guardians of the Galaxy fan of any form, this is the perfect book for you. If you’re reading this review and are interested in reading this book now based solely on what I’ve just spent the past several hours typing, I say go for it. Honestly, I’d recommend this book to just about anybody.

            Okay, I’ve been going on for quite a while, and I feel like it’s time for all of us to move on with our lives, so I’m going to wrap this up now. Before I go, though, there are a few more things that I have to say first. Starting with, this blog has tons of content. I’ve written almost 150 posts at this point, so there is plenty more to read. I have written several short stories, some poetry, a bunch of editorials, a few essays and articles, and dozens of reviews like this one. So, if you liked this post, keep browsing, there’s so much more for you to enjoy. I will say that I collect every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection that gets released and will review it when I am completed, so there are reviews posted quite frequently. There are a few in my possession I have yet to review, and I do hope to rectify that eventually. At the moment, you can expect another review upcoming within the next two weeks, so keep checking back for that. And with that, I believe I’ve said all that needs be said for the moment, so I shall leave you with just three more words: Tim Cubbin… out!