Steve Gerber (1947–2008)

The Daredevil content is limited to two panels. In panel one, Daredevil and Natasha swing through a rip in space to enter the other world this comic takes place on. In the second, they complete their arc and swing out through a second rip back to their world. The issue is interesting in that it's poorly plotted—characters are there but fail to contribute anything—but I got the sense the author was having fun with his wildly imaginative story, so it was fun going along with him to find show more out what would happen next. I enjoyed the twist at the end about where the gods of this world really were too. show less

Not a good issue. Moon Dragon shows up and gives us like 8 pages of backstory, all of which feel out of place in a Daredevil comic. The plotting makes no sense—why was Moon Dragon surprised Daredevil found her when she transported Matt to her lair? how did Broderick show up there? why did Moon Dragon trust him when she's supposed to be so smart and learned? how did Matt beat her in a physical fight so easily when she's got mental powers and is a great athlete? why are we suddenly getting a show more seeming Paul/Natasha romance? There's not a single thing that happens in this issue that doesn't also come with a heaping of non-sense on top of it. I don't care for psychedelic if it means losing the ability to have a logical plot with actions and consequences from those actions. show less

For all that on a detailed level there are issues with the story, the ending hangs together surprisingly well. I was left overall satisfied with how Gerber wrapped things up, and there were several nice twists, such as Angar's turn to join the good guys. Matt was written horribly inconsistently, refusing to give up despite everyone telling him his idea is a bad one to immediately saying there's no hope when his idea doesn't work.

I have an ongoing frustration with the Guardians of the Galaxy. I love the idea of them, but for the most part, I have not truly enjoyed the actual stories that have been written for them.

I should also say that, while the world knows the GotG as Star Lord, Drax, Gamora, Groot, and Rocket, that's never been my GotG line up. Mine was always Major Vance Astro, Martinex, Charlie-27, Yondu, Nikki, and Starhawk.

Which brings me to this collection. Unfortunately, while there was some brilliant stuff show more coming out of Marvel in the mid-to-late 70s, there was also an awful lot of crap. And unfortunately Steve Gerber produced more than his fair share of it. The storyline presented here is...well, it's a hot mess. Gerber does a trial run of his Omega the Unknown character with Starhawk who constantly says something along the lines of "Take the word...of One Who Knows!" but never explains how one happens to know. And when it came to providing the origin of the One Who Knows, he started it, then handed the entire mess over to Roger Stern with the admission that he really didn't know where he was going with it.

Which is the central problem, right? Someone who doesn't know what he's doing is writing a character who's defining characteristic is to be the One Who Knows.

Gerber's other problem is, despite having an entire universe as his sandbox, he rarely plays with anything that doesn't seem to tie back tightly to NYC. The imagination just wasn't there.

Roger Stern fairs a little better, steering the storyline away from hamfisted social commentary and Really! Deep! Stories! about very little toward more of a space opera.

I do think, had Stern had more time, he probably could have turned this iteration of the GotG into something fantastic. Unfortunately, he'd taken over a ship that Gerber had purposefully and wantonly kicked holes in.

I'll never understand why Marvel thought their Steves...Gerber or Englehart...were good at cosmic, galaxy spanning stories. They weren't. show less