Guardians of the Galaxy #9

By Brian Michael Bendis & Francesco Francavilla.

The Avengers are headed back to Earth and it’s up to the Guardians to fight through Thanos’ hordes on the S.W.O.R.D. station and lower the Earth’s defenses in order for the Avengers to return safely. Angela enters the fray of Infinity and the action takes center stage.

Brian Michael Bendis is delivering a fast-paced, action comic that is entertaining to read even for people who didn’t follow Infinity. The problem with this book being so close to the actions of that event is that readers of Guardians may not get a lot of closure from the story line at the moment just within the pages of Guardians of the Galaxy. We see a lot of action in this issue, with plenty of battles with Thanos’ thugs and Peter Quill and his teammates making some incredible saves. But other than the action and setting up for the finale of Infinity there isn’t much meat and potatoes here for readers not involved with the event. Bendis has written some great character moments in the past, but this book was lacking a little bit in those. Even at the beginning with Gamora deciding to leave Star-Lord to his fate or not felt a little forced within the action of the book. Overall, however, the book fit in well with Infinity and finally saw the Guardians enter the battle in full force.

Francesco Francavilla makes this book look fantastic. His action sequences and page layouts emphasize the space battle that Drax, Groot and Angela engage in. This issue definitely showcases Francavilla’s talents better than the last issue did. His colors pop off the page and add excitement and energy to the panels. He draws the action with fluidity and makes the characters move across the page very well. He also has quite the knack for drawing excellent space explosions.

While this issue wasn’t very story heavy it was still entertaining and fun to read. Bendis and Francavilla did a good job with what they had.