In the last issue of the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ we saw the entire team get picked off one at a time by various enemies that they’ve had over the years. Star-Lord’s father appears to have put this into motion. As he was the one that had his son captured he gives his son the ultimatum of being at his side or spending the rest of his life in prison. Anyone who knows him should already know what choice Peter Quill ended up making. Prison it is, or that is the plan at least.
This issue we see exactly where each of the Guardians have ended up. Gamora is being beaten and questioned by the Badoon. Rocket Raccoon is being dissected live by the Kree with the entire process being overseen by the Supreme Intelligence who has a scientific interest in this rare species. Groot is imprisoned and being attacked by The Brood for no specific reason. Drax has been imprisoned by the Shi’Ar and demands a trial by combat which we don’t see quite yet. And what felt like the longest portion shows Agent Venom who is being hunted by Skrulls that are pretending to be members of The Avengers and Captain Marvel showed up recently but is now nowhere to be seen. Finally Star-Lord is at his father’s mercy.
While there is a lot going on as each member is on their own we see at the same time that not much happens. Those that were captured are each being tormented in their own ways. Some are able to fight back and some are stuck. The only person who wasn’t captured eventually ends up captured and at the very end, one prisoner escapes.
Honestly I feel like we’ve seen all of these characters in similar positions in the past. While it was interesting to show Gamora being stuck where she is from the events in ‘Infinity’ with the Badoon looking for Thanos and Drax calling out The Shi’Ar on the events from the recent ‘Trial of Jean Grey,’ it still felt like an issue that we could have done without.
This is not Bendis’ best work on writing. Thankfully, Bradshaw nails the characters looks and expressions for most of the panels and his fight scenes and work on the the galactic side of Marvel all look pretty spot on here. Visually the book is a treat.
Overall, this isue really kind of felt like it was dragging. I still dig the series but this was not its finest moment by a long shot. Thankfully the art made up for the writing on this one. Bendis has used this before to varying levels of success. Thankfully the setup they put in motion, at least in our escapees story, should push the next issue forward in a positive direction.
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #15
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Nick Bradshaw
