Guardians 3000 #4

Written by: Dan Abnett
Art by: Gerardo Sandoval and Edgar Delgado

Despite lifting a plot device straight from the Japanese novel, "All You Need is Kill", Abnett is delivering a complicated, dangerous, and fun book that is consistently delivering surprises to readers. 

After being attacked by a group of robotic organisms simply known as "The Stark" (the name is NOT a coincidence), the team of mostly classic Guardians of the Galaxy from the 90's was split into two. Newcomer Geena Drake, Yondu and Charlie-27 are joined by Star-Lord on their way to visit something refered to as "The Old Hunger", while Vance Astro, Starhawk and Martinex are recovering from an attack on their ship. Everything is beautifully illustrarted by Sandoval and Delgado with a very cartoon-like art style that focuses on exaggeration and bright colors, although sometimes the book can feel a little cluttered with the exaggerated action.

Despite taking place a thousand years into the future, the cast of classic Guardians is very much in the Marvel Universe and Abnett is having fun connecting this future to it's past. Whether its The Stark robotic organisms, or (the new?) Star-Lord, Abnett has tossed in easter eggs into each issue of this series. But it isn't just an ocean of inside-jokes; there's a story to be told here and characters to be developed. There's a very heartfelt moment with the leader of these Guardians, Vance Astro, and his origin and there's just the right amount of exposition concerning The Stark and its leader "A-Sentience" along with the energetic action. Abnett is a great writer and his experience is showing. He even fixed the one problem I had with the book; the amount of future-speak has been toned down immensely. Where the previous issues used made-up words that made no sense even in the context, this issue used the words mainly as substitues for foul language. 

There are a lot of people that whine about missing the Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning run of "Guardians of the Galaxy", and although it isn't a direct sequel (that's being handled by Mr. Bendis), this feels like Marvel's response to those people. Whereas the present Guardians of the Galaxy series feels like it's trying to keep things simple with it's mainstream readers. this feels like high-concept sci-fi at its best. It feels like there is a lot at stake for this group of Guardians and I'm excited to see what's going to happen in the upcoming issues. 

Oh and if you're a huge Richard Rider fan, read this series. Now.