Things stand at a bit of a different place after issue #19, than they did after #17. I don't think it's an improvement myself, but there could be some things to work with. After #17, Abnett and Lanning had Adam Warlock turned into Adam Magus, and in control of the Universal Church of Truth. As the UCT has billions of followers, and the faith of those followers can be drawn on as an actual power source, that's no small thing.
Consider the possibilities. Magus is considered the savior by the UCT. They'll kneel to him, follow him, sacrifice their lives for him. And well they should, since he saved the universe. Now, I don't know whether Adam had managed to make the universe permanently safe from more ruptures by stopping the expansion of the Fault or not. I'm going to assume that he hasn't. I'd figure a giant open wound in space-time is only going to render the rest of it more vulnerable. Magus wants to conquer the universe, not see it lost, so he'll have to keep going around and patching up those fissures. The downside for him is that takes time and energy. The upside is doing so enforces his image as the savior. If he can save a few imperiled worlds, he can probably gain more adherents, which has the bonus of giving him more power to draw from. Pretty soon, he might make the UCT powerful enough to threaten the Kree/Inhuman and Shi'ar Empires. He's got a ready made sales pitch: They spend all their time fighting meaningless wars that nearly destroy all creation, I save all creation. Who do you want to lead you? Do the empires take that lying down, or do they try to win their people back, or just opt to destroy the UCT, which would kind of prove the Magus' point.
Then for the heck of it, throw Kang in, as he decides to take matters into his own hands. Whether he's using an army of Starhawks, or just his more standard armies, is not terribly critical. Maybe Magus decides to wipe the Guardians out, because he thinks they might get in the way. Then they're up against the might of the UCT, lead by someone who knows all about their base, tactics, etc. Maybe he doesn't bother, because he doesn't think they're worth it, and can the Guardians really challenge him? He's protecting the universe, for his own fiendish reasons, but still, people are alive because of him (though he's likely drawing heavily on the power of his followers' faith, which is probably killing them, but they're willingly giving that to him). Magus present a huge problem, one the Guardians will have to decide if they should even try to stop or not, and if so, it's something they're going to have to plan in detail, as he's too powerful to just go charging in, especially if the other major powers in the universe start to get involved.
But, Magus is dead (though that other cocoon is still out there, presumably), and the Guardians are down a lot more members post- issue #19 than they were post-issue #17*. So, no Magus making the UCT ever stronger, to the point it might threaten the entrenched political powers. No Magus taking over every timeline so that Kang feels the need to intervene. So, where to go from there? Well, with Magus eliminated, it's always possible Kang the Conqueror will drop by to conquer. It looks as though Nova and Darkhawk are gonna run into the Sphinx, a foe so dangerous Reed Richards once asked Galactus to come and deal with him. He has a stone that can alter reality, so maybe Kang's going to be annoyed by yet another person messing up his plans, and drop by to deal with this one himself. Then the Guardians have to decide who to help, or how to set themselves in position to make certain neither of those two wins.
I think, though, the primary possibility is for the Guardians to be hunted by the UCT. We don't know if the lady that was leading the church died when all those temple ships blew up after Magus' death. She didn't seem terribly sure that Warlock/Magus was the real deal, so perhaps she stayed behind. Still, Warlock did save the universe, and the Guardians did kill him, and I doubt their reasons will be persuasive to the UCT***. So, the Guardians have to move forward, continue guarding against threats inside and outside the universe, somehow. The UCT doesn't care about that, though. Their savior is dead, it's time for vengeance. Put the Guardians on the run as the UCT devotes all it's still considerable power to destroying them for what they did. Eventually, it's going to get severe enough that they can't stay on Knowhere, especially since Cosmo's not around to vouch for them anymore****. They aren't likely to have many friends in the Shi'ar, and Phyla pretty much burned their remaining bridges with the Inhuman, the ones Star-Lord hadn't wrecked with Ronan last year. So where do they go? The Nova Corps isn't nearly strong enough to house and protect them from the UCT.
The team's going to have to go back to its roots. Which can mean how they operated during Conquest, when they had to be sneaky because they were locked in with their enemies all around them, or it can refer to the original Guardians of the Galaxy, who operated much the same way, though they weren't confined to a limited space, but the places they were interested in were swarming with enemies. They'll still need to do the work that needs doing, but in such a way the UCT doesn't get wind of it. I think you could make something of that for awhile at least. Then you have the cocoon hatch, and go from there, depending on that's inside.
* Assuming everyone lost in the future made it back safely, they originally lost only Phyla, Gamora, and Adam Warlock. At this point, you can add Major Victory, Cosmo, and Mantis to those three**. Which leaves them a pretty limited team, power-wise. They have two people who like to solve problems by shooting them (Star-Lord and Rocket Raccoon), two that solve problems by hitting them (Groot, Jack Flag), one who uses both those plus stabbing (Drax), and a telepath (Moondragon).
** Why didn't Star-Lord try and use the Cube to resurrect them? I'm not clear on what the Cube's limits are, but if they can be used to enslave Celestials, as the Badoon did in that one future, or rewrite history, as I think the Red Skull did in a Captain America story once, I think they could bring a handful of people back from the dead. Maybe Kang limited its powers precisely so it couldn't be sued against him if he stopped by.
*** Namely, "We didn't want your savior ruling every single timeline in existence". I'm sure that would go over well. "And just what's wrong with our glorious and perfect savior?"
**** I am really bummed out they killed Cosmo and Mantis. Three telepaths on the team, and the one they keep alive is my least favorite. I know she just came back earlier this year, and I don't have anything against Moondragon in particular, I just don't like her as much as Mantis or Cosmo. Then again, Mantis was originally, by her own admission, supposed to at Ultron's hands during Conquest, so I guess she's been on borrowed time since then.
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2 comments:
I'm still a little suspicious of all the deaths specifically because of how many people died. Just seems like killing off half the team is a bit much.
Unless they're planning a whole new Guardians line-up, it seems likely that there's something else going on.
seangreyson: I sure hope there's something going on, and with the Cosmic Cube and Kang lurking, plus the Fault and whatever it's capable of, there's certainly potential for resets.
Unfortunately, there's also the possibility that Abnett and Lanning thought the team was getting too large, and used this as an opportunity to pare it down a little. They've got 7 members now (I forgot about Bug), and that's a pretty common number amongst super-teams.
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