Review: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3- Guardians Disassembled

Quick Summary

Pros: Peter’s fight with his father continues to be a unique an compelling element of this series. Gamora and Drax have a few entertaining moments.

Cons: Additional characters clutter the book and distract from the main characters. Supplementary chapters seem superfluous and do little to enhance the overall story. The art is lackluster in a few places.

Overall: This collection sees a drop in the level of quality for the Guardians of the Galaxy series. The story is still alright but is filled with moments that are just average and has a frustrating tendency to include characters that contribute little to everything else that is taking place. When combined with disappointing visuals, this book is noticeably inferior to previous volumes. Those who enjoy the Guardians will still find entertainment here but should not expect this read to be as fun as earlier reads.

Story

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: Guardians Dissembled, by Brian Michael Bendis, is alright but not quite as entertaining as previous collections. The positives here mostly come from the continuation of Star-Lord’s fight against his father, which sees some resolution here. However, the rest of the collection ends up being average for the most part and only has a few moments that stand out as being particularly memorable. Plus, additional characters offer little to the comic’s story and mostly just distract from the progression of the main characters. In the end, this is still an ok read but is not as good as the rest of this series has been.

(spoilers start here)

Most of Guardians Dissembled centers around Star-Lord’s ongoing conflict with his father, which began back in Cosmic Avengers (Review). This focus is entertaining as the battle between these two goes beyond the traditional battle between good and evil. Even Star-Lord’s solution to “defeating” his father is unique; using the truth to turn his own people against him is a satisfying form of poetic justice.

Along with the conflict between Star-Lord and J’son, each of the other members of the team is forced to confront some sort of enemy. These stories contain a number of cool moments, like the showcase of Gamora’s unyielding willpower or Drax’s insistence on fighting an enemy more powerful than he is. However, for every cool moment there is a moment that proves to be less enjoyable, like Groot or Rocket’s imprisonment. The end result is a series of somewhat average encounters that are entertaining but not anything that special.

However, the biggest problem with Guardians Dissembled comes from the team’s now erratic structure. In the previous volume, Tony Stark’s involvement with the Guardians came to an abrupt halt before he was really able to contribute anything meaningful to the team. In this volume, Venom seems to be following a similar formula as his role has already shifted before he was able to contribute anything. Plus, Captain Marvel was suddenly, and without warning, thrown into the mix. If these characters would provide something unique or interesting to the mix then their presence would be worthwhile. However, having them currently only serves to distract from the development of the core members of the Guardians team.

This collection also contains issues from other comics that seek to provide backstory about Captain Marvel and Agent Venom. Though these stories are good on their own, their inclusion here seems superfluous. Their characters are already explained in the main narrative and these additional issues do little to elaborate on this explanation.

(spoilers end here)

Art

Like the story, the artwork in Guardians Dissembled sees a noticeable decrease in the quality level. Instead of containing Sara Pichelli’s beautifully detailed and realistic depictions of characters and cosmic locations, this collection contains less realistic and more stylized versions of these same elements. Though a change in the level of detail is not inherently bad, the contrast between this collection and previous ones is instantly jarring and hard to adapt to at first. There are even internal inconsistencies, as additional artists provide noticeably different depictions of the same characters. Add in some strange facial expressions and less creative scenes and this collection ends up looking lackluster from a visual standpoint. Overall, this is a disappointing change in pace for the artwork of this series.

Continuity

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: Guardians Dissembled directly follows The Trial of Jean Grey crossover event and continues the story from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: Angela (Review).

The story here continues in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 4: Original Sin (Review).

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

• Thanos’s disappearance occurred in Infinity (Review).
• Captain Marvel left Earth to go to space at the beginning of Captain Marvel Earth’s Mightiest Hero Vol. 3 (Review).
• The main storyline ends by stating the next volume will tell “the truth” about an event from the past. This event is The Thanos Imperative (Review).
• The Guardians of the Galaxy from 3014 A.D. first made contact with the present day Guardians of the Galaxy in Guardians of the Galaxy by Abnett & Lanning: The Complete Collection Vol. 1 (Review).