THE LAST ANNIHILATION RAGES ON! The Guardians are scattered to save five different planets – but it’s already too late for Chitauri Prime. Why those five? What are the true plans of the mysterious enemy targeting our universe? Only DOCTOR DOOM knows… but with the entire Chitauri species out for his blood, he might not survive to stop them! Guardians of the Galaxy #17 is written by Al Ewing, drawn by Juan Frigeri, colored by Federico Blee and lettered by Cory Petit.
Anna: Greetings! I’m extremely excited to be here, not just pinch-hitting, but as a new regular reviewer alongside Charlie Davis! A little about me: I’m a fan of fancy super-aliens and their special superhuman friends doing super-fantastic things in super-spectacular space places. In other words: I’m a longtime fan of Marvel Cosmic and a big fan of this current run of Guardians, with a particular fondness for the ways Al Ewing has built and maintained a deep emotional core amid the usual cacophony of never-ending space-chaos.
I’m also very fond of the ways this run has amped up the queerness of this corner of the Marvel Universe. Marvel Cosmic has always been suffused with sexual possibility, but those possibilities have never been as overt and actualized as they are in this run. It’s not perfect (mainstream cape comics seldom are), but the out-ness of this series feels like a breath of fresh air compared to certain other Marvel franchises I could name, which routinely tease queer representation and too-seldom deliver.
To sum up: Hi, I’m Anna. Hi. I like sexy aliens with big hearts and big problems. This series has lots of those things, so I like it quite a bit. And I’m eager to get to gabbing about this month’s issue, featuring all your regular Guardians plus a generous helping of Doctor Doom.
Charlie couldn’t join us this month, but I’m ably accompanied by returning guest Magnificent Mark Turetsky! What’s your mood this month, Mark?
Mark Turetsky: Oof. That’s a heavy question. But I’m always happy to review some GOTGG (that’s Guardians of the Galaxy Goodness)!
Anna: Let’s get to it…
A Star… Made Out Of Planets?!
Anna: So, there’s another “Annihilation” happening, which promises it will be the “Last Annihilation,” but I’ve been across the galaxy a time or two – I know there’s always another Annihilation. Anyway – if you’ve been reading this series, you already know the latest/last Annihilation involves the dread Dormammu, sometime foe of Dr. Strange and all-the-time ruler of the Dark Dimension, possessing Ego the Living Planet and using this new headquarters (that’s a pun!) to flood the galaxy with armies of Mindless Ones. It’s a mini event, crossing over with S.W.O.R.D. and a handful of other event-specific one-shots.
Where we’re specifically, currently at is – Captain Glory is dead, killed by a pair of Mindless Ones back in S.W.O.R.D. #7. Captain Glory seems like he should be an obscure Marvel Cosmic character but was in fact co-created by Ewing back in 2018 to fight the Avengers, after which he betrayed Hulkling in Empyre, and then found himself liberated from prison to fight Dormammu’s forces. Now, he’s (apparently) dead. Captain Glory is “the pinnacle of Kree gene modification,” meaning his death is a Big Deal, as in – a not-so-subtle reminder that any of our more beloved heroes could be next.
We cut from the site of the Captain’s demise to a briefing in the Proscenium – the Guardians’ current headquarters – where Rocket’s giving us the lay of the land. Emperor Hulkling and his consort Wiccan (they always call Billy “his consort” and I love it) have split up to lead defense forces on Hala and Skrullos. Spartax and Aerie, a Shi’ar world, are also under attack. The team is puzzled by the connection between the targets, some of which are important capitals, some of which aren’t, until the Guardians’ newest non-member, Doctor Doom, proposes Dormammu is making an enormous pentagram that could, in theory, allow him to “conquer all that exists with a single thought.” Or it could do something else equally bad. In any case – it’s a problem.
They deduce the fifth target is Chitauri Prime, and that it’s probably already under attack. Rocket says everyone’s hopping in Doom’s time machine to arrive at CP the same instant they leave (time is “fragile right now,” so they can’t bend it any further, which is convenient but also hilarious). Everyone, that is, except Rich, who Rocket wants to send to Spartax to help Quasar and Co. This is when things get good.
Rich doesn’t like the plan, because he doesn’t trust Doom. A reasonable stance, except, as Rocket points out, he doesn’t need to trust Doom – he just needs to trust Rocket. Rich says he can’t – “Not with Pete and Gamora.” (He adds, “And Doom,” but “Pete and Gamora” is clearly the headline here.) Rich says Peter should accompany him to Spartax; for “cosmic awareness” reasons, Quill declines. But Gamora will go with Rich, saying she trusts his instincts.
When this run started, I had mixed feelings about the Peter/Gamora relationship. I was wary of Gamora being slotted into the “woman who just wishes her man would give up his violent ways and settle down” trope and have previously preferred the energy between Gamora and Rich as a fire and water, anarchy and order type of thing. But! We’ve moved well beyond those reductive tropes. The ways this series has been teasing polyamorous affections between Rich, Peter, and Gamora has been so, so good. It makes a lot of sense with everyone’s bonds and history and does exactly what good romance should do – make everyone more emotionally complex. I’m not sure if we’ll get actualized polyamory between these characters in this series; that probably depends on Ewing’s bosses. For now, I’m enjoying the build-up. Even if you don’t read these bonds as romantic, Rich choosing Peter and Gamora over Rocket remains an important moment. Rich, a soldier for most of his life, isn’t following orders anymore. He’s starting to follow his heart instead.
What’s your mileage on this set-up, Mark?
Mark: So, first off, I think Ewing and Frigeri are playing with some misdirection here with Captain Glory. The caption on the first page reads, “Thirty Minutes Ago,” and then we turn the page to reveal Rocket and Doom’s briefing “in progress.” Why wouldn’t we see Captain Glory’s body in the present, unless something is going to change that? It could be something to do with S.W.O.R.D.’s rescue in the last installment of this event. I went back and re-read the pertinent pages, and we see Glory fall, and then Abigail Brand and the rest of S.W.O.R.D. show up, teleport Teddy away and fight the Mindless army, which is when the issue ends. The battle on Hala is still ongoing, as far as we know.
This is also an issue where time travel gets introduced as a concept, and next week’s installment is a Cable one-shot. He’s someone who’s, to put it mildly, associated with time travel. I wouldn’t be surprised if that “thirty minutes ago” might turn out to be important.
I was also amused by the apparent misdirection during Doom’s little primer about magical elements. He lists out four planets that correspond to the magical elements Air, Water, Fire, Spirit, and the great mystery is which planet is going to represent Earth. Wait a minute? A planet associated with Earth?! This could only mean one thing: Chitauri Prime (which Earth planet did you think it would be?)! Now, it would break with Annihilation convention to have Earth itself be directly in trouble, plus it would also mean roping in the Avengers and everyone else, so it makes sense for it not to be on the table, but I can’t help but think Ewing was teasing us with that.
As for the love triangle between Rich, Peter and Gamora, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. I can’t help but think of the status quo we saw back in the first issue of this run. Peter serving food, Gamora handling grill duties, very much the image of a happy suburban cookout. Then along comes Richard, crashing down from the sky, breaking that spell, telling them the galaxy needs them. That status quo gets shattered, irrevocably for the various plot reasons of what happens in the series, but there’s still a chance that things can be reassembled into a new structure, one that’s maybe better for everyone.
It’s also useful to contrast Richard’s reaction to Doom with his confrontation with Magneto during The Hellfire Gala. He seemed willing to put his beef with one supervillain behind him, but Doom might be crossing a line.
Anna: You are *blowing my mind* with these misdirection theories, Mark. I love it and I hope you’re right! You’re also so, so right about the retrospective deeper meaning of the cookout. I was frustrated by that generic setup the first time I read it, but it reads much differently – and much better – looking back.
Doom Doom, It’s A Rocket To The Tomb
Anna: The Chitauri Prime team – Rocket, Doom, Moondragon, Peter, Drax, and Groot – gathers on a Baja Blast-colored platform and gets transferred to a ship that Doom reveals is actually a “terraforming assistance platform.” That doesn’t sound very impressive, but wait! The ship’s big grabby robot arms collect mineral resources and drop them into a glow-y maw that converts them to other resources – in this case, an army of Doombots that proceeds to attack the Dormammu-possessed Chitauri.
I feel like I should complain about Doctor Doom in space. Sure, his storied career has seen him face off against plenty of cosmic threats. But bringing him all-the-way into a cosmic space risks over-estimating his power, or else rendering him pathetic by hammering home the limits of his power compared to that wielded by cosmic beings. But Ewing has, so far, masterfully avoided both traps.
The trick, I think, is accurately capturing the ways Doom’s hubris is both his greatest blessing and biggest curse, as well as embracing the messianic quality of his violence, on full display here when he speechifies over scenes of his bots unleashing their furious opening salvo – “Let my merciful mask be the true face of peace! Look upon my work, Dormammu—and despair!” That’s some real quality Doom action right there; even when he doesn’t succeed, Doom can’t really lose when he believes in himself that much. What sells the blessing/curse aspect is the quick turnaround from the Doombots making gains against the Chitauri to getting thoroughly torn apart while the Guardians watch, stone-faced, from the safety of the ship’s observation deck. “Maybe Nova had a point,” deadpans Drax. Perfection.
Thoughts on Doom in space, Mark?
Mark: That quotation from Shelley… Has Doom even read “Ozymandias?” (No, not that one, this one). The crux of the poem is that Ozymandias had this giant empire, he had a colossus (no, not that one!) made of himself, and yet here it is, the colossus broken, the king of kings long dead, the empire reduced to nothing but sand. That’s what Shelley wants us to despair about. That even our greatest works will be reduced to ruins and we’ll be forgotten. It’s not just some cool shit to quote when you unleash your robot armies upon a planet. This is why the humanities are so, so important, Anna, and we can’t just focus on an education built on super-science and magic.
I did wonder at some length about Doom’s absence in the previous issue, though, considering he’s the only person on the team who’s at all versed in magic, and I’m glad he’s being put to good use here.
Anna: Doom has 100% read the poem and 100% believes he is immune to Ozymandias’ (supposed) folly (Shelley does a lot of imperialist projecting in that poem, which I’m pretty sure Doom also wouldn’t care about). The problem with us humanities grads is that we lack the confidence to live out literary allusions wholly convinced we can exceed them through sheer force of will. Ewing’s great with character voices in general, but I really like his Doom.
Mark: And, to be fair to Doom, ancient Egyptian pharaohs in the Marvel Universe sometimes ascend to nigh-on godhood, so maybe he knows something we don’t.
This is the Heading… That’s Right Above the Body
Anna: Meanwhile, Rich and Gamora arrive on Spartax, where the Quasars (Avril and Wendell), Mantis, and the Super-Skrull/Kl’rt have their hands full dealing with another endless army of Mindless Ones. Kl’rt made an oath to Emperor Hulkling to never take a life in war. But that’s out the window here because, according to Kl’rt, helping an ally isn’t war – it’s diplomacy. Then he fries a bunch of Mindless Ones with Human Torch powers. It’s great. Sometimes, you just gotta sit back and marvel at the fact Kl’rt’s still throwing around his stretchy-fiery-invisible-rocky weight after all this time. For me, Kl’rt’s transformation into someone I actually care about remains one of the original “Annihilation’s” greatest achievements.
This sequence is mostly fighting and Rich angst (that might be another pun?), but there are some important revelations, including the fact the distress call to Alpha Flight is being blocked. (If you read S.W.O.R.D. #7, you know it was Abigail Brand who blocked it. She wants to impress Emperor Hulkling so he’ll owe her one and he and Wiccan maybe won’t flip out as badly about the death of the Scarlet Witch. I’m sure this won’t backfire at all.) Then, we get our cliffhanger twist. Beyond the main battle, Rich finds a huge Dormammu portal, and out of it steps… Dormammu, who’s now more than a pretty face. He’s magic-ed himself an enormous, Galactus-esque body!
Besides being a cool visual, I’m not really sure what this means? Legs and arms don’t seem like that great an asset for soaring through space… Presumably, it just means Dormammu has boosted his power even further, making our already overwhelmed heroes even more f-ed.
What do you think, Mark? Yay or nay on Dormammu version 2.0?
Mark: I appreciate that Ewing seems to be apologizing for doing the same thing (giving Ego a body) that he’d already done previously, by explicitly calling himself out, but also by pointing out that it’s different this time. If you look at Ewing and Aud Koch’s exquisite Ultimates^2 #8, Ego Prime’s body was entirely organic, with bones and tissue (and boxer briefs!) growing beneath him. This is almost a mockery of that, with a body in the form of a magical construct (much more in line with a Dormammu design).
One thing that Egomammu might do with a body might be to cast more powerful magicks, since he’d now have the ability to gesture (though I’ve gotta say, he was doing pretty well even without hands). Maybe he needs a physical body to stand in the center of the completed space pentagram to complete the ritual. Or, maybe it just looks cool. I don’t want to speculate too much about future plot points in this event series, but the original “Annihilation” had, as one of its more memorable (at least to me) images, Thanos subjugating and transforming Galactus’ body into a weapon. It’s a really upsetting image and concept, so maybe Ewing is setting up something similarly grotesque with Dormammu’s giant body.
Anna: Yeah, that’s a very good point, on Dormammu’s spell-casting ability. I hope we get to see Dormammu being more of a character in future issues, as he’s mostly just been a cool visual up to this point. For me, it’s been hard for each subsequent “Annihilation” event to live up to the big twist of the original – that Annihilus didn’t want to take over the galaxy, he wanted to destroy it. I’m hoping for a high-concept dramatic twist in this story, and your earlier theories about time travel might be where that twist lies.
Thanks again for joining me, Mark! You’ve made me even more excited about the plethora of possibilities ahead of us (or behind us…?). Space + magic + time travel – what’s not to love?
Mark: And that’s about it for this month’s Guardians. Next up we’ve got our one-shots: Cable: Reloaded, Wiccan & Hulkling, Wakanda, before finally tying things up with Guardians of the Galaxy #18.
Marvel Minutiae
- Rocket’s aggressive – and, of course, oftentimes violent – enthusiasm must be so fun to write. He announces the use of the time machine like no matter what happens, everything was worth it to get to use a friggin’ time machine. And I mean – he’s not wrong.
- I’m new here, so I’m not sure how much love Rich’s vest may have received in this column before. But I guess it doesn’t matter, since it deserves all the love, always.
- Speaking of costumes, Brett Booth (who I know has been mentioned in this column before, and – bleh) doesn’t draw Star-Lord shirtless on the cover. Coward.
- Speaking of vests and shirtlessness, Star-Lord’s jacket over bare torso is quite a vibe, if you ask me (Mark). It’s the perfect combination of seeming not to care while also making sure to show off those abs.
- My great hope for Dormammu 2.0 is that he uses his new arms to remove his flaming head and toss it at people, Headless Horseman-style.
Anna Peppard
Anna is a PhD-haver who writes and talks a lot about representations of gender and sexuality in pop culture, for academic books and journals and places like Shelfdust, The Middle Spaces, and The Walrus. She’s the editor of the award-winning anthology Supersex: Sexuality, Fantasy, and the Superhero and co-hosts the podcasts Three Panel Contrast and Oh Gosh, Oh Golly, Oh Wow!
