5. Guardians Of The Galaxy #7 By Brian Michael Bendis And Sara Pichelli (Marvel)
Guardians of the Galaxy #6 was pretty fun as we saw the Guardians battle Angela, but besides the action there wasn't much else to it. Now that the requisite superhero action has been dealt with, we get down to the dialogue and character interaction which is what I'm more about - and Guardians of the Galaxy #7 delivers! Now that Angela has been subdued, the Guardians begin trying to find out who she is, where she came from, and why she's targeting Earth. If Bendis does anything well, it's dialogue, and this sequence, which takes up nearly the entire issue, is really good fun. Blending in easy humour with information from Age of Ultron to Angela's background, it's an exposition-heavy issue that doesn't feel contrived to read. We find out about Angela's home - Heven - and her perception of Earth is like our perception of Heaven, which I thought was a nice twist on things (but then I enjoy all things blasphemous). I especially enjoyed Valerio Schiti's depiction of Heven which is weird and wonderful all at once - lotta floating whales! It's also a good issue because we finally find out about Angela, a character who's received a lot of publicity this year but who a lot of readers will be unfamiliar with. Bendis fills us in on the character and just like that she's part of the Marvel Universe and this story arc is complete! Nicely done, sir, as is the ending which sets up the next story arc. Guardians of the Galaxy #7 is a character driven superhero story with excellent visuals - the best kind of superhero comic!