Who would have though a raccoon and a bunch of wayward misfits could become a team that was actually fun to read about? Oh yeah, don’t forget a little tree named Groot and a hot female character named Mantis. Everything about that name tells should say stay away from her, she is likely to eat you before the act is done. Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning put out another good issue of Guardians of the Galaxy which strives to cement this group as an actual team in the Marvel Universe and in my opinion it succeeds.



The last time we saw the Guardians they were securing a fissure in space. These fissures as further explained in this issue are effects of the Annihilation Wave breaking through to our space and time. The Guardians are racing around trying to secure every fissure possible when they return to Knowhere, the HQ, there is an anomaly detected in the vicinity to which they respond. They arrive on a floating Iceberg which has apparently passed through time and space, which is cool in its own right because apparently within this block of ice is the shield of Captain America. Is he in there as well? Abnett and Lanning definitely led us to believe so, but alas it was not.



Major Victory, Vance Astrovik was buried in the ice with the shield and part of the gate to Avengers mansion which definitely raises some questions. Readers of the Initiative series may know this character as Justice. The two characters are in fact the same, and not the same, I know it is confusing so let me try to explain. These two are the same character that occurs on alternate timelines. In continuity the Major Victory character met Justice as a Youth and told him not to join the USAF, which he didn’t do, but still developed his powers and later became a founder of the New Warriors and now a leader of the Initiative. Major Victory continued on in his timeline where he was a founder of the original Guardians of the Galaxy, which is pretty cool for old fans who are picking up this restart to the cosmos based team. Major Victory also went on in the future and collected Captain America’s shield, which is why he has it. He doesn’t know why he is there, but he knows he is in the right place.



These new Guardians of the Galaxy, atleast some take the incident as a sign of good luck as it was the appearance of Captain America that cemented the founding of the Avengers. Rocket Raccoon definitely likes the name Guardians of the Galaxy and is happy to see the shield. Mantis seems to be enamored with the new member of the team and his containment suit. I am intrigued by his appearance, ti’s definitely ideal to have members who know about team work working on a team, especially since he was once a member of the original Guardians of the Galaxy.



Abnett and Lanning also slowly introduce the villains of this series the Universal Church of Truth. We saw bits of them in issue #1 as they were trying to help the fissure open, now by the end of this issue we actually get to meet their apostles who seem bent on a Chronicles of Riddick type conquer through force conquest. I guess we will find out in the next issue how are team of heroes fare against these evil-doers. If I had to complain about anything on this series it would be the lack of a recognizable villain for the team to face. There are a lot of powerhouses on this team. Adam Warlock and Quasar could probably handle most incidents themselves, so facing a villain that has a degree of credibility would be nice, but I will wait to see how Abnett and Lanning plan on making the Universal Church of Truth appealing to the reader as legit villains.



An important note on the Universal Church of Truth is that when they were first introduced in the Marvel Universe by Jim Starlin they worshipped Magus, who is Adam Warlocks evil side, which may give readers a clue as to who may betray the Guardians as Mantis hinted at in the last issue. It also makes the last image in the issue of the Universal Truth attacking Adam and his comments kind of funny as well. Maybe they just don't recognize him since Magus looks far different in the future, but who knows this is a possible timeline for Adam Warlock.

If you haven't check out Guardians of the Galaxy #1 Check it out Here

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