Thursday, April 19, 2018

Pros: Indestructible, still has five claws, shiny. Cons: Can no longer get items from top shelf.


This issue had a shiny, foil-embossed cover; and luckily enough it answers a question from the last issue of this series we looked at. From 1993, Guardians of the Galaxy #39, "Skeletal Remains" Written by Michael Gallagher, pencils by Keith West, inks by Steve Montano.

The Guardians both don't have much to do this issue, but are also barely recognizable: Vance Astro was Major Victory and no longer in his spacesuit, Charlie-27 seems less huge and squat and recently had his hair burned off, Talon was still here instead of Yondu or Martinex, etc. Instead, as promised on the cover, most of this issue was the fight between Wolverine's psycho descendant Rancor and Dr. Doom, who had survived to the 31st century by taking up residence in Wolverine's adamantium skeleton! Rancor might not have a chance, except she has the traditional healing factor, and one of Wolverine's claws that she used as an indestructible shiv. She stabs Doom in the eye, then gets him with a power cable, but stupidly doesn't finish the job by shoving the claw into his brain. Doom recovers and tears Rancor up, but then has to flee when the Guardians' Yellowjacket gets too close to his good eye. (This was the former villain Rita Demara, in a new costume to boot.)

(EDIT: I swear I've seen "Spock-ears" used as an insult in another Marvel book, probably against Namor; but I'm not sure why it would be considered an insult. Spock is cool!)

Rita takes Rancor up to the Guardians' ship for medical treatment, but too late remembers about the healing factor. (Would she have known that? I don't know if that was common knowledge, especially when she left the 20th century...) Rancor steals a shuttle and escapes, rescuing her mutant crew to boot; but the Guardians still get to count it as a win, since they've just helped re-establish formal government on earth. The President rattles off several of the terrible events that had happened since the Badoon invasion and occupation; as well as her intention to restore "order, stability and literacy to what remains of these United States!" Those would be worthy goals for any president...Giving the government a little more legitimacy, Major Victory fulfills a promise from early in this series, turning Captain America's shield over to the new president. I kinda feel like Cap would rather he still use it to fight the good fight, rather than leave it to collect dust in the Oval Office; but maybe the shield would serve as a reminder to do the right thing.

Also, that last Guardians issue we checked out had someone on the moon bossing around the Inhumans, that looked like it was probably Loki. Yep! He looks pretty damn crazy here, but he had been working for centuries on breeding Inhumans to help him destroy Thor and Asgard. Which seems like a surprisingly long game for Loki, but okay.

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