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Guardians Of The Galaxy #3

Mar 2020

Al Ewing, Juan Cabal

Story Name:

3: Forever. If we wanted.

Synopsis

Guardians Of The Galaxy #3 synopsis by Rob Johnson

Rating:

Star-Lord was killed (but we know it's temporary of course) last issue defeating the reborn Olympian Gods. Now Rocket Raccoon returns to Halfworld with Hercules to bring the bad news to Drax, Gamora and Groot.

I think we see the meeting from Groot's POV because we see his speech as it must seem to him, while the others only say "I am Drax" etc which he is able to interpret through familiarity. From him we understand that the 3 of them are unhappy that Peter Quill (and Rocket) sneaked off in the Bowie to help Nova (#1) when they'd agreed not to. So they're intending to give him a hard time about it. But they're worried that he hasn't contacted them for days, especially Gamora now that she and Peter are lovers.

When the Bowie lands and Rocket steps out with Hercules he shamefacedly gives them the bad news. Gamora cycles through a range of emotions before striking Rocket until Hercules drags her off. She then tells the pair to go away, and Groot has to watch his best friend leave in the spaceship.

Now we return to more normal storytelling.

Next day Drax is meditating on fragmentary memories of playing the saxophone in his old Earthly identity Arthur Douglas when Moondragon walks in. He tells her he was trying to figure out if the Church Of Universal Truth actually brought him back from death or just created him from scratch (#9 of the previous series). He understands that both Arthur and the original Drax are alive in the Soul Stone (Infinity Wars #6), so where does that leave him? Whatever the connection, does he have to be whatever *they* were? Heather Douglas replies that she's been thinking a similar thing about herself.

Drax tells her that Gamora will be angry if she finds her here, because Moondragon also went with Nova on the mission that killed Peter. Heather says she *isn't* that Moondragon (from an alternate timeline), she's Arthur's daughter from this timeline. She has a dark past, and her love Phyla-Vell is dead. Now along comes this new version (as a result of Infinity Wars) who's the perfect heroine, married to the equally-perfect alternate version of Phyla. And the Guardians accepted her as 1 of their own.

Drax believes her when she says she's his real daughter, but repeats that *he* may not be her real father. She links minds with him and makes his fragmentary memories whole again. And they are both satisfied.

It's the day after that and Moondragon is staying with Drax. Gamora is lying on the bed she shared with Peter reviewing her memories of him, especially the time together between last series and this when he suggested they could stop adventuring to be together. She's been numb since she heard he was dead. One of the straight-jacketed Loonies of Halfworld has told her that the Guardians must leave now that they are no longer assisting with the recovery of Ranger Rocket (as they call him). But then he assessed her and wondered if *she* might need to stay for therapy. And now she absent-mindedly cuts her finger on her knife.

She remembers Peter wondering if they *wanted* to give up the hero life, and now she wondered if he was really talking to the Galaxy he guarded rather than her. Gamora learned early that Death was a person, and that Evil was Thanos. Now she wonders who personifies the Galaxy. And we see an image in her mind which is the Master Of The Sun that Peter sees in his dreams.

Drax informs her that their new spaceship is ready. They 4 are in their fighting togs and ready to be the Guardians Of The Galaxy again. But this time Gamora says they'll work for money, and she puts their CV out on interstellar Mercnet ...

... where it's picked up a day later by a man in an 'illegally parked escape shuttle near Efrara-2'. He reports to his boss, the only other occupant Blackjack O'Hare, that Gamora and the Guardians Of The Galaxy are offering their services. Blackjack emphatically turns the idea down. He doesn't want anything to do with Ranger Rocket because he barely survived their last meeting, and he blames Rocket for his divorce. The guy responds that there's no Rocket in the 4 members listed, which O'Hare takes as confirmation of the rumours that Rocket was dying.

The shuttle is the home of Blackjack's new venture Black Bunny Solutions. The minion is a disgraced aristocrat who calls himself The Prince, but asks Mr O'Hare not to call him Your Highness because Blackjack is his mentor. They have a client who wants a 6-sentient team so BJ tells The Prince to hire the Guardians. He then calls Castor Gnawbarque III (who looks very much like a beaver) to enquire what the job is. Castor says he wants Rocket Raccoon killed.

Review / Commentaries

Guardians Of The Galaxy #3 Review by Rob Johnson (April 4, 2020)

Nina Vakueva, Chris Sprouse and Belen Ortega help Juan Cabal with the art for this issue.

In Infinity Wars #6 it said that Art Douglas and Drax remained separately in Warp World inside the Soul Stone. But I got the impression from the Infinity Wars: Fallen Guardian 1-shot that Drax was at large in the main universe. That 2nd way this Drax could be the same guy. The 1st way then he has to be something different. Except that he emerged from a cocoon of the type used by Adam Warlock, and Warlock *has* returned from Soul World in the Soul Stone before.

The Earth-616 Moondragon was last active in Thanos Imperative #1 where she was still a member of the Guardians. But in Infinity Wars #3 Gamora said she was dead when the version from the alternate timeline showed up. However the reports of her death were obviously greatly exaggerated because here she is in her 1st app in the post-SWIII universe.

Blackjack O'Hare is a long-running frenemy of Rocket Raccoon, and Black Bunny Solutions is a descendant of his mercenary Black Bunny Brigade. He was there in Rocket's 1st app (Hulk#271), and he and the Brigade were working for the villains in RR's 1st mini-series (1985). His last app was as the the imposter raccoon in RR's 2nd mini-series (2014), so this is also *his* 1st app in the new universe. That's the meeting he says he barely survived, and now he's even more cyborg than before.
I don't remember BJ having a wife, ex- or not. Marvel Fandom Wiki suggests it's Lylla, Rocket's old girlfriend, but I don't remember any connection between them.

Castor Gnawbarque III appeared previously in Rocket (2017) #5-6 where he fell foul of 1 of RR's heists. So *he*'s only appeared in the new universe.

> Guardians Of The Galaxy comic book info and issue index

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Main/1st Story Full Credits

Al Ewing

Juan Cabal

Federico Blee

Ivan Shavrin (Cover Penciler)
Ivan Shavrin (Cover Inker)
Ivan Shavrin (Cover Colorist)

Additional Credits

Letterer: Cory Petit.
Editor: Darren Shan. Editor-in-chief: C. B. Cebulski.

All stories. Listed in alphabetical order.

Drax
(Arthur Sampson Douglas)

Gamora

Groot

Guardians of the Galaxy

Hercules
(Heracles)

Moondragon
(Heather Douglas)

Rocket
(Rocket Raccoon)

Plus: Blackjack O'Hare, Castor Gnawbarque III.

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