Post by goldenfist on Jan 3, 2009 10:27:14 GMT -5
Here's a review of Guardians of the Galaxy #8 from Ign.com
As Abnett and Lanning sew the seeds for War of Kings, the duo continue to use chaos as the nucleus for Guardians of the Galaxy. With the team separated into conflicting factions and its authors taking the overarching story into diverging directions, the book becomes zanier with each installment. Fortunately, Guardians is ever bit as consistent as it is hectic, providing ample proof that humor and drama are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
Yet even putting aside the book's more blatant joys, perhaps Guardians greatest attribute comes with its creators' incredible ability to roll with the punches. While juggling corporate mandates alongside creative intent, Abnett and Lanning have masterfully woven together a series of stories that could have easily become disjointed. As the duo used Secret Invasion to tear the team asunder, they now use the resulting chaos to segue immediately into an event of their own design. For crying out loud, they even bring Civil War successfully and organically into the mix by taking Star-Lord to the Negative Zone.
Somehow this series continues to be all over the map while at the same time cohesive, which is why in many ways Guardians #8 serves as a microcosm for the series as a whole. Abnett and Lanning do a great job of using characters like Rocket Raccoon to break the tension as they use Star-Lord's troubles to propel the series forward, making for a well rounded and diverse installment. While a reuniting of the core team is predictably on the horizon, this book continues to get a lot of mileage out of the familiar themes of trust and responsibility as it branches momentarily outward.
In the meantime, Brad Walker's pencils in the issue seem right on par with Paul Pelletier's, and in some cases better them. He particularly shines in his designs for the Accuser and Blastarr, as he uses sharp line strokes to detail villains in the vein of those from Jack Kirby's Fourth-world. From where I'm sitting Walker is one of the more underrated artists in the industry, so it comes as good news that he will return periodically over the course of the next few issues.
While part of me wishes that Guardians were a tad more accessible, it's hard to deny Abnett and Lanning haven't created one of the better epics of the past year. They have a plethora of tools at their disposal and could easily have turned this into a quick-hitting one and done adventure vehicle, yet they chose a much more admirable approach requiring long-range planning. It's hard to recommend this series without also encouraging a requisite catching up on material, but for those of you willing, it's still plenty early enough to merit the effort.
Review Score: 8.4 Impressive
As Abnett and Lanning sew the seeds for War of Kings, the duo continue to use chaos as the nucleus for Guardians of the Galaxy. With the team separated into conflicting factions and its authors taking the overarching story into diverging directions, the book becomes zanier with each installment. Fortunately, Guardians is ever bit as consistent as it is hectic, providing ample proof that humor and drama are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
Yet even putting aside the book's more blatant joys, perhaps Guardians greatest attribute comes with its creators' incredible ability to roll with the punches. While juggling corporate mandates alongside creative intent, Abnett and Lanning have masterfully woven together a series of stories that could have easily become disjointed. As the duo used Secret Invasion to tear the team asunder, they now use the resulting chaos to segue immediately into an event of their own design. For crying out loud, they even bring Civil War successfully and organically into the mix by taking Star-Lord to the Negative Zone.
Somehow this series continues to be all over the map while at the same time cohesive, which is why in many ways Guardians #8 serves as a microcosm for the series as a whole. Abnett and Lanning do a great job of using characters like Rocket Raccoon to break the tension as they use Star-Lord's troubles to propel the series forward, making for a well rounded and diverse installment. While a reuniting of the core team is predictably on the horizon, this book continues to get a lot of mileage out of the familiar themes of trust and responsibility as it branches momentarily outward.
In the meantime, Brad Walker's pencils in the issue seem right on par with Paul Pelletier's, and in some cases better them. He particularly shines in his designs for the Accuser and Blastarr, as he uses sharp line strokes to detail villains in the vein of those from Jack Kirby's Fourth-world. From where I'm sitting Walker is one of the more underrated artists in the industry, so it comes as good news that he will return periodically over the course of the next few issues.
While part of me wishes that Guardians were a tad more accessible, it's hard to deny Abnett and Lanning haven't created one of the better epics of the past year. They have a plethora of tools at their disposal and could easily have turned this into a quick-hitting one and done adventure vehicle, yet they chose a much more admirable approach requiring long-range planning. It's hard to recommend this series without also encouraging a requisite catching up on material, but for those of you willing, it's still plenty early enough to merit the effort.
Review Score: 8.4 Impressive
