Guardians of Knowhere 2 review

Guardians of Knowhere 1 is decent enough. I wouldn’t call it a great comic, but it was fun at times and Mantis made a welcome appearance. The Battleworld mythology it touched on was interesting. The ending cliffhanger felt like a huge distraction though, and it turns out that distraction is the entire focus of issue 2.

The man who attacked the Guardians of Knowhere at the end of the last issue is Yotat, a beast of a man. This issue starts off with a flashback, showing his origin as an opportunist punk. How he gets his powers isn’t all that well explained – some sci-fi bomb gives him super strength instead of killing him. That worked in the classic Marvel age, but it just feels lame in the modern age where people generally try to explain things better.

The rest of this issue is basically one long fight scene, and that’s it. There’s no real story depth or character development (outside of Yotat). Yotat is kind of a boring character, and this entire issue is watching him beat everyone he fights, apart from the Nova Corps about half-way through. It’s hard to care about anything in this issue. I’ve been on and off about Brian Michael Bendis’s Guardians of the Galaxy run, but I’ve never felt this bored after reading one of his issues.

Mike Deodato’s art is good. In the opening pages, the still human-ish Yotat gives a slimy grin while trying to weasel his way into a space gang, and it perfectly captures his overall appearance. The environmental detail is always good. The bar fight is complete with tables in the background and a good variety of alien customers fleeing, plus there’s a lot of debris flying around. The action is always easy to follow.

Although the art is good, it’s not enough to save this bore fest. Focusing an entire issue on a villain can work in certain cases, but when your villain is boring, it results in a comic that’s hard to care about. If you’re a fan who’s consistently enjoyed Bendis’s Guardians of the Galaxy run, this is at least worth a look. For anyone else though, skip it. I won’t be picking up issue 3.