Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Guardians Of The Galaxy #24Guardians Of The Galaxy #24
Marvel Comics
Bendis, Schiti & Keith

The big Guardians of the Galaxy/X-Men crossover delivers a very tame second issue. The book seems to want to dive into the characters a little bit without really launching the plot forward. While it might make sense to have the scenes including in this book as the next in sequence for the crossover, they didn't need to take up an entire issue. The book is an average book and makes me question my ability to stick with a dozen issue crossover when this is the second installment. This is an okay read.

Basically, the Guardians and the X-Men debate what to do with the Vortex. Peter and Kitty are on opposite sides with others joining one or the other depending on how strong the argument goes or if a given character's opinion is asked for. None of the characters really make a compelling argument either way. For the most part, you assume some characters would want to use it while others would want to destroy it. A third option never enters the fray. The comic ends with another character dipping their toe in the power pool, which is exactly how the previous comic ended.

The primary problem with the book is that nothing really occurs. There is a battle in the beginning and a quick escape. The reveal that Gamora has become powered-up doesn't seem to carry any weight beyond the first couple of pages. This makes the idea that the thing should be destroyed kind of a strange one at this point as they have no evidence that the device can produce evil outcomes. They only know that evil characters want the thing. The book also has a couple of random villain plotting pages that I couldn't make heads or tails of. I took them as basically, "here we are some characters cackling in the corner, remember us?"

Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews I am also letting my anti-Bendis crossover bias seep into this read. I recall Age of Ultron being painfully dragged out with entire issues being plot filler that never saw a return to by the end of the crossover. I have this in the back of my mind while reading this book. The comic has a nice pace but it just doesn't have much behind it.

The art is nice and that helps the story and the pace. There are plenty of characters and the art knows how to showcase them when necessary. The book's art trumps the story in my opinion as it captures the arguments in ways that allow the reader to understand the character's point-of-view better.

The second issue of the big crossover feels like filler. There aren't any mistakes, missteps or plot holes. Just not much happens in it. The argument over what to do with the Vortex could have been wrapped up in three pages and revisited as needed down the line. To have this focus of the entire issue makes me concerned about picking up future issues in the crossover. It's a decent enough read but nothing really happens in it. There are too many other comics out there to read than to spend time on ones that seem like filler.

2.5 out of 5 Geek Goggles