SPOILERS: Reviews: Guardians of the Galaxy #8

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Francesco Francavilla

I say this a lot. And I don't care. I love this book. Are there differences to the characters since Annihilation? Yes. And there should be. These characters should be growing and changing and evolving. If you don't like how they're changing, that's fine. But don't whine that they're not acting like the same people they were 5 years and 3 wars ago. Come on.

This book seems to be constantly on the edge of exploding into something big. Lots of secrets, lots of something big just lurking over the horizon, and we as fans have seen this months ago, but it's finally starting to occur to Gamora that she needs to be asking some hard questions. Peter wants to make a plan. But really, it seems more like stalling to me. And I think Gamora gets that too. She flat out asks Peter and Drax how they came back. She flat out asks Peter why he didn't kill Thanos. He asks her the same - she lived with him for years. After a small tussle, he gives her the answer I expected; if he had the chance to kill Thanos, he would've. But he dodges the question about how he came back. Drax stays silent.
They get a distress call from Abigail Brand, head of SWORD, the space-version of SHIELD. She begs them, since they're the only ones to answer her distress call, to save her and prevent Thanos' forces from gaining control over Peak, SWORD headquarters, which could potentially be used as a weapon.
Peter jumps on the chance to help. Again, it seems like he's avoiding a direct confrontation with Thanos. Gamora disagrees with Peter, and leaves the ship, stating "it is time to do what she should have done as a child". I assume she's going to confront Thanos.
Peter and the rest of the Guardians return to Earth (they start the book in the "Andromeda galaxy", but didn't they end the last book on Earth? What did we miss there?) where Rocket and Peter sneak aboard Peak to rescue Brand. Of course, they're overwhelmed and outnumbered and in need of rescuing themselves. Groot and Drax are suddenly discovered and are in pursuit, unable to come to Peter and Rocket's rescue. Luckily for them, Angela blows a whole in Peak, sucking all of Thanos' men out into space.





This issue lacked the humor and banter of the last issue; though there was some, you can't have Rocket without witty banter! They call Rocket's "Murdered you!" catchphrase just that - his catchphrase. When Peter calls him out on it and tells him how awful Brand thinks it is, he says it'll grow on her. Peter doesn't think it will. Ugh. Humans.

Like many of the other books in this series so far, it feels like they're setting up the players and pieces for something, but we're just not quite there yet.

I will say the direction the art is taking in this issue is interesting and fun, a nice change of pace. Francavilla does an amazing job bringing these characters to life. The choice in colors adds an odd, but fun depth to the story, splitting characters up in the same picture, giving them almost a 3-D feel sometimes. I will say, I was kind of disappointed that Gamora didn't force an answer from Peter, but driving force behind the book right now - the answer to that question and what it means for Peter and everyone around him.


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