FF 8, Guardians of the Galaxy 4

FF 8
Fraction (w) and M. Allred (a) and L. Allred (c)

The Baxter Building has reappeared in New York, fresh out of the Negative Zone and carrying, unbeknownst to our team, a hitchhiking Annihilus. Alex Power sees the report in the newspaper and tells Doom that he should probably be heading home now to help those kids deal with what happened. Doom strikes him and drags him to a holding cell, where he's keeping Alex's parents. Alex will do what Doom says from now on, Doom decrees. Meanwhile, the FF leave Dragon Man in charge of the kids and head to Himalayas, former site of the Inhumans' Attilan. There Medusa offers herself up for challenge from any Inhuman who thinks he or she could protect the children of the FF better than Medusa has, given her recent brainwashing. No one challenges her, which frustrates She-Hulk. She-Hulk views the Inhumans at this little tribunal as a bunch of yes-men and she believes that they should consider replacing Medusa for this. Medusa herself seems a little unsure of whether she's qualified or not but it's She-Hulk who really drives the point home. Back home, Bentley-23 and Ahura have returned to the Baxter Building and are promptly set upon by the other children, who call them "bad guys." Traps have been set all around the building and Bentley-23 and Ahura must try to navigate them while explaining that they're not bad. Or rather, that he is, he was born to be, but he's no different than before. Ahura is increasingly annoyed by everything but Bentley is pretty patient with everyone, eventually winning them over and complimenting Tong's new lifestyle choice. Later, in the Inhumans' flying city, Medusa comes to She-Hulk in her bedroom and gives her the chance to speak more as no one else will. It goes badly and the two end up in a scuffle. The two crash through several walls, including into what seems to be a hallway that Scott is walking down on his cellphone. He breaks the two up and tells them that Dragon Man has reported that Alex Power has returned home. Back home, old John Storm wakes up again, still screaming about Doom, and we find out that Doom, joined by Annihilus now, is getting information from an outside source: a young Kang the Conqueror, sometime in his life between Iron Lad and Kang and going by Immortus (changed from Kid Immortus by his girlfriend Ravonna).

A lot happened here, which seems to be the norm for this book. They don't match up against villains every issue or even every few issues but plenty continues to go on behind the scenes for our heroes. Here we've set up a rift in the FF, a spy among them, questions about worthiness on the team, and a few key villains teaming up with their eyes on the FF. Immortus is an interesting choice of villain and one I hadn't seen coming. Yes, Kang is kind of all over the Marvel Universe right now but he's in a great spot here. If this is at a time where we've somewhat recently left Iron Lad of the Young Avengers behind, which his attitude and youth seem to point at, his last bit of time on Earth saw his then girlfriend killed in front of him while the Avengers refused to let him go into the future to try to save her, as he'll eventually attempt with Ravonna (fifty year old spoiler). That girlfriend? Cassie Lang, daughter of Scott. Who killed her? Dr. Doom. All kinds of questions come up with this villain team-up and it's exciting to see where it's all going to end up.

Guardians of the Galaxy 4
Bendis (w) and Pichelli (a) and Ponsor (c)

The Guardians have escaped the Spartax guard and now celebrate at a shady bar, especially praising Groot who saved them all. Drax is drinking a fair amount and getting pretty belligerent, Peter is trying to attract a woman he found, and Tony is still fretting a bit about Earth. Rocket gives him a sort of phone that will allow him to call back to Earth from pretty much anywhere. Tony and Gamora flirt briefly and pretty quickly end up back in a room on the ship together. We flash from the bar to post-coitus and Gamora decides she's going back to the bar. On her way back, she's targeted by an assassin and shot in the back. The shot stuns her and her attacker, Maxilin the Accuser, comes to brag a bit about how she didn't even seem to realize there was a bounty on her head and how he so easily brought her down. She, of course, gets up and beats the crap out of him, only being brought down again when she tries to use his gun which will only work for him. Down again and this time with fewer tricks left, she's surprised to find Maxilin shot instead of her, as Rocket and the rest of the Guardians come around the corner, fleeing the bar which is quickly filling up with Spartax royal guard. They head back for the ship, where Tony has just called home to ask Pepper how things are going and if Earth is okay (it is). As they make their way to the ship, the audience sees Maxilin, still alive, slink away.

It seems if anyone is enlightened by Peter's announcement to the Spartax about they're corrupt king, it's not the Spartax royal guard and so we haven't eliminated any sort of fugitive feel for the team. Add on the bounty hunter(s) who will no doubt be coming after Gamora and the intrigue of whatever has caused those hunters to come after her and we have a bit of a story developing. The issue moves pretty well and Pichelli's art continues to stand out. There's a little of the back-and-forth dialogue but "a little" isn't detrimental. I think I can pretty easily say this is my favorite Bendis book coming out right now (I'll be ranting about two others tomorrow), though it's still too early for me to deem it a particularly successful book. I like a lot of where it's going and what it's doing but we'll have to let it feel itself out more.