Guardians of the Galaxy 2: Angela

Comic Info

Guardians of the Galaxy (3) #7 Variant

Reprints Guardians of the Galaxy (3) #4-10 (August 2013-February 2014).  The Guardians of the Galaxy are the Earth’s first line of defense to threats from space.  When a mysterious woman named Angela is discovered heading to Earth, the Guardians must intercept and bring her down.  The mystery of Angela is part of a bigger puzzle that even the Watcher is drawn too…but unfortunately for the Guardians, Angela will have to wait because an invasion force is coming and Earth will need them and Angela if it hopes to survive.

Written by Brian Michael Bendis with assistant from Angela’s creator Neil Gaiman, Guardians of the Galaxy 2:  Angela is the second volume in the third series of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.  Following Guardians of the Galaxy 1:  Cosmic Avengers, this volume also crosses over with Marvel’s big event storyline Infinity and features art by Sarah Pinchelli, Francesco Francavilla, and Kevin McGuire with additional art from Oliver Coipel, Mark Morales, and Valerio Schiti.

I love the Guardians of the Galaxy, and I’m so-so on Brian Michael Bendis (love Powers, Alias, Ultimate Spider-Man, and his Daredevil, but hated his team stuff like Avengers and big crossovers).  I started reading the new volume of Guardians of the Galaxy simply because of news of this volume.  It was announced that Neil Gaiman’s Angela character that first appeared in Spawn #9 (March 1993) would be crossing over to the Marvel Universe…and Neil Gaiman would be helping!  This meant Guardians of the Galaxy’s third series was a must read.

Guardians of the Galaxy (3) #8

Angela first appeared in the Age of Ultron storyline before coming to the Guardians.  Most of this collection involves her, but calling it “Angela” is a little misleading since It also heavily involves the Infinity storyline which encompasses Guardians of the Galaxy #8-9 (December 2013-January 2014).  Overall the read is good, but it still has some of the problems that Bendis and Marvel have now.

I am still partial to the original Guardian team (Vance, Charlie-27, Yondu, Martinex, Nikki, and Starhawk) and did enjoy this incarnation in the second Guardians series, but like many Bendis books it feels stuttered.  The book just can’t get going because of all these crossovers, and I find the inclusion of Iron Man, as barely a player on the team, very distracting.  There doesn’t seem to be enough linking these stories, and it just doesn’t have the fun of the previous writing team of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning.

The art for the series however does excel.  Not only go you get a fun run by artist Francesco Francavilla but both Sarah Pinchelli and Kevin McGuire also provide some great style.  The character designs and the look of the book is great…I’d pick any of these artists to be the book’s regular artist.

I really wish Marvel would get its act together (along with a lot of the comic book industry) and let a good book just be a good book.  Guardians of the Galaxy is a prime example of distracted reading and now flow.  Issue-by-issue reading doesn’t make a ton of sense but the big picture reading also is distracted by crossover events that if you aren’t reading the crossovers, the tie-in comics often make little sense.  Guardians of the Galaxy tries to hold itself together, but struggles.  Guardians of the Galaxy 2:  Angela is followed by Guardians of the Galaxy/All-New X-Men:  The Trial of Jean Grey (another crossover) and then Guardians of the Galaxy 3:  Guardians Disassembled.

Related Links:

Guardians of the Galaxy 1:  Cosmic Avengers

Guardians of the Galaxy 1:  Legacy 

Guardians of the Galaxy 2:  War of Kings Book 1

Guardians of the Galaxy 3:  War of Kings Book 2

Guardians of the Galaxy 4:  Realm of Kings