The Universal Church of Truth is back from the future to brainwash the past to save the future from death - or something. But if it’s not Adam Warlock/Magus in their latest cocoon, who is it? Meanwhile, Rocket battles space cancer - gee I wonder if he’ll overcome it? Have Faith.
Donny Cates’ second and final Guardians of the Galaxy book isn’t a patch on his first unfortunately. The story is really flat and uninteresting - the Church aren’t good villains, none of the characters have compelling storylines and the whole thing feels vague and half-baked.
The book opens with a godawful annual featuring some of the worst comics writers in the business like Tini Howard, Zac Thompson and Lonnie Nadler cranking out some dismal stories about Adam Warlock and Darkhawk that are pure torture to wade through. Hated them all and forgot them as I was reading them - they’re utterly disposable sludge.
Cates’ main story doesn’t have much excitement going on. The Church is winning until the last part when they have to lose and everyone in the meantime is treading water. What’s in the cocoon is mildly surprising until you remember that death, particularly in regards to this series, is a farce.
Which is the same complaint I had for the first book - if dying characters are an irrelevant joke, don’t make the reader go through the motions of making it seem like they’re really dying when there was never any chance of that happening. That’s why the “Rocket dying” storyline feels like such a waste of time.
Cory Smith’s art is every bit as excellent as Geoff Shaw’s in the first book - no complaints there; this book looks amazing. The story actually picks up slightly by the end as the characters fight back against the Church but it’s belated and predictable.
Mostly, Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 2: Faithless is a too boring and unmemorable read - a disappointing conclusion to what was a corking first book.
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