Guardians of the Galaxy: Best Story Ever

by Tim Seeley

This is it: the harrowing tale of the Guardians' greatest triumph! (Or so they'd have you believe!) Star-Lord, Rocket Raccoon and the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy explode into action in this bombastic prison break! Plus: find out why these ragtag heroes are worthy of guarding the galaxy in scintillating solo stories! Rocket and Groot team up with old friends to rescue a princess, but will a bounty turn them against one another? Drax battles Thanos and Thor in two classic tales! And get a glimpse of the childhood of Gamora, daughter of Thanos! COLLECTING: Guardians of the Galaxy Infinite Comic 1, Guardians of the Galaxy: Tomorrow 's Avengers 1, Free Comic Book Day (2014) Rocket Raccoon 1, Guardians of the Galaxy : Galaxy 's Most Wanted 1; material from Thor (1966) 314, Logan's Run 6, Marvel Holiday Special 2

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Science Fiction

120 pages, Paperback

First published August 11, 2015

About the author

Tim Seeley is a comic book artist and writer known for his work on books such as G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, The Dark Elf Trilogy, Batman Eternal and Grayson. He is also the co-creator of the Image Comics titles Hack/Slash[1] and Revival, as well as the Dark Horse titles, ExSanguine and Sundowners. He lives in Chicago.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

So. Maybe instead of Best Story Ever, we could compromise and call it, Not the Worst Story Ever, or Kinda Decentish Tale?
How 'bout, Collected Random One-Shots?
Ding! Ding! Ding! I believe we have a winner!
Because that's what this is, in reality. Just a bunch of random one-shots, all collected for your purchasing convenience.



So, this opens with The Best Story Ever, and it's sort of cute. It's a space adventure/prison break, complete with flashbacks.



Then there's a few short stories (Guardians of the Galaxy: Tomorrow 's Avengers) with Drax, Rocket, Gamora in a solo role.
I'd read those, but they go well with a hodge-podge volume like this.



The Free comic book Day Rocket Raccoon is included, as well.
Nothing great, but it was cute.



Guardians of the Galaxy: Most Wanted was another Rocket & Groot tale.
Are you noticing a theme here?



Then they threw in some crunchy oldies to pad this sucker out!
Because you know you were chompin' at the bit to read about Gamora's Christmas with Thanos, right?



Or how 'bout that time Thor helped Moon Dragon & Drax reconnect?!



If you're a HUGE GotG fan, maybe you'll think this one is worth collecting. Personally, I wouldn't plunk down money for this sucker, but to each his own.

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Should have been titled GotG: Odds & Ends (with Some Crappy Reprints Thrown in). None of the stories stand out and all of them could have just been collected in the back of the ongoing trades for GotG.

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last two stories featured here were easily the best. Old-school comics for the win!

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This started out as an average story that quickly headed south with the filler stories. Don't waste your time picking this one up.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, I thought Best Story Ever might be worth picking up because it was a one-shot, and I wasn't sure if it will be included in upcoming volumes.

But it looks like it will be collected in this volume.

The eponymous tale is a fun story of one-ups-man-ship between Star-Lord and Rocket. I'm not sure what the rest will entail.

[Gina]

Wow!! What an action packed awesome comic. Fantastic art work!!

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Guardians of the Galaxy: Best Story Ever
Author: Tim Seeley (Author), Brian Bendis (Author), Joe Caramagna (Author), Will Pilgrim (Author), Doug Moench (Author), Scott Edelman (Author), Jim Starlin(Author), Reilly Brown (Illustrator), Michael Oeming (Illustrator), Ming Doyle(Illustrator), Yves Bigerel (Illustrator), Michael Del Mundo (Illustrator), Adam Archer (Illustrator), Andrea DiVito (Illustrator), Keith Pollard (Illustrator), Mike Zeck(Illustrator), Ron Lim (Illustrator)
Publisher: Marvel
Date: 2015
Pgs: 120
Dewey: 741.5973 GUA
Disposition: Irving Public Library - South Campus - Irving, TX
_________________________________________________

REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

Summary:
Their greatest triumph...according to them. Prison breaks. Ship maintenance. Thanos. Solo adventures. Getting the band back together. Classic Thor reprint. And Gamora’s childhood with Daddy Thanos. We are Groot.
_________________________________________________
Genre:
Comics
Manga
Graphic Novels
Science Fiction
Superheroes

Why this book:
I’ve enjoyed the Guardians. Not as much as the original GotG, but enjoyed them, nonetheless.
_________________________________________________

Favorite Character:
Groot...Rocket. Rocket...Groot. Can’t pick. Groot and Rocket are the best buddy team in comics, sorry Blue and Gold fans, when written right. It shows here.

Least Favorite Character:
Drax. He’s lost a lot in his transition to be more like his movie self.

Character I Most Identified With:
Long suffering Gamora who has to put up with the immaturity of the other Guardians.

The Feel:
Feels like a romp. Good stuff.

Favorite Scene / Quote:
Love the concept of Peter and Rocket in prison arguing over how the story goes.

The high five heard across the universe.

Pacing:
Great pace throughout.

Plot Holes/Out of Character:
If Nebula could meld with armor that could take down a Celestial, she wouldn’t have waited. Seh would have stripped the armor away from Stellaris and went on her way.

Also, Stellaris giving up the armor in the middle of a fight leaving her effectively facing a rampaging Groot in street clothes. :/ Nah. Don’t think so. Cool and all, but not right.

Giving Thanos a heart is unnecessary. Every villain doesn’t need humanization. Sometimes a bad guy just needs to be a bad guy.

Wisdom:
Loved the classic reprints at the back of the book. Instead of decompressed storytelling where we watch paint dry in filler issues, why don’t we do this more often?

The Unexpected:
Cerise...that is a name I haven’t heard since original Excalibur.
_________________________________________________

Last Page Sound:
Good lord, I laughed at the end of the first chapter. Best story ever, indeed.

Author Assessment:
It’s well done.

Editorial Assessment:
Ditto.

Knee Jerk Reaction:
glad I read it
_________________________________________________

[Capmarvell92 · Rating 2 out of 5]

From Cosmicbooknews:
''Normally, I’m a Tim Seely admirer. I’m a huge Hack-Slash fan and think his work on said comic was absolutely brilliant in that it breathed fresh air into a pretty stale concept.

That’s why it so pains me to have to say that “Best Story Ever” is a terrible misnomer for this comic. It’s certainly not the worst story ever. Bendis writes those. But “best story ever” is quite a stretch. The best stories for this team were written by DnA. It’s all been downhill since they were fired.

The problem with this story is that it tries too hard to mimic the movie. And it fails.

I’ll cut the movie some slack because in order to recoup the rather large monetary investment to produce it, it had to be written to appeal to the lowest common denominator of movie goer. Fine. I don’t like it that the concepts were watered-down, and it was played too much as a farce for cheap laughs, but I’ll tolerate it for the above given reason.

Comics don’t have the same up-front investment as movies. They can afford to concentrate on quality and even be written for a niche audience. So Marvel doesn’t have to try to mimic the movie. Trying to mimic the movie will always just result in what this comic ultimately is – a juvenile farce played for way too many cheap laughs – most of which are duds.

I mean, come on. The entire mission is about stealing a toilet because Rocket broke the only toilet on the ship? Really? Doesn’t this take bathroom humor to an all new low? Murdering dozens of sentients at a warehouse just to steal a toilet? Is the team that amoral?

The art is certainly an improvement over the regular fare on Bendys’ book, but it just can’t make up for the weak story.

Sorry, Seely, but I hope you direct your talents to something else in the future, because this effort is a fail. Only a zombie could love this – another episode of Marvel Cosmic gone horribly wrong – again thanks to Brevoort and Alonso.''

[Michelle Kelley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Marvel/DC graphic novels have been in hot demand. I really liked the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, and I knew the movie is out of our K-5 range, but as these graphic novels were billed for grades 3-6, I thought I'd give them a shot. I read a couple of them starting with Best Story Ever. It was a bit much cleavage for a younger set, and I thought the dialogue and story were all over the place. The frantic verbal exchanges in the movie do not translate well onto the page, and I can't imagine how younger kids could follow the story. The second book was really heavy on the guns with lots of emphasis of big guns on the page pointing at the audience, at the bad guys, even held directly up against the head of one. I'm sure that is not going to be well received by some families. Was really hoping this set was going to be a winner, but I ultimately I just felt it was a bit of a hot mess. Which I know is kind of the point of Guardians, but the graphic novel version keeps all the rough stuff and lacks the magic and much of the fun that the screen version has.

[Paula · Rating 2 out of 5]

Imprisoned Guardians Star-Lord and Rocket Raccoon entertain their captors by recalling an impressive adventure from their past. But, of course, each puts his own perspective on it. Soon the prison guards are caught up in the stories, even making wagers on the outcome. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew (Gamora, Drax, and Groot) are on a special mission to find a very important fixture for their spaceship. The title is appropriate because the telling of the “best story ever” creates enough of a diversion to enable the Guardians to spring Star-Lord and Rocket Raccoon from the prison. The origins of several female characters create added appeal for girls interested in graphic comics. Order if needed; there is little bang-for-buck return on comics. But they are immensely popular with intermediate readers.

[Toni Guyton · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this one with my six year old; it’s pretty awful, man. Skip it for sure: even my six year old wasn’t impressed.

[Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Being such a fan of the Guardians,I was disappointed. This wasn't their best outing.

[Adam Weiler · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was a little bit cheesy.

[Lainy122 · Rating 2 out of 5]

What an odd collection of completely unrelated issues. Definitely not the best of anything? Way better Guardians story lines out there with far superior art. Boring and disappointing read.

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't remember this. It was basically all filler, right?

[Ming · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very solid meh.

[Stacy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never review comics by single issue but rather treat the story as a whole. This one is a stand-alone, however. I think that's why I wasn't as impressed with it. While it is cute and has the humor you'd expect from the Guardians, it's too short to really give you much. Then again, considering the end goal of the story, I can't see it spanning multiple issues. Well, maybe number one and number two. ;) (A joke you'll only get if you read it.)

[Public Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know if it was the best Guardians story ever, as the title says, but it was entertaining as hell! Lots of Thanos. Lots of Drax the Destroyer - even some vintage backstory giving him human origins. Lots of fun. I adore the Guardians.

2020 Update
... why did this one seem so familiar? Apparently I read it last summer! Still a decent volume... not a cohesive story, unfortunately, but still the same old Guardians.

[Marisoul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know if it was indeed the "best story ever" but Nebula was there and that's enough for me.

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bunch of reprints...many of which were free.

Okay stories, but really does not feel like much of a linkage for a collection.

[blank]

A swashbuckling, action-packed comic book with great drawings and grippling storylines. Especially Rocket Raccoon and Groot have big parts.

[Janice · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[Colin Parfitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short Guardian stories. Nothing particularly bad, but nothing memorable either.

[WyrmbergSabrina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm fairly sure I've read this before.
An interesting collection of random tales from the Guardians. Everyone gets a moment to shine, but as always, Rocket does get the best moments.
There's some old school comics included too, which give a very different origin story for Drax compared to the movie version.
Not bad.

[German]

Can I just freaking read this please