Writer – Sam Humphries
Artist – Paco Medina
Inker – Juan Vlasco
Colours – David Curiel
Letters – Joe Caramagna

Star-Lord is in a bar drinking with a Kymellian and listening to his story about how his people were attacked by the mysterious Mister Knife and the villain’s Slaughter Squad. He also goes on to relate how they were after one particular object, The Black Vortex – a mysterious object of great value and power. Peter of course, listens to Lucien as best he can, but also has to stop in order to take a call from Kitty Pryde as he missed their holo-date. He should not have missed their date. This issue features everything readers love about Star-Lord including the funny banter, the non-stop action, the hilarious quips and the absolutely carefree attitude that Peter seems to sport no matter the situation. Sam Humphries has been done a stellar job on the book and makes it even more of a must-read than many of the books that had been released in 2014 at the time. The Black Vortex would be an event that took place in the Guardians of the Galaxy book and the various X-Men titles, dreamed up by Brian Michael Bendis and it would all begin right here in this very story, or at the very least, mentioned here as previously stated. Kudos go out to Humphries for also bringing the Kymellians into the story as they are rarely featured in any book even though they are quite the unique alien species which is a good thing. The best line of the entire book has to be when Peter calls Lucien ‘Beta Ray Filly.’ It is probably the funniest line to be found in any book in ages and Humphries proves again why he is the perfect man to be chronicling the exploits of Peter Quill. Paco Medina also continues to deliver the goods with some really strong pencils and he gives the reader some great visuals with the design of the Slaughter Squad, a team of bad guys that could make for some good villains for Quill going forward. This is definitely one of the best and one of the most light-hearted science-fiction books Marvel has ever put out and it remains a good read no matter how many times it is perused. Great stuff from Humphries, Medina and the cosmic side of the Marvel Universe.

4 out of 5