Guardians Team-Up #1 Review
Story by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Art Adams
Color by Paul Mounts
Spoilers: The raccoon can talk.
Spaceships causing massive explosions and crash landing in New York? Just another day in the Marvel Universe. We start out seeing Peter Quill and his crew being bombarded over Avengers Tower by a Chitauri ship. After a fiery landing outside a strip mall, the Guardians are greeted by the Avengers (“I swear, guys, this giant crater was already here…”). Hawkeye, who apparently knows EVERYBODY (even I got a Christmas card from him last year), starts introductions, only to be interrupted by the Chitauri. Guess the group forgot about them for a minute.
Anyway, Hawkeye brings the ship down with a few well-placed arrows and a massive ground fight begins. Things are looking good…that is until the field leader of the Chitauri knocks them all out with a genetic disruptor from their ship. Seriously, these guys should always wear their bulletproof vests and genetic disruptor protection underwear. The issue ends on a cliffhanger, where the leader of this Chitauri scouting party is led by Nebula.
So…
I guess saying that this issue started out with a “bang” doesn’t quite cover it. First, I should mention that we’re pretty damn close to Secret Wars, especially with the Time Runs Out storyline going on in the Avengers titles. That being said, this story so far looks like it has absolutely positively without a doubt NOTHING to do with either of them. Unless something happens over the next few issues, it seems as though this will be a stand-alone storyline from Secret Wars, and I’m okay with that. Everything’s about to change for Marvel (for the 47th time), so it’s nice to see Bendis dish out one last fun arc before everything goes to hell (because aliens tearing up New York isn’t hell enough).
With Nebula and Chitauri running around from the films, there may some idea as to who might be behind the plot (*cough* *Thanos* *cough*). But some of those choices are a tad obvious (*COUGH* *THANOS* *COUGH*), so I’m excited to see who the true mystery villain is. Or maybe the obvious choice (*cough* *Global Warming* *I mean Thanos* *cough*) really is the correct one. Considering Thanos’ role in Time Runs Out, if this speculation is true, then maybe this really isn’t a stand-alone story. That would also be cool. I suppose only time will tell what the hell is really going on here (*cough* *my Ex* *cough*).
So far, I’m hooked. Nothing short of a Chitauri invasion will make me miss the rest of it.
