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

The Black Vortex rages on and as such, Mister Knife moves on to the latest part of his plan. With the help of Thane, they encase the Spartax in amber so that Mister Knife might give it to the Brood, though for what reason other than screwing with the rest of the universe is his own. As for the Guardians of the Galaxy and the X-Men, most of them are on the planet below and they cannot help but stand by and watch as every being upon the planet is made immobile including Kitty Pryde, encased in solid amber so that the Brood might lay eggs within their brains. It is a horrid fate and at the moment, there is nothing that anyone can do about it though luckily, Kitty manages to get herself free. Some might notice that there is little in the way of humour in this issue, Sam Humphries toning it down so that the crossover might proceed with the fairly serious tone it had set out with – there being nothing overly funny about a planet on the verge of extinction. Even though this was a decent story, reading it on its own does not make a lot of sense for those coming in cold despite the extensive recap page, a common problem with many of Marvel’s crossovers. The book also seemed somewhat on the short side, perhaps due to the lack of action or the furtherance of any storylines other than that of Mister Knife taking place and thus making it a fairly quick read. In the context of the larger story overall, it was a decent chapter though the Guardians did little yet on its own, it suffers from being a part of the Black Vortex event.

3 out of 5