It’s time for a nice delightful round of negotiations, as Noh-Varr puts on his politicking pants. Also, can Phyla-Vell accept this new gestalt Moondragon? It’s a delightful issue filled with intrigue and fun written by Al Ewing, with Art by Marcio Takara, Colors by Federico Blee, and letters by VC’s Cory Petit.
Charlie Davis: Noh-Varr! Noh-Varr! Noh-Varr! Noh-Varr!
Sorry I just had to get that out of my system. ALLISON! Noh-Varr gets some major screen time this issue and I am so, so happy about that. I’ve talked briefly about how much I love Noh, but the moment I opened up the preview and saw him have such a clear and distinct voice I was thrilled. Ahem…anyway. This GotG #7 seems to be a bit of a breather issue and while sometimes that slows the pace way down I think this is needed considering everything our team has gone through.
Allison Senecal: I love a good breather issue and this one IS STUFFED with all kinds of goodies. Right up my Marvel cosmic alley. The last issue was kind of a quiet one too, and I appreciate that Ewing can keep things moving while letting us simmer with these characters.
CD: I say it almost every time, but Ewing is so good at juggling everything without even dropping one ball. This issue has Empyre fallout to deal with so we plug that in, we wanna give Noh some time so he’s lopped in, Phyla and Moondragon are dealing with STUFF so their plot os mixed in as well and I feel like I am only skimming the surface here. Serialized comics are supposed to tell a well paced story, Ewing seems to actually get that. But…let’s start things off by talking about the person this issue centers around. Noh-Varr.
Manners & Physique
AS: I’m not sure how many times you can write “Adam Ant” into a comic before I get annoyed, but Ewing didn’t even near the threshold. A delight. Ceremonial Kree military costume looking a lot like an Adam Ant get-up is exactly the content I desire. And it suuuuuuuuuper works for Noh’s whole vibe.
CD: Yeah Ewing has this way of making even the silliest of jokes be actually funny instead of groan worthy. I really love that we get a sense of who Noh is here. Sure he’s from an alternate reality, but for as much as we know that, we hardly know anything about him. This issue did a good job of actually fleshing him and his backround out. You know him after reading this issue and I’d argue we know him better than we’ve ever really known him before. I love him and Rich’s dynamic and I love that we get to see him bounce off basically everyone on the team too.
AS: I’m of the mind that he was fairly well-handled and fleshed out before Young Avengers and West Coast Avengers (where I felt he was mostly comic relief), but those stunted him a little. I think it set him back, and I get if a ton of folks just read that YA run and were like “oh ok” without reading the Dark Avengers stuff or Morrison’s Marvel Boy, etc. Ewing loves the boy (as evidenced by Royals) and he’s moving him forward now, with a little of everything, which is his approach to the team at large. I very much appreciate it, especially with Noh and Rich.
Also love Rich’s throwaway comment about the 80’s, since he was created as a 70s and 80s kid but now must only appreciate the aesthetic, haha. Gotta love that sliding Marvel timeline.
CD: It’s just really nice to see characters thrive under a writer’s hand and everyone is really getting a moment to just breath. Not emotionally of course, in the sense that you need to let a nice glass of wine breath. It enhances everything. Even if Noh and I would say Rich are the focal part of this issue, everyone still gets a moment and we see some absolutely devastating fallout between Phyla and Heather from some choices that were made a few issues back. Looks like Phyla isn’t too happy with Moondragon’s choices and well…I can’t blame her. She’s already got a bit of a temper and this seems to have pushed her to the point of snapping. Lucky for the rest of the team that they have a psychic link because otherwise it would have been really awkward.
AS: I’m still praying for a Phyla focus issue, because we still don’t really know exactly HOW like her 616 counterpart she is. With that big Moondragon issue, we got to see some of the similarities and differences between Heathers. I loved the layout of their little psychic spat. Between that and the shared mindscape we’ve seen previously, it’s lending them a unique couple feel. Noh basically telling Rich that he doesn’t want to assume things or rush into his relationship with Herc was also fantastic to see…especially from a character who so often gets shoe-horned in as the “kinda slutty one”.
CD: That was really nice to see. Noh was always kind of thrust in that role and it didn’t feel very natural to me. My joy is palpable that we are moving away from that. The meat of the issue isn’t spent bantering on the ship though, it’s funnily enough talking about politics. It’s a good thing space politics are much easier to swallow than earth politics.
Let’s Talk About Politics
AS: Ewing’s deep digs into cosmic Marvel continue to be…too entirely my thing. When Rich and Noh get to the diplomatic conference, they’re met by a member of an old forgotten fave of mine, the Badoon Sisterhood. We get to see Victoria, Quill’s half-sister, since she’s been the Empress of Spartax for a bit now. Love that for her. Oracle! Of course, following on Empyre, we get the reps from the Kree-Skrull alliance. I just love getting to see all the fun bits of the galaxy in one room.
CD: And that has traditionally been the best part of galactic summit issues and things like that. Everyone has different motivations and I am actually happy to see Victoria who is perhaps one of the only things I remember about The Black Vortex. Does she know Quill is dead? Should someone tell her? Would she care? Well we don’t get the answers to that, but we do get a pretty good window into exactly what Noh came here to do. He’s good friends with Teddy and he’s here to really make sure that everyone else stays on the straight and narrow. It’s a really good idea to have a Kree who’s not from this universe in contrast with how traditionally sucky the Kree from the 616 are. Their representative and Noh almost immediately clash. I am so onboard for seeing more comparison and contrast between Noh and the Kree as they exist here.
AS: I loved Kl’rt’s little “even I know there was a better way of putting that” at Val’Lorr when he basically threatens Noh and the Utopian Kree, haha. I think Kl’rt is really trying on Teddy’s behalf, even considering how quickly he jumps to conclusions about Noh’s involvement in the *ominous music* murder of Emperor Stote. Curious where Ewing and other writers will take Kl’rt and how loyal he will stay.
I chortled at Rich’s “don’t make me come over there” because it only comes across half-serious. It’s so, so *sob* wonderful to see him with at least some of the weight lifted from him. Regular therapy has been good to him already.
CD: Damn straight. It’s an interesting point you bring up with Kl’rt, he’s known Teddy for a long time and I am wondering how much he really thought what it might be like to unite the Kree and Skrull and usher Teddy in as emperor. Did he think we would be able to subvert him? Did he think things were going to be different now? That Teddy would somehow turn cold hearted? I am interested in seeing all the fallout there, even if it won’t be in this book–we have bigger things to contend with after all. Like half, if not all of the team’s terrible emotional distress. After a rousing round of political chess, Noh excuses himself and then the issue turns into the beginning of a murder mystery. Noh happens upon a dying emissary, who also happens to have been assailed by a shapeshifter (of course). I’ve seen this movie before I think, but it doesn’t make it any less entertaining.
AS: Murder mysteries in space are always good, I don’t care how many I’ve seen, and I care even less that we just had shapeshifter shenanigans and reveals in Empyre. If you’re going to be going buckwild with cosmic stuff, I think it’s just accepted that everyone is either a Skrull, or insectoid, or an amorphous eldritch mass.
I like Takara a ton, but I kinda wish we had a more… fitting art style for this mini arc? I don’t think I would want to go full space noir, but at least lean into that a little. Otherwise, I still think he nails facial expressions and body language, even if he’s not the layout beast that Cabal is. He’s very good on the quieter issues, I’ll give him that. Petit did another stellar lettering job here too.
CD: I super agree with you on that. I think that if we leaned into it, really just shifted into the Noir, it would not only fit Noh, but would differentiate everything a little bit more. I like Takara too, but sometimes everything can be a little bit too soft for my liking. I’d like to see someone with heavier line work try out this cast of characters, especially when there is a story going on that relies on subtle shifts in character and a focus on facial expressions. Everyone is doing a really great job here, this is just me nitpicking a great and rather breezy issue which is nice to be able to do every once and awhile, honestly.
AS: I know, I feel like sometimes I’m casting around for anything critical to say here, instead of just “HURRAH”ing everything. Sigh, that happens when you’re covering the best comic book on stands.
Marvelous Musings
- Enjoyed seeing Ewing bring in Mentacle, another of his Lethal Legion members from Avengers: No Surrender.
- Phyla is still??? In her?? Tiddy suit?? And I am not complaining.
- Do you think Quill is gonna be upset when he comes back and realizes that the team is doing mostly okay without him?
- I didn’t think I’d still be into Groot talking so much, but I think it actually lends something to him when it’s someone like Ewing writing the words coming out of his mouth.
- How long do you think it’s gonna take for Moondragon’s mental overlapping of two distinct beings to backfire in a really bad way?
Allison Senecal buys books professionally and comics unprofessionally.
Charlie Davis is the world’s premier Shatterstarologist, writer and co-host of The Match Club.
