Review: Guardians of the Galaxy by Abnett & Lanning: The Complete Collection Volume 1

Quick Summary

Pros: The characters here are all great; their personal stories are interesting and their interactions are humorous. The storyline is enjoyable and sets things up for the future.

Cons: The Secret Invasion tie-in feels intrusive. Portions of the book may be tough for newer readers to jump into.

Overall: The Guardians of the Galaxy’s debut volume is packed with action, drama, and plenty of humor. It essentially details the adventures of a few intergalactic misfits and shows how they are able to come together as a functional superhero team. There are a few moments where the volume drags and portions of it might be rough for newer readers but, overall, there are a lot of positives found within this collection. This is a fun volume that most readers should enjoy, especially those already familiar with the characters.

Story

The first volume of Guardians of the Galaxy by Abnett & Lanning is an entertaining trip through space with an entertaining cast of characters. The Guardians themselves are a blast and their thrilling adventures are presented in what appears to be the comic book equivalent of a mocumentary style format, allowing for some humor here and there. The book also has some great character development from everyone and is already setting up future storylines with plenty of potential. However, a portion of the book near the middle derails this fun adventure somewhat; it is able to recover but this portion of the book is a bit of a chore. Overall though, this is still an entertaining adventure and a solid start to a new series.

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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 opens with a couple of fun missions with the Guardians. These missions are enjoyable and present a cast of characters full of charm and potential. The team’s interactions provide a dose of humor while the team’s objectives provide a dose of action. The comic even utilizes a mocumentary style format to further develop humor and character driven storytelling, which works out well here.

However, the book’s lowest point comes around chapter four, when a Secret Invasion tie-in intrudes on the otherwise entertaining narrative. Having the Guardians randomly drop everything to look for Skrulls confines their activities to a singular location and breaks the flow of the story. It also unnecessarily complicates things, as the Guardians are already dealing with multiple issues before the Skrull issue is dropped into the mix. This low point only lasts for a few chapters but it does slightly dampen the overall reading experience.

Luckily, things start to improve dramatically from this point onward. Individual members of the Guardians begin to take on individual problems that suit their characters well. Rocket’s reformation of the Guardians shows his leadership ability; Adam’s fight against the Church shows him finding his place in the universe; Drax and Phyla’s journey shows their love for Moondragon; and Peter’s return to Hala shows his guilt about his past. These individual missions highlight character development while also demonstrating how these heroes could work together as a team. The entire ordeal also builds the foundation for the team’s future missions and teases a number of interesting storylines.

The only problem with this portion of the collection is that some of these stories, specifically the one centered around Moondragon, will go unappreciated by anyone without knowledge of Marvel’s cosmic characters. The Annihilation and Annihilation: Conquest events are also constantly referenced, to the point where anyone unfamiliar with them could easily feel lost in references.

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Art

The art in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 ranges from average to above average. The volume starts out with multiple chapters penciled by Paul Pelletier and inked by Rick Magyar. These chapters look great and comprise the above average portion of the book. The characters are detailed, the depictions of strange worlds look nice, and the action feels energetic and full of life. These chapters highlight the fun side of the cosmic Marvel Universe.

The rest of the book doesn’t look quite as nice as these opening chapters but still looks good overall. Brad Walker’s pencils capture the same style seen earlier and, in many places, look just as nice. However, there are a few places where the detail feels lacking and characters don’t look quite as nice as they did earlier. Wes Craig’s work near the volume’s conclusion falls in a similar quality level, as it expertly matches the story’s tone but isn’t quite as detailed. All in all, this is still a good looking volume that rarely manages to disappoint when it comes to art.

Continuity

Guardians of the Galaxy by Abnett & Lanning: The Complete Collection Volume 1 starts the Guardians of the Galaxy series. This series is a direct result of the Annihilation: Conquest event, which began in Annihilation: Conquest Book 1 (Review) and ended in Annihilation: Conquest Book 2 (Review).

The story here continues in Guardians of the Galaxy by Abnett & Lanning: The Complete Collection Volume 2.

This volume also makes references to other comic books, detailed below:

• The Annihilation Wave and the destruction it caused is mentioned a few times. These events took place in Annihilation: The Complete Collection Vol. 1 and Annihilation: The Complete Collection Vol. 2.
• Nova’s discovery of Knowhere occurred in Nova #8-12, now collected in Nova by Abnett & Lanning: The Complete Collection Vol. 1.
  • Issues 8-9 of this series tell the story of the Abyss that was brought aboard Knowhere.
• Gamora mentions her previous relationship with Adam Warlock. This began in the Infinity Abyss series.
• The Skrull invasion of Earth is detailed in the Secret Invasion event.
• The prison seen in this story is the same prison from the Civil War event.
• Moondragon’s death and return to life are also mentioned. Moondragon died in Defenders #152 and returned to life in Solo Avengers #16 and #18.