Guardians 3000 #2 - Marvel Comics

GUARDIANS 3000 No. 2, January 2015

In many ways there is a strong sense of déjà vu with this comic’s storyline, a feeling predominantly due to the fact that “My Aim Is True” starts in an almost identical manner to the previous issue of “Guardians 3000” and continues along very lines for the first couple of pages. However this is not a case of self-plagiarism or lazy writing on behalf of Dan Abnett, nor does it stem from the need to regurgitate an earlier successful plot device in order to make this book an action-packed triumph either. It’s simply a chance for the character Geena Drake to provide any uninitiated reader with more background on the formidable super-powers of Vance Astro and cleverly show how the latest Guardian of the Galaxy is able to manipulate her knowledge of ‘this all happening before’ to positively influence events.

As a result proceedings, initially similar in nature to what Abnett has had occur before, swiftly start to veer away from the old and steer towards the new. For starters ‘Sweetgenes’ now carries a hefty looking firearm with which she noisily dispatches the odd Badoon warrior, and her brief warning to their allies within Parliament of an imminent attack provides the likes of Gladiator, Praetor of the Shi’ar Imperial Guard, and King Peter, the Star-Lord of Spartax, just enough time to establish a defensive perimeter. Something the various delegations were unable to even contemplate when the Badoon originally ambushed them prior to the time-division. Plus the half-human half-alien Starhawk is now female...

This leads to some serious action-packed fire-fights, with all the Guardians ‘dishing out’ some serious destruction upon the invading A-Sentience and its warriors. Ultimately Parliament is still lost, as indeed is the Guardian’s starship The Captain America. But due to the apparent sacrifices of Stormfront and The Supreme Intelligence, the human Drake and her team-mates are still very much alive and where there’s life there’s hope…

Somewhat disconcertingly however all of these intense pitched-battles are inconsistently, yet still competently illustrated by Gerardo Sandoval, whose pencilling seems to have lost much of its discipline from his first contribution to this title. Indeed such is the dramatic and abrupt change in the quality of the artwork that I actually had to check to see whether the Mexican graphic designer had been replaced as penciler. He has not nor has the color artist Edgar Delgado been substituted either.

The variant cover art of "GUARDIANS 3000" No. 2 by Gerardo Sandoval