Bendis and the "Guardians of the Galaxy" Explore "Planet of the Symbiotes"

[HsssH]

Have there really been that many fill-in artists?
I know recently there has been, but I thought Pichelli was pretty much the constant artist throughout most of the run.
Other than the recent "3 artists an issue" thing this book didn't seem to switch artists any more than the average Marvel NOW title did.

Most will agree that the biggest problem with this series isn't that the Guardians are doing something "different" from DnA's run it's that they seem to be guest stars in their own book. Since the beginning it's not just that everybody's personality has changed it's that they had next to no personality at all. This is not only MY assessment this has been stated many times over by official reviewers right here at this website. I see this partly being the result of having to share page time with guest stars like Iron Man, Angela, the entire roster of X-Men and now Venom but Bendis also does seem to hint that he expected "a rocky road" with these characters (he certainly did stumble with them) but the annual meetings with the movie's creative helped inform him with where they were going so he could loosely follow suit if he chose to. Bad thing about that is when James Gunn was finally brought on board he did significant re-writes, particularly to Quill. Remember, the first movie summary had "a Pilot (most likely Quill) gets swept into space and finds himself involved with fugitives on the run that posses something everyone wants". Peter most of all is the one I've had the hardest time with when it comes to "hearing his voice" during the Bendis run. Perhaps now thanks to the film we've settled on who Pete will be (not to mention how he will look) things will go smoother.

I really think the movie has helped put some things in context for not only Bendis but for readers in general. If they are going to just ape the movie personalities then so be it, at least there will be some defining qualities to them now which up to this point has not really existed. The movie aesthetic certainly helps sell Star Lord as a resourceful rogue-ish character far more than the blue Prince Gatchaman outfit he was wearing up to this point did. The current look lends itself to the kind of trickery Star Lord should be known for that the Blue Lightning outfit did not. Humphries already has used the movie look to his advantage over in his book. That's a good thing, it adds to the unique nature of the character and makes the story feel more "his" rather than a generic Avengers/X-Men story with GotG characters awkwardly inserted.

Before all the more venomous Rider fans show up to blast BMB for saying "THEY (DnA) killed him! Not me!" I'll answer civilly: They supposedly "killed" Star Lord, Drax, and Thanos too, didn't stop those 3 from showing up again.

For those just tuning in, this whole "Richard Rider thing" is not just because he was seemingly "killed off" while the others he was trapped with weren't. It has more to do with the near ERASING of this character's entire presence in comics and all other related media, therefore delegating one of the best story arcs in Marvel's recent history "The Annihilation Saga" to a nearly retconned footnote in favor of a "new" creative direction that is really just re-telling the same stories with different faces. It all very much feels like the current creative is involved simply because they wanted to hop on the Cosmic "Gravy train" that the GotG movie was starting up while it was still hot rather than a desire to actually tell well thought out science fiction/cosmic stories which often require a solid respect for continuity.

The few LEGIT ways Bendis gets roasted here for Nova is if he makes Richard die like a scared punk. THAT would be WAAAAY out of character for him. The other worry is if he gets the Nova force powers wrong, which so far Marvel has not been able to get right anywhere else since Rich "died" so I'm kind of expecting this to be the case here too.

Most reasonable fans understand that Rich's presence would hinder this "lawless galaxy" that the new creative teams wanted to play with. We get that these guys wanted to work with characters they can easily understand and that teh Nova concept might be too much for them. If that's the case just put Rich behind a desk for a while, and have the new guy report to him if you want.
We'd have accepted Rich in a non-active "paid administrative leave" (like Multiple Man is enjoying) much more so than getting erased from existence where even his death and subsequent absence is not acknowledged or lamented. This guy was the star of the Annihilation era the story arc that lead to the amazing GotG movie! He even told Tony Stark to f*k off about his petty antics during the Civil War event. He deserved better than the "never mention him again" Chris Benoit treatment (wrestling reference here).

I have no idea how you have so much patience in writing these long and detailed posts in almost every Nova/GotG thread. Don't take me wrong, I enjoy reading them, but still.

[Spider-Tron]

Trying to love this book. I think i t would be great if they didn't try to froce a new marvel ally in every issue. kills the book for me

[Garlador]

I'll be upfront. I'm one of those "vocal" Nova fans... but I've always been very polite and respectful to the creative teams at Marvel. I gave the new Nova a shot... and simply didn't like him remotely as much as the hero I grew up reading about who evolved into my favorite Marvel character period. I stopped reading comics for years, largely because heroes just "stopped" being heroes and were beating each other up in Civil War for far longer than I cared to follow. A friend told me to check out Annihilation, which was full-on heroes doing what heroes should do: band together to save the galaxy. And it was amazing. The way it elevated C-list and B-list heroes into some of my favorite comic book characters, and took Nova, whom I always enjoyed as far back as New Warriors, and made him the central focus, finally giving him the potential he always had in the prior comics, was astounding.

The reason I enjoy comics today is because of Nova's role in Annihilation. The reason Guardians of the Galaxy took off was because of stories like Annihilation. The reason we now have a multi-million dollar blockbuster movie pleasing millions of fans all has its roots in that original Annihilation story, and the reason I wanted to see it was because Nova got me interested in the cosmic side of things again.

I have zero idea if anyone at Marvel reads these, but all I can say is love the original Nova, more than any other Marvel hero they've created. More than Spider-man, Wolverine, Iron Man, or Captain America, and I admit it's very frustrating having a character you have followed for decades and who revitalized your love for comics just go missing in action for years at a time. There's nothing for me to read starring my favorite hero. The new Nova doesn't cut it, no matter how many breaks I give the kid. He has failed to win me over.

I'm slightly concerned Bendis is so quick to pass the buck and blame the prior team for "killing" him off when, well, reading that story, I totally don't get that impression at all. It's 100% comic book "death", with no bodies, no on-screen death, no finality to it at all. The fact that Star-Lord and Thanos popped up alive and well again less than a year later didn't help matters; Bendis is pulling our leg if he was ever going to let Thanos "stay dead", after all, and nobody likes it when a hero sacrifices their lives unnecessarily. There was a very, very clear "out" for Nova and Star-Lord, and it's disappointing we got 2 out of 3 of them back... but not the one I wanted back most. Being stuck in "limbo" is not the same as being killed off, and DnA ended their run, but it never struck me as a funeral...

I just want him back.

[Fokken]

They're going to be sitting around a table eating take out having great conversations.

All I want in life is to see my favesies talk talk talkin' away, over a bucket of chicken or a mess of pancakes. And kisses.

[krazijoe]

Venom popped out of a mind machine...Why make a whole planets of them...Seems kind of lame since that well dried up long ago...

[dmills]

Have there really been that many fill-in artists?
I know recently there has been, but I thought Pichelli was pretty much the constant artist throughout most of the run.
Other than the recent "3 artists an issue" thing this book didn't seem to switch artists any more than the average Marvel NOW title did.

Most will agree that the biggest problem with this series isn't that the Guardians are doing something "different" from DnA's run it's that they seem to be guest stars in their own book. Since the beginning it's not just that everybody's personality has changed it's that they had next to no personality at all. This is not only MY assessment this has been stated many times over by official reviewers right here at this website. I see this partly being the result of having to share page time with guest stars like Iron Man, Angela, the entire roster of X-Men and now Venom but Bendis also does seem to hint that he expected "a rocky road" with these characters (he certainly did stumble with them) but the annual meetings with the movie's creative helped inform him with where they were going so he could loosely follow suit if he chose to. Bad thing about that is when James Gunn was finally brought on board he did significant re-writes, particularly to Quill. Remember, the first movie summary had "a Pilot (most likely Quill) gets swept into space and finds himself involved with fugitives on the run that posses something everyone wants". Peter most of all is the one I've had the hardest time with when it comes to "hearing his voice" during the Bendis run. Perhaps now thanks to the film we've settled on who Pete will be (not to mention how he will look) things will go smoother.

I really think the movie has helped put some things in context for not only Bendis but for readers in general. If they are going to just ape the movie personalities then so be it, at least there will be some defining qualities to them now which up to this point has not really existed. The movie aesthetic certainly helps sell Star Lord as a resourceful rogue-ish character far more than the blue Prince Gatchaman outfit he was wearing up to this point did. The current look lends itself to the kind of trickery Star Lord should be known for that the Blue Lightning outfit did not. Humphries already has used the movie look to his advantage over in his book. That's a good thing, it adds to the unique nature of the character and makes the story feel more "his" rather than a generic Avengers/X-Men story with GotG characters awkwardly inserted.

Before all the more venomous Rider fans show up to blast BMB for saying "THEY (DnA) killed him! Not me!" I'll answer civilly: They supposedly "killed" Star Lord, Drax, and Thanos too, didn't stop those 3 from showing up again.

For those just tuning in, this whole "Richard Rider thing" is not just because he was seemingly "killed off" while the others he was trapped with weren't. It has more to do with the near ERASING of this character's entire presence in comics and all other related media, therefore delegating one of the best story arcs in Marvel's recent history "The Annihilation Saga" to a nearly retconned footnote in favor of a "new" creative direction that is really just re-telling the same stories with different faces. It all very much feels like the current creative is involved simply because they wanted to hop on the Cosmic "Gravy train" that the GotG movie was starting up while it was still hot rather than a desire to actually tell well thought out science fiction/cosmic stories which often require a solid respect for continuity.

The few LEGIT ways Bendis gets roasted here for Nova is if he makes Richard die like a scared punk. THAT would be WAAAAY out of character for him. The other worry is if he gets the Nova force powers wrong, which so far Marvel has not been able to get right anywhere else since Rich "died" so I'm kind of expecting this to be the case here too.

Most reasonable fans understand that Rich's presence would hinder this "lawless galaxy" that the new creative teams wanted to play with. We get that these guys wanted to work with characters they can easily understand and that the Nova concept might be too much for them. If that's the case just put Rich behind a desk for a while, and have the new guy report to him if you want.
We'd have accepted Rich in a non-active "paid administrative leave" (like Multiple Man is enjoying) much more so than getting erased from existence where even his death and subsequent absence is not acknowledged or lamented. This guy was the star of the Annihilation era the story arc that lead to the amazing GotG movie! He even told Tony Stark to f*k off about his petty antics during the Civil War event. He deserved better than the "never mention him again" Chris Benoit treatment (wrestling reference here).

Completely agree. I figure that he doesn't want to intentionally piss Richard fans off, but you can't seriously go around claiming that "DnA killed Richard" in hopes to escape condemnation upon yourself when it is an incontrovertible fact that they did not kill Richard. That just makes him seem disingenuous. I mean it's almost as if he thinks we haven't read the material in question. Drax was killed, Richard Rider was left marooned in the cancerverse along with Starlord and Thanos. Therefore if Richard is "killed" in subsequent issues following Thanos Imperative, then it will be because Bendis and Bendis alone made the decision to do so.

I too will be interested to see how Bendis decided to pursue this story. Looking at this interview where he places blame of Rich's "death" squarely at the feet of DnA (when they've said multiple times that they didn't kill him), I'd say he's not off to a very promising start.

[MyriVerse]

Venom popped out of a mind machine...Why make a whole planets of them...Seems kind of lame since that well dried up long ago...

Um... there's been a whole planet of symbiotes since 1995.

Battleworld was created from pieces of existing planets, so it only stood to reason the symbiote came from somewhere.

And if you recall, Venom did not pop out of the mind machine. It came from something else.

[Zero Hunter]

Bendis can say whatever he wants but the simple truth is he had no interest in the Guardians until he knew the movie was coming out. If there had not been a Guardians movie he would not have signed on to write this book in a million years and for him to say otherwise is just nonsense. It is all about the movie.

[harashkupo]

All I want in life is to see my favesies talk talk talkin' away, over a bucket of chicken or a mess of pancakes. And kisses.

LOL I honestly would bust a gut if Bendis somehow fit one of his own tropes into the symbiote world.

[Mahes]

Completely agree. I figure that he doesn't want to intentionally piss Richard fans off, but you can't seriously go around claiming that "DnA killed Richard" in hopes to escape condemnation upon yourself when it is an incontrovertible fact that they did not kill Richard. That just makes him seem disingenuous. I mean it's almost as if he thinks we haven't read the material in question. Drax was killed, Richard Rider was left marooned in the cancerverse along with Starlord and Thanos. Therefore if Richard is "killed" in subsequent issues following Thanos Imperative, then it will be because Bendis and Bendis alone made the decision to do so.

I too will be interested to see how Bendis decided to pursue this story. Looking at this interview where he places blame of Rich's "death" squarely at the feet of DnA (when they've said multiple times that they didn't kill him), I'd say he's not off to a very promising start.

That part of the interview just made me cringe the most. Blaming DnA like that is not going to help your case at all Bendis. It was such a cop out.

I've been reading Guardians but so far it's just been kind of meh. Sticking around for the Original Sin tie-in issues though.

[krazijoe]

Um... there's been a whole planet of symbiotes since 1995.

Battleworld was created from pieces of existing planets, so it only stood to reason the symbiote came from somewhere.

And if you recall, Venom did not pop out of the mind machine. It came from something else.

Maybe my memory is getting fuzzy, but as I recall in Secret Wars #8, Peter is looking for a place to get some new clothes and thinks he finds the right machine. He thinks into the machine and out pops a blob that engulfs him. Now, I admit, this was 30 years ago and I was only 13/14 so I may be incorrect. I have no idea if they retconned it or expanded on it as I grew tired of Venom and Carnage etc and Spider-Man around the whole clone crap...

[Optimus]

I'll be upfront. I'm one of those "vocal" Nova fans... but I've always been very polite and respectful to the creative teams at Marvel. I gave the new Nova a shot... and simply didn't like him remotely as much as the hero I grew up reading about who evolved into my favorite Marvel character period. I stopped reading comics for years, largely because heroes just "stopped" being heroes and were beating each other up in Civil War for far longer than I cared to follow. A friend told me to check out Annihilation, which was full-on heroes doing what heroes should do: band together to save the galaxy. And it was amazing. The way it elevated C-list and B-list heroes into some of my favorite comic book characters, and took Nova, whom I always enjoyed as far back as New Warriors, and made him the central focus, finally giving him the potential he always had in the prior comics, was astounding.

The reason I enjoy comics today is because of Nova's role in Annihilation. The reason Guardians of the Galaxy took off was because of stories like Annihilation. The reason we now have a multi-million dollar blockbuster movie pleasing millions of fans all has its roots in that original Annihilation story, and the reason I wanted to see it was because Nova got me interested in the cosmic side of things again.

I have zero idea if anyone at Marvel reads these, but all I can say is love the original Nova, more than any other Marvel hero they've created. More than Spider-man, Wolverine, Iron Man, or Captain America, and I admit it's very frustrating having a character you have followed for decades and who revitalized your love for comics just go missing in action for years at a time. There's nothing for me to read starring my favorite hero. The new Nova doesn't cut it, no matter how many breaks I give the kid. He has failed to win me over.

I'm slightly concerned Bendis is so quick to pass the buck and blame the prior team for "killing" him off when, well, reading that story, I totally don't get that impression at all. It's 100% comic book "death", with no bodies, no on-screen death, no finality to it at all. The fact that Star-Lord and Thanos popped up alive and well again less than a year later didn't help matters; Bendis is pulling our leg if he was ever going to let Thanos "stay dead", after all, and nobody likes it when a hero sacrifices their lives unnecessarily. There was a very, very clear "out" for Nova and Star-Lord, and it's disappointing we got 2 out of 3 of them back... but not the one I wanted back most. Being stuck in "limbo" is not the same as being killed off, and DnA ended their run, but it never struck me as a funeral...

I just want him back.

Heck of a first post, welcome! I feel your pain, it sucks that Richard has been cast out. The good thing is that this is comics and he WILL be back, but having to wait for that time is irritating. Have you read the new Cyclops series out of curiosity? That's a pretty good series so far and might fill the void a little?

[THANOSRULES]

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?p...ticle&id=54981

a must read to put this in perspective, Bill Rosemann's statement on Riders death in TI..

[Sighphi]

It's our chance to be ferociously additive to his mythology in a way that hasn't been done in all these decades.

Oh boy....here comes standard Bendis retcons because he can.

When you hear that no one has done this you wonder how could it be, especially during the time when they were putting out all those Venom comics, that we never went to the symbiote home planet?

Cause they sort of dealt with this in Planet of Symbiotes.
The Symbiotes use up hosts until they die then move on to use another so they jump from planet to planet destroying populations as they are used for hosts.
Their home planet does not matter because it was probably the first planet to be used up.


And why do all the symbiotes in the cover have the spider pattern?
That better be part of the story because there is no reason for others to have that pattern unless they are clones.

[Omnipitus]

Bendis should stop writing books he never read. Give him "Ultimate Daredevil" with Alex Maleeve and shut him up. I read his new stupid book, and it was all lies.