"Annihilation: Conquest Prologue"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Annihilation: Conquest Prologue” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            On Lamentis Outworld, Phyla-Vell/Quasar and Heather Douglas/Moondragon were staying with the Priests of Pama following the Annihilation War. On Hala, Ronan the Accuser, now leader of the Kree, had given Peter Quill (formerly Star-Lord) the position of Special Military Advisor to the Kree Leadership following the Annihilation War. Quill had arranged the usage of the Galadorian Spaceknights’ A-Ware technology for the Kree War-Net. Quasar heard a voice from the Quantum Bands warning of disaster for the Kree and a conquest, instructing her to find a savior, a task only Quasar could accomplish. Quill met with a delegation of Spaceknights to test the A-Ware technology. The Kree War-Net turned on the Kree and attacked the Kree. Quasar and Moondragon were attacked by a Kree Sentry. The two women defeated the Sentry. Hala had been attacked by the Phalanx, a race of techno-organic beings who assimilated with the races they invaded and now wished to assimilate the Kree. The Phalanx released a pulse that shifted Kree space out of the rest of the galaxy. Quasar vowed to find the savior of the Kree people. Quill tried to fight the Phalanx, who had begun to assimilate the Kree, but was injured.

            Kree Admiral Galen-Kor had all of Quill’s technological implants removed. Quill was tasked to lead a no-tech strike force against the Phalanx to destroy the Phalanx’s infiltration system before it could be brought online. The task force was comprised of prisoners of the Kree, including the Bug, Deathcry, Mantis, Gabriel Vargas/Captain Universe, Rocket Raccoon, and Groot. The team went into their mission, and tensions rose between Captain Universe and Deathcry after Captain Universe committed a perceived slight against Deathcry by defending her from a Phalanx sentry, an act considered offensive to the Shi’ar. The Phalanx detected the team’s presence and sent more sentries after them. As the team fought off the sentries, Captain Universe once again saved Deathcry. Deathcry turned feral on Captain Universe, and Deathcry was unalived when Captain Universe accidentally used the Uni-force to protect himself from her oncoming attack. The team managed to escape from the sentries. Quill took the uniform of a Kree maintenance worker and accessed a Kree data hub. Quill discovered the Phalanx were releasing an airborne nanovirus to infect the Kree. Quill returned to the team to inform them of this horrifying news. The team was attacked by Phalanx drones. Captain Universe stayed behind to give the team time to escape from the drones. As the team reached a crowded area, they were apprehended by Phalanx sentries and detained. Mantis was able to evade capture. Mantis reunited with Captain Universe. The team realized that they were already infected with the nanovirus. Captain Universe had to use the Uni-force against the Phalanx. Mantis freed the rest of the team. The team fought to escape and complete their mission.

            Quasar and Moondragon were attacked by the Super-Adaptoid, who had been assimilated by the Phalanx. During the fight, Quasar went into an uncontrollable rage, and one of the jewels in Quasar’s Quantum Bands went dark. Moondragon was plagued with headaches. Quasar’s rage was caused by Annihilus, the previous wearer of the Quantum Bands before Phyla-Vell. Quasar learned that if all the jewels in the Quantum Bands went dark, the Bands would be useless. The Phalanx assaulted the Priests of Pama’s sanctuary and obliterated it. Only Quasar and Moondragon survived. Quasar and Moondragon went to the Kree world Dlaw-Neurg. On the Kree planet Ollupac, the Super-Adaptoid heard tell of a wizard. Super-Adaptoid attacked Quasar and Moondragon on Dlaw-Neurg and copied her Quantum Bands in order to be able to follow the savior’s energy trail, then flew off. Moondragon abandoned her humanity to become the Dragon of the Moon to aid Quasar. Quasar and the Dragon of the Moon went to the planet Morag IV, where they were ambushed by the Super-Adaptoid. Quasar and the Dragon of the Moon were defeated. The two were nursed back to health by a native named Dejann. Quasar and the Dragon of the Moon found the Super-Adaptoid attempting to assimilate the savior, who was in a cocoon. An army of Phalanx arrived on Morag IV to take out the natives. Quasar and the Dragon of the Moo turned their attention away from the Super-Adaptoid to save the natives. In the fight, Quasar used up all the energy in the Quantum Bands, leaving them powerless. Quasar led the fight with just her natural inborn powers. Quasar fought the Super-Adaptoid and drained some quantum energy from the Super-Adaptoid, then used logic in a final Quantum Band duel. In the aftermath, the previous Quasar, Wendell Vaughn, arrived to banish Annihilus from the Quantum Bands. The source of the voice was revealed, and the savior emerged.

            Richard Rider/Nova was the last surviving member of the Nova Corps and had the Worldmind downloaded in his head, containing all the data of the Xandarian culture. Nova had been flying from planet to planet, answering distress calls. Nova stopped the Planetfall weapon from causing mass destruction on Turakis and took out leftovers from the Annihilation Wave on Halexa. Nova responded to a distress call from the Research Habitat Sorona Dae, but the call was on autorepeat and all life in the habitat had long since expired. Nova traveled through a stargate and arrived on Earth’s moon. Nova decided to visit his home planet while he was in the vicinity. Nova went to his parents’ house. While partaking in a dinner with them, the conversation between Nova and his father got heated over the New Warriors and the Superhuman Registration Act. Suddenly, S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Tony Stark/Iron Man and a group of agents arrived at Nova’s parents’ house, following the energy trail Nova left entering Earth’s atmosphere and mistakenly perceiving him as a threat. An angered Nova left with Stark aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. While Stark did not know about the Annihilation War, Nova was aware of the superhuman Civil War that had just concluded. Stark asked Nova to register. Nova said he needed twenty-four hours to think it over. Nova spoke to Vance Astrovik/Justice, a registered superhero and former fellow New Warrior. Justice tried to convince Nova to stay and become part of the Initiative. While sleeping, Worldmind took control of Nova’s motor functions and frightened Nova’s father. Nova was attacked by the supervillain Diamondhead. Nova defeated the villain and found himself wanted by Norman Osborn’s Thunderbolts for unregistered vigilantism. Nova fought the Thunderbolts until Iron Man arrived to intervene and end the fight. After returning home, Nova was confronted by Robbie Baldwin/Penance, a member of the Thunderbolts and another former New Warrior. Their conversation convinced Nova that he no longer wanted to be on the planet Earth if the Superhuman Registration Act was part of the status quo and returned to space. Nova received a mass amount of distress calls from Hala. While attempting to reach Hala, Nova was attacked by a swarm of Kree Sentries sent by the Phalanx. Nova defeated the Sentries. The Phalanx had converted Gamora, Nova’s former lover, into a Phalanx Select. The Phalanx wished to either kill or Select Nova and chose Gamora to do the job. Nova flew through an energy barrier surrounding the Kree System and was badly burned. He crashed on the Kree outworld Drez-Lar. Kree Stellar Captain Ko-Rel had been leading a group of Kree survivors on Drez-Lar since the start of the Annihilation War. The Kree detected Nova’s crash landing and went to investigate. As Ko-Rel approached Nova’s burnt body, the Nova Force and Worldmind entered into Ko-Rel. Gamora and a group of Phalanx soldiers teleported down to Drez-Lar and attacked Ko-Rel’s people. Ko-Rel was tasked by Worldmind with protecting Nova Prime’s body while it healed, leading her away from her people while Gamora and her soldiers took out the Kree. Gamora found Nova’s body and Selected him into the Phalanx. Nova’s conversion also meant that Worldmind would become part of the Phalanx. Before it could be converted, Worldmind told Ko-Rel to take out both Nova Prime and Worldmind to prevent Worldmind from becoming an instrument of the Phalanx. Selects Nova and Gamora went to the Kree planetoid Nil-Rast to find Drax the Destroyer and Select him into the Phalanx as well. Ko-Rel came after Nova and tried to end him, but was unsuccessful, and Gamora took out Ko-Rel. Before she expired, Ko-Rel tried to reach Nova’s humanity. The man inside Nova then battled the Phalanx Selection in order to regain control of Nova’s body. Gamora and the now Selected Drax followed Nova as he made his escape, on the mission to end his life since he would not be converted.

            Okay, that wraps up our summary, let’s move on to my personal segments of this review. As I usually do, I’ll start off by sharing my own personal opinions of the book. First off, let’s talk about the stories. I found these stories to be enjoyable. I loved how this laid the groundwork for the modern Guardians of the Galaxy. “The Phalanx Covenant” from the 1990s is an old favorite storyline of mine, so I do enjoy the Phalanx as adversaries, and I felt like the writers in this book wrote them on the same level as back in the ’90s, and took it so many steps further, turning them from a mutant threat to a cosmic-level threat. I loved the Star-Lord storyline, in particular. The team was great and I enjoyed their adventure together, and the Guardians of the Galaxy feel of the story was excellent. I also enjoyed seeing the Earth-based segment in the Nova storyline, it was nice to see some Terran action mixed in with all the cosmic goings-on. The Quasar storyline was also entertaining, the relationship between Quasar and Moondragon was beautiful, especially Moondragon giving up her humanity for the person she loved. I enjoyed reading this prologue, and I hope the next volume comes out sooner rather than later as I would love to see where the Conquest goes from here. As far as the art goes, I liked most of it except for the work of Timothy Green II in Annihilation: Conquest – Starlord. Otherwise, I thought the art was fantastic. Next up, we’re going to discuss the title. “Conquest Prologue” really wasn’t the most inspired title the editors could have given it, but it does fit the content of the book, so I honestly can’t complain too much about it. As for the cover, it shows Quasar standing with her Quantum Sword stabbed in a Phalanx sentry in the foreground, with the faces of Ronan, Star-Lord, Nova, Warlock, Moondragon and Super-Skrull in the background, with some ships flying around in a few spots. I felt like this was the perfect cover for this book as it features all the main characters from the book on it. Overall, I thought this book was pretty well done, with the exception of the artwork of Green II.

            Next up on our list of topics to discuss, we’re going to touch on accessibility. Now, I know I’ve gone over this over seven dozen times already, and I know that there are those of you who have been with me before and know what I’m about to explain, so if you do, please be patient with me while I explain to the newbs what I mean when I used the word “accessibility” when applied to this graphic novel. So, I’m posing the question of, is this book accessible? What I mean by that is, can a person who knows absolutely nothing about Marvel Comics somehow come in possession of this book, read it, and understand it as written, based solely on what is contained within the pages of this book alone with no outside context? While this book is marketed as Vol. 3, this series of Modern Era Epic Collections follows separate events, and this volume features the start of a new event after the one contained in Vols. 1 and 2, so I honestly don’t feel that you need to have read the first two volumes prior to this one. Plus, this book contains Annihilation Saga which recaps the entire first Annihilation event, so it’s already in this book anyway. While the Nova storyline does touch on Civil War and The Initiative, I don’t feel like knowing about them is essential to following this book. I think that the characters are established in the here-and-now well enough that knowing their backgrounds is not essential to understanding the characters. I feel like if you’re looking to get into reading Marvel Comics and don’t know where to start, this wouldn’t be my first pick for you, but it would not be a bad pick at all.

            Next up, we’re going to discuss my numeric score. My scoring system is extremely simple. I score on a scale of whole numbers ranging from one through ten. One is the lowest score I can give, and if I do give a book that score, you’d be better off lining a birdcage with its pages rather than reading them. If, however, I score a book at a ten, that means this book is perfection and is something that if you are my friend and you read comic books, I will not leave you alone until you read it and have a five hour discussion with me about it. So, when I score a graphic novel, what I’m looking at is how much I liked the story and the art and if I feel the title and cover are appropriate for the content inside the book. So, taking this book and laying it all out on the table, the score we’re looking at is… an eight! I thought this book was well done and I really enjoyed reading it, and I mostly enjoyed the art, and I thought the title and cover were adequate to represent the content of this collection.

            Moving on, the next segment is my recommendation segment. In this segment, I answer two questions, independent of each other. The first question is, do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to you, my reader? The second question, regardless of if I would personally recommend the book, whom do I think would be the perfect audience for this book, aside from fans of Marvel Comics, the characters, and the creative team? To answer the first question, if you’re reading this review and are deciding if you want to read this book based solely on what you’ve spent the past few minutes reading on my blog, I would tell you go to your favorite online retailer, bookstore, comic shop, library, or person in your life who obsessively collects Marvel Comics and try to find this book there as soon as you can, as I found this to be an enjoyable read and I highly recommend it. To answer the second question, the best audience for this book are fans of space stories and aliens, and I would also suggest that this book would appeal to the LGBTQ+ community based on Quasar and Moondragon.

            Well, I’d say we’re just about ready to wrap things up. There are a few last-minute things I would like to say first. Starting with, I’ve been doing this blog for almost six years now, and I’ve done over 190 posts, so keep checking out timcubbin.blogspot.com for more content. I’ve done over seven dozen reviews of Epic Collections just like this one, including “Annihilation: Annihilation Day” and “Annihilation: Desperate Measures” which you should check out after reading this post if you have some free time to spare. I’ve also written reviews of prose novels, manga, and comic book events, as well as short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials, so there is a huge variety of content on this blog if you’re into other kinds of written media. I collect every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after they are released and put reviews of them up as soon as I can after reading them, so you can imagine I post quite often. Those reviews are my main focus of content on this blog. My next review is going to be “New X-Men: Planet X” so keep an eye out for that, that review will be up within the next two months after this post, but it’s likely going to be a lot sooner than that. Keep checking back regularly for more content, I’m going to keep doing this blog for as long as I can, so you can expect that that is going to be for a good long while. So, I say to you all until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"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!

"Guardians of the Galaxy: Rocket Raccoon and Groot - Steal the Galaxy!" by Dan Abnett

 

            This blog post is a review of the prose novel “Guardians of the Galaxy: Rocket Raccoon & Groot - Steal the Galaxy!” by Dan Abnett.

            Now, if you don’t know anything about the Guardians of the Galaxy, I’ll explain now and later in my rating. The Guardians of the Galaxy are a team of space outlaws that banded together to, well, for lack of better phrasing, guard the galaxy from alien threats throughout the universe. Well, in this novel, they WERE the Guardians of the Galaxy. They have disbanded. However, this book did feature three Guardians.

            First off, Rocket Raccoon looks like a raccoon, but will not ADMIT to being a raccoon. He’s actually the result of experimentation. He is able to talk. He likes to carry guns bigger than he is. He also has disconcertingly humanlike hands (which popped up many times in the narrative, so that’s why I mention this little fact).

            Groot is a flora colossi, essentially a walking tree, who can only say the words “I am Groot,” but his inflections are how people can understand what he means.

            Gamora is known as the “deadliest woman in the universe.” She is of a very rare alien species. She likes to carry swords. She is also a mercenary in her free time, which also applies to Rocket and Groot, which I did not mention before but really should have. Her current client is Annhilus, the ruler of the Negative Zone (yes, that’s a thing).

            Now, let’s talk about the main narrator, Rigellian Recorder 127. He is, essentially a robot. He is being pursued by several alien groups, including the Kree, Xandarian Nova Corp, the Badoon, the Shi’ar, the Universal Church of Truth, the Galadorian Space Knight Roamer, and Timely, Inc. Rocket and Groot meet Recorder 127 in a bar, and after an intense fight, befriend Recorder 127 and start a space adventure as all try to capture Recorder 127. Timely, Inc. is trying to obtain Recorder 127 for the mysterious Project 616.

            That’s about all I can say without spoiling too much more of the story.

            Now, for the reason you’re reading up to this point: my rating. Now, I’m the kind of guy who will not describe a book as being “good” or “bad” in general. I offer MY OPINION of the story, and will say how I PERSONALLY FEEL about it. After all, I might like the book and you don’t, or I don’t like the book and you do, so I can’t generalize this book with a “good” or “bad” claim. I am entitled to MY opinion, you are entitled to YOUR opinion, so if you decide to read the book, me saying it was “good” or “bad” doesn’t match up. Instead, I will use words like “I feel” or “I thought,” so we can each have our own opinions.

            Alright, for those of you who have never read one of my reviews before, I rate the book based on three things: my aforementioned opinion, the accessibility to casual readers, and a numeric score.

            So first, my opinion. I enjoyed this novel thoroughly. Recorder 127’s adventure with Rocket and Groot kept me going, and I found very few moments that seemed dragged on or forced. BUT! Yes, there is a but. The chapters were sometimes a little too short, and the ends occasionally seemed like the narration should not have been interrupted. The divided narratives did actually endear this book to me, especially Recorder 127’s first person, present tense narrative, especially his constantly breaking the fourth wall (talking directly to the reader). His phrasing such as “gentle reader” and pop culture references gave me a connection to Recorder 127, despite him being a fictitious character, as if he were having a direct conversation with me, almost even like making us friends. Galadorian Space Knight Roamer’s appearances had a tongue-in-cheek joke of being placed into the most crucial moments of the narrative by a special device always entertained me. The pursuits of the factions kept me reading, wondering constantly “how are Rocket, Groot and Recorder 127 going to get away from this?” But the mystery of Project 616 was a little too obvious to me relatively early into the narrative. The subterfuge did actually surprise me at points, though, so there were unexpected twists and turns in the narrative. But Timely, Inc. did have a few too many alien races that did occasionally become difficult for me to remember who exactly was what species, and the descriptions of the species’ appearances did not suffice, so I sometimes didn’t know what the characters were supposed to look like (and I had not even HEARD of some of the races, which made it even harder.

            Okay, now I’ll move on to accessibility. To those who are first-timers, accessibility is a description of the level of knowledge I felt was desired to optimally understand the book. In my opinion, it would be easy to pick up and understand the story. Rocket, Groot, Gamora and Recorder 127 were introduced with enough of a character description that casual fans, or those who know nothing about the Guardians, could understand their purposes in the story, especially since Recorder 127 was a character created for the novel with no point of ever being portrayed in any history. However, a heavy fan like me not knowing all the alien races may bode ill for a casual or non-fan. If you are familiar with the characters of Rocket, Groot and Gamora from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that would help enhance your ease into the narrative.

            Now, all said and done, my numeric score of the novel. I rate on a scale of one through ten, one being so awful I feel like why did I read this trash? Ten being this was so awesome I’ll read it again some time when I have nothing else to read! In spite of all I’ve said negatively, I rate it with an eight. I’ve established my point earlier, so I honestly don’t think I have to say anything more on that, but if you like the Guardians and if you are one of the three people on the planet who read prose novels for fun, I think you should give this book a try. I’m a die-hard fan, by the way, so that really means something as prior readers of this blog will know I am difficult to please. And I also reviewed another Guardians of the Galaxy prose novel prior to this (“Guardians of the Galaxy: Collect Them All” by Corinne Duyvis”) and really came down hard on it (check it out if you have time and if you feel like it), so the comparison is a sharp contrast.

            I think I’ve kept your eyes busy long enough, so I will now log off with my usual quote: Tim Cubbin… out!

"Guardians of the Galaxy: Collect Them All" by Corinne Duyvis

 

            The following is a review of the prose novel “Guardians of the Galaxy: Collect Them All” by Corinne Duyvis.

            If you know nothing about the Guardians of the Galaxy, I’ll explain them briefly of you’ll have no idea what I’m talking about (and I don’t want to chase you out of this post), but then again, even then you still might not know what I’m talking about, but whatever.

            Peter Quill, son of an earth woman and an alien emperor.

            Drax, the Destroyer.

            Gamora, the Deadliest woman in the galaxy, last surviving Zen-Whoberian.

            Groot, a Flora-Colossus, a walking, talking tree.

            Rocket the Raccoon, a talking raccoon (obviously).

            The titular point of this novel was about Groot. Groot is a living tree (all he can say is “I” “am” “Groot” exclusively in that order [yes, I took that from the movie, for those keeping score]), who is only supposed to exist one at a time. His essence is one. He is able to survive being destroyed, but if one piece of him is planted, he will regrow from that piece, but this only works on one piece, there can only be one Groot.

            At least that’s how it’s supposed to be. The Guardians encounter Tanaleer Tivan, known throughout the galaxy as the Collector (because yeah, he collects rare things) and find something rather unusual: he has been in possession of another Flora-Colossus who can only say “I” “am” “Groot,” exclusively in that order. The Guardians find out Groot has been regrown by Tivan and there are now Grootlings. The Grootlings are being sold out as a commodity. The seller is a mysterious woman named Kiya, a DiMavi, who was an assistant of Tivan.

            Except for two things. Kiya is not a DiMavi, but actually a Zen-Whoberian, and she had not been Tivan’s assistant, but his prisoner. Gamora is not the last of her species after all. She had escaped from Tivan with the Grootling and replicated him. On a side note, Tivan was also in possession of raccoons and was basically making a bootleg team of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

            The Guardians come into contact with Kiya and take her in to protect her from Tivan as she is the only one who understands the Grootlings. As it turns out, each Grootling is making the main Groot weaker and weaker and is killing him the longer they are cloned and go on to exist. So now the Guardians are trying to collect all the Grootlings to save their Groot’s life.

            The Guardians also learn that a celebration of peace between the DiMavi and Kree is meant to be disrupted by a poisonous Grootling and ruin this peace, and rush to DiMave to prevent this terrorist attack.

            Now for my review. For those who have never read one of my reviews before, I do several things; One: how I feel about the novel; Two: the accessibility of the novel to people with little to no experience of the characters or history of the characters; and three, my numerical rating on a scale of one to ten (one being so awful I regret reading this, ten being this book was so awesome I want to read this again at least one more time).

            This novel had three primary, interwoven storylines. In a prose novel, I really look for one or two primary focal points. In a graphic novel, several storylines are fairly acceptable as long as they don’t forget each other. The Kiya storyline was my favorite, I was so interested in the character. Duyvis thoroughly developed and expanded her story, her history as a prisoner of Tivan, who had been experimented on, how she bonded with the Guardians and particularly Gamora, being of the same species, and I was extremely satisfied with the payoff of her character at the end. However, the story of the Grootlings really wasn’t all that pleasing to me (despite being the titular story). When it comes down to it, the Guardians should have had a lot harder time finding the Grootlings. I mean, come on, how could they know how many there were and be able to track them down? I mean, Kiya knew her buyers, but how did she know they didn’t change hands, such as being a gift to a child (which actually did happen over the course of the novel, so why am I asking)? It just seemed too easy to me. And the terrorist attack didn’t really seem to be as necessary as it was portrayed. It just kind of distracted me. If it had been played down and not been a major focus, I might have enjoyed the story better. And on top of it all, half of all the dialogue was practically “I am Groot.” It was just said over and over again and got to be extremely annoying.

            Now to the accessibility. I do not think it was an accessible book to people who know nothing about the Guardians of the Galaxy, so if you read this review out of obligation to me and that’s your only reason for reading this, I highly do not recommend it. In fact, if your knowledge of the Guardians is just the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s not all accessible to you, either. Most of these alien races were not represented in the films, and the character history is vastly contrary to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This is not an extension, it is a whole different Universe. To digest this novel to its fullest, I feel some background knowledge of the “Guardians        of the Galaxy” comic books is preferable. I’m not saying you need to read twenty years’ worth of comics, but maybe a couple of graphic novels under your belt would help. But again, my word is “preferable.”

            Okay, now, finally, my score. After all these words, I don’t think I totally have to explain my score because I’ve been writing this review for twenty-three minutes now, so I’ll just rate it and be done with it. I rate this with a four. Do I regret reading this? No. Would I read this book again? Probably not. But hey, that’s just me. If you’re a heavy “Guardians of the Galaxy” fan, read this book. You might have a different opinion than me. Now, let’s clear this up; I didn’t hate or dislike this book. I did like and enjoy it, but still I give it a four. Another thing I did not mention until now was that this book was an easy read. Perhaps a little too easy. The chapters were extremely short, which some people like, and I personally liked that myself. It wasn’t a heavy book. Some books have fifty page chapters, which can be very daunting. The chapter lengths being short were extremely digestible and I wasn’t afraid to really get into this book.

            So all has been said and done, I think that’s all I have to say for now, except for: Tim Cubbin… out!