All-New Guardians of the Galaxy #3
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Penciler: Frazer Irving
Colorist: Frazer Irving
Inker: Frazer Irving
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Release Date: 06/07/17
Price: $3.99
Plot: All-New Guardians of the Galaxy #3 follows Gamora as she does some self-discovery through the soul stone and confronts certain things from her past and other parts of her life.
Story: The fresh Guardians of the Galaxy book has the team exploring some individual roads it seems, with issue 3 focusing solely on Gamora and the fact that she is hellbent on tracking down the soul stone. The entire issue is basically a spiritual walk through her conscious, reexamining what it means to locate the stone and how it can help her.
Duggan does a nice job of diving into a fresh side of Gamora and something that almost feels like it is haunting her. The character has a long and very unique past that mainly ties her to Thanos, but more importantly, has put Gamora through a ton of stress and intensity over the years. The story has Gamora seeming lost, and the issue dives into providing her with some clarity along the way.
The best thing from a story perspective in All-New Guardians of the Galaxy #3 is that Duggan digs up some old memories for Gamora, mainly resurrecting two great characters from the old 2008 Guardians of the Galaxy run from Abnett and Lanning; Phyla-Vell and Adam Warlock. The two characters are beloved but have been completely out of the picture for years, so it’s interesting to see the characters return to the page. Whether or not there are other plans for these characters doesn’t matter, but it’s good seeing that these parts of Gamora’s past are going to be touched upon.
The story puts Gamora in a really interesting place moving forward, because she has this urge to continue pursuing this solo mission that it doesn’t feel like the other Guardians can really relate to. Hopefully it continues to build on some deeper meaning or sense of purpose that can allow the character to explore some parts of her past that have been ignored.
Art: One thing that is interesting about All-New Guardians of the Galaxy is that the art has switched from Aaron Kuder to being drawn by Frazer Irving. Irving’s style brings an interesting flavor to the book, which for the most part works in this issue. This issue specifically has an almost straight up dream like landscape and setting, and Irving utilizes the story diving into Gamora’s background as a great way to paint these mythological looking scenes to display the past. Many of the panels bleed into one another which works really well as Gamora walks these different times in history. There are many beautiful full page drawings in this book that still keep scenes feeling distinct from one another but bring a unique flare to the panels that diversifies Irving.
On the other hand though, when the book begins to move away from these broader panels and really dial in on some intense moments, the artwork can feel very hit or miss. On certain closeups of Gamora’s face there is just a lackluster amount of detail and everything feels very generic. There are certain panels where the artist provides a large amount of detail as well, but it feels overall a bit inconsistent. With how many characters and different subject’s Irving will be responsible for in All-New Guardians of the Galaxy, hopefully things will get a little bit tighter; however, the large-scale space battles and scenes should be top notch.
Verdict: The Story of All-New Guardians of the Galaxy is definitely interesting, but there are still a lot of unknowns about where the book is going to go. It was interesting to get insight into Gamora’s individual story and should eventually have an impact on the team. The difference in art style is definitely going to take some getting used to, but has it’s pros and cons. If the artwork can tighten up just a little bit and the story can begin to feel larger in scale, this book should be fine.
Rating: 3/5