Guardians of the Galaxy #9 Review

Creative Team
Writers: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning
Artists: Brad Walker and Carlos Magno
Inkers: Wil Quintara and Bruno Hang

Story - Prison Break

Review
Guardians of the Galaxy #9 was another great read. From the beginning this title has been one of the best Marvel titles on the market. DnA have done an impressive job over the past 4 years in resurrecting Marvel's cosmic characters. Up until Annihilation I wasn't very familiar with the cosmic characters outside of Nova. But now all of the cosmic characters have become some of my favorite Marvel characters. Not counting "Sinestro Corp Wars" I would say that the work DnA have done with Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy matches what Geoff Johns is doing on Green Lantern month in, month out.

My favorite part of this series is how DnA have been able to make Star-Lord into the take no crap type character. This issue was filled with great Star-Lord moments. Seeing Star-Lord being able to hold his own against all the various villains in the 42 prison was awesome. DnA have made Star-Lord into the cosmic version of Captain America. And now that the Guardians will be joining Star-Lord in his fight against Blasteer the next issue should be one hell of ride.

Also I have to give DnA credit for using the 42 prison built back in Civil War and utilize as part of there story in such a great way. The whole battle scene in the 42 prison was really chaotic and it will be interesting to see in the end how Blasteer will get all these villains to work for him and participate in a cosmic war. And with the Guardians now in the middle it will be interesting to see how he deals with them and if he will escape to Earth.

And while the 42 prison scene was the main part of this issue DnA do an impressive job balancing that scene with what the other former GOTG members are doing. In this issue we saw Drax and Quasar interact with Mentor. Even though we have yet to see how all these various events connect with one another I hope that after the 42 prison stuff is over with these other events happening in this book get more attention than they have been getting.

Now the only real negative to this issue was the art. Walker and Magno art was really inconsistent throughout the issue and was distracting in some scenes that should have been stronger. Rocket Raccoon, Cosmo, and Groot really looked awful in this issue. I enjoyed Walker's art in the issue before this one so I hope he gets solo art duties in the next issue since his and Magno's art styles do not mesh well with one another.

Issue Rating
Story: 8.5/10 - DnA continue to work their magic on Marvel's cosmic characters. They have definitely found their niche within the Marvel Universe.
Art: 6.2/10 - Walker and Magno combined for some rather unimpressive artwork that weakend what should have been a stronger read.
Overall: 7.7/10 - With all of Marvel's cosmic characters all heading into War of Kings this issue did a great job building all the various players for that event up for what looks to be one wild ride.