BLOOD WORK: BETWEEN THE PANELS: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 BY BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS

With comic books today you have to be careful what you buy. It used to be that you could buy a comic book based solely on the character and be alright i.e. if you bought Spider-Man you got Spider-Man. The characters were there regardless of who was writing or drawing. Nowadays you can't trust that. So instead you follow particular writers. Jason Aaron's Wolverine, Ghost Rider, and Thor are wonderful. His Incredible Hulk is garbage. Even following a certain writer doesn't always pan out. What's a comic fan in today's day and age supposed to do?

The current GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY comic book, the third volume, has just come to an end. It was started back at the beginning of 2013 most likely because the Guardians were going to be featured in their own movie the following year. Make no mistake, I am a fan of the previous Guardians of the Galaxy volumes, from their debut in 1969, their adventures through the 1970's, Jim Valentino's resurrection of the team in 1990's, and Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning's 2008 reinvention.

That brings us to the most recent iteration of the Guardians of the Galaxy by famed Marvel Comics writer Brian Michael Bendis. BMB is most known for his revolutionary run on DAREDEVIL, ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN, and his deconstruction and subsequent rebuilding of THE AVENGERS. The man has become a current comic industry powerhouse and sales leader and Marvel's #1 writer. He has scores of dedicated fans and loyal followers. What better man to have at the helm than him? Then Marvel goes one step further and teams him up with super-star artist Steve McNiven. Prospects looked good for the title.

The last Guardians book by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning ended not because of a drop in quality (at least not in story) but because of a drop in sales. When I asked Dan Abnett about this at the 2010 San Diego Comic Con he told me the harsh truth: Sales are King. But sales don't translate to quality. So with a movie coming out about a virtually unknown comic property, even among comic book aficionados, how was Marvel supposed to get the word out about how great this cast of characters is? Over the next two years Marvel would shameless try everything in their power to promote this book.

THE PLOT SYNOPSIS

(Spoilers Ahead, albeit vague)

Here's a brief summary from beginning to end. The story starts off with a retelling of Star-Lord's origin. Then it moves into a story that briefly tells us of the Guardians battle with the evil aliens, the Badoon, but then shifts focus to introducing us to what will be a new character on the team, Angela, a cold hearted sword wielding warrior woman. Iron Man (Tony Stark) has also joined the team, befriending Rocket Raccoon, and sleeping with Gamora. We learn that the Guardians of the Galaxy have set up camp just outside of Earth's orbit, the planet now under their personal protection from any evil alien invaders.

Angela, imported from the SPAWN comic

The Guardians ultimate nemesis is the Death worshiping Titan called THANOS. When the Guardians last fought Thanos they were inside a cancerous universe trying to stop it from taking over our universe. Star-Lord, Drax, Nova Prime Richard Rider, and Thanos were all killed at the end of the conflict saving our entire universe from evil. Now Star-Lord and Drax are back. If they're back then it could mean that Thanos somehow survived too. Now their sole purpose is to find Thanos and put an end to him once and for all.

Angela and Iron Man, the new additions to Bendis's Guardians team

Thanos and his generals invade Earth. They take over S.W.O.R.D. (SHIELD'S very own first response space station defending the Earth from evil alien invaders). They need to bring the space station back online. Guardians to the rescue! Star-Lord and Rocket infiltrate the facility, bring the systems back online so that SWORD can send a message back to Earth warning them of what's happening, lower the shields around Earth and let the Avengers back home to save the galaxy.

Gamora vs the Badoon (perhaps the only reference to the original Guardians of the Galaxy)

Next the Guardians touch down on Earth where they encounter a group of young X-Men, a handful of the X-Men being time-displaced from the past. One of them is the teenage Jean Grey. Suddenly she is abducted by the Shi'Ar empire and put on trial for crimes against the empire, all damage and destruction caused by her future-self as the Phoenix. The young group of X-Men need the Guardians to get them into space so they can rescue Jean.

Once that conflict is over the Guardians and X-Men go their separate ways, but not before the Guardians get two new members to travel along with them: Flash Thompson a.k.a. the symbiote hero VENOM and Carol Danvers a.k.a. CAPTAIN MARVEL. As the new roster of Guardians heads back into space after dropping off the X-Men on Earth they are attacked one at a time and separated from one another. Drax is captured by the Shi'Ar. Gamora is taken by the Badoon. Star-Lord is arrested by his jerk father. And the others are subjected to equally horrible fates. Their gruesome situations are quickly remedied by their fellow teammates Captain Marvel and Angela, saving them and bringing them back together.

Reunited at last, Gamora demands that Star-Lord tell her how he and Drax survived the Cancerous Universe and why no one has seen NOVA PRIME RICHARD RIDER. Star-Lord reluctantly tells her a story that answers her question but also leaves her wondering about the story's validity. Gamora reluctantly accepts Star-Lord's story. The team then sets out to rescue the last member of the team still missing in action: Venom. The symbiote left Flash and one by one attached itself to nearly every member of the team. The team takes the symbiote back to its home planet where the alien suit is repaired and upgraded in power. Venom is transformed into a major powerhouse player on the team.

Venom ~ Guardian of the Galaxy?

The last major story arc in this volume is another massive crossover with the young X-Men in which both teams of heroes raced across the galaxy trying to keep an ancient and dangerous artifact, THE BLACK VORTEX, out of the hands of Star-Lord's father and other malevolent forces. In the midst of all of this the high council of Spartoi, Star-Lord's father's home planet, elects Peter Quill as the new president of the Empire. The team saves the homeworld of Spartoi from alien attack and further endears the team to the people of Spartoi. Peter is filled with an overwhelming responsibility to guide his people as their new president.

Ronan the Accuser ~ Finally returning to the Guardians of the Galaxy

The volume is then interrupted and subsequently ended due to Marvel's Universal Event crossover SECRET WARS by Jonathan Hickman. Thus ended the most recent volume of the Guardians of the Galaxy. The entire volume was written by Brian Michael Bendis and penciled by many different artists, most artists only penciling three to seven issues at most. As a result from issue #0.1 through #27 (the end of the volume) the art feels rather inconsistent, but that is nothing unusual for comic books nowadays. It seems like Marvel's style. So really the only creative consistency of this book is Bendis. This is by all rights Bendis's Guardians of the Galaxy.

THE GOOD

The Writing. Bendis is adept at writing an easily accessible story that one can jump into at any point really and be at home in moments. It's a great strength of his, one in which makes his writing welcoming for new readers. He has wonderful ideas and sets them up rather easily. This is evident in much of all of his other comic book scripts and it's one of his most endearing qualities as a script writer. The stories he sets in motion are intriguing and exciting and they always get you psyched for the coming issues. As for how those stories end we'll get to later.

Gladiator ~ Shi'Ar Majestor

Bendis takes particular interest in the character of PETER QUILL ~ THE STAR-LORD, and really places the focus on him throughout the bulk of this book. Star-Lord provides the human connection on the team and is great character to connect with readers. Bendis isn't blind to this and uses it heavily. Star-Lord is a fantastic character. And then there's ROCKET RACCOON. These two play off each other quite often and have a fun rapport. Rocket is the next most heavily featured character in the book and he's a lot of fun to have around too.

The best story line in the whole volume has to be THE BLACK VORTEX crossover. It's a 13 issue crossover with Marvel's other cosmic titles NOVA, CAPTAIN MARVEL, and THE LEGENDARY STAR-LORD. It also ties in with the same X-MEN book as the previous crossover with the X-Men. Bendis however only writes 4 out of the 13 issues and is not the architect of the story. His issues aren't very great but they're quick reads so you can get to the other issues. Like I said though, this story arc for me was the most entertaining and satisfying event in Bendis's Guardians of the Galaxy.

THE BAD

As a whole though the volume doesn't really deliver. There are some amazing artists on the book, perhaps some of the best these characters have ever had. But that's about the extent of the quality of work here. Star-Lord and Rocket are the most heavily featured characters and as a result they feel forced. Peter's "fly by the seat of your pants" leadership lacks a certain charm that kept it lovable and the character comes across as frustrating instead. Same with Rocket. His humor is repetitive and grows stale. As for the other characters they're either replaced or barely there.

DRAX, a character whose sole purpose is to kill Thanos, doesn't ever touch Thanos. In fact he doesn't do much of anything. The coolest moment he has is challenging Gladiator of the Shi'Ar to one on one combat. The battle however doesn't amount to much. What should have been a great moment for Drax ends up falling flat. And that's the best moment he has in the entire volume. GROOT has it even worse. Drax is barely involved in the whole story, but at least he's there. Groot is there only half the time and the time that he is there he does nothing but say his name. Again, what once was an endearing unique character is reduced to an ineffectual catch-phrase.

Then that leaves GAMORA, the deadliest woman in the universe. Which brings me to ANGELA too. They're essentially the same character. They're both strong silent types, warriors wielding edged weapons. Angela is a character imported from the SPAWN comic series. It's pretty unique but not unheard of, a character from another comic book company joining another universe. Eventually Angela finds her way to the THOR related books which is a far more fitting place for her. Her run with the Guardians feels out of place and renders her and Gamora redundant. The big scenes that should've been Gamora's are either shared or appropriated entirely by Angela. The inclusion of VENOM does essentially the same thing to Drax and Groot, another character to write instead of them.

Basically the same character. Actually Angela felt more like Gamora than Gamora

Multiple instances the team states that their purpose is to find Thanos and stop him. Never once does that happen. The team barely begins to fulfill that mission. In fact Thanos never actually plays a role in the story at all. And neither do Drax, Gamora, or Groot. The book feels more focused on new additions to the team and guest stars like the X-Men. Other than Star-Lord and Rocket the rest of the core Guardians do very little. Gamora at least gets a few action scenes here and there all her own once Angela leaves. And this really is indicative of the stories altogether.

Writer Brian Michael Bendis

Bendis feels a little out of his depth here. The extent of his imagination and sci-fi creativity is derived from and limited only to the one science fiction epic everyone has seen: STAR WARS. Again Star Wars is relatable and a good way to connect with a wide audience. But there is so much more science fiction creativity out there to draw from. Even within Marvel Comics there is a wealth of sci-fi stories to draw from. It leaves a lot to be desired. Why would we want to read about Star Wars in Guardians of the Galaxy when we could watch the latest Star Wars blu ray rereleases? And during the X-Men/Guardians crossover the Guardians are more of a plot device than characters actively participating in the plot. You could've substituted the FANTASTIC FOUR or the AVENGERS for the Guardians and told the exact same story.

Remember how I said that one of Bendis's strengths was his ideas for storylines? Usually that's the case, but not here. Like I was saying earlier the plotlines reek of Star Wars or feel uninspired. It seems like he doesn't know what to do with most of the characters. He ends up starting lack luster story arcs with equally unsatisfying endings. He even rehashes previously used plots from other Marvel books he's written (sampling his own stories), the symbiote story comes to mind immediately followed by Bendis's go to "Disassembled" story arc which he tends to do on every book. If you've read any of Bendis's previous comic books, like his numerous Avengers books, you've already experienced what he has to offer in this book. It's no coincidence that the most enjoyable part of the volume is the crossover in which he barely has a hand in creating.

Swap any Guardian for any one of these heroes and you'll probably have a better book

As for connecting to the previous Guardians of the Galaxy volumes (this is the third volume that started only two years after the end of the last volume) Bendis barely acknowledges the stories that came before him. It feels like he begrudgingly acknowledges volume two and not once acknowledges volume one or any story or character from the original Guardians of the Galaxy team. This is the first and only volume of the Guardians that completely ignores it's origins and roots. MAJOR VICTORY was a core member of every version of the team until this book. His character was left in wind and ready to use at the end of the last volume. Nowhere is he to be found in the entirety of volume three nor even a mention of his name.

The new powered up cosmic Venom

I understand that these are obscure characters. One of my friends likes to constantly remind me of how low the sales of the older Guardians books were and of how even comic book fans have no idea who these characters are. Regardless of that being true or not, alienating the preexisting fan base seems counter intuitive. I'm not opposed to a new approach but I would like to see the writer write the characters he's been given. In all honesty, if Bendis got rid of all the actual Guardians of the Galaxy and replaced them with Venom, Angela, Kitty Pride, the Thing, Captain Marvel, and Iron Man the book would probably be better.

The list of actual Guardians of the Galaxy grows thin

I think I've chewed on Bendis enough. I'm sure he's a really good writer when it comes to Daredevil and Spider-Man and I'm sure there are a lot of examples of the great works he's done. From everything I've read of his he's pushed me away rather than drawn me in. He seems to know "Street Level" heroes really well. His Avengers stuff always left me unsatisfied, especially when it came to wrapping up his stories. He's a great idea man but his endings are a great weakness. Guardians of the Galaxy was my last attempt at giving him a chance. His work here has pushed me away forever. It just feels like he doesn't care. Like he's only doing Guardians for the paycheck.

Would you dress Red Sonja in this? So why would you dress Gamora like Iron Man?

Now for the art. Like I said earlier, the art work is generally good with the exception of a handful of issues. The inconsistency is nothing new to current Marvel readers. What's unfamiliar about this are the new character designs for the Guardians. It looks as if Tony Stark himself designed them. For some odd reason Marvel Comics felt that in 2012 all their characters needed to be wearing armor (Hulk of all the characters was given a full body suit of armor). Gamora has a full body suit of armor too that's so overly detailed it's generic. It's nowhere near fitting for the character either. I agree her previous costume (the Borat one piece) was a little shameless but this armored look is unrepresentative of the character.

Let's cover up Gamora and add Angela to the team because heaven forbid we see Gamora wearing a revealing costume!

Drax gets a pair of armored pants, boots, and gloves. Rocket's look actually isn't too bad although by slimming him down he looks less like a raccoon now. It's the super model Rocket Raccoon look! Even Groot gets a new wardrobe, little glowy spheres, not unlike Iron Man's arc reactor in his chest, are peppered all over his trunk. What they do, nobody knows. But Angela, an even more obscure character, she's untouched and still clad in her extremely objectifying costume from 1993 (because Gamora's was too much but a gold bikini is just right). I think for the most part people agreed about the designs because by the end of the volume Gamora, Groot, and Star-Lord are all in new costumes. Oh yeah, Star-Lord goes through a couple different costumes too, none of them lasting very long.

Thoughts on Groot's glowing orbs?

FINAL THOUGHTS

In summary, if you are among the thousands of fans of the previous Guardians of the Galaxy comic books, whether you're a fan from 2008, 1990, or as far back as the late 60's and 70's this comic book will only frustrate you. There is very little in this book for actual fans of the Guardians of the Galaxy. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Guardians and want to read and learn about them this book will only mislead you and leave you unfulfilled. Bendis isn't writing these characters, he's writing a book to generate sales and that's it. The only purpose of this book is to generate sales
(why else would Iron Man be there?)and that's what Bendis does best. If this book has taught us anything it has showed us what not to do. Don't think for a second that this book is the reason these characters have a movie. If anything this book has done more to undermine the movie than help it.