Publisher: Insight Editions
Release Date: April 4, 2017
Price: $45.00
Creator: Marc Sumerak
Format: 184 pgs., Black & White, 11" x 14", Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-6088-7981-6
Age Rating: All Ages
ICv2 Rating: 4 Stars out of 5
Continuing its dominance in the field of popular culture histories, Insight Editions has reunited with Marvel Comics to publish Guardians of the Galaxy: Creating Marvel's Spacefaring Super Heroes, The Complete Comics History.
ICv2 previously reviewed Insight's last Marvel history, 2016's Deadpool: Drawing the Merc with a Mouth. Although Guardians follows a similar pattern of being a publishing history following the creation of the team and tracing its ever revolving cast of characters, it is a far superior book due to author Marc Sumerak and his inclusion of interviews with both the writers and artists who have shaped the tales of these adventurous interstellar pirates for over forty years.
Targeting both comics aficionados and the casual reader coming to the property from 2014's film and forthcoming sequel, Guardians is the latest addition to the Nerd Lore category of books that are expanded Wikipedia entries with much better accompanying illustrations. Unlike Deadpool or other encyclopedic surveys, Guardians transcends this often limited scope with the voices of the writers and artists behind the team. While Guardians still maintains the inch deep, mile wide approach that most comics histories suffer from--little to no examination of or context in larger trends in pop culture history that explain Guardians of the Galaxy continued popularity or why such an obscure band of misfits were able to succeed so prominently from page to screen--most fans will largely ignore this setback in favor of the coffee-table sized collection of lavishly reprinted interiors and covers, as well as the insights provided by the creators.
But one question Sumerak should have explored is why the original lineup of the Guardians, jettisoned only a few years prior to the 2014 film in favor of Star Lord and his companions in the comics, made the leap from the comics to the cinema. The only relic of the 1969 debut team, Yondu, has found such longevity.
Minor criticisms aside, Guardians reaffirms Insight Editions' commitment to high quality publications and fans will delight in this immersive experience within the comic's lengthy history.
--Nathan Wilson
