- Title: Guardians of the Galaxy #0.1
- Comic Vine: link
- Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
- Artist: Steve McNiven
Although the Guardians of the Galaxy make only a cameo appearance at the end of the issue, this .1 reintroduction of Peter Quill is a must-read for any fan of the character. Writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Steve McNiven use the issue to explore the origin of the hero before the series relaunches later this month.
Although I find it humorous that Bendis basically gives Star-Lord the the origin of Christopher Daniel Barnes from the Starman TV-show, it certainly works well as Peter Quill’s mother meets an alien from another world and falls in love, only discovering her pregnancy after he’s returned to the stars.
The majority of the comic is spent on Meredith’s time with the man from the stars and the tragedy involving the adolescent Peter Quill first encounter with that Badoon which would push him to the stars years later. Simply running out of pages, this means we don’t really get any information on how Peter became Star-Lord here. The story we do get is well-told and terrifically illustrated by Steve McNiven.
Not only do we get some foreshadowing of the hero Peter would grow up to become on the school playground but we also learn the origin’s of Star-Lord’s favorite weapon (although in the past hasn’t he often used two guns?). As a single issue to flush out the origins of the Guardians’ leader Bendis and McNiven do a great job.
My only real complaint with the issue comes in the final few panels where the story skips forward to the present with Star-Lord telling the story to Tony Stark and the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy. I’m a little concerned with the extreme Iron Man influence of the re-design of the look of several of the characters (hell, even Groot appears to have arc reactors drawn into him – seriously, WTF?). Best of the Week.
[Marvel, $3.99]