A whole lot of sound and fury.
Creative Staff:
Story: Dan Abnett, Jason Latour
Art: Carlo Barberi, Walden Wong, Jim Cheung
Colors: Israel Silva, Matthew Wilson
What They Say:
Triple the Guardians! Triple the danger! The Guardians 1000 have arrived! But they aren’t the only newcomers on the scene. The past is under attack, but is any time safe? Plus, Drax goes missing in a story by Robbie Thompson and Marco Checchetto!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Guardians of Infinity had a good bit of fun with its opening installment, though a lot of that was just breaking off part of the core group for their own bit of fun with Rocket, Groot and Drax getting caught up in Rocket’s schemes. That it lead them into the Structure where they connected first with the 3016 era team and then they all got chased into 1016 and in Iraq no less was just very fun to see unfold. Chaotic, but fun. With no real answers and just a lot of threats around them combined with a lot of confusion with three different teams, it was a perfect launching point. A kind of controlled chaos that works, especially with everyone insisting that they’re the Guardians of the Galaxy.
This installment doesn’t quite do as much to really drive things forward for me since it’s a lot of the far too familiar storytelling devices. The two future groups know each other well enough to kind of fudge through things, but they get into an easy fight with the 1016 crew. It’s designed to show us some of their powers and personalities, but it really doesn’t do much and it’s hard to connect with any of them amid the action-chaos that ensues. It really just feels like too much as it plays out, dominating the book. Barberi and Wong certainly make the fight sequences fun to watch, but there’s no real connection to it in terms of character or story, so it feels like it’s just going through the motions more than anything else, especially since they all have to be restrained as one of the enemy may be a genetically modified Charlie-27.
Thankfully, what makes the book work for me is the backup story and it already has me wishing that this series really was just an anthology book instead. This one from Latour and Cheung gives us a tale where Drax has been caught up in a dream where he’s living out his life as a father with a family. His thoughts on the past, the love of what he has now, is definitely a great character moment for him even after he realizes that it’s not real. What I really liked beyond that is that we continue to see Rocket as the teammate that really does care and has a soft side but will go the distance to help his friends. Bringing in the Space Knights, who make their first post-Secret Wars appearance here I believe, makes me interested even more. Admittedly, my only experience with Space Knights goes back to the ROM series and nothing since then, so I have no clue as to what they’re really trying to do or who they are. But the way it plays out in a short space between one of them and Drax is spot on beautiful.
In Summary:
Guardians of Infinity has me wary after the first two issues and the third installment is definitely going to be a make or break issue for me as I haven’t done the digital subscription thing yet. With the $5 price and the book feeling like it’s slow in revealing anything in the main arc, it’s only holding me because of the 31st century side that I love. The backup stories have a lot of potential as well, but it really feels like that’s what the book should be in general as opposed to a longer storyline.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: January 6th, 2016
MSRP: $4.99
