4 out of 5

You sorta’ have to appreciate that Marvel’s been building their Guardians of the Galaxy comic line starting almost a year out from when the movie is supposed to drop.  It’s a smart move since they’re not bankable characters, and you can rely on the common internet-informed comic fan to now know what’s coming up, and so to catch their eye when something GotG-related drops.  And I think we’re all hoping / expecting some Rocket Raccoon fervor to get around… though I guess based on this FCBD, we should’ve realized it was going to be kid-geared, since that’s the safer route with antropomorphic characters.  Still, I’ll hand it to scripter Joe Caramanga, artist Adam Archer and colorist John Rauch – the setup here (Rocket saves a princess whom he’s meant to return for a bounty but instead chooses to take her along on continued adventures) (yes, that’s the whole thing in a quick aside) pretty perfectly captures the high points of each character’s defining attributes.  Rocket is impulsive and snarky with a good heart, his boasts getting him into trouble; Mr. Wal-Rus is the tech-head whose gadgets still make him quite capable in a scuffle; and Groot can be whatever you want Groot to be, and Joe /Archer / Rauch do that well by having the lettering of his ‘groots’ vary as well as his visual appearance – when a brawler, cast in red light, when a gentleman, standing with lurched posture, and bowing slightly.  Archer’s art is very Sly Cooper-esque, which is a great choice for the series, and hopefully the art team will remain the same, as Rauch’s water-color-y colors and wonderfully warm palette really ground the look and separate it from the simplistic solids of most youth books.

This is docked a star because we have a back-up thats a reprint of, I assume, a Marvel Adventures series.  Also written by Caramanga, with art by Ty Templeton.  The Spider-Man, White Tiger, Nova, Iron Fist and Power Man space resuce ditty isn’t un-entertaining, but it’s sorta’ balls to not have included another backup that at least ties to GotG… though preferably it should’ve been something to do with rocket.  And also the front page mistakenly says that it’s Black Panther and not White Tiger, which is amusing but editing that further suggests a lack of thought regarding what story to pair the Rocket feature with.  The only benefit of having these together is you can see how Caramanga can stretch his writing style to appeal to more ages – the Rocket story can work for adults or kids, while the back-up is definitely for youngsters.