Radiant Comics

I’m back from the comic shop this week and I got one new comic plus a hard cover collection:

And now for a review of something I’ve read recently.

This is another one of Marvel’s “Cosmic” comics like “Nova”. It takes place in outer space and the team of heroes takes on threats to whole planets and space civilizations. It has more in common with “Buck Rogers” than “Spider-Man”.

It’s generally a good comic. The writing is asolid and though the art is, at times, a little too busy for me it mostly works well. I don’t have much of a problem with the execution of the comic. The problem I have is with the whole concept of using familiar reoccurring characters.

I’ve always said that using familiar characters is a double edged sword. It’s good financially. People will buy Spider-Man because they are familiar with him and have liked him in the past. The bad part is that you can’t stray far from old Spider-Man stories because people expect the character they know and like. Spidey can’t suddenly be a millionaire playboy who can fly and shoot rays from his eyes.

The problem I have with the Guardians is that they are made up of characters who were once familiar to me but have long strayed from the characters I used to know. They have the same names but different powers, personalities, and costumes. What is the point of unfamiliar familiar characters?

Sure you can say that I haven’t kept up with the changes since I missed so many revamps but how many people have? These are not big name characters. There is no creative reason to use them. Just corporate culture reasons.

It’s not a fatal flaw in the storytelling or anything like that. I just think the book comes down on the wrong side of the double edged sword that is company owned continuing characters. If they were all new characters I might be intrigued by them and want to learn more about them but instead I’m confused because at times they’re familiar and at times not. It’s tough to keep straight. I think I know them but I don’t.

It’s like a movie sequel where the sequel strays so far from the original’s premise that one wonders why it’s even a sequel at all? The answer is, of course, marketing. That’s how I felt about this book. Regardless of its quality, which was alright, it was only named “Guardians of the Galaxy” staring Warlock, Starlord, Rocket Raccoon, Gamora, Quasar, and Draz the Destroyer for corporate reasons rather than creative ones. I had a hard time getting past this.