“Yesterday’s” Comic> Guardians Of The Galaxy #14

“They want WHO to play me in the movie?”

Guardians Of The Galaxy #14

Marvel Comics (July, 1991)

I’ve never really followed this series, so bear with me.

Stranded near the planet Sarka, home of the Universal Church Of Truth, the Guardians are attacked by a 31st Century space-faring version of Ghost Rider called Spirit of Vengeance, who has a major hatred for the Church. It doesn’t help that one of the team, the shapeshifting Replica, is a member. While they’re eventually able to convince Spirit of Vengeance that they aren’t in league with the Church, the Guardians are taken prisoner by the leader (who if you asks me looks like a four-armed MODOK Klingon) who plans to forcibly  convert the crew into loyal members. This causes Replica to choose between her faith and her friends and with the aid of the Spirit, the crew escape. Meanwhile, events involving Guardians Starhawk and Aleta are set into play but I don’t know what’s going on there.

What they got right: The art is pretty good so the eyesore that is 90’s comics must start later in the decade. This could easily have been a denouncement of all faith, but Valentino is quite fair at least to the idea of faith and religion, even if the Universal Church of Truth is hardly a good one. There’s a debate at one point between Yondu and Vance that is fair to both opinion, and this is long before 9/11 made disliking any religion an issue.

What they got wrong: Like I said, I haven’t followed this series. Was making a 31st century version of Marvel heroes/villains something that happened a lot, like the 2099 series? He doesn’t do a lot in this story and I’m not sure removing him would change too much.

Recommendation: This seems like a pretty good series even if it isn’t drawing me in personally. Maybe a few more issues would convince me since they seem like interesting characters, but my current financial and spacial budgets (I’m running out of room up here) make it a bit picky at the moment.

(I’m not sure how many of these characters will end up in the movie since I’m betting it follows the more recent series that takes place in the modern day.)