The 1990’s was a strange time for the world of comic books. Sexy girls on covers taking over a huge market share, badly written stories filling the pages of many books, and Marvel fighting bankruptcy created quite a challenge for comic fans searching for something of quality to read. The 1990’s gave birth to tons of new titles and among them was Jim Valentino’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Those Guardians weren’t the team that most know from the Marvel movies, but rather an updated (for the time) take on the original comic version with members such as Starhawk, Charlie 27, Vance Astro, etc. The first arc of that run is collected in a massive trade paperback over 300 pages in length with a cover price of $34.99.
The trade paperback collects issues 1-7, Annual 1, and three annuals from other Marvel series that tie into the Guardians’ story arc. It’s a lot of material for such a low price that alone makes it a good deal, but Valentino’s writing is what truly makes the volume worth picking up. In an era where the writing was lackluster overall, Valentino delivered a team that the reader becomes invested in emotionally while also managing to provide fun and action-filled stories.
It’s also interesting to note that this run of the Guardians was the series that introduced the world to Taserface, the laughable character from the second Guardians of the Galaxy film.
