Preview: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #20

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #20

(W) Brian Michael Bendis (A/CA) Ed McGuinness

• The FINAL CHAPTER of what really happened in the Cancerverse!

• Remember when Star-Lord and Nova were going to sacrifice their lives to take out Thanos?

• And remember how Drax was supposed to have died?

• Well, Nova seems to be the only one missing now. Time to get some answers here!

Rated T

Item Code: AUG140818In Shops: 10/29/2014SRP: $3.99

Why don't they just kill Richards, he's going to come back.

I just can't help but feel like this whole arc has been a major let down.

Original Sin is STILL going on?!

And there it is! Bendis completely ruining a well established character and Abnett's legacy. Sigh*

HOLY CRAP IS THIS STILL NOT OVER?! WHY ARE YOU RUINING RICHARD BENDIS :(

Silver Surfer summed up my reaction to the everything Bendis did to the legacy of DnA.

I agree 100% with this. Rich is one of my all time favorite Marvel characters; Marvel seems to be dumping on most of my favorite characters lately.

This is my reaction to this whole thing:

Well it was an emotional moment, but NOT the way I expected it to go down. Way to "easy" of a death. Maybe that was Bendis' plan all along: Give them a death no one will expect.

Still don't like it, though...

OMG Original Sin tie in ??? WOW it is already few months now since Original Sin is over. Somebody at Marvel Editorial need to give some talk to Bendis regarding how late he is

60% of this team have their own ongoings because Marvel knows Bendis is doing terribly on this book. He missed the 100th issue celebration because he was retreading the Trial of Jean Grey story, and now he's just now wrapping up an arc that ties-in to an event that ended months ago.

He is not the right writer for this book. I love Bendis, but this book is BAD. Can we just get him off it, please?

Venom's been on the GotG for...what...5 months now? At least that, and Bendis has done exactly zero with him. Not to mention his overall Guardians run has been lackluster at best.

Time to give someone else this book in my opinion.

@runawayavenger: I'm aware. And it's the fact that this whole Original Sin tie in has been bad and unnecessary is my problem with it. Rich has just been handled poorly, but then again the whole GotG have been mishandled when compared how they were originally written.

*sigh*

So much fail in so few pages... I want to like this comic I really do but B.M.B is making it harder and harder with each issue.

I can forgive the "amnesiac Gamora" and artistic licence with the cancerverse but Richard Rider has a wife and TWO kids adventuring in their own comic to best of my knowledge.

And in that comic (old) Nova is alive if not exactly fine. Damn it Bendis! Would it kill you to read the damn character synopsis of the dudes your about to write about? By this rate there's going to be some real issues (and not just these few issues worth)with continuity ahead between guardians and the rest of 616.

....Richy we've been through a lot. You were always my favorite character and still are. I hope you make it out, but if you don't, may you last act be one that will only add to your legacy of being the best Nova that ever lived.

I know it's about a fictional character, but there's something I find kind of touching about that comment.

(And now I feel bad that I've barely read anything with Rich)

Thanks. I had just graduated from high school when a friend of mind and showed me the issue of Nova. And funny that it is, Nova is the reason I'm here on CV. I wanted to learn more about the character's past and I looked through this site's wiki to learn more (hadn't joined the site, but just kept visiting for more info).

I know he's fictional but I'm always had a strong connection to the character. He reminds me a lot of Spider-Man, given that the creators based him on characteristics of Peter. But unlike Spider-Man, when Rich becomes Nova Prime, he becomes everything Spider-Man wishes he could be. A well respected hero among the cosmos. A hero who always comes through his responsibilities, heck he was the last of the corps and had to protect the entire universe by himself. But at the end of the day, after all the battles, after all the wars, after gaining so much power, Rich was always the same kid from Rhode Island and never lost what made him be picked to become Nova.

If you really want to read up on Richy, you don't need much. You can start with Nova: Annihilation (this is where things start getting big for Nova as he becomes Nova Prime). You can then read Annihilation( which in my opinion is way better than Civil War and I'm going to be making a thread about this soon). And then finally you're read to jump into Nova's ongoing Nova Vol 4. So many great stories and great development of the character.

@humanrocket: I actually have a birthday coming up soon, and I keep telling my mom that the Annihilation omnibus is what I'd want most.

And I'll definitely be reading your thread about it.

@humanrocket: I've read the entire Marvel cosmic from 2004 to 2011 following this reading order (inc. Thanos #1-12 and a few other stories to fill in the gaps between the events):

I only finished reading it last week.

Richie is now def. up there on my list of favorite characters. I decided to read the current GotG story arc to find out how Bendis handles his death, hoping that it'd be revealed the he's still alive, but I am really disappointed with how Bendis has been handling it so far. After reading the first issue, I expected that his death will be resemble the Human Torch's "death", which was a good way to go in my opinion:

Rich dying because of blood loss due to a lucky swing by Cap (and it seems like that's the reason he's going to die) is really stupid, this stupid:

I would have preferred Nova's death to be left unexplained rather than turn out to be this idiotic and lame.

Anyyyyyyway, I quoted you because you sound like a Nova expert and I'd like to know what you think about the ongoing Nova series and of Sam Alexander. Is it worth reading? Also, what are some classic Nova stories worth reading?

@dondave: That's another thing that pisses me off, Bendis establishes that you can't actually die in the cancerverse, but makes the heroes too dumb to take advantage of it.

Bendis is great when it comes to writing Spider-Man, when it involves any other character/a group of characters - not so much.

@thetrolldance: Hello and nice to meet another Richard Ryder fan. First off, yah I had high hopes for this arc, but so far it's not what I expected. I still hope that Bendis has something big in stored for the end, but I thought it. I'm starting to think the same, that I would have rather his death have been a mystery, but the Nova fan in me tells me I need closure.

As far was what I think about Sam? Here's a link to a thread I did about the subject...hope you enjoy it Gold Helmets vs Black Helmets

And for classic Nova stories, you should really check out New Warriors Vol 1. Not only do we get to see Richard in his early days as being part of the team, developing his romantic relationship with Nita, but it's also a timeless classic story with one of Marvel's most underrated teams.

@humanrocket: So getting the New Warriors omnibus would be a good place to start?

I read your thread, you convinced me to give Sam a chance. I ordered the first TPB of his series today.

The next part contains spoilers from GoTG 20 which was released today, so read it at your own risk:

Rich's death has been pretty heroic after all, even though ultimately he failed in his attempt to destroy Thanos. I am, however, not quite sure of my opinion regarding his deceleration of love towards Gamora. Sure, the two had a thing going during Annihilation and Conquest, but there was pretty much nothing hinting that he's in love with her after that. He was also in a relationship with Namorita at the time in which those events take place, so I'm a little confused by this. He didn't care about putting the entire universe at risk when he brought Namorita back, but had been in love with Gamora for a while by then? It just doesn't sound right to me.

Also, what's up with Bendis' consistency? In this issue, we see Thanos displaying an impressive feat of strength and durability, being able to withstand blasts from a cosmic cube almost without being phased by it and single-handedly taking on a bunch of Revengers, which are basically emped Avengers that include a version of Captain Marvel that one shot BFR'ed SS, empowered by a cosmic cube, almost without getting any physical damage, yet Thanos' other recent showing are pretty low in comparison to what we've come to expect of the character.

^^Yah that's Bendies for you. I don't know why people are surprised. When word got out in March about him finishing the story on the Cancerverse, I was already sure he would mess it up. I talk about the whole Gamora and Nita thing in my review I did which is here.

http://www.comicvine.com/guardians-of-the-galaxy-20/4000-468908/user-reviews/2200-44556#js-message-13177853