It’s good, following the whole Civil War II hoo-ha, to see the band back together and playing nicely with each other again. Okay, so maybe Mother Entropy takes place before the superhero dust-up that led to our heroes going their separate ways, but still it’s always a pleasure to see them sort of working together as a hugely dysfunctional whole and showing the latest evil to poke it’s head above the event horizon of the nearest black hole who the big dogs, otherwise known as Peter Quill and company, are in the Guardians galactic back yard.  So when an life ravaging entity from a parallel universe sets its sights on the Guardians cosmic domain with a view to subsuming and consuming all life and energy in it, you can bet your last penny that the rag-team of anti-heroes who spend their days saving, mostly by accident admittedly, all of creation are going to have something to say about it.

Oh and talking about last pennies, it’s due to their challenging financial situation and the fact that they owe everyone they know, and a whole of other folks besides, more than they’re ever going to be able to earn honestly, that they (and an old acquaintance) end up getting sucked into the whole ‘last-line-of-defence-against-the-oncoming-extra-dimensional-horror’ scenario. And like every extinction level event that the Guardians are dragged into, it’s violent, a little weird, crazier than a conspiracy theorist who’s lost his tinfoil hat and nearly as much fun as the all you can eat Ice Cream bar at Pizza Hut.

Story-wise, Jim Starlin is in fine fettle, as his Harlan Ellison meets H.P. Lovecraft plot rattles along at an extraordinary pace that’s buoyed by the energetic dialogue, fractious and slightly edgy team dynamic and fully rounded and well developed characterisation. All of which is combined with Alan Davis’ instantly recognisable, beautifully detailed, pulp flavoured Sci-Fi artwork that’ll zap the older among you (just as it did me) straight back to the glorious, halcyon days of the eighties. Funny, sharp and mixing the best of yesterday with everything that’s good about today narrative and art, Mother Entropy is a bone-fide Guardians classic that every splash page fanatic and pull list mercenary needs to add to their reading pile. Lock and load and fire up the afterburners, it’s time to save the universe again… Tim Cundle