“Yesterday’s” Comic> Guardians Of The Galaxy FCBD 2014

Can you find Waldo?

Free Comic Book Day 2014 (Guardians Of The Galaxy)

Marvel Comics (May, 2014)

COVER ART: Sara Pichelli & Justin Ponsor

“Welcome To The Guardians Of The Galaxy”

WRITER: Brian Michael Bendis

PENCILER: Nick Bradshaw

INKER: Scott Hana

COLORIST: Morry Hollowell

LETTERER: Cory Petit

EDITORS: Stephen Wacker & Ellie Pyle

Thanos: “The Infinity Revelation”

WRITER/PENCILER: Jim Starlin

INKER: Andy Smith

COLORIST: Frank D’Armata

LETTERER: Joe Caramagna

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Jake Thomas

EDITOR: Tom Brevoort & Wil Moss

Spider-Man: “Staging Ground”

WRITER: Dan Slott

PENCILER: Giuseppe Camuncoli

INKER: John Dell

COLORIST: Edgar Delgado

LETTERER: Cory Petit

EDITORS: Stephen Wacker & Ellie Pyle

If you wanted to know about the Guardians at this point in Marvel history, this works. Tony is telling Flash Thompson, at the time acting as Agent Venom, about the team as he suggests Flash join them as Earth’s representative. There’s so much talking I pretty much ignored the art, then went back and found that uninteresting. You know how in more recent fight scenes there are too many camera angles up close so you can’t really enjoy the action? That’s basically this story. I did learn that Peter didn’t want to be Star-Lord, the opposite of his attitude towards the name in the MCU (or at least in Avengers: Infinity War).

The Thanos tale is a preview for the graphic novel of the same name. Thanos feels something is off after his latest return to the dead. Projecting his image to Grax he learns only that Grax still wants him dead. So he visits the Infinity Well hoping it might have some answers. Too bad he’s no longer welcome in Death’s place. Maybe it’s because I’m not all that drawn to Thanos but while a decent preview it really didn’t interest me personally in looking into the graphic novel.

Spider-Man’s story actually takes place in another dimension, with a different Peter Parker. This Spider-Man uses his powers as part of a traveling performance troupe in maybe the 1800s? Maybe earlier? I think it’s based on an alternate universe story they made before. It doesn’t matter because he’s killed by Morlun to introduce the events of “Spiderverse”, the original event story where Morlun was hunting various alternate universe versions of Spider-Man to kill them off. It’s basically a “crisis of infinite Spider-Men” as they kill off alternate takes of Spider-Man over the years. That’s not the kind of story I want to see, and if you were a fan of any of these alternate takes over the years…well, sucks to be you. Slott demands a body count. It just makes want to go back to reading one of his older superhero stories when he still wrote good takes on superheroes instead of joining the kill crew of DC and Marvel writers.

Overall this is not really a comic that holds up. The previews worked back then but now you could just go get those books or trades. It’s not really one worth tracking down unless you want the complete set of Marvel Free Comic Book Day offerings or just a complete Marvel library.