The final issue before the hiatus hits for the cosmic team book.
Summary: The Guardians of the Galaxy of the future, in multiple iterations, gather, most content that the universe is saved. The 616 Guardians, however, notably Starhawk/One Who Knows, are convinced that more is up. They find a missing log that details a missing mission of the modern day, Star-Lord fronted Guardians. This mission sees the team reunite (half were thought dead as a result of the Magus resurrection) just in time to fight a mindless Thanos. Thanos had killed the entire planet of the Church of Eternal Truth, although Magus was gone by then. The Guardians fight him, especially the upset Drax who had killed Thanos in the original Annihilation series, and we find out that Thanos killed Phyla-Vell, the female Quasar and daughter of Mar-Vell. When Thanos is found to be unstoppable, Star-Lord uses a piece of the Cosmic Cube, given to him by Kang at the end of War of Kings, to take Thanos down. The future Guardians freak out that Thanos should not be back.
Thoughts: Damn this is an awesome issue. The future stuff is a bit heavy handed, but successfully builds the sense of dread it’s going for. The present meetings are perfectly done, with the long assumed dead members of the team reuniting with the group from the past several issues in the heat of battle and combining personal moments with awesome fight scenes. For all that, the best scene is easily Rocket Raccoon and Star-Lord getting drunk and discussing old comrades. They really pull off two battle weary warriors well, especially impressive since one is a sarcastic talking raccoon. It’s easy to see how Thanos, Avatar of Death, can fit in with the Fault, another Universe where life won, but we’ll tackle that in next week’s primer to the Thanos Imperative.
Rating: 8/10 – This book had better be back after The Thanos Imperative and not an indefinite hiatus like Iron Fist.
