Our favorite rag-tag group of space heroes seem to have bitten off more than they could chew in Gerry Duggan’s latest run of Guardians of the Galaxy. With a myriad of intergalactic threats on their tail, The Guardians continue to struggle to find peace in their ranks, even with Raptors attempting to take the Milano amidst their squabbling.

While come have complained that since Bendis’ run on Guardians that the team has resembled more of their movie counterparts instead of the galactic heroes from their time in their early 2008 run (before the film), Gerry Duggan has managed to pull off an impressive feat: Merge the respective qualities from the original comic guardians and what Bendis had added to them when the movie released. Thanks to his fantastic writing (With some excellent comedic timing, I might add) All-New Guardians of the Galaxy is starting to go up the ranks as one of the best Marvel books on sale right now.

Writer Gerry Duggan and Artist Aaron Kuder (Along with color artist Ive Svorcina, something extremely important for a comic like Guardians) have quickly proven themselves to be the dream team of Guardians, because although they were likely given quotas to have similarities to the Guardians films (Peter Quill’s cassettes in the story, Groot being a Baby Groot) they still manage to make it interesting and fresh, with Groot’s size being something of a set up to another upcoming arc for the Guarndians’ run, which brings me to my next point: The story.

Gerry Duggan clearly has a lot planned for the Guardians of the Galaxy (I know, I wrote to him and he responded; see All-New Guardians of the Galaxy ish. 3) and the set up and the writing in each individual issue shows that he is in this for the long haul. Long-term storytelling is something that has been somewhat of a rarity in comics, but with the story that Gerry Duggan aims to tell in this new run just gets more exciting with each issue. You are still left with questions, such as why Drax is a pacifist, why Groot is small, and much more. The interactions the Guardians have with each other is hilarious and so much fun to read, you can really feel the chemistry between all the characters, and this issue has that mores than any of the others that have come out in this run. You really care about these characters as a team.

Overall, All-New Guardians of the Galaxy #6 provides thrills, kills, and something that doesn’t rhyme with those other two words; a real character driven story with a lot of emotional stakes. The book doesn’t look bad either; gorgeous art and coloring just makes this even better than it already is. I have no problem with All-New Guardians of the Galaxy, and I look forward to reading it for a long while. – Ernesto Valenzuela

GRADE – 10/10 PERFECT