Tony Stark decided to take some time off of saving Earth and clear his head. With booze no longer on his list of distractions, he decided that the best way to clear his mind of Earth’s problems would be to take to the stars and get some new outlooks on life.

While this is clearly just an easy way to introduce him into the fold of being part of the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, that doesn’t mean Tony isn’t going to have some interesting adventures along the way. Right off the bat he seems to have gotten himself arrested. The crime? Deicide. Tony Stark is being held responsible for killing an entire species. How did he pull that one off you may ask? Well they worshiped the Phoenix and in a way he was partially responsible for it’s destruction.

He ended up meeting a robot while in prison who told him a way he may get out of his crimes. There is an ancient right to combat to prove his innocence he can claim and he successfully was doing so. That is until the final gladiator they threw at him ended up being one of my personal favorite characters, Death’s Head.

While the promise of anything with Death’s Head is fantastic this really felt rushed. Although it was the stand out on the cover, most of the battle happened quickly and we instead focused on the robot mentioned above freeing Tony’s armor to help him as well as stealing some kind of a device. The armor gets him out of the way right as Death’s Head was about to win and the contest Tony has been winning is considered forfeit with the death sentence still being valid. While it was over quick and he isn’t shown that much the scenes with Death’s Head are some of the best. It probably is partially due to this issue suffers from the same problems as the last – anything organic looks strange. When technology is being shown it looks amazing (even Tony’s bug looking space armor that I hate.)

Apparently the device kept this species out of sync from reality in a way that let them draw their energy in a way that would go undetected by who they were stealing it from. Anyone who knows The Celestials should know that crossing them in that way only leads to death. While Tony is off getting some weapon upgrades from his floating armory in space he returns just in time to see the entire species has been wiped out.

He doesn’t blame the Celestials for this. He instead blames the robot who helped him escape who has warned him from returning to the planet too soon and took responsibility for what happened. The robot claims he needs the decide so that he can stop an even greater monstrosity from happening then what he caused.

The conclusion to ‘The Godkiller’ arc ends with Tony vowing to stop the robot from killing more. It looks like that story line is going to be coming up next before Tony gets mixed up with the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and while anything with The Celestials can prove interesting, I feel it’s an almost unnecessary side plot.

Sadly we also have no idea how Death’s Head got away or when he’ll pop up again. He’s been making a lot of appearances lately and it’s a trend I fully support so I’m wondering if they are ramping up his return or just felt like using him since he was easy to fit into a few story lines. With not enjoying the art and my biggest concern about the issue not being for the main character or where it’s going but from a side character that was almost thrown in as an afterthought? This one’s not ranking too well.

Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Greg Land