Guardians of the Galaxy #25

By Brian Michael Bendis, Valerio Schiti and Jason Keith

A 25th issue in a series is a mini accomplishment. It’s not as epic as reaching issue 100, but it is an achievement nonetheless. Guardians of the Galaxy is celebrating its 25th and its double sized and possibly action packed. These are all ingredients for a great time.

Brian Michael Bendis does some good things in this giant-sized issue. In the opening pages, Beast is crying and sorry for the things he’s done, like bringing the original five X-Men to the present. We can see Bendis planting seeds for a potential trial of Hank Mccoy. Another thing Bendis has done well this issue is really allow Starlord’s father to become the villain. He wants the Black Vortex and we get a glimpse at how far he is willing to go to get it. Nova also gets a little spotlight, which is cool because he has been pretty forgotten so far in this event. One drawback this issue was how quickly Magik persuades the infected teammates to join up. This seems like it should have taken a little longer, but it was resolved within a page or two. A minor gripe in an otherwise good issue.

The art is drawn by Valerio Schiti with colors by Jason Keith. Schiti does a phenomenal job on this book and has many large and explosive pages. In the first couple of pages we are treated to a nice spread of Hank Mccoy’s calculations in the background of his dramatic breakdown to Gamora. This page was not an easy one to draw, but looks great. Characters are very detailed and fight scenes look clean and crisp. Schiti also has a nice full-page where a planet is exploding. If there was ever an artist who excelled at drawing the cosmos, it’s Valerio Schiti. The colors by Jason Keith are also a reason this book looks so wonderful. He adds much depth to the pencils laid down by Schiti and enhances the overall awesomeness of the book.

Guardians of the Galaxy #25 was a pretty good issue that was worth the extra money. Brian Michael Bendis is a wizard with so many of these characters that you would have to try pretty hard not to like this book. The pencils by Valerio Schiti and colors by Jason Keith just push this issue over the top. An excellent effort from everyone who was involved.