What a fantastic, exciting issue. Abnett & Lanning check in on each of the sub-plots making up the main story of War of Kings, and each one develops in an interesting way. We see Vulcan spare Lilandra's life, as he would like her publicly tried and executed. During the opening scenes, we see how much all of this is upsetting Gladiator, the most powerful member of the Imperial Guard. Gladiator also gives us a great recap of how things stand in the military conflict with the Kree. I'm loving the repeated use of battle group names and locations. I'm hearing them in 3 or 4 books a month, so now I actually go "oh yeah" when I hear what battle group Wolfspider is up to. Back on the Kree homeworld, Crystal is bringing Ronan up to speed on what is going on. The battered Ronan has been transformed into a noble, tragic figure, which fascinates me. This guy was a big-time villain! Crystal's affection for him and the entire Kree people is quite well done and clearly her kindness will put her up against the rest of the royal family soon. I'm worried that the royal family may be heading down a questionable path, but we'll see. The rest of the book features the only clear-cut heroes of the story, the Starjammers and the Guardians of the Galaxy. The attack on Lilandra's transport is fantastic. The splash page where the Guardians appear almost made me cheer. Rocket Racoon's handling of Gladiator was tremendous too and almost had me cheering. Follow that up with "Would you hurt someone with fur so soft? Feel." What a wonderful character Rocket is, he may actually make my top 5 these days. Then the incredible conclusion. DnA and others have spent so much time dealing with this character that the turn is shocking, satisfying, and exciting all at the same time.
Paul Pelletier is perfect here. He gets the big moments like the Guardians' arrival. He nails the little details like the Thing chew toy with Lockjaw. And his art is what sells the Ronan tragedy. This book is about perfect.
Excellent
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