In the first issue of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ we had a few teasers on where the series might be heading. It was a very vague setup that was in the work by Star-Lord’s father followed by easing Iron Man into the mix and finally giving us a pretty epic space battle. With Iron Man out of commission, the Guardians of the Galaxy get to Earth right as they find that London is about to be eradicated right off the face of the planet by the Badoon.
This issue is going to be attacking you on two fronts. On the one hand we are going to see Star-Lord’s father holding an intergalactic council with Freya, the Brood Queen, Annihilus, Gladiator and the Supreme Intelligence about what to do with Earth. On the other we have Star-Lord’s team squaring up against a Badoon invasion fleet. There is clearly no mistaking the two for one another either as the entire art style changes as they shift between the two settings.
On the galactic gathering of rulers portion, the entire meeting is quickly shown to just be a ploy. While they are talking about what to do about Earth it’s clear that Freya was only invited so that she could say that any attack upon Earth she would consider an attack on all of her realms and respond appropriately. With that in mind it is declared that Earth is now considered off limits to all species. We all know what happens when you tell people they can’t do something – they are absolutely going to do it and that leads us to the Badoon attack now in progress.
Rocket Raccoon (whose clearly the writer’s favorite for this issue) jump starts Iron Man’s armor so he can join the fray and Star-Lord tries to assess the situation. With their inability to use any communications channels they realize they can’t contact The Avengers or the outside world. A quick quip about there being no useful super heroes in London (*cough* Captain Britain *cough*) and they decide they are going to have to take each ship one at a time. The only person not able to help is Groot who is currently just a twig (a twig they keep flashing too every other page so I’m sure he’s going to regrow and be useful in a big way next issue.)
Each of the Guardian’s as well as Iron Man are all able to pretty much slam through the Badoon ships with little or no trouble. The only one who had a lot of issues was Drax the Destroyer who seems to not be up to his usual able to take on anything up to Thanos power leveled self. Yes Drax the Destroyer who has gone toe to toe with the mad titan on occasion is almost being put down by a few Badoon. While they don’t go into why one of the most powerful Guardians can’t seem to be able to do much they do end the issue at an interesting point.
With the Earth being off limits to the cosmos it looks as if Star-Lord’s Guardians of the Galaxy are all under arrest. (No mention on the Badoon from these intergalactic police who are arresting them.) I’m curious how Groot who was out of commission during this factors in and how Iron Man (who isn’t technically a Guardian and lives on Earth) factors in. I suppose we’ll start seeing more of the plan play out next issue.
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Steve McNiven
