Guardians of the Galaxy #1

The new adventures of Star-Lord, Rocket Raccoon, Gamora, Groot, and Drax begins with Peter Quill receiving a surprise visit from his estranged father and a warning that Earth has been deemed off-limits to all extra-terrestrials. Realizing such a bold pronouncement would only paint a bullseye on his homeworld, the Guardians of the Galaxy head into the Milky Way where they find Iron Man, in his spiffy new space armor, fighting off an entire battleship of Badoon.

After a pretty good reintroduction to Peter Quill (and his major daddy issues) the comic ramps up the action pretty fast as Iron Man and the Guardians work together to stop whatever the Badoon have planned. The good news is the group is successful. The bad news is the Guardians crash land on Earth, immeadiately violating the treaty his father just signed (which may have been his plan all along).

A strong first issue, even if Quill and (to a lesser extent Iron Man) get the spotlight shone of them far more than the rest of the team.

I do have some slight concerns of the redesign of Star-Lord's costume which now look more like a sponsored futuristic football uniform. And, yes, it looks like in their "wisdom," Marvel has gotten away from the character's trademark helmet in favor of something that never hides the main character's face which I can only assume was a concession made for the upcoming movie (or was redesigned as a new cyclist helmet for Lance Armstrong). Worth a look.

[Marvel, $3.99]