Jan-Ken-Pon – Guardians of the Galaxy #15 review

The previous issue left our band quite literally in the middle of a galactic war. Their abduction of Crystal would force a King’s hand, but only briefly. It’s a bit anticlimactic but the reality is that it was a bit of a mess that ended an issue well, but potentially muddles the beginning of this one. At the very least it was done quickly, and in a manner that the Inhuman’s stratagem could not be called out for lacking sense. They got what they came for, and didn’t allow their King to be put in check.

While the Guardians of the Galaxy are part of this much larger game, removing the board of a faction for a moment I think allows for them to play their own part less vicariously as they’ve been played thus far. While I love everything Marvel Cosmic at the moment, and Guardians of the Galaxy is one of my favorite current titles, I was hoping for something rather dramatic to occur in this issue (the death of Lilandra doesn’t qualify—the truth is she felt used up ten years ago) as I can’t help feeling like we are going through a lot of minor skirmishes to get to some grand point that there is real passion for. At this point I’m beginning to feel like I’m looking forward more to the end game than I am getting there, and I never felt that way with Annihilation, which I enjoyed equally chapter-by-chapter. I was hoping for something like my boy Warlock just breaking Blackbolt’s neck, putting a saddle on Lockjaw, slave girl-Leia pimp Medusa, and crown himself God Emperor of everything.*

Still, there is something to be said for this haphazard team still trying to find their place in this event. Stumbling, indecisive, lacking complete cohesion, these are the traits of a group numbering a baker’s dozen that with the best intentions dub themselves the guardians of the galaxy. They can be all of those seemingly (yet utterly not) pejoratives as long as they – and the comic – are fun.

Halt, Sit, Stay.

    
Abnett and Lanning’s humor has been hit and miss in this event, but in this issue I think their timing is at its best and always on point. Accompanying the narration blocks that have no right to not be obtrusive are instances of cosmic comedic gold, highlighted by a single panel featuring Lockjaw and Cosmo. The narration continues to succeed in playing the greek chorus—though uncharacteristically in regards to tradition, star studded.

This is labeled a review, but petty words and actions like criticism or analysis are rendered useless and superfluous when we are talking about an issue that has a character casting spells in what is otherwise a full-blown space opera. In my previous reviews I have been unable to contain my enthusiasm for Warlock, who is simply one of my favorite characters and has been since I began reading comics. This issue ends with a promise that his relative absence in Annihilation is going to be made up for. In the midst of a War of Kings, my damn boy is transferring arcane witch-marks and getting downright scary routing mundane forces. In the end he gets called out in a manner that seems so Stan and Jack to me, and for just a second it feels like the three eras of Marvel Cosmic-the current DnA, the Starlin reclamation, and the Man and the King’s groundbreaking run with the First Family- meet and converse. The latter talking to the second in the first duo’s story.

It’s all good.

_{*@copyrighted by Tomio}

    
- Jay Tomio

_{Jan-ken-pon is the time traveling, force-walking, multiverse crossing column of Jay Tomio, owner of 1/3 of everything you see currently on screen, and the editor of Heliotrope. Some call him the Bodhisattva.}

About Jay Tomio

...Jay Tomio is the co-owner of BSCreview and BSCkids. You should probably become his disciple through twitter @JayTomio. More fun awaits at Vogue Immunity, Gestalt Mash and The Malazan Ascendancy.