Legendary Star-Lord #9

The Good

The Black Vortex moves forward as both Gamora and Beast, both infected with the power of the Black Vortex, find a new ally. Meanwhile, there's trouble in paradise as Kitty and Peter don't see eye to eye on how this situation is being handled.

This issue is filled with some great moments, and most of them happen within the heat of battle. My personal favorite happens when Gamora is fighting Storm and Thanos shows up. However, smarter than the average bear Beast is there and notifies her that it's simply Jean putting that image in her head. Right afterwards, we get another awesome scene as the battle escalates, which I won't spoil. However, this issue is full of memorable moments, which writer Sam Humphries has crafted incredibly well. While the first two chapters of Black Vortex were cool, this chapter raises the bar with numerous moments that will have fans chatting about around the water cooler.

Warren's redesign the super-awesome. It feels a lot like he's back, in a sense, in his Four Horsemen outfit. So far, out of the three characters that have changed, Warren's Black Vortex redesign is the top of the charts. The one page spread debuting Warren is wonderful looking. Paco Medina really does a great job with Warren's new outfit.

As a whole, the art team of Medina, Juan Vlasco on inks, and David Curiel on colors hits a home run, and other sports-related analogies. The artwork is clear, crisp, and never lets the reader down. Not only is the art consistent, but Medina conveys a lot of emotion within the character's faces and the action scene are pretty entertaining and thrilling.

The issue leaves off at a pretty cool place that will rope readers in for a next issue. Without spoiling anything, I will say that as a whole, this is the best issue that The Black Vortex has to offer yet as a compelling story that features characters that Marvel fans love. The issue has a great pacing to it that builds up to a great cliffhanger.

The Bad

One thing that this book and event are missing is the understanding of why the Black Vortex is a bad thing. The reader has an understanding but it doesn't feel like the characters do aside from the idea of "oh, our friends are different and worshiping this mirror. We have to stop them!"

The Verdict

The newest chapter of Black Vortex is a bit of fun and puts one of the classic X-Men character into a new costume for the event, which is incredibly cool looking. The art and writing are fantastic for the issue, but where this issue of STAR-LORD drops the ball a bit is letting the readers know why these characters find the Black Vortex to be such a threat. Regardless, this is a fun issue and fans of the Kitty and Peter relationship are going to want to read this, as there seem to be some trouble in paradise here.

I think it's fairly obvious why:

Anyone that 'submits' and gets "zapped" by the Vortex takes pretty sinister look and starts behaving dangerously obsessive towards the Vortex and for some reason begin to preach unexceptionably how great it is...

Wouldn't you get at least a little bit suspicious?

Could anyone explain to me why this issue doesn't follow the very last page of GotG #24 ? The last last one where Nova comes in ? Anyway I did love that issue that much in fact I was surprised this got 4 starts while the previous issue got 2. Even though it's an event I like how each issues of event focus on one side of the story. While legendary Star Lord doesn't specifically focus on Kate and Peter.

MAT! This one issue is the definition of things just happening because the story dictates it. I kind of get that they wanted to create an atmosphere of confusion and quick talking between the characters. But it just ends up feeling like a scatter shot bunch of panels just strewn together. And how long are they going to string us along with what the vortex actually does to people and the negative effects of it besides like you stated, becoming incredibly possessive of the Black Vortex as a whole?

Okay so Peter finally wises up and sees the vortex as "evil" and Kitty totally blows up and starts to degrade him in front of everybody saying it's all his fault that they all used the Vortex out of their own free will. She was just a bit out of character and overly harsh towards him is all I'm saying.

@russcovito: I was confused about that too, but if you go back, you'll see that what we see is just the mirrors reflection. (Is that what you're referring to?)

I'm really enjoying this event so far. Its fun, cool, and really well put together. Some of the dialogue did seem to be included just for the sake of having everybody speak, but overall it's a nice read and I'm looking forward to the next issue.

The ending of last chapter was so horribly misleading that i though Marvel had just massively confused the events of last issue.

Venom's new look looks a lot better here.

Yeah it's not bad but just what irks me is the same thing that has plagued Marvel's events for years now... With a little bit more thought and effort they could have been so much more than just Okay or decent.

How can a suped up cosmic Gamora STILL be weaker than regular Gamora?