Hats off to Abnet and Lanning!  These guys can really tell a space opera.  Both Nova and the Guardians of the Galaxy repeatedly rank near the top of my “must read” pile and the latest issue of the Guardians of the Galaxy is another great outing.

After learning that they had been mentally manipulated into joining the team, the current Guardians have gone their separate ways allowing Abnet and Lanning the chance to spin three different plotlines. 

There are plenty of good moments this issue.  The best is Starlord’s encounter with Ronin the Accuser.  Starlord heads to Halla to warn the Kree about the Skrulls’ secret invasion plans.  In a really nice scene as Starlord finds the Kree more than up to the task of dealing with their old enemies.  Ronin is brilliantly condescending in his assessment of the Skrull threat and promptly shows Starlord his super-sized stack of Skrull bodies (thereby sparing Kree comic readers an 8-issue limited series).  Ronin then promptly thumps Starlord and banishes him to the Negative Zone.

In fact, despite this being a team book (and pretty crowded with what would otherwise be considered second -- or lower -- tier characters), Abnet and Lanning use every opportunity to dial us in to these characters and make them cool.  Groot, Mantis, Rocket Raccoon and Bug (well … Bug was always cool) get some great snappy banter, but my favorite line belongs to Vance Astro.  For us old time Guardians fans, Astro’s warning to beware of the Badoon is dead-on.  After-all, in Vance’s timeline it was the Badoon that conquered Earth – not the Skrulls, Kree or Shi’ar.

The art is likewise fabulous.  Paul Pelletier does a wonderful job and keeps his aliens and aliens worlds looking both fresh and distinct.  It sounds basic, but I've seen my fair of books where every alien world tends to look the same.

A great book – certainly one of my favorite team comics currently on the market.  For as much as I cringe about the overall direction of many of the earth-bound books Marvel is putting out, its cosmic titles seem to be firing on all engines.  Looking forward to War of the Kings!