In the last issue of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ we see our Star-Lord make his big break and things seemed to be on an upswing! This issue puts him back in the red as, while he escaped from prison, he’s still stuck on his father’s planet and needs to get his ship back.

When Star-Lord embarrassed things for King J-Son whose world is now falling apart all around him, we see him off of the planet and into space once more. While this leads to the crew all getting back togethe,r I was a little disappointed with how easy and quickly everyone was picked up. There are a few key future plot points brought up here as we’re given plot lines involving a potential revolution on Sparta, the Shi’ar after Drax and branding them outlaws, a debt now owed to the Kree, and whatever is going on with Venom. Also, once again, everyone has put a price on the Guardians’ heads.

Speaking of Drax the Destroyer, I’m pretty sure we’re still not sure how he is alive again or where his actual power levels are since his rebirth. I’m wondering if we’re ever going to get a good accounting of what happened there.

Back to the issue though, not only was the pacing clearly off for my taste but the art did not flow well together at all. I believe that it was most likely caused by having multiple artists working on the title, but even with that being the case, both Nick Bradshaw and Michael Avon Oeming tend to be exceptional artists and there were quite a few panels that fell flat. The quality just wasn’t there on the characters that I would expect from either of them.

Overall it was an OK ending to a story line that either needed to be an issue shorter or three issues longer to give each of the players more page time. It did, however, bring the team back together and ready to move forward.

That being said, we’re still not sure what is up with one of the characters and have no idea if he’ll be returning soon or not, but as annoyed as I am about that, I’m annoyed even more about something else – waiting until the next issue. The close of the book teased that we’re finally going to start learning about what happened in the Cancerverse which is the main thing I’ve wanted to see since the series started. Honestly, how Star-Lord and Thanos escaped as well as the fate of Richard Rider sounds far more interesting than what this filler issue ended up giving us.

I’m sure, because this is by Bendis, every page will be a build up to the last panel which is when Star-Lord will only at that point start to tell us what really happened and we’ll be stuck waiting until the 19th issue to really find out more.

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GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #17
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Nick Bradshaw, Michael Avon Oeming