Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 4: Original Sin

Guardians of the Galaxy (2013) (Collected Editions)

by Brian Michael Bendis, Ed McGuinness (Illustrator), Valerio Schiti (Illustrator)

Remember when Star-Lord, Thanos and Nova were trapped in the horrific Cancerverse? When Star-Lord and Nova were going to sacrifice their lives to take out Thanos once and for all? And remember how Drax was supposed to have died? But Star-Lord, Drax and Thanos seem to be running around just fine nowadays. So what exactly happened to Richard Rider? It’s finally time to get some answers about the true ending of the Cancerverse saga! Then, when Venom leads the team to an entire world teeming with his fellow alien symbiotes, will the Guardians ever trust Flash Thompson again? His symbiote is becoming more and more uncontrollable, and this may be seriously bad news for the team. Plus: What is a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier doing in space?!

Collecting: Guardians of the Galaxy 18-23, Annual 1

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

121 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 31, 2015

About the author

A comic book writer and erstwhile artist. He has won critical acclaim (including five Eisner Awards) and is one of the most successful writers working in mainstream comics. For over eight years Bendis’s books have consistently sat in the top five best sellers on the nationwide comic and graphic novel sales charts.

Though he started as a writer and artist of independent noir fiction series, he shot to stardom as a writer of Marvel Comics' superhero books, particularly Ultimate Spider-Man.

Bendis first entered the comic world with the "Jinx" line of crime comics in 1995. This line has spawned the graphic novels Goldfish, Fire, Jinx, Torso (with Marc Andreyko), and Total Sell Out. Bendis is writing the film version of Jinx for Universal Pictures with Oscar-winner Charlize Theron attached to star and produce.

Bendis’s other projects include the Harvey, Eisner, and Eagle Award-nominated Powers (with Michael Avon Oeming) originally from Image Comics, now published by Marvel's new creator-owned imprint Icon Comics, and the Hollywood tell-all Fortune and Glory from Oni Press, both of which received an "A" from Entertainment Weekly.

Bendis is one of the premiere architects of Marvel's "Ultimate" line: comics specifically created for the new generation of comic readers. He has written every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man since its best-selling launch, and has also written for Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men, as well as every issue of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, Ultimate Origin and Ultimate Six.

Brian is currently helming a renaissance for Marvel’s AVENGERS franchise by writing both New Avengers and Mighty Avengers along with the successful ‘event’ projects House Of M, Secret War, and this summer’s Secret Invasion.

He has also previously done work on Daredevil, Alias, and The Pulse.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, a few years ago Nova & Star-Lord sacrificed their lives* to save us from the Cancerverse by shoving Thanos in there and trapping him (and themselves) inside, right?
*see The Thanos Imperative - Amazing Anne
And yet, Peter has been bopping around all over the place, as though that little adventure never happened.
What? Now that they've got a movie, he doesn't need to stick with any sort of continuity?!



Well, apparently, he does. And the explanation for that little adventure is the first half of this volume.
I loved it!
Although, to be honest, I'd been wondering if I had missed out on some random comic book that told this story for a while now, so I was pretty friggin' happy to finally find out what happened to them.
The rest of you (who have a life) probably won't give a shit, but I was all aflutter with excitement.



The second half is all about Flash Thompson & the origins of the Venom symbiote. The Guardians run into Flash (they lost him in the last volume), but the symbiote is all wonky/insane, so they have to gently sedate him to bring him on board the ship.
{Bad Things Happen}



{More Bad (but hilarious) Things Happen}



Anyway, there's an entire planet of these things, and they want to have a little chat with Flash & Friends. Apparently, there is quite a bit of misinformation about Venom, and they would like a chance to set the record straight.



I may be in the minority, but this is still one of the titles that I reallyreally look forward to reading. There's just something about this one that makes me happy!

[Kemper · Rating 3 out of 5]

”The entire galaxy is a mess. Warring empires and cosmic terrorists plague every corner. Someone has to rise above it all and fight for those who have no one to fight for them. PETER QUILL a/k/a STAR-LORD, GAMORA, the most dangerous woman in the universe, DRAX THE DESTROYER, CAPTAIN MARVEL, VENOM, ROCKET RACOON and GROOT are the…GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY.”

So a funny thing happened back in The Thanos Imperative which functioned as the finale to the Abnett and Lanning run of this title. That ended with one member of the Guardians dead while Star-Lord and Nova deliberately trapped themselves in the alternate dimension known as the Cancerverse in a heroic attempt to stop Thanos once and for all.

And that was the end of Guardians of the Galaxy.

Except that a few years later Marvel went a little kooky and decided to greenlight a movie about a little known team that included a talking space raccoon and a walking tree. So a new book with Brian Michael Bendis was started with essentially the same members that the film would feature with a few other characters like Iron Man and Angela stopping in just long enough to have a cup of coffee and punch a bad guy. The strange thing was that the dead character was back, Peter Quill had somehow escaped the Cancerverse, and no mention was made of how this happened.

It’s not like this would be the first time that a comic publisher and its fans would make an unspoken agreement to ignore something, but that's usually reserved for bad stories. (The Spider-man clone saga was kept safely locked in the basement for years.) The Thanos Imperative was actually pretty good so this was a little odd. There were hints that what happened would be dealt with, but it’d been a good long while of the Guardians having adventures and many, many, many crossovers.

But now Gamora has decided she wants some answers which she demands of Peter, and his story is disturbing to say the least. It turns out that he and Nova thought they were pulling a Butch & Sundance, but instead they were trapped with an angry Thanos in a universe where none of them could die as they fought over a knock-off version of the Cosmic Cube. Things got ugly in a horror movie kind of way, and the results were a resurrected team member and Peter back in his home dimension. However, the cost was high including letting Thanos back into their reality again.

That’s the best part of this story although the second half of this one also has its twisted charms when the alien symbiote Venom, which has been hitching a ride on legless Flash Thompson, decides it’s time to return to its homeworld. Hilarity ensues including various members of the Guardians getting temporarily Venomized. (Rocket as Venom is a particular treat.) The results are interesting but seem to retcon a lot of what we’ve learned about Venom over the years. Ah, what the hell. The new Secret Wars is gonna wipe all this crap out shortly anyhow.

Oh, and Captain Marvel shows up at the end with big news. That’s about all she does. Because why would you want one of the most powerful heroes in the Marvel universe around cluttering up the joint when you’re fighting to control an alien symbiote?

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 4 out of 5]

First storyline with Quill's tale about Richard Rider's fate in the Cancerverse was just so epic and good that you can forgive Bendis for forgetting about Nova Prime's invulnerability and let corrupted Steven Rogers (Earth-10011) cleave his arm throwing a shield... Oh, good grief.



The Planet Venom second storyline started for good too, a funny version of Alien (1979) aboard Guardians' ship with the symbiote playing the xenomorph role, but the ending with Bendis' totally ignoring and rewriting previous continuity about the symbiotes homeworld was a total letdown for me.





Luckly artworks were far better than awful ones in previous volume.

[Terence · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this volume has two distinct storylines in it so I want to discuss both. The first storyline revolves around Gamora deciding Peter Quill will tell her the truth about how he, Drax, and Thanos survived the Cancerverse.

Since Quill has no other choice if he wants to leave the room alive, he tells her.



Since comic books have endless amounts of unbelievable ways characters survive and are resurrected I wasn't particularly interested. The story was hardly groundbreaking stuff and it wasn't even funny. 2 out of 5 stars

Now the second story is far more interesting. The Guardians lost Flash Thompson and the Venom symbiote a while back. They haven't had a chance to find him yet, but it seems fortune shined on them as Gamora came across them.

Unfortunately the symbiote is behaving in quite the unstable manor and once it is separated from Flash it starts wreaking havoc.


This storyline was much funnier and more entertaining. A lot of information is provided on the symbiote that was never previously known and only hinted on in earlier volumes. Seeing the symbiote fight the Guardians on its own was fun. 4 out of 5 stars.

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've never read The Thanos Imperative, so the first storyline was mostly lost on me. In fact, I was kind of confused until I saw that it was referring back to a story from a few years ago, because it doesn't fit with the current stuff. Basically, it's a flash back to events of the previous book, apparently rounding out and/or clarifying the original story. Or something, I don't know. Like I said, mostly lost on me.

The second storyline deals with the Flash version of Venom. Mostly his symbiote, in fact. This was kind of a cool story. Seeing Flash lose control of Venom, and seeing Venomed out versions of Rocket and Drax, all pretty cool. So was the symbiote planet. Was the payoff ultimately worth it? Not exactly sure. But hey, at least it was fun to read.

I have absolutely no doubt that if I had read The Thanos Imperative, I would have liked seeing resolution to that story here. That I couldn't get into it is probably partly my fault for not having read the background. Then again, Guardians probably has more than a few newer fans who haven't read all those old books.

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really didn't think the big "Original Sin" reveal was all that compelling, but at least the overall story is somewhat moving.

Also, interesting choice on the artist, Valerio Schiti to use Seth Meyers as a model for Peter Quill. Never see it coming.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bendis does like to be inconsistent with his Guardians of the Galaxy run. It started of really good, and since it's been up and down. This volume is a bit of both. While the Original Sin tie-ins about what REALLY happened to Nova in the Thanos Imperative look good with the Ed McGuiness art, they don't really add much to the story and instead drag out a story over too many issues.

Then there's the annual with Frank Cho which sees the Guardians take on a rogue squadron of SHIELD agents in space lead by Nick Fury. This is pretty good and works as a one and done annual.

The volume wraps up when the Guardians head to the Planet of the Symbiotes. Remember that arc of Mighty Avengers when Bendis had the Symbiotes join with most of the Avengers? Well, that happens here. But this time we get to see Venom Groot and Rocket. Yeah, it's good. But it's bests we've seen before. What redeems this part of the arc is that we do eventually get some background into the history of the symbiote and it becomes more than 'that thing spider-man brought home from Battleworld'. It's pretty cool.


But it's inconsistent. I keep thinking this should be better than it is. Because Bendis can be great when he wants to be. While I appreciate the meta references like Quill wearing a Hawkeye t-shirt and having a Thanos bobbing head, I want him to deliver more on the stories.

This book has the potential to be better than his Avengers run, it's just not getting there.

[Subham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a great volume and like explains how Star-Lord and Drax escaped the cancerverse and their time there trapped along with Thanos and also how Nova sacrificed himself to make sure they could go out and its such an emotional story and what it does to Gamora. Ahh Bendis knows how to write a last stand type of story and gives an epic ending to Nova and also closes the ch. on what happened to one of the legendary heroes.

Then the other story is the return of Agent Venom and what havoc the symbiote causes when it gets loose but then they go to the Planet of the Symbiote aka the Kylntar home world and what they discover there and the true origin of the species!

Its an epic volume with loads of revelations that changes a lot about the MU and also gives great moment to Nova and Agent Venom and the art by McGiness and Schitti is so good here and I love it! Bendis really taps into the heart of the characters plus that wild ending wow! A must read volume for sure and the best one so far!

[Petergiaquinta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not quite sure how this volume fits into the Original Sin sequence; as far as I can tell there is no specific connection here to the events on the Moon when Uatu is murdered, his eyes taken, and the events that unfold thereafter. Nonetheless, there’s plenty to like in this book and I even learned a few things.

For example, we now understand what transpired in the Cancerverse that allowed Peter Quill and Drax to return to our dimension, along with ol’ Purple Puss, but not Richard Ryder.

We see Flash Thompson struggling with the Venom symbiote, which has grown wildly out of control the further he goes into the reaches of the galaxy. (For those of you who have’’t been keeping score for the past few decades, Flash went off to Iraq, got his legs blown off, bonded with the symbiote and became an Avenger before being assigned as their representative to the Guardians of the Galaxy. I know, I know, he has certainly come a long way since back in the day when he was most famous for being a total dick in high school to Peter Parker.)

We later see the Venom symbiote run amok on Quill’s ship and take over the various members of Guardians of the Galaxy, and as Warren Zevon once said, “It ain’t that pretty at all.” (I will say, though, while the Rocket/Venom symbiote is rather disturbing, I kind of like the Drax/Venom version.) Eventually, the symbiote take our GG friends all the way to Klyntar, the homeworld of the symbiotes, and I’m pretty sure this is the first time we have seen their planet, so that’s pretty cool.

Rather ironically, it turns out that the Klyntar are a rather pleasant entity on their homeworld, which comes as a surprise both to the Guardians and to me the reader, and would make you wonder why Venom, Carnage, Toxin, and all the others we’ve met on Earth are such rapaciously violent a-holes. But apparently it all has something to do with what happens to the symbiote when it is fractured from the hive mind of the Klyntar on their own world and fragmented into individual beings. (So you might say it’s a little like the inverse of the Republican species in Amurica—when part of the hive mind, they are ignorant dickish assholes whose avarice and hatred leads to great destruction, but when breaking off from the whole and thinking for themselves, they show that they can be capable of rational thought and constructive action, and maybe even behave as decent, humane individuals.)

And finally, well after nearly fifty years I learned here that Flash Thompson’s real name is “Eugene”! Who knew? Well, the symbiotes of Klyntar for starters, that’s who. And now I do.

[Judah Radd · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMFG THIS IS A MUST READ!!

First half finally answers the questions related to how Thanos, Drax and Quill survived The Thanos Imperative. It’s a doozy.

The second half is all about Klyntar and the Symbiotes!!!

So much cool shit is revealed. I love it.

The art from Ed McGuinness and Valerio Schiti was badass, paired with exquisite, clever writing from Brian Michael Bendis. Such a treat.

This title started strong, but Vol 4 takes it to the next level!!! DEF read!

[Lucie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Cancerverse! The Venom storyline! Peter Quill and Kitty Pryde dating! This one was great, I can't wait to see how it will wrap up in the next volume.

[Emmett Spain · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm told that in order for the first half of this trade to make sense, you need to have read The Thanos Imperative. I found this out after I read it.

To be fair, it still makes sense. I was just hard pressed to care. The story would have a lot more meaning, I think, for those whose curiosity will finally be sated by a gaping plot hole finally being addressed.

The second half of the story was much more my cup of tea, with the Venom symbiote taking turns infecting the Guardians crew. Wackiness ensued. I particularly enjoyed the character design in the latter half of this volume, even if the denouement was just a tad convenient.

A fine little diversion for a lazy afternoon. Black Vortex, here I come.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this volume, we FINALLY find out what happened in the Cancerverse and what happened to Richard Rider. I don't want to give away any spoilers but I think it's really going to polarise people reaction-wise. Personally, I liked the story and the outcome.
I also loved the second half of this book and what Bendis has done with Flash Thompson/Venom. Again, I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll leave it there.

[Grace Arango · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars.

So... this one was kind of a mess.
I was very interested seeing how the cancerverse was presented in this volume and I liked the 1st half of this volume where Quill is telling the story of what happened to Richard Ryder. I liked it, didn't love it. Expected it to go up from there and it didn't really.

But, I still enjoyed this because I'm a trashy Guardians fan. The cliffhanger of this volume was insane for me personally.

Interested to see where the last volume takes me.

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This started off real well and kind of went flat by the end.

First 3 issues cover what happened in the Cancerverse that Starlord, Nova, Thanos, and Drax got stuck in prior to this run. They somehow all got out with the exception of Nova. So Gamore pressures Quill to spill what happened, leading to a interesting, and tragic backstory. But then we flip to the venom storyline and it's pretty horrible. Just having venom jump between the guardians to get new forms to sell toys.

Wasn't fan of the second story at all but the first one was solid. 3 out of 5.

[Mantis (¯ ³¯)♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 ⭐️

🇵🇱
Rakowersum i symbionty, to była ciekawa część z przygód Petera i jego załogi ☺️

🇺🇸
Cancerverse and symbiotes, that was an interesting part of the adventures of Peter and his crew ☺️

[Remy Blas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is composed of two stories.

The first one is about what happened with Star-Lord, Nova, Drax and Thanos after the events of The Thanos Imperative, a comic that I haven't read but now I want to, because it was pretty intense and I'm pretty sure it would be even more for those who have read that story.

The second story is about Venom. After the Guardians find Flash Thompson again, the symbiote gets out of control and eventually bonds with some of the Guardians in a really fun to read adventure that ends in a very interesting way, with some really cool revelations about the symbiote species.

Both stories were surprisingly fun and entertaining, and this volume is now one of my favorites Guardians of the Galaxy comics to date.

[Capmarvell92 · Rating 1 out of 5]

From Cosmicbooknews: ''It’s no secret that I think Bendis’ run on this title has been a disaster for the concepts and characters. He may be the “go to guy” for street level stories, but he’s “lost in space.”

Leave it to Bendis to stage a throw down in the collapsing Cancerverse between Thanos, Drax, (the real) Nova, Star-Lord, and the Revengers – have it illustrated by one of the best artists in the business complete with a strikingly compelling cover (that has nothing to do with the story, of course), and then have the story be so boring and so filled with continuity errors and mis-characterizations of the lead characters that the astute cosmic reader will be left feeling some strange combination of indignation, irritability, frustration, and disappointment.

Do you think Bendis actually read and understood The Thanos Imperative before he wrote this story arc? I think he just read the “Cliff’s Notes” version of it. Then he either misunderstood and/or promptly forgot even that and just wrote whatever the hell he wanted in order to sling out this story so he could devote more time to X-Men . This story (and Bendis’ entire run on this title) reads like it’s written by a guy who doesn’t really understand cosmic, doesn’t really like cosmic, doesn’t care enough to even try to get it right, and is really just doing it to cash in on the expected sales from the movie hype.

How come E-Vell isn’t all powerful and leading The Revengers? Why is E-Vell now a lackey? How is E-Vell even alive again since death killed him, entered the Cancerverse, and is busy destroying the Cancerverse? How are The Revengers alive again? With death functioning in the Cancerverse once again, how do any of these characters keep resurrecting? You can bet none of these inconvenient continuity questions will be answered as it would take too much time away from the inane banter among the characters that Bendis just loves to shoehorn into every issue. Hey Bendis – are you a frustrated sit-com writer wannabe? It’s sure coming across that way.

Who are Thanos and Drax? Especially Drax. I’ve never seen Drax talk and act like he does in this issue. Modern Drax is a Wolverine-ish, non-sentimental, bad-ass. He wouldn’t be holding Quill’s body in his arms and lamenting his loss. He wouldn’t be working with Thanos either. If he was anywhere close to Thanos, he’d be trying to kill him. I was almost embarrassed for Drax – the way Bendis has diminished him. And Thanos? I was actually embarrassed for him. Bendis has diminished him to the level of being the butt of the joke.

In contrast to last issue, Bendis writes Quill as the 20-something-year-old doofus he’s been writing since the lamentable day he took over this title. At least he shows how Quill became a decade younger.

Of course, as we all feared, Bendis saves the worst treatment for Nova. I mean the REAL Nova, Richard Rider, of course – not Loeb’s NINO. After all, Bendis has to pave the way for NINO with this story. Rich is portrayed out of character and much weaker than he should have been. He is shown having his arm sliced off by Revenger Cap’s shield. Sorry. Not going to happen. The Nova Prime should shrug that hit off with barely a notice that he had even been hit. But that’s Bendis’ lazy storytelling and his determination to humiliate the character and flip the real Nova’s fan base the bird once again. I’m sure Bendis will conveniently ignore Nova’s regenerative ability. He’s kind of telegraphed that he will in Quill’s dialogue.

Not to mention that Revenger Cap is shown holding his original pointed shield – and Nova’s arm is shown being sliced off by a round shield. Now there’s some editing worthy of Stephen Wacker. Did Wacker come back to edit this issue? That has to be the explanation.

You know – it shows that even in an alternate universe, Bendis has to make the “Avenger-ish” characters all powerful. He can’t keep himself from doing it. He’s made the Guardians the Avengers lackeys since the deplorable day he took over this title. Makes you think he’d rather be writing The Avengers, doesn’t it? I sure wish he’d go back to The Avengers and leave cosmic alone.

Gamora and Quill continue to be written out of character in their scenes where they argue about what happened in the Cancerverse. I’m not sure why Gamora keeps accusing Quill of lying or why Quill has kept any of this a secret. I suppose Bendis is saving the horror of those reveals for the next issue. I dread reading how Bendis will disrespect the REAL Nova and his fans one last time.

This issue is just one long, disappointing game of “keep away” using the Cosmic Cube as the prize. Truth is, this whole story of playing “keep away” with The Cosmic Cube is just dumb. Nova has The Worldmind inside of him. I’m sure The Worldmind would know exactly how to use the Cube to get back to the 616 Universe. Thanos was never needed for that task and it could’ve been accomplished immediately – stranding Thanos and not requiring Quill and Rich to sacrifice themselves. Bendis completely ignores the Worldmind’s presence, of course, as that would create a problem for his weak and poorly crafted storyline. But I’m sure all the Marvel Zombies and Bendis apologists will ignore the weaknesses and continuity errors and instead will take to Facebook and insist that this story was outstanding – just as they do for all Bendis products.

In summary, don’t let the striking, compelling cover of this issue fool you. It’s the perfect Wal-Mart-ish product – looks good on the outside, but don’t look closely on the inside or you’ll find that it’s shoddy, cheap, and most likely toxic.''

[Matt (Custom Pop Form)]

This is, in my opinion, one of the best Marvel comics I have ever read. I am a bit biased, because I absolutely love the GOTG, but even so, this is phenomenal. The storyline is amazing and the artwork works with the story. We see major character developments, and the loyalty of the team is tested, and shown to be true. One character is analyzed, and the species he hosts is given major backstory. I read this at least thirty times, I just loved it so much. It is recommended for any Marvel, GOTG, or Venom fan out there.

[Roman Colombo · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a lot going on here. There's the Original Sin "crossover" which was really just Gamora forcing Star-Lord to tell the truth about how he survived the Cancerverse. It's pretty messed up.
Then there's the Venom story, where they actually visit the homeworld of the symbiotes and it's pretty awesome. Also, "I am Venom!"
And then the Annual, which was just awful and brought the whole book down a star.

[Brent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two storylines, collected: though I'd read pieces before, the stories hold up well. As they restarted the GotG, these stories are bombastic fun.
Were these tie-ins to the Original Sin, Jason Aaron crossover? Meh. Though they tie up loose ends from Marvel continuity, you don't need much else. Though I like the lead-in to next storyline at end, here.
Recommended.

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just like these.

[FrontalNerdaty · Rating 3 out of 5]

The issues contained here regarding the Cancerverse and tying Bendis’ run to Dan Abnett’s run is solid. The issues are engaging and quite fun.
Then we get x2 issues devoted to Venom and… who cares. Such a useless addition to the team. It’s somewhat surprising how badly this run suffers so early in to its run.

3/5

[Gerry Sacco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really solid trade. This is well written, well drawn, and much better than the actual event. They kept it simple but explored the more complex event. But, by staying in it’s lane, it fully explored the idea, and consequences, while having fun with the characters.

Very enjoyable.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a bit of a mixed collection of Guardians stories. First up is the book's tie-in to the big Original Sin event. Except it doesn't actually tie-in to the event at all but does contain a revelation, like many other Marvel books. Here the long-standing mystery of what happened in the Cancerverse with Starlord, Drax, Thanos and the original Nova Richard Rider is revealed.

I wasn't particularly keen on this story. Yes, it ties up some continuity issues from the end of the last Guardians run but I, and I suspect the majority of readers of this current run, wasn't really bothered by it. However, the Ed McGuiness artwork is pretty good and there's a fun appearance from the creepy Cancerverse Avengers.

Next is the Planet of the Symbiotes storyline, which sees Flash Thompson's symbiote take over the Guardians. This is pretty epic and the final third of the story finally takes us to the titular planet. I loved this part- it greatly expanded on the symbiote mythology, developed Flash Thompson and the "Venom" alias and had some gorgeous artwork. Perhaps a little out of place for a Guardians volume but Bendis has really made Venom part of the team now.

We've also got the Guardians Annual #1 story, a decent one which focuses more on Captain Marvel. There appears to be a SHIELD Helicarrier in the middle of space, which seems odd. It is.

By no means the strongest volume of this Guardians run but still pretty good and it all ends with a wonderful cliff-hanger...

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Original Sin (18-20). It's good to finally get the story of what happened between the DNA GoTG run and the Bendis one, and this story makes good use of the Cancerverse, but every thing else is a long-running fight topped by an entirely predictable sacrifice. [6/10]

Unfortunately, this was yet another three-issue long digression, underlining how little forward momentum the whole Bendis GotG has, due to an interminable number of crossovers and editorial mandates. In short, it's now been a year and a half and almost nothing has happened. When we finally get back to the main story with issue #21 ...

Symbiosis (21-23). It's more crap. Seriously? Two issues where Venom runs around and possesses different members of the Guardians? The Planet of the Symbiotes is cool when we get there (though entirely different from the Planet of the Symbiotes seen during the Spider-Clone Saga), but then it turns into a long info dump and a power-up for Flash [4+/10].

It'd sure be nice to have some Guardians stories about the actual Guardians, advancing the Guardians plotline, but I increasingly suspect that isn't happening while Bendis is in charge.

[Jordan Lahn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since I haven't read the original Guardians volume which ended with the "death" of star lord and thanos, I wasn't bothered by their reappearance, and as such the main emotional fuel of this arc was diminished for me. I'm sure fans of the Annihilation era cosmic universe appreciated having 3 issues to unpack the events that led to the return of these characters, but for me it could have been summed up in one or two lines. "We were trapped in the Cancerverse, but then we escaped. Except for Richard Rider." Fortunately, I enjoyed the Venom arc more, and the Captain Marvel centric Annual was great as well. Nice to see these Avengers representatives actually get something to do in this series. So far Venom was mostly a tag along...

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was outstanding. It supplied a lot of back story for the Guardians and the Marvel Universe in general.

The two highlights:
- We find out what happened to Nova and how Starlord, Drax and Thanos escaped the Mirror Universe they had been sent to. The conclusion is satisfying as it is tragic. The cynic in me knows this is simply Marvel retconning in order to get all these people back alive but it was a great story/battle/sacrifice.
- Even better than that, we finally find out where the Venom Symbiote comes from! Maybe this has been explained elsewhere before but I'd never seen it. Their planet was like something out of H.P. Lovecraft and it was amazing. The history and the tragedy was so cool so see. Volume four is worth it if for nothing else.

[Lissibith · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, fans of Richard Rider, this is the book you've been wanting and dreading for years. Ever since Star Lord and Rich disappeared into the canververse, we've been wondering what happened. When Star Lord returned, it got our hopes up. And then this book tells us exactly what happened, and where Rich is now.

I am not really happy, but that's par for the course, and at least it's an explanation.

The latter part of the book was pretty interesting but would probably have been even more interesting if I were invested in the character of Venom. It involves a trip to the planet where the symbiote originally came from. It was a visually interesting place, with some creative artwork.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this volume starts off a little slow, it really picks up. Star-Lord's retelling of what happened in the Cancerverse was interesting, if a bit slow.

But the team's interaction with the symbiote was great. I really enjoyed this one.