A Fond Farewell in Guardians of the Galaxy #18

THE LAST ANNIHILATION CONCLUDES! The Guardians and their allies are being overrun on all fronts by the Mindless Armies of Dormammu. There’s only one hope for the galaxy as we know it, and it comes in the form of a human rocket – and his family. Guardians of the Galaxy #18 is written by Al Ewing, drawn by Juan Frigeri, colored by Frederico Blee, and lettered by VC’s Cory Petit.

Anna: Last month, I jumped on this series as a new regular reviewer, clowned on the “Last Annihilation” event title, and now – this comic is cancelled. Meaning, of course, that the cancellation is all my fault. Woe be the tides of cosmic comeuppance! 

But then I remembered a great man in a gold helmet and sweet vest once said and finally found a way to believe, “it’s not just up to me.” This month’s partner in closing-up shop, Mark Turetsky, was here last month too, so this book getting cancelled is as much his fault as mine. Thanks a lot, Mark!

Just kidding! Mark’s only crime is being awesome, and most of my crimes are confined to fashion choices and bad taste in television. But I’m not kidding about this volume of Guardians of the Galaxy coming to an end. That part is real, and sad. We don’t know what might happen next, where, when, or with whom, but for the moment, we’ve got this comic to talk about, and it is, as usual, a pretty good one.       

Mark Turetsky: Hey! Remember last time when I talked about all the wheels within wheels that I was picking up on? All those nuances of timing and stuff? Let’s see how that turned out!

Stacking the Deck

Anna: We begin where we left off last issue – on Chitauri Prime, where the cosmic debris-spawned Doombots of Dr. Doom are waging war against an army of Chitauri ensnared by the dark magics of the Dread Dormammu as the Guardians of the Galaxy look on. (Do you sometimes type a sentence and wonder whether any part of it would be sensible to someone who’s never encountered a superhero comic? Just me? Okay.) 

Doom assembles a pentagram made up of five “stellar avatars” – Drax, Moondragon, Star-Lord, Groot, and himself. Each member of the pentagram is represented by a tarot card: Drax is the Dead Man; Moondragon is the Moon Queen, Mistress of Dragons; Star-Lord is both the Wise Man and the Holy Fool; Groot is Life; and Doom is The Ascendant. All of the cards are pretty fun, but the Wise Man/Holy Fool card, featuring Peter with the head of a sun, wearing a Guardians logo jacket and a pair of baggy dungarees as he dances barefoot through a sunflower garden, is arguably the funnest. Then, Doom casts his spell, which lets the Doombots and the assembled heroes siphon off Dormammu’s magic.

It’s a bit macguffin-y, but the action is nicely rendered by Frigeri, and so are the character beats. I enjoy how calm (or bored?) all of the Guardians are, but in slightly different ways. Drax slouches with his thumbs in his belt, Moondragon stands confidently, and Peter crosses his arms authoritatively and protectively, perhaps a bit too performative in his disinterest. I’m not sure if I’m qualified to read Groot’s body language, but he’s doing his thing. 

Because I’m always most interested in romantic intrigue, the explanation of Doom fulfilling the role meant for Gamora was my favorite bit of this sequence. The Ascendant is “he who wears the mask,” which sounds like Doom, but as Doom himself points out, Gamora also wears a mask, and possesses “vast mystical potential” via past interactions with the Black Vortex and the Infinity Gems. Gamora has been a fav of mine since the Jim Starlin years. In this series and historically, she hasn’t always lived up to my hopes, but I’m here for any and all acknowledgments of her complexity and rembranances of the fact she’s been an important part of pretty much every major Marvel Cosmic event. Also – the mask detail will become thematically relevant later, when some masks get (tentatively) lifted. 

Thoughts on this set-up, Mark?   

Mark: She also literally wore a mask a few years back when she took on the identity of Requiem in the Infinity Wars event series, when she wore that mask with a big infinity symbol on it (spoiler warning for Infinity Wars, I guess?). 

As for the setup, there’s been a lot of tarot in Marvel comics recently, with X of Swords and currently they’re an important part of Ewing’s own Defenders series. I like this version of the tarot because they’re made-up cards, so I don’t need to worry about their deeper meanings or readings of them. There’s a Dead Man card? That’s Drax! There’s a Moon Queen who is the Mistress of Dragons? Certainly sounds like a card custom-written for Moondragon!

It’s incredibly macguffin-y, as you put it, but I really love how it’s a version of the same ritual Dormammu is doing. Dormammu’s got powerful planets arranged in a pentagram? Doom has powerful people. Dormammu has an unlimited supply of Mindless Ones? Doom has his Doombots. It’s satisfyingly symmetrical.

Pulling the Trigger

Anna: Meanwhile, in the Spartax System, Nova, Gamora et al continue to battle the source of the current Annihilation event: Ego the Living Planet turned Dormammu turned awesomely ginormous Dormammu, complete with rocky-glowy body and stylish tunic. It’s a pretty dicey situation; as Rich observes, at that size, Dormammu is dang near unstoppable. Because he’d rather die doing something, Rich decides to punch Dormammu in the jaw. Gamora, bless her heart, calls him out on his hero complex, and refuses to let him die alone.

Suddenly, a portal opens, spitting out a ship flown by a snarling Rocket Racoon. No one’s dying today! Except maybe Dormammu, because Rocket’s ship is actually an enormous gun. If you’re wondering where this enormous gun came from – it was acquired and modified in the tie-in comics, Cable: Reloaded and Final Annihilation: Wakanda.

Back on Chitauri Prime, Doom uses the magic siphoned from Dormammu for a teleportation spell that reunites all the Guardians in the Spartax System. Good thing, too, because firing a weapon this big requires all hands (and paws) on deck. Rocket instructs Peter to infuse the weapon with solar energy from his element gun. Gamora will take the shot. And Rich’s Nova Force will propel the bullet, made of mutant Mysterium gifted to Rocket by Storm, currently regent of Arakko (formerly Mars, for those who missed the Hellfire Gala). It’s all very romantic, with a suitably impressive climax, as the extremely phallic bullet powered by science and magic and “all the love in this poor, fragile cosmos” cleaves a hole through Dormammu, disintegrating him.

There’s also a Doom-related denouement, in which we learn the good doctor was basically behind everything. He recruited Sister Talionis of the Skrulls to make Ego vulnerable to Dormammu’s possession. In return, Talionis gets control of Chitauri Prime. And Doom gets a bunch of residual Dormammu magic, which he plans to keep in reserve until “the moment of reckoning.” A Reckoning War teaser, I’d guess?             

Mark: The whole sequence really puts me in mind of the “mutant technology” ideas currently showing up in the X-line, especially how Ewing uses it over in SWORD. And the whole sequence gets narrated by Doom, beginning with the phrase, “And so it goes.” On the one hand, it’s a bullet, it goes. But I’m also wondering if our Shelley-quoting Latverian ruler might be quoting Vonnegut here, who famously used the phrase “So it goes” to mark moments of death in Slaughterhouse Five. It might be just me, as I can’t read that phrase without thinking of Vonnegut’s masterpiece.

And I’m sure there will be no ill effects from Doctor Doom’s actions here.           

I Love Him Too

Anna: The universe is saved! Which means it’s time for a drink. The watering hole of choice is Gosnell’s on Dolo-Mayan. These pages are mostly hugs and congratulations and good times. There’s cute moments for all our central players, but the headline is what happens – and doesn’t happen – between Rich, Gamora, and Peter.  

In our last column, I wrote about the slow build to a Rich/Gamora/Peter romantic triad and expressed skepticism about Ewing being allowed to make it canon. That skepticism was apparently warranted, though this comic comes as close as possible to making the triad explicit while maintaining a degree of plausible deniability. 

Before the bar, during the sequence with the giant gun, Peter says to Gamora, about Rich, “I love him too.” Gamora says she knows.  She also says, “That makes it better.” Later, Rich sits at the bar next to Wendell, talking about how he might finally have the freedom to “do what I want for a change,” while a series of queer couples – Wiccan and Hulkling, Noh-Varr and Hercules, and Phyla and Moondragon – pass by in the foreground, kissing and canoodling. Then, Rich is sandwiched in an embrace between Peter and Gamora. He ends this comic, and this series, in their arms, surrounded by smiling, supportive space friends – and space family. That joke-y question people sometimes ask, about “when is subtext just text”? This is Exhibit A. Not seeing the romantic potential between Rich, Gamora, and Peter would require active avoidance.

I won’t presume to tell anyone who was rooting for this romantic triad how they should feel about this so-close-but-not-quite presentation of it. Obviously, it doesn’t go far enough, and the fact it doesn’t can be painful, perhaps more so given how damn close it gets. Speaking purely for myself: while I’m frustrated by the fact the triad doesn’t technically, officially become canon, I nonetheless found the “I love him,” “I know” scene (a twist on Han and Leia’s famous Empire Strikes Back exchange as well as a callback to Guardians #6), very moving. Frigeri captures something special in Gamora’s expression, where she closes her eyes and almost tears up a little, then opens them with a new sense of clear-eyed purpose, as she aims the fusion of Peter and Rich’s power – and all their love – at Dormammu. There’s a palpable sense of relief and rightness to that moment that’s going to stay with me for a long time.  

It’s also tempting to relate these character arcs to the beautiful essay Ewing published on Medium back in June, in which he came out as bisexual while eloquently describing his anxiety about labels and the pressure – both self and socially imposed – of living up to them. I’m pretty confident Ewing did the best he could in this comic when it came to representing queer love. But he is, at the end of the day, at the mercy of a corporation. Readers can be angry at that corporation and should be. But I’m also very grateful to Ewing for giving us what he did, which I do find beautiful, despite its limitations.      

Mark: Yes, if there’s a triad equivalent to the “just gals being pals” trope, this is it, glaringly so. I’m not, personally, a huge shipper of characters, but as I read this, it just screamed, “we’re making this as explicit as we can, but we aren’t allowed to confirm it outright.” And, look, I don’t know where this call came from, so I have no idea where the blame lies, but to even refer to this as coding would be an insult to the practice of cryptography. 

It’s incredibly frustrating that it remains all-but-confirmed. Especially after the explicitness of the relationship between Quill, Aradia and Mors back in issue #9. And especially for, as you point out, a title with so much queer representation already.

It’s also an interesting choice of location. It’s pretty obvious to have their galaxy-saving party in a bar, clearly, but it’s also where Rich and Gamora had a nice long talk about their relationship to each other and to Peter back in issue #6, where Richard says of Peter “I loved him too… you know that, right?” to which Gamora replies “Yes, I know. That makes it worse,” and tells Richard that he’ll never see her again, so this is a clear callback to that scene. So Gosnell’s goes from the place where Gamora leaves Richard, to a place of reconciliation for them.

Anna: Yes!!! It’s such a great callback. And it shows how much this storyline means to Ewing. Rich, Gamora, and Peter ending this series in each others’ arms isn’t a throw-away thing. Ewing was setting this up since the beginning. This was always the endgame of a story that started with Peter fleeing a certain type of domestic bliss in search of something else – something missing. And of course, it was Rich who called him – who beckoned him back to the stars and their infinite possibility.

Once again speaking purely for myself – I’m ultimately less upset about what happens/doesn’t happen in the series at hand than I am concerned about what comes next. I’m worried future creators will abandon what Ewing built, or at least, not handle it with the same grace and care. I think this is a pretty justified fear, considering the fact Guardians of the Galaxy is an MCU property, and the MCU has a frankly terrible track record when it comes to LGBTQ+ representation. And the comics aren’t much better. Most of the time, LGBTQ+ representation only happens when certain creators actively campaign for it, and even then, there’s always that corporation to contend with. Infinite possibility is always circumscribed by what the corporation wants its IP to be at any given time – how it wants to sell its stories and characters, and to whom. But for now, I’m going to take inspiration from the joy of this issue’s final page, and hope for the best.

Any final thoughts, Mark, on where we’ve landed – and where we might go from here?

Mark: Ewing, Cabal, Frigeri, Takara, everyone who contributed to this series did an incredible job on it. It was the most enjoyable Guardians has been in a long time, with the right mix of interpersonal drama and cosmic wonder. It feels like there are so many places this cast (both of creators and of characters) can go, but the end of this issue does provide a somewhat satisfying resolution, to a certain degree. 

And personally, it’s been a ton of fun being the regular pinch hitter on this column!

Anna: While it feels weird for the new girl to be the one saying this – I also wanted to offer a huge and heartfelt thank you to everyone who’s been reading this column month after month. And of course – all the kudos to our colleagues Charlie Davis and Allison Senecal, whose insight and humor built this space into somewhere I wanted to be, however briefly. I hope we gave it a fitting send-off on your behalf.  

Marvel Minutiae

• I’m a sucker for any superhero comic that ends in smile-y group hugs. As far as I’m concerned – every comic should end this way. 
• I (Anna) love Phyla but I miss her short hair. I still sometimes have trouble recognizing her with the ponytail. Just a personal preference.
• Might Ewing be involved, in some way, shape, or form, with Reckoning War? Given the revelation with Doom in this issue, a buildup to RW has been threaded through several of Ewing’s books.
• We’ve tried to be upbeat in this column, but it sucks that this series is ending. It sucks bad. It was great and we’ll miss it.  

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!

Mark Turetsky

Mark Turetsky is an audiobook narrator and voice actor who sometimes writes about comic books. Originally from Montreal, Canada, he now lives in Northern Louisiana.