The Thanos Imperative #1

The Guardians of the Galaxy leverage their most powerful, and most unlikely, ally against the Cancerverse - - Thanos.
 

The Good

I'm a big fan of space opera and it's a treat to see all of Marvel's cosmic heroes drafted into a story like this with a suitably epic scope.  I also always love a good alternate reality story and it was cool to see the ways that Cancerverse dopplegangers play on elements of continuity - - like having the Inhumans rule the Kree or a identity-combined "Adam Magus" lead the Universal Church of Truth (bringing things all the way back to Starlin's classic Warlock run in the 70s.) Though I have issues with the finished production (more on that later), I have to say that Sepulveda is out of this world (pardon the pun.)  He has equal mastery of the traditionally superheroic and intergalactic fantasy, and his linework makes even the craziest characters like Drax and Cosmo look cool.

The Bad

Maybe it's kind of pointless to comment about this in a comic with characters like Rocket Raccoon and Cosmo the Psychic Soviet Dog, but the Cancerverse is an unavoidably-silly name. Considering that Mar-Vell's more famous for dying of cancer than anything and his doppleganger's leading the Cancerverse's hordes, I have to question if they're trying to draw connections and, if that's the case, I'm not sure what it means. I'm also a little disappointed that Abnett and Lanning chose to have yet another evil version of the Avengers when it'd be more interesting, and more appropriate to this title, to have evil versions of the Guardians of the Galaxy. And, once again, I'm frustrated by the lack of inking in this book. Supulveda's work is excellent and his pencils in the back are very tight, but without inks, the art all-too-frequently looks muddy and unfinished.

The Verdict - 3.5/5

As a long time fan of Marvel's cosmic heroes, and Thanos specifically, I get special satisfaction seeing all these character get their due in such an epic fashion. However, seeing as this story already has so many characters already, it'd preferred it focus had been kept on the cosmic characters and not been muddied by the (poorly named) Cancerverse's Revengers. And I really wish this was inked!