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Review: Guardians of the Galaxy- Road to Annihilation Vol. 1

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Quick Summary

Pros: The Captain Marvel and She-Hulk issues are a great combination of humor and excitement. The Infinity Abyss event is exciting and includes many of the positives that made the “Infinity Trilogy” events successful. Much of the artwork works well with the storytelling.

Cons: The Warlock issues are disappointing. The Infinity Abyss issues contain some sloppy writing. The volume, as a whole, does not provide a great prelude to the Annihilation event.

Overall: This volume is worthwhile for the individual stories contained within but is not the best prelude to the Annihilation event. Within this book, the Captain Marvel, Infinity Abyss, and She-Hulk stories stand out as solid examples of cosmic tales from this era. However, the Warlock issues are disappointing and the volume does not do a great job of tying all of its stories together. This volume most specifically appeals to fans looking for a few solid, independent cosmic tales from this era, not fans looking for a cohesive narrative.

Story

Guardians of the Galaxy: Road to Annihilation Vol. 1 collects a number of stories that help bridge the gap between the “Infinity Trilogy” era in Marvel’s cosmic history and the era beginning with the Annihilation event (Reading Order). In this way, the collection allows readers to see what various characters were doing during this time. However, the connections between the stories from this era are often messy and rarely help construct anything close to a unified narrative for this era. So, it has appeal for readers just curious about what was happening in space during this time period but not for readers looking for a direct prelude to the Annihilation event.

As far as the individual stories go, many of them range in terms of quality but most stand out in a positive way. Chapters from the Captain Marvel and She-Hulk comics present unique and humorous takes on their respective characters while still managing to tell captivating and exciting stories. Speaking of exciting, the Infinity Abyss series offers a thrilling tale dealing with tremendously powerful villains and stakes that rival those seen in the “Infinity Trilogy”, though, unfortunately, this series is not quite as well-written. The only arc, from this volume, that does not stand out in a positive way is the Warlock miniseries, which contains poor takes on most of its characters and is generally not that interesting.

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As mentioned above, Road to Annihilation Vol. 1 collects several enjoyable issues from the Captain Marvel and She-Hulk comics. Chapters from both of these comics detail engaging conflicts that require the hero to outfight and outthink their opponent. Both also contain some solid jokes, like Rick’s misadventures or the procession of She-Hulk’s legal cases. There are even points where the commentary gets a bit metatextual in a satisfying way, like when the Captain Marvel issues poke fun at ridiculous comic book premises by introducing an “evil twin clone future self from an alternate dimension” or how the She-Hulk issues satirically take on the industry’s penchant for making popular characters fight each other.

Road to Annihilation Vol. 1 also collects the entire Infinity Abyss series, which serves as somewhat of a distant successor to the “Infinity Saga” trilogy of events. This event miniseries brings the Infinity Watch back together to face off against an army of Thanos clones. The resulting battle is exciting and contains a narrative filled with clever twists, including an excellent one revealing that Thanos created a Galactus clone. This series also dives back into Warlock’s always compelling struggle with sanity, touching on issues like depression, nihilism, and hope in the face of events that appear hopeless.

Unfortunately, the narrative in Infinity Abyss feels sloppier than its predecessors. This comic contains a number of smaller battles and subplots that take up time but do not feel like significant contributions to the overall story, such as the Doctor Strange and Moondragon arcs. It also poorly approaches the concept of an “anchor for all reality”, occasionally presenting the anchor’s domain as a mind-bending and impenetrable world and occasionally presenting it as somewhere that can be quickly accessed by a number of characters. This is still an enjoyable event, especially for those who read Starlin’s earlier works, but is not quite as good as it could have been.

Finally, the biggest disappointment in Road to Annihilation Vol. 1 comes from the Warlock miniseries. This comic is moderately exciting but never really gets interesting enough to thoroughly hook readers into the main narrative. In addition, it poorly characterizes many of its characters, presenting Gamora as a love-sick woman who will do anything to get her man. In general, there is little appeal offered by this miniseries.

(spoilers end here)

Art

The artwork in Road to Annihilation Vol. 1 fluctuates dramatically, as each story it collects features a vastly different art style. However, the majority of the visuals in this volume end up looking average, neither significantly impressing or disappointing.

On the positive end of things, the visuals in the Captain Marvel and She-Hulk issues work as a great complement to the story. These comics are lighthearted and fun and the visuals present a style that matches this tone. The lightly detailed depictions and stylized takes on characters work well in this particular narrative. There are places where the level of detail is a little too light and where visuals appear a bit contorted but, for the most part, the artwork in these chapters is solid. In addition, the Infinity Abyss chapters are wonderfully laid out in a way that helps the reading process and the Warlock chapters look alright.

On the negative end of things, the visuals in the Infinity Abyss chapters are not quite what I was hoping for. Though, individually, the creative team putting together these chapters are impressive, their work together is not great. I felt like the weak link was in the coloring, which does not flatter Jim Starlin and Al Milgrom’s work as much as it does in other comics, like the Thanos series.

Continuity

Guardians of the Galaxy: Road to Annihilation Vol. 1 contains many different and independent stories, each continuing equally different and independent narratives. These narratives are detailed in the references list at the end of this section, sorted by order of appearance within this volume.

Each of these independent narratives are continued in different comics.

  • The story from the Warlock issues is somewhat continued in the Infinity Abyss series, also collected within this volume.
  • The story from the Captain Marvel issues is continued on in the rest of the issues from that series, starting with Captain Marvel #15.
  • The story from the Infinity Abyss series is continued in the Thanos Vol. 1 series, collected in Thanos: Redemption. 
  • The story from the She-Hulk issues is continued on in the rest of the issues from that series, starting with She-Hulk #9, collected in She-Hulk by Dan Slott: The Complete Collection Vol. 1.

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

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All Marvel Event Reviews

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