Guardians of Knowhere 1 review

I’ve been on and off with Brian Michael Bendis’s run of Guardians of the Galaxy. Some individual issues are great. Besides The Trial of Jean Grey, my personal favourite so far is one from way back (I forget the issue number) where Gamora and Angela spend the full issue teaming up against the Badoon. There are other times when his series is mediocre at best. The worst probably being Guardians of the Galaxy 15, where each character is split all over the galaxy in dire situations and no real story progress is made with anything. I initially put Guardians of Knowhere on my “maybe” list, but since I only had 4 other comics this week, I picked it up.

Guardians of Knowhere takes place in, well … Knowhere. According to legend, the celestial head was left there in the sky as a sign of Doom’s power, and the Guardians are its self-appointed protectors. Gamora still has her cosmic upgrades from the Black Vortex crossover and Star-Lord is missing, but otherwise it’s the same team that Bendis has used from the start. Through her cosmic power, Gamora sees through Doom’s lies about the nature of Battleworld, and her travelling between domains has caught the attention of Angela of the Thors.

The core story aspect of this comic is great. The mystery ties in with the main event well and works with the Guardians of the Galaxy concept. It’s something we’ve heard before, but cosmically upgraded Gamora could offer a unique perspective on the entire event. The fight scene between the Guardians and Angela, while brief, is fun and has some great tension-filled dialogue. It’s also nice that Mantis makes an appearance. This comic is good until the last few pages, where a heavy hitter comes out of nowhere with a vendetta that seems to have nothing to do with the main story. It makes the entire issue feel unfocused.

The art by Mike Deodato is very good. The opening page showing Knowhere is beautiful, with the celestial head showing signs of damage below the neck, and all sorts of city lights. The red smoke and the stars add to the background. The city itself is well detailed and filled with a variety of aliens. Characters are well detailed, and their facial expressions perfectly capture their emotions and reactions. The wounds that Drax received during the opening fight mark him for the rest of the issue. There’s one panel that’s copied and pasted onto the same page for no apparent reason, but apart from that, this comic looks fantastic.

I’m undecided on what I think of this comic overall. Most of the issue is great, but the ending cliffhanger feels like a distraction. Until the next issue comes out and we know if everything connects, it’s hard to say exactly how good this comic is. For now, let’s just say that if you’ve enjoyed Bendis’s Guardians of the Galaxy, you should enjoy this.

7/10