A Tangle With Doom in Guardians of the Galaxy #14

Doom confronts the Guardians as the cultists prepare to summon something sinister in Guardians of the Galaxy #14 written by Al Ewing, art by Juan Frigeri, colors by Federico Blee, and letters by Cory Petit.

Charlie Davis: WELL. I was gonna try and come up with an excuse as to why we didn’t cover the last issue which so happened to be the relaunch, but we’re busy people so all the excuse you need is that LIFE IS HARD. Anyway, Allison it feels like it’s been forever and we’ve sure got a different landscape in front of us. How are you feeling?

Allison Senecal: This is quite different, huh? I’m a teensy bit glad we got to jump in with this one and not the re-launch issue itself. The good news is Ewing never lets us down and I’m still 100% invested in the new direction. (In case you missed it, folks, we’re getting a crossover between S.W.O.R.D and Guardians in July!)

All Things Doom

CD: We should probably talk about the elephant in the room first, huh? Dr. Doom is here in space and he’s got his sights set on Teddy! Or at least things that have tangentially to do with Teddy! I’m not going to lie, I think seeing Doom in space is really refreshing and I know I can trust Ewing to bring the kind of Doom that everyone wants to see here in this book. I don’t know what the lifespan is of Doom being in this book or on the team considering, but we had a lot of fun shenanigans to open up this issue including several body swaps which I am a big big fan of!

AS: I’m one of those people who really enjoys Doom but in small doses and I get kinda cranky when he just shows up in stuff seemingly for raised stakes (or *cough* marketing). We’ve known thanks to a promo that he’d be in the book a bit, but I was still a little “sigh” about it when he was the reveal at the end of the last issue. But – yeah Ewing really manages to just burn down my low expectations every time, ha. This is maybe the most enjoyable Doom appearance I’ve read in years. Like you mentioned, the body-swaps add a fun dimension to the whole thing. Are you looking forward to the (I’m sure) short-lived gag of Doom trapped in Rocket’s body, because I sure am.

CD: I love it! I hope it persists through a few issues as we go here. One thing I will mention is that Ewing remembered he encountered Teddy and Billy before and while I don’t know how long ago Children’s Crusade may have happened in universe, at least there is continuity we can pull from! I kind of always forget that Doom is also magic, which is kind of his whole thing really, but you’ll have to forgive me as I don’t really follow Doom’s antics because I have no desire to touch the current iteration of the Fantastic Four’s book. After some tense back and forth with the Doom in Teddy’s body the team seems to handle the situation and I’m happy that even if this issue was seemingly just a big stage for a fight we still got to see the majority of the cast since we have expanded big time. Now, this might be a topic of contention, but what did you think of the art here?

AS: Frigeri is certainly a change from Cabal, who I do miss dearly, but I was worried about this way more than I should have been. I don’t think we’re going to get any bonkers layouts the way we do from Cabal, but Frigeri is great with action and I think this is the best I’ve seen him with Marvel. Blee staying on colors is a huge help. I think if we had suddenly been dunked under with a new colorist it could have been way more jarring. Are you into it?

CD: I am! And while you’re right I don’t expect anything to blow my mind here, there is a hell of a lot to say about someone who can keep a steady ship art wise especially after a huge change. If big action set pieces are going to be a regular thing now and it certainly seems like they are with this big cast, then Frigeri can more than do the job. Also Phyla in jackets all the time. She looks so damn good in them.

AS: The jackets really do work well with, ahem, Moondragon’s decolletage situation. I do love how well-served she’s been in this series so far, and while being well-served doesn’t always mean showing off your powers, I adored her little scene in this issue. Phew, her “playing possum” and shuffling Doom’s consciousness into Rocket. Like yeah, Doom might have a lot of powers at his disposal, but our girl Heather has been training in her one area of expertise for years. Take that!

I know you’re the bigger Billy and Teddy fan of the two of us – and we both love when Ewing writes them. I was a little worried about them getting added to the already large cast and either not getting enough page-time themselves or sucking the air out of the room, and neither of those things happened here? I keep getting concerned about cast bloat and yet…

CD: And yet we have a planet-sized concern that’s not the giant cast to worry about…

All Ego

CD: In a stunning turn of “I’m not sure I like this” uh how do you feel about the return of Ego the Living Planet?

AS: Bahahahahaha, kinda like Doom I think Ego can be wayyyyyy overused, especially in cosmic plots. If Galactus wasn’t dead I’d say to expect him to show up next issue too at this rate. It’s kinda cloying but I trust Ewing to go in an interesting direction with it? We’ve seen corrupted Ego…uh quite a bit so it’s not a new beat so far, but!

CD: But in all reality, we should actually learn to trust what Ewing is trying to do. He usually brings some wacky and interesting wrinkles to things that are usually hum drum and boring and he DID spend all of that arc fixing Star Lord so. We shall see. Now, I’m not sure the appearance of Ego really warrants this much talking about at least right now, so is there anything on the cosmic horizon with this book that you’re looking forward to? I kinda miss the tight cast we had last arc even if I really like most of these characters.

AS: I know the thing I should be looking forward to is whatever it is the Skrull cultists are summoning via Eldritch-Ego-Egg, but I don’t get over-excited about big villain reveals nowadays. I’m still hungover from Knull. I’m tired from the Black Winter. I get it, something dread is out there, ok ok. If this were Donny Cates, I’d say Galactus is getting resurrected (HERALD in bright red set off my Kill Bill sirens) as like Dark!Galactus, but this is Ewing so I have zero idea.

I still want to see where Ewing plans on taking Gamora, because she seems the most hung out to dry of the main cast? And in the bigger scheme of things, I’m SUPER looking forward to what was teased in solicits with the “confrontation” between Magneto and Rich. Also Adam Warlock? Where is he? He’s the one big remaining cosmic piece missing from all this.

CD: Yeah that’s something that’s certain still left on the table and honestly, if Ewing has shown us anything it’s that there are absolutely things that can be retooled to fit the universe as it is now other than shifting the universe to meet the whims of some of the more ill thought out character revamps in recent history. I want to see this cast interact with SWORD and I do want to see Noh take another leading role because I loved him so much in the precious arc. Maybe he and Gamora can have a side mission or something.

AS: Oh man, him and Gamora bouncing off each other could be amazing. I still want to see some more interactions between him and Phyla, but I’ll take what I can get with this huge cast.

Guess we’ll see what shiny new things Ewing whips out of his toy box next month, but it’s nice to see the series not slowing down for either of us even with the art change!