Guardians of the Galaxy #19

Writer – Brian Michael Bendis
Artist – Ed McGuinness
Inker – Ed McGuinness, Mark Morales, John Livesay, Mark Farmer
Colours – Jason Keith

Gamora is getting tired of listening to Peter as everything he says sounds like a lie, but now that she’s opened the can of worms, there is no putting it back and Peter is going to tell her everything that went on whether she likes it or not.  He proceeds to relate how he killed Thanos with the Cosmic Cube, only to see him return alive.  He tells her of how he himself was killed and then Thanos again and finally how they realized that nothing in the Cancerverse could die as life had beaten death.  While that seems bad enough, things get worse with the arrival of the Revengers.  Bendis continues to do a great job on the resolution to the Cancerverse story, though it was hopeful he would have wrapped it up with this issue as the anticipation after waiting for so long is a killer.  Great characterization has always been one of Bendis’ strong suits and it really shines in this issue with the banter between Gamora and Peter.  Seeing our heroes, namely Star-Lord, Drax and Nova, start to consider Thanos’ offer of aid in using the Cosmic Cube shows just how desperate it is in the Cancerverse, especially as their moment of self-sacrifice was discovered to be all for naught.  The artwork by McGuinness looks great and seeing Star-Lord in his costume from the Abnett and Lanning run makes you wonder why they ever decided to change his appearance as it looks fantastic.  There are also some comedic moments which help to lighten the bleak outlook that our heroes find themselves in, one of the funniest coming from Drax of all people.  This story has been a long time in the coming and it is also a definite upswing from the current crop of stories that have been featured in the book.  Worth the wait and worth the read.

4.5 out of 5

The New 52 Futures End #21

Writer – Brian Azzarello, Jeff Lemire, Dan Jurgens, Keith Giffen
Artist – Cully Hamner
Colours – Hi-Fi

With this book, Futures End provides a pivotal story in the run detailing some of the events from the end of the war as told by Green Arrow and Red Arrow to Big Barda.  The story of the exodus from Earth 2 is related, in a somewhat condensed version, along with Green Arrow’s story of how he noticed everything went wrong after the war ended and how he faked his death.  When all is told, Green Arrow reveals he has a plan to take down Cadmus and rescue the heroes.  Big Barda approves.  Here was an uncharacteristically revealing issue, finally providing some answers to a whole lot of questions that have been hinted at throughout the series.  Though the entirety of the war was not shown, at least some of it was, or at least little bits from the tail-end of it.  There were some great moments with Mr. Miracle, Red Tornado, Red Arrow and seeing how some of these pieces fit together, is refreshing to say the least.  The book does raise more issues and more questions of course, like why was there a giant Brother Eye satellite above the Earth when the Earth 2 heroes crossed over and exactly how did Ollie fake his death so convincingly that everyone thought he truly died?  It has taken a whole lot of issues to finally deliver a substantial piece of the puzzle and hopefully, it does not stop there.

4 out of 5