"Tweekend."

We've seen a few panels here and there of actual Darkhawk comics, and I have an actual plotline for him that's been percolating in my skull for some time and I hope to get to someday. He mentions the "Fraternity of Raptors," which I don't have a huge amount of interest in, but the family drama (as seen in Darkhawk #30) has some appeal. One of Chris's little brothers seems super big-hearted, while his other one, in another issue, had a serial killer mentor/replacement father figure! He also seemed like a jerk willing to throw Chris under the bus for all the family's assorted problems. And Chris's mom was a smokeshow! She doesn't look old enough to have a college-age son. 

The other reason Darkhawk is getting written out for a bit, is that I don't think I moved his figure for several strips! I'm glad he got made at all, sure, but he wasn't a figure they went all-out on. No swappable hands or wings.

In more cheerful news, the Crystal Method's "Tweekend" still holds up!

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"Treaty."

This isn't the usual Star-Lord, but still seems to know Rocket at least in passing. Or, it's entirely possible Rocket has a podcast or something, largely about how much 'earsh' sucks: bad food, smelly, everyone is at least slightly dumb at best... Read more!

Geez, Norrin, Homer Simpson has to go back to his old job less often than you.

Reading this one, I swear I could hear a cartoon bear mom imploring everyone to "roll it back!" But, some changes from this series maybe stuck? From 2018, Infinity Countdown #4, written by Gerry Duggan, pencils by Aaron Kuder and Mike Hawthorne, inks by Aaron Kuder, Terry Pallot, and Jose Marzan Jr.

After nearly being taken over by Ultron, the Silver Surfer seemingly ditched Adam Warlock mid-fight, as Ultron was about to launch rockets (which seems so old-school!) at the entire universe, spreading himself like an infection. The Surfer wasn't chickening out, though, as much as running to get his old boss to eat Ultron's planet: Galactus turns him down flat, since he was currently the fresh-maker er, "Life-bringer," and eating a planet...would be bad? Like him falling off the wagon?

Meanwhile, on Xandar, the Nova Corps is both surprised and mildly annoyed that Richard Rider and the Guardians of the Galaxy both survived the Chitauri and had the no-longer-planet-sized Power Stone. They may have lost Ant-Man, though...I'm pretty sure he turns up later, but couldn't tell you how: "But the important thing is, we're okay," says Rocket. Gamora wants to put together a new Infinity Watch, and Rich gives it a second, to see if maybe they did it and could go back in time and confirm...? No? All right. Rich has to take off, since his younger brother was now part of the Darkhawk-related Fraternity of Raptors. They briefly seem like they're going to pass the Power Stone like the Beastie Boys pass the mike: Gamora suggests maybe not taking it back into enemy territory, so Rich leaves the Stone with Star-Lord, although Gamora then firmly asks for it, followed by the Nova Corps claiming it was their property. With a saxophone blast, Drax takes the Stone, pissed at all of them. Then, Star-Lord is asked to consult for the Collector and Grandmaster, who have acquired the Reality Stone. Or rather, a Reality Stone: Phyla-Vell and Moondragon from a neighboring reality show up for it, explaining each universe's Reality Stone was hidden in the figurative next universe over. It didn't work here, so Star-Lord gives it to them; and they leave with a cryptic remark about "who Requiem is." (You'll be able to guess when they show; and it's not a secret for long.)

Warlock was unable to stop all of Ultron's rockets: he was rocking the half-Hank Pym face there; it's very Cyborg-Superman. I think elsewhere in the series Hank gets really got, like pretty definitively killed? His soul eaten, maybe? They briefly kind of tried to play up the metaphorical connection between Warlock and Ultron, as "sons of man." The Surfer arrives with Galactus, which Ultron laughs off; thinking it was a scam, since it was now well known that the Guardians had a fake-Galactus mech; but this was the real deal, who changes from gold to his traditional purple as he eats the planet. The rockets are destroyed, and Warlock shoots the Soul Gem out of Ultron's hand...by shooting his hand off; although the robot presumably still escapes. But while that disaster had been averted, was the price too high? Galactus now again hungered, and the Surfer was again forced into service as his herald. Which seems to happen a lot, when the Surfer doesn't have his own series? Well, like I keep saying, it's work, man. Gotta keep workin' it. Read more!

Wish I could find the button to turn the cloaking device off...

Sigh. It's getting close to the end of the year, so I should be doing more to prepare for the year-end, but I've had some injuries and some motivational trouble. I also have a ton of figures that I was super looking forward to, and have only used for background shots; but maybe today's book will help: from 1982, Star-Lord: the Special Edition, reprinting 1977's Marvel Preview #11, written by Chris Claremont, pencils by John Byrne and Michael Golden, inks by Terry Austin. (It's possible I didn't get to read this until it was reprinted again, in 1996's Star-Lord Megazine #1. I absolutely loved Marvel's Megazine reprints!)

Claremont and Byrne didn't create Star-Lord, but they reinvented Steve Englehart's character as less of a vengeance-driven obsessive and more of a swashbuckler. It's such a great one-shot it almost wraps the character: you don't really need more Star-Lord stories after this one! He and his companion, Ship, free a couple youngsters from slavery, then fight to stop an usurper and save the emperor of Sparta, who has a perhaps not-surprising connection to Star-Lord, if you've seen Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2. (No, not Ego!) Sparta and a few other aspects of this version have since been folded back into the current, largely MCU-insprired version; although I think it's a planet of jerks nowadays and not the benevolent empire we see in the Michael Golden penciled framing sequence.

One thing this version has the others do not: a Doctor Who reprint! From 1981's Doctor Who: A Marvel Monthly #52, "Spider God" Written by Steve Moore, art by Dave Gibbons. An eight-pager with the Fourth Doctor? Nothing wrong with that!

It's entirely possible that Star-Lord figure is going to turn up in a strip here again, since it was a figure I was pretty happy to get: I've bought who knows how many movie Star-Lords (four?) and never figured they would make this one. And it was a mild pain to finally get as well: my first order from Wal-Mart was cancelled, and I don't recall ever seeing it on shelves locally. You could maybe get it from Wal-Mart's site now, but the price has gotten a bit gougey. Read more!

I feel like Alan Davis was given a memo, "Draw Star-Lord more like Chris Pratt." I wonder if that's still the case, or if they're like no, draw Star-Lord like whoever now...From 2017, Guardians of the Galaxy: Mother Entropy #1, written by Jim Starlin, pencils by Alan Davis, inks by Mark Farmer.

Weirdly, while I think Knowhere cop Dietz is based on John C. Reilly as Nova Corpsman Rhomman Dey; I only see a little Zoe Saldana in Davis's Gamora. His Groot is great, though: super-expressive. This mini-series leans heavily in the movie characterizations along with the looks: the team has saved the universe, or at least a planet or two, more than once; but they're also broke, irresponsible, and prone to questionable decisions. To make some quick cash, Drax was selling his blood, to be used as a drug, until Gamora shut that down.

On the verge of cutting and running out; the Guardians get a job offer from the cops, to transport a creepy alien monk and his "Mother Stone" home. The monk tells them, their holy scripture says no more than five people can be around the stone at any given time, or something terrible and unspecified will happen. Gamora and Peter are both "whatever" to that, but the monk dies shortly thereafter of a heart attack, leaving them worried how that delivery was going to go. But they don't have time to worry, as Pip the Troll teleports in to steal it! Drax and Gamora know him, even if it's left at that: their time with the Infinity Watch, for example, is not gone into. For that matter, Pip is still able to teleport, even though he hadn't had the Space Stone in years.

Still, there's no time to dwell on that either, as five Guardians plus one troll make six, and the Mother Stone does...something.

This was a little five issue mini, which came out around about the same time as the second movie. I got it on the cheap, but just about anything Alan Davis is worth checking out. In fact, I had to check to make sure I hadn't blogged it yet!
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"The End" Week: Guardians of the Galaxy #27!

Comics are weird. Most other media, if something was cancelled like three times inside of ten years, it might not be considered viable. Today's title was cancelled in 2010 with issue #25,in 2017 with #19, and in 2015 with this issue: Guardians of the Galaxy #27, written by Brian Michael Bendis, art by Valerio Schiti. (It features "The End?" on the cover!)

Star-Lord has returned to his home planet Spartax, where he had been elected president, to replace his father; but the announcement may have attracted more problems: the Chitauri and the Kindun. The former are pretty much cannon fodder (and portrayed very much like they were in the Avengers movie) while the Kindun is controlling a living planet and looking for revenge on Thanos. Which he plans on getting by killing Gamora, which doesn't sound like it would do that much to Thanos. I'm not sure killing Gamora would be easier than killing Thanos himself, for that matter. Especially since she, and Kitty Pryde, are currently cosmically powered after the Black Vortex crossover. I didn't think anyone kept their upgrades after that one, but Gamora is flying around with glowing swords, and Kitty can change to a blue form that...does something, presumably.

While the rest of the team kill a mess of Chitauri, Gamora confronts the Kindun, and offers him the chance to leave: if she really was of Thanos, she would've murdered him outright. Somewhat surprisingly, Kindun seems to go for it, and he and the Chitauri retreat. Still, Gamora leaves the team, since she feels her relationship to Thanos has put them at risk. Back on Spartax, Star-Lord's approval rating is surprisingly not hurt by the alien invasion; and as he considers taking the job Kitty tells him she's there for him to be the best version of himself he can be. (Also, since Kitty was a super-hero veteran by that point, she tells him sometimes team members have to take off for a bit sometimes.) He wasn't going to be president, though: this was the last issue before Secret Wars. (Yeesh, 91 covers for nine issues? Again, comics are weird.) Sight unseen, I'd hazard a guess that Kitty and Gamora were both depowered by the time the next Guardians series started, or pretty shortly thereafter.
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Six or eight reboots, they might catch up to the Legion.

It's the nature of any science fiction story set in the future: after a few years of science marching on, it can start to look a bit dated. Computers and communicators and fashions start to seem clunky and antique. The alternative, I suppose, would be for the future to be in constant flux. Like today's book! From 2015, Guardians 3000 #5, "Just Like Old Times" Written by Dan Abnett, art by Gerardo Sandoval, color art by Edgar Delgado, cover by Alex Ross. (Oddly, I hadda scan that cover into the GCD; I'm always surprised when that happens.)

In the year 3014, the Guardians of the Galaxy are fighting a guerrilla war against the Brotherhood of the Badoon, a fight they had previously won! The timeline having reset, they may have fought that battle multiple times; as evidenced by their new team member Geena Drake, an earth girl who somehow sensed the temporal distortions. This issue, while in battle with the Stark--not the aliens that got Tony Stark's tech this time, as seen in the 90's Guardians book, now they were full-on robots--half the team is saved by Star-Lord. Who is still Peter Quill, but with his original helmet and Ship, in the future! Kinda cool. The other half is saved by the sudden return of a teammate they don't remember: Nikki Gold! Maybe they don't recognize her because she isn't rocking her usual flame-hair do, like she has on the cover. She also has the Captain America, or maybe a Captain America: it shares the name with the Guardians' original ship, but was a different model; underscoring for the heroes that the timeline was super garked up, to use the technical term. (Further evidenced in that Vance had Cap's shield and the star-logo communicators; both of which I think came in the 90's book, long after the Badoon were defeated.)

Hell, I'm pretty sure I have some of the rest of this series from when Hastings went down; and there are still a couple issues missing on the GCD as I write this! I want to say Marvel gave it a shot--the Ross covers are a bit more than the company has done for other titles--but it ran right into Secret Wars. I know there was some miniseries activity with the future Guardians team then, but not much now.
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Well, it's upfront about Fury being an LMD this time...

Huh, I thought this was older: from 2015, Guardians of the Galaxy Annual #1, "Homesick." Written by Brian Bendis, art by Frank Cho.

Serving a tour with the Guardians, Captain Marvel is feeling a bit homesick; when they run across something unexpected: a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier, deep in space! Manned by Nick Fury, and his all-star team including Dum-Dum Dugan, Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine, Gabe Jones, Jimmy Woo, and...Jessica Drew? Carol recognizes a younger version of her friend, who would go on to become Spider-Woman; which only adds to the mystery. Moreover, this helicarrier has been fighting Skrulls, since the original Kree-Skrull war hit earth; and the Skrulls aren't really around much anymore either: Star-Lord mentions "the whole empire went kablooey druing the Annihilation wave."

The Guardians had suspected the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents of being Skrulls, but the entire helicarrier is full of Life Model Decoys instead, locked in battle against remnant Skrull forces. This is barely a little diversion to most of the Guardians, but for Carol it was weird to see old friends who didn't really recognize her, and is feeling even more homesick at the end of the issue, where Groot gives her a hug. Not a bad little plot this issue, but mostly it's an excuse for Cho to draw S.H.I.E.L.D. as it was in its heyday.
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I'm a little bit beat this week, but had time for Star-Lord's origin recap from Marvel Spotlight #7, "Tears for the World Called Heaven" Written by Doug Moench, art by Tom Sutton, with a Frank Miller cover. I had no idea it was a Miller cover, until I saw the reprint info. The rest of the issue didn't do much for me, but here we are.

This is more just a reminder that I have some of the black-and-white Marvel magazines with Star-Lord stories, that I need to dig into at some point. That said, I did knock these out real quick:

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Today: Star-Lord visits Planet Grabby.

It's a Naughty Tentacle and a Rashomon style story? Only from mighty Marvel! From Marvel Premiere #61, "Planet Story!" Written by Doug Moench, art by Tom Sutton. Exploring the far reaches of space, Star-Lord and his ship...Ship are going over a recent mission to an unexplored alien planet. Ship's 'widget' probes showed signs of intelligent life, so Star-Lord flew down to investigate. Within thirty seconds of entering the atmosphere, he is nearly killed by a geyser and then sucked into "some sort of carnivorous plant." Star-Lord does not take these events as a sign, and presses on. More odd events occur, like quakes, before he gets to the ruins. Eventually, Star-Lord is sucked into a pulsating, living cavern; with honeycomb-like slots that he compares to morgue drawers, and that's when the tentacles start getting grabby. Next comes an automated hologram slideshow of the planet's history: the intelligent lifeforms resembling sea-monkey ads (probably due to the coloring) evolve, are preyed upon by the parasitic honeycomb, break free and build cities, then the inevitable societal collapse before abandoning the planet. However many years ago that was, the planet has begun to reclaim the cities, and the honeycomb ropes Star-Lord in and starts sucking the life out of him. But, for the second part, the narration changes from Star-Lord, to the POV of the planet! An intelligence in itself, but alone, "this planet" is thrilled to see anyone. Perhaps a little over-excited, since that's the geyser that goes off...it tries to keep its visitor from reaching the hated cities, but then shows the slideshow in the hopes of being understood: the planet wasn't a parasite feeding on the sea-monkeys, they shared a symbiotic relationship, helping each other until the aliens decided to leave. They began farming, taking from the planet and giving nothing back, until it was nearly dead. The aliens that could fled, coldly leaving their world to fend for itself as the others died out. Desperate for companionship, the planet pulls Star-Lord into itself. Understandably freaked out, Star-Lord manages to break free, and flies back to Ship. Both feelings hurt and a bigass hole shot in it, the planet doesn't try to stop him. Star-Lord runs over the recent events with Ship as he ponders what to do with this freaky planet. His first instinct is to destroy it, since it could be dangerous to others and it's really creepy; but Ship talks him out of it. The planet, still alone, wants to die at this point; but Star-Lord decides not to mess with it, but not to hang around, either. As he leaves, he's pretty sure he made the wrong choice for the wrong reason, and the planet softly weeps. I think the intention here is for the reader to feel sorry for the planet, and realize there is more to this universe than we know; and I'm sorry, but that thing creeps me right out. (I first read this comic when I was ten.) And while this isn't the first living planet in comics, it predates Mogo by a good four years. Read more!