He is Groot!
I have enjoyed this series, but this book basically is your stand action blockbuster book , with a bit of mystery chucked in. It's not that clever and it doesn't try anything new or revolutionary, yet it is a lot of fun to read every month and I think the series is building towards something big, that will come out at some point.
Plot
The Guardians are being brought to a prison planet by the Spartax and Iron Man sends a message to the Avengers. The Guardians ship is being stripped of all of its weapons and Groot begins to re-grow in the ship.
Review
This was a good issue of a great series it wasn't as good as the .1 issue which is still the best of the series because of how much emotion that issue had, but this first story arc has just been about action and having some truly badass moments from all of the characters, but I think after this the book will move onto more character focused work (it will with Gaiman coming on) after this sort of action introduction first arc. I think Bendis is doing well with Marvel Now! (not counting Age of Ultron) as All new X-men while not great at the minute has been a great read from the start and hasn't been awful or bad at any points just inconsistent at points.
The Good
- The covers simple and effective, but it would have been better for the last one, and I think Groot would have been a better fit for this cover considering his considerable role in this issue.
- J-son the king of Spartax continues to play an interesting role in this issue and while I think he's not the most interesting of characters in this issue the fact that he may have a deeper game to this makes it all the more interesting. What I mean is he locks or wants to lock up his own son just because it shows his power either he's a bad father or he's under a threat of sorts. It just seems extreme for this situation and what Star Lord puts forward at the end makes it even more intriguing. While I say this isn't that clever a book this is the only part that adds mystery or intrigue to this story, and I think it'll be a important part of this series going forward.
- Minor spoilers A minor point to this issue is that Tony calls the Avengers in this prison ship, as to whether this call will be answered I do not know, but it's a interesting part of the issue and I liked it.
- Groot though steals the spotlight in this issue. Last issue it was Rocket Racoon and the .1 and 1 it was Star-Lord and now it is the space plant. Groot is a character that can only be properly emotionally shown by the artist because all he can say is "I am Groot" and McNiven shows that incredibly well in this issue, plus Bendis has one of the most awesome moments in a comic I've read all month. It's the way it links to the last scene then has this incredible splash page, which makes Groot the stand out character of this issue.
- The fight scene in this issue was explosive if a little short (more on that in a minute) but what happened was awesome and I liked seeing all of these interesting characters go and fight the Spartax. I especially liked seeing Tony out of the suit and enjoying shooting people for once.
- The ending of the issue wasn't a sort of action cliffhanger it was a standup from Star lord to his father and the perfect way to finish off this story arc as it has been a theme of the story arc which made the wrap up to it all the more important.
- I don't generally talk about dialogue in reviews, but it really stood out in this issue as the interaction between characters was great and I liked how Rocket Racoon made fun of some of the plot holes.
- The art was once again brilliant in this issue and while the art duties were split between Pichelli and McNiven I preferred McNiven because he got to do more in this issue and he got to draw the awesome Groot splash page and his style is a little more detailed which I always like. First off though lets start with Pichelli who handles the J-Son scenes of this issue and she did a great job of portraying his emotions and you could tell in some panels that he might have some other motive for what he is doing. McNiven did some very realistic looking artwork in this issue, portraying emotion, action and body language very well in this issue. As I said Groot looked great and so did Rocket Racoon and Gamora looked awesome in it as well being angry and flirting with Star Lord in this issue and it looked really good.
The Bad
- Can we please have more Drax? Please Bendis? Bendis did a good job with Drax in his infinite comic, but in this issue he says one line! literally! I hope he gets more screen time in future issues as I feel he's severely underused in this series.
- The fight could have been longer in fact this arc maybe could have benefited from an extra issue as it sort of closed off a bit to quickly in this issue, and the J-Son bits maybe could have been shortened so the fight was longer.
- While Blam! murdered you isn't used as much it's still used and it's a bit repetitive in this series now and while Rocket Racoons last catchphrase is different I think he should stop using catchphrases like those now.
The Verdict
This was a good issue in the series and the ending felt like a perfect wrap up to the arc, and it was pretty awesome as well. Groot stole the show in this issue and this series has earned it's place as the new Guardians of the Galaxy series for me, while not that clever or creative as previous series, it's still a fun ride of a series and I'm interested in what comes next.
