Guardians of the Galaxy (Vol 1) 58

Guardians of the Galaxy 58 was cover dated March 1995 and was on sale January 1995, sharing the spinner racks with Absolute Vertigo #1,Lobo/ Deadman: Brave and Bold #1, Power of Shazam #1, Superman: Kal #1, Astonishing X-Men #1, Factor-X #1 and X-Man #1.

 

The Final Solution was written by Michael Gallagher, pencilled by Kevin West and inked by Steve Montano and opens with Talon recapping the recent events in a very clunky manner before jumping at the High Evolutionary. This doesn’t do too well and it’s leads to the rest of the team attacking, until the intervention of a giant sized Yellowjacket.

Yellowjacket points out that the High Evolutionary was once a human being and petitions for reason. High Evolutionary, Ripjak and Vance Astro talk about finding and stopping Bubonicus and the three of them tele-port over to Ripjak’s ship (currently held in a tractor beam) to pool resources. After some technobabble, the next destination of Bubonicus is the pilgrim planet Sanctuary. With the risk to the other Guardians, Vance agrees to accompany the other two alone.

To say the team takes this badly is an understatement. Charlie-27, Yellowjacket and Talon all voice their objections and as Vance leaves, Talon uses this chance to sow more discontent amongst the team over Vance’s leadership.

On Sanctuary, Vance and Rijak engage Bubonicus, whilst the High Evolutionary attends to diseased pilgrims. Vance is knocked out and when he awakens, he learns that Bubonicus has gone and that Ripjak has followed him and the High Evolutionary is about to follow, but Vance is to be left behind. Dejected, Vance contacts Icarus, but there’s no one there.

Once back on the Icarus, Vace learns that the team has been temporarily disbanded, before an election can be called for a new leader upon the team members’ return. Everyone except Yondu agreed to this, but he also left. The only person left on board with Vance is Aleta who wants to renew her relationship with Vance, reminding him that they are still engaged.

 

As the two reunite, Starhawk flies past on his search for the former Silver Surfer, Norrin Radd, whom he finds floating in space, beaten and left for dead.

Notes:

Now for some reasons we have the High Evolutionary?

Talon’s recap before his attack is just plain awkward.

Yellowjacket growing to giant size to prevent the fight, despite the very real risk of heart failure is a reminder of how criminally under-used she has been in this series.

The High Evolutionary invites Vance along because of his black body suit, then he’s considered a liability for the EXACT SAME REASON….Wtf?

It was nice seeing Vance in action.

This issue brings to an end the period of Vance being the leader, which started in #17.

This is also the end of the saga of Ripjak/Bubonicus and this starts the last phase of the series.

NEXT TIME: Starhawk’s quest and a back up feature.

 

Marvel Two-in-One 63

Marvel two in one 63 was cover-dated May 1980 and was on sale February 1980, sharing the spinner racks with Batman #323, Captain America #245, Justice League of America #178, Man Thing #4,  Sgt Rock #340 and Spider-Woman #26.

Suffer not a Warlock to Live was written by Mark Gruenwald and pencilled by Jerry Bingham and opened with the High Evolutionary located the stolen Counter Earth. He finds the planet having been towed, yes that’s right, towed out of the solar system by a fleet of ships. Seeing this with him are The Thing, Alicia Masters, Moondragon, the being known as Her and Aleta, who promptly turns back into Starhawk. Starhawk volunteers all but the High Evolutionary to go over to one of the ships as an expidition. The Thing flatly refuses, not wanting to put Alicia into any unnessary danger, Starhawk reluctantly agrees and takes Her and Moondragon  with him.

 

The three are beamed over to the ship and find several giant beings who don’t seem to speak english. This being a Marvel book, there’s a fight. This is a brief fight and soon the remaining three are beamed over as well. A new giant alien appears, this one knowing english well, allows the High Evolutionary to grow in size and communicate with him rather than Starhawk and Her pick another fight.

 

The aliens are ring shippers, contract to move of Counter Earth, by a race called the Beyonders (unrelated to the entity at the heart of Secret Wars)  the english speaking creature calling himself Sphinxor, explains that they have tried several times to remove an obstacle to their claiming of Counter Earth, the same person that Her is looking for Adam Warlock. Sphinxor tells them that they’ve tried illusions and awoken vampiric appetites within the soul gem to keep Warlock from interfering. One of the illusions led him to attack the High Evolutionary (as shown in MTIO #62) and leaving local space, allowing the ringshippers to claim the planet.

The High Evolutionary then drops a bombshell, the planet is unstable. If the Beyonders can save it, he will allow Sphinxor and his people to continue the move on two conditions, one that he comes with them and two, that the rest of the group are able to go down to the planet. Sphinxor denies the second request, until the Thing points out that he and the rest could destroy the ships and all aboard if they do.

Once on the planet, Her finds the grave of Adam Warlock and restores life to his body, the same way she restored the High Evolutionary. The difference here is that the spirit of the High Evolutionary was nearby his armour and Adam’s soul resides in the soul gem, held by the Gardener, one of the Elders of the Universe. A heartbroken Her sheds tears as the Thing tries to comfort her. She then abruptly flies away, leaving the other four ready to move on after Alicia waxes lyrical about love.

Notes: An odd story, seemingly tying up lost threads of older Warlock stories, putting a full stop on Warlock’s story and Counter Earth. Maybe it was testing the waters to see if there was any value to bringing Warlock back. Starhawk is almost completely unnecessary to this story and the Silver Surfer or someone like that would’ve worked just as well, but his presence was enough to get me to find and read these issues and am glad I did.

The next appearance of the Guardians is in Marvel Two-in-One 69 which brings an end to their guest star nature and their 20th Century adventures as far as I know. Come back soon.