Guardians of the Galaxy 52 was cover dated September 1994 and was cover dated July 1994, sharing the spinner racks with Animal Man #75, Concrete: Killer Smile #1, Giant Size Matra #1, Solo #1, Spider-Man 2099 Annual #1 and Wetworks #1.
And ye came unto me was written and drawn by the usual suspects, words by Michael Gallagher, pencils by Kevin West and inks by Steve Montano and opens with an alarm getting Yondu, Vance, Nikki and Yellowjacket out of their beds and the crew racing to find Cuchulain being thrown through a bulkhead by a ferocious Talon, enhanced by the Trans-Molecular Reconstitutor. Vance steps in and splits the pair up, the girls take Cuchulain to make sure he’s ok and Yondu offers to help the almost feral Talon while he is in such an agitated state.
Vance then tries to find Aleta who is training. After showing off her new costume, she rebuffs him. Tired of this hot and cold from her, he tells her to man her station and prepare to enter orbit of Stockade.
Meanwhile on Stockade, Charlie-27 is still getting beatings from Tork and his goons and the guards are still keeping him from the infirmary till he signs the confession of crimes he did not commit. Dropped back in his cell, Charlie-27 is in a bad way, Diablo, his clearly unhinged cell-mate offers him potions to make him good as new, or maybe even better.
The Guardians speak to the Warden of Stockade, who agrees to allow a delegation to come to Stockade, on the condition that there are no women. The women on the Icarus are enraged, but Vance decides to make use of this. Nikki, Aleta and Yellowjacket are to remain on the ship at battle stations, while Vance and Cuchulain go down and talk with the Warden.
Elsewhere on the ship, Yondu is having a hard time calming the increasingly hostile Talon, Yellowjacket tries to give Talon his amulet back, thinking it may be a calming influence. Instead it makes him more power hungry and with this in mind he grabs the amulet. Krugarr, the Sorceror Supreme appears before them and admonishes Talon for his intent with the amulet. Talon is having none of that and grabs Krugarr by the throat. Krugarr swats him away, clearly furious with how Talon has changed and ends their association, taking the amulet and tele-porting away before Yondu can ask for his aid. Yellowjacket offers to shrink Talon down to make him more manageable.
On the bridge, Nikki is surprised by the appearance of the mutant SideStep, who holds her in place and tells her that she has had enough of Rancor’s treatment of her and wants to ruin her plans to frame Charlie-27 for the crimes of Ripjak. She gives her one clue. “Think about the scar.’
On Stockade, the Warden shows Vance the proof her has, including a recording which shows Charlie blowing up a planet and the DNA records which match Charlie’s military records. Cuchulain has had enough and grabs the Warden, as he does so he is set upon by the Jadroxian Gladiator guards. Rather than feeling worried, Cuchulain is thrilled and asks Vance to go get Charlie, while he has some fun.
The Warden calls down to one of the sub-levels and orders a double D alert. A frightened guard presses a button to turn the TV off, pointing out that Cuchulain has ordered the cartoons turned off. This enrages the person watching the cartoons and we have the first Guardians of the Galaxy appearance of Drax the Destroyer.
Notes:
The Charlie-27/Ripjak story finally steps into high gear, it’s been a slow build up, but it’s been worth it.
The team is fracturing even more now, with several tensions bubbling away.
It was fun to see everyone running out of bed to see what the problem is, Nikki in slippers, running is just hilarious to me.
The scene were Krugarr washes his hands of Talon is a nice poignant moment, almost wasted in the way this issue flows, but it does put Talon firmly on this new beast-man path.
The no women on Stockade seems oddly sexist for the future in space, but it does give Cuchulain reason to be on the prison planet.
Diablo having seemingly lost his mind, makes a lot of sense, over a thousand years old and he wasn’t mr stable to begin with, but his helping of Charlie tells you that there’s something else going on in his head.
This is the first appearance in the Guardians of Drax the Destroyer, who has since become very famous in the relaunched Guardians of the Galaxy team. At this point in the main continuity, he had been resurrected by his daughter Moondragon and had come back damaged, most of his intelligence had been lost and he was quite child-like. This is the version we got here and the idea of him being a last resort weapon is kind of funny and leaves you with a great to be continued.
NEXT TIME: It kicks off.
Standing Guard 