Review: Guardians of the Galaxy #8 (Bendis)

Bendis’ “Dark Reign” of Marvel Cosmic continues with the travesty that is GotG #8.

The characterization is just bad. That’s all there is to it.  Either Bendis doesn’t understand the characters or he’s hell-bent on creating the perfect antithesis of DnA’s vastly superior characterization. Whatever his motivation may be, he apparently doesn’t understand that what he’s doing is just not working.

Since when is Star-Lord dopey, feckless, indecisive, and hen-pecked by Gamora?  Since when is Gamora a nag with an obsession to kill Thanos?  Since when does Drax NOT have an obsession to kill Thanos? Since when could Drax be stopped from trying to kill Thanos anytime Thanos is anywhere near him?

And don’t get me started on the mangling of Rocket’s characterization. Once again Bendis can’t resist trotting out the catch-phrase he apparently hopes to smear across thousands of t-shirts bearing Rocket’s image.

The drama is contrived, the dialogue is stilted, the (attempted) humor falls short, and the deus ex machina of Angela’s “big save” at the end is completely predictable.

Whereas previously the art and coloring were the high points of this book – both are sorely lacking this issue.  Characters’ features are poorly defined, the coloring is bland, and there’s an overall feel of lifelessness.

There were two high points this issue:  First, no Tony Stark.  Second, no letters page from insufferable “editor” Stephen Wacker. 

In short, Bendis continues his relentless driving of Marvel Cosmic into the ground – as aided and abetted by Wacker, Brevoort, Alonso, and Loeb.  Apparently the Bendis-zombies and Avengers-zombies who keep buying this book can’t get enough of the smug triteness that defines everything Bendis, but I had enough of it halfway through issue #1.  Do yourself and cosmic a favor and boycott this book until a better writer is assigned who actually likes and understands the characters.