Bendis Guardians of the Galaxy

Guardians of the Galaxy: Tomorrow’s Avengers 1

A weak sauce Bring the Band Back Together one-shot money grab that sets up the start of the Bendis run on Guardians.  Drax, Rocket, Groot, and Gamora each get around eight pages to fight something before Peter Quill comes to collect them.  I was going to keep it for completion’s sake, but flipping through it just makes me angry with its pointlessness. Cut!

Regret buying? Yes

Would buy again? No

Would read again? No

Rating: Stupid

Guardians of the Galaxy 0.1-7

I do not rank the first Guardians movie that highly on my list of Marvel movies.  

Sidebar as I do this ranking.  I’ve never actually done it outside of my top three and bottom two. [Updated 9/2/18 to include Avengers 3 and Ant Man/Wasp]

1. Captain America 3
2. Avengers 1
3. Captain America 2
4. Ant Man/Wasp
5. Spider-Man
6. Black Panther
7. Avengers 3
8. Captain America 1
9. Thor 3
10. Avengers 2
11. Iron Man 1
12. Ant-Man
13. Iron Man 3
14. Iron Man 2
15. Guardians 1
16. Doctor Strange
17. Guardians 2
18. Thor
19. Hulk
20. Thor 2

Technically, Hulk counts.  I never did before, but there it is.  At least Thor has the scene where he shatters the mug on the floor.  

My ranking is based on rewatchability and about 5 minutes of thinking, but it looks about right.  Wow, Guardians is even lower though than I expected. It was fine, and it was fun, but the characters never resonated the way the Earth-bound Avengers did.  It was funny enough, but no more so than Joss’ Avengers or Downey Jr’s Tony Stark.

I feel the same way with Bendis’ Guardians.  The action is fine, the humor is snappy, Groot is “I am Groot”ing, and the art is beautiful (Steve McNiven and Sara Pichelli doing what they do).  But I simply do not care about these people all that much. As I continue reading this series, I’ll try to figure out why. It’s not a nostalgia thing - I love Miles Morales, Riri Williams, and Jessica Jones as much, if not more, than many of the established Marvel heroes that Bendis has written.  Am I a speciest who holds a bias against Star-Lord’s merry crew? Probably not, some of my favorite comic characters are aliens. Gotta think about it some more.

I understand Tony Stark for sleeping with Gamora to fulfill a lifelong Orion fetish after watching Star Trek as a kid.  Not that I have one. I just understand his motivations.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Nice