Guardians of the Galaxy by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning Omnibus

Guardians of the Galaxy (2008) #1-4

by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Paul Pelletier

All that stands in the way of universal disaster is an unlikely band of cosmic misfits: the Guardians of the Galaxy, retooled for the 21st Century! Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax the Destroyer, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Adam Warlock, Mantis and the all-new Quasar - together with Cosmo the telepathic space dog - take on the universe's most dangerous menaces! COLLECTING: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (2008) 1-25; THANOS IMPERATIVE: IGNITION 1, 1-6, DEVASTATION 1; MATERIAL FROM ANNIHILATORS 1-4; MATERIAL FROM ANNIHILATORS: EARTHFALL 1-4

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Collections, Adventure, Fiction

936 pages, Hardcover

First published May 17, 2016

Reviews

[Rumi Bossche · Rating 4 out of 5]

This omnibus blew my mind, did not expect it to be this good, i like my comics grounded mostly, but this was very well done, did not know everything and missed some previous stuff that happend before this, but i had great fun, and the Thanos imperative included in this omnibus was just to good.

[Rob Marney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Guardians continues the quest to rehabilitate old goofy cosmic heroes, and does it with aplomb. These are fun big ideas that manage to give the heroes a little personality. However, like any late 2000s Marvel title, the constant crossovers mean there's no space for the book to breathe.

There's also way too much cosmic nonsense, even though the writers try really hard to lampshade it: death is a treadmill, the bad guys are always on the verge of destroying reality itself, and power levels are always at or above Adam Warlock. The MCU films had cosmic power, but they understood that most of the time you need our heroes to be confronted with problems they can solve. Guardians often feels like 2010s X-Men, where the fight is resolved by a bunch of psychics and energy blasters going at it while the rest of the team expresses how dire the situation is for 20 pages.

[Josiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marvel "Cosmic" (or at least that's what Guardian Jack Flag calls it in a reoccurring joke "I hate Cosmic stuff!") is ridiculous. And while I don't know how the rest of the comics handle it, the Guardians movies and video game bring a sort of retro-slapstick humor to make it all palatable.

And while this Omnibus has its handful of jokes including the meta one above, it is deadpan serious.

And it works.

I've never read/seen something absolutely pulpy ridiculous and so page turningly good. There maybe Marvel events Iike better, but I've never seen something this dense, weird, and good.

An absolute delight.

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun compilation to read. It is the ‘second’ volume of this series, and the omnibus is composed of all twenty-five issues of the series, plus one or two one-shots, a mini-series or two, and parts of another mini-series. So there is well over thirty issues in this collection. It moves at a pretty good clip, although the ‘narrative’ [such as it is] does go ‘all over the place.’ One does get the feeling that the authors had ‘more’ in mind for the series, but the ongoing number of comics sold did not justify the continuation of the series. Hence, it ended all-too-soon. The art is spotty [as it were] as different artists are utilized for different story arcs; I think I would have preferred it if one artist had been used during the entire run. In addition, while some of the artwork is spectacular, in other parts the artwork is distractingly bad [horrific] and takes away from the story. It was pretty bad! Continuity of artwork in conjunction with an extended story line seems to work better. Any more, though, it seemed as if Marvel was trying to create story arcs that could be published in trade paperbacks that covered three to six issues at a time. It is a pretty crazy story, as it jumps forward one thousand years into the future as well as across other dimensions and even into another universe or two.

One thing I did not like: I understand why Thanos was ‘brought back to life’, but I still did not care that he was resurrected from the dead. He died a ‘noble death’ trying to save the universe and undo the damage that he had caused during the Annihilation Wave. He should have been left dead, in my opinion, instead of stuck into a cocoon and brought back a la Adam Warlock. It is just funny how for so long Marvel would not allow heroes who had died to be brought back to life [unless a reasonable, concrete explanation could be given, such as in the case of Colossus] while villains were always brought back. It did not matter how they died, how completely they were killed, what happened to either their bodies or their consciousness. So I ‘get it’ that Thanos being stuffed into a cocoon allowed him to be revived and brought back to life, but I still did not like it. At the same time, Thanos being brought back to life was necessary for the Cancerverse to be defeated. I also ‘hated’ the end of the series, what with Starlord and Nova being stuck in this alternate universe with Thanos. I wished Thanos had been left behind in this now-sealed universe, all alone, forever and ever amen.

One thing that I ended up liking more than I thought I would: I thought the Cancerverse, where Life had ‘defeated’ Death, was a brilliant idea, after reading it a second time around. The first time I read it, I was ‘meh, this is stupid.’ This time, though, I was able to appreciate the story [and the art] more than the first time. It was an interesting concept, to have a universe in which Death does not exist and is not a possibility. At the same time, this was obviously not truly the case. Death did exist in the Cancerverse – it just depended on who the authors wanted to live and to die. The Guardians come across a batch of sentient mechanical life forms in the form of ISAAC, the Vision, Machine Man, Jocasta, and some other A.I.’s. During the course of the conversation, it is learned that those who opposed the Captain Mar-Vell of the Cancerverse were indeed killed off; thus, Death had not truly ‘died’ in this universe. So it really did not make much sense for Thanos to truly be an ‘avatar of death’ that reintroduced Death into this undying universe. So, while I liked the idea and the concept, it did not really work in the exposition or telling of the story.

I liked most of the story arcs; some of the arcs were a bit lame. I am unsure of how I felt about having the Guardians constantly battling the Universal Church of Truth. The Universal Church of Truth felt like it was a bunch of stereotypes that the authors used to create a straw foe to be knocked down via pithy comments and smart remarks by the Guardians. It also allowed many of the “followers” [agents / officers] of the Church to be killed by the likes of Gamora, Drax, and even Phyla-Vell.

I loved the Annihilators! The artwork for their issue was wonderful. I thought it was a great idea, to have a group of the most powerful beings in the universe, to work together to prevent future wars and outbreaks of violence. The group was composed of Ronan the Accuser, Guardian of the Shi’ar’s Imperial Guard, Beta-Ray Bill, the Silver Surfer, and Wendell Vaughn aka Quasar. At one time, Richard Rider aka Nova was a part of the group when it initially formed, but that changed after the Cancerverse was closed off to the 616-Universe.

I also loved the portrayal of Galactus and some of the other representations of universal cosmic abstractions joining the battle to keep the Cancerverse from invading the 616-Universe any further. That was some beautiful artwork!

As much as I ‘hate’ Blastaar [almost as much as Annihilus], I did love his quip to Medusa, about how life in the Negative Zone taught individuals to never make a threat / promise they could not keep. That was awesome! [Well, awesome might be too strong of a word, but I still loved it!]

I was also happy to see Jack Flagg restored to ‘prominence’ and full health in this series. I always hated what Bullseye did to him in the Thunderbolts issues where Osborne was in charge and hunted down the heroes during the events in Civil War. So it was great to have Jack’s back healed such that he was able to walk around and join the Guardians as a full-fledged team member and become involved in various missions. I felt he was a welcome addition to the team.

Some of the covers are pretty spectacular, as well.

The first series lasted for sixty-two issues; it is a shame this series did not last half as long as the first. It had a lot of promise going for it, yet it seemed like it was rushed at the end to 'finish' the various story arcs that were running at the time. I would have liked to have seen this series run for longer than it did.

Overall, it was a fun compilation to read. Plus, it was easier to read as my copies of the comics are scattered throughout my collection. This allowed me to read the series without having to dig through my collection to put it together to read the issues. I can see myself rereading it again, sometime, I enjoyed it so much.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the true GotG that made me fall in love with cosmic marvel, back when I read it before I even had this page, and how remarkable it holds up now. The Guardians you know and love wouldn't exist without this run, and it's colorful and various cast of members.

Cosmic anomalies, skrulls, betrayal, being caught between the two sides of the WoK, and combating freakish aliens from beyond our universe; and a mad titan for good measure. It's all so on point, even with the rotating lineup of artists. It even pays homage to the guardians of the far future, and incorporates them into the narrative.

I could really gush about this run on and on, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to get the team, beyond the films, even if the Bendis run is closer to those. With the main run done, I got Realm and Thanos Imperative left!

[Adam Spanos · Rating 3 out of 5]

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY BY ABNETT & LANNING OMNIBUS is cosmic level stuff for the feature films. It’s got action, humor, and plenty of large scale stories worthy of the “Marvel cosmic” title. It has everything that you're expecting from a Guardians of the Galaxy omnibus to have, along with the damned superhero-comic feature, where some characters (and there are actually tons of them) dies and comes back to life at least twice.

[Nicky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this was my 2nd run through the DnA GotG series and I loved it just as much this time around. The prologues added to the collection did a good job of setting the stage where cross-over events occurred so I didn't feel like I was lost when following the story. It was my first time reading the Rocket and Groot excerpts from the Annihilators series and although I didn't like the art, the stories were fun to read. I'd highly recommend reading this run.

[Valdemar Lenschow · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of fun sci-fi action but also a lot of the things with Marvel i do not love. Too much previous stuff being essential, cross overs stories which don't get resolution on their own and a the feeling that the resolution in the end is mostly pointless since everyone will come back at a later point, as death is mostly meaningless have in big superhero franchises.

[Lindsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

What worked for me: most of the writing and plot (must say tho these plot twists are only ok in context of superhero comics or Latin soaps)

What didn’t work for me: portrayal of women and general super-sexualized imagery

[James Ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great ending to a great series. Volume 2 had a massive amount of twists and turns. The storyline was amazing. The illustrations were fantastic and the surprises in this book blew my mind. Highly recommend to anyone

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was honestly shocked at just how much I enjoyed this. I enjoyed Annihilation and Annihilation: Conquest just fine, but Abnett & Planning really up their game here. Good character building and fantastic plotting. It's a perfect rollercoaster with characters you care about.

[Travis ARNOLD · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so good. Such a great story. I only realized until later that this was the first GOTG with Star Lord, Drax, Gamora, Rocket, etc. It is such a good story, ending with the Thanos Imperative. I just really really loved it. Well done Dan and Andy.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's interesting to see where some of the character and plot threads hinted at in the films might have gone. Unfortunately, this collection suffers from the same disjointed episodics and uneven art and writing as other Marvel collections I've read. The writing and art here for two-thirds is awesome but that remaining third is barely serviceable. The series does manage to stick the landing and go out with a bang. Good overall, it just deserved better consistency in its realization.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best contained runs Marvel has published, this volume contains all of Abnett and Lanning's Guardians run, all of the Thanos Imperative, and the Rocket and Groot back ups from Annihilators. If you have any interest in Marvel's cosmic side or want to see what inspired the movie, this is worth checking out

[Simon Farrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a good run, but personally, you would be far better off reading the three War of King's omnibuses to get the complete story.