It’s been a month since we last checked in with the ‘Guardins of the Galaxy‘ and we’re starting in right where we left off – dealing more with the events of ‘Age of Ultron‘. It’s the Guardians vs Angela, who’s hellbent on attacking anyone in her way.
Honestly, after a month without an issue it was a little strange jumping into a cosmic based one that is still taking place before the events of ‘Infinity’ #1. We see Thanos showing up before he sets his sights on Earth as well as Iron Man still hanging out in outer space (which will hopefully lead us to an image that still hasn’t been explained where he sees what looks to be the corpse of a cosmic entity while hanging out with The Watcher).
While The Watcher is in this issue, there’s no other cosmic entities hanging out – just a lot of back and forth between Star-Lord and Thanos as well as the Guardians and Angela. Visually, I’d like Sara Pichelli to be thrown at every future cosmic issue Marvel does… ever. The only downsides were how I felt Thanos was taken care of, though he was covered by Olivier Coipel so you can’t fault her on that one.
If you are more into visuals, this is the absolute top reason to buy this book. The fight scenes are pretty top notch, Iron Man’s comments and those making fun of him fit in perfectly. However, if you are looking for the meat of the story on what happened between Star-Lord and Thanos, why Iron Man keeps saying he recognizes Angela, where we’re going from here, why Angela is here, what she wants? I hate to say it but you can skip this one. Honestly at this point, the issue feels like it was a reason to toss out the scantily clad Angela in fighting poses with no other real motivation. The fighting and artwork were great but aside from The Watcher shouting to the heavens that ‘Angela is here’ and ‘he can’t interfere’ and ‘the end is coming’ because of it, we don’t really find out anything of use.
So typical useless Watcher usage to try to raise the stakes on a plot that’s going nowhere at the moment. I’m sure the next issue will actually have a full on plot since this was the opposite. However, ‘Infinity’ is going to be half over by the time the next issue comes out and with this series taking place before it? I’m at a loss on how I’m going to keep my interest up.
I really hope the next issue picks up a forward momentum again as it’s hard to keep Angela’s introduction to the Marvel Universe seem like a big deal when so many crossover big deals are also going on at the same time. At the very least I hope it starts to catch up to the “Infinity’ timeline if they plan on using her in any sort of major way (which would make sense to do.) I’ve been loving Bendis’ run on the X-titles (and the ‘Battle of the Atom‘) event though this issue shows off one of his weak points. An all out action fest with no plot just doesn’t work on a series that’s behind everyone else’s timeline.
‘GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY’ #6
Writers: Brian Michael Bendis, Neil Gaiman
Artist: Sara Pichelli
