Gamora #2

Writer: Nicole Perlman

Artist: Marco Checchetto

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Pretty soon, the Marvel Universe won’t have any titles with adults in it. Gamora #2 takes us back to when Gamora was a ward of Thanos at the age of 18. She complains to dad, quarrels with her sister--typical teenager stuff. Yeah, they threaten to kill each other a lot more... and even try to kill each other sometimes, but other than that it’s normal.

In the first issue, Gamora assassinated the royal family of a supposed genocidal race of conquerors. The alien race may or may not be a murderous species of jerks. Thanos controls the narrative that he feeds to Gamora. He says they’re responsible for killing off Gamora’s entire race.

Gamora learns that she didn’t kill one last remaining member of the royal bloodline, a daughter, that has been stashed away on a dying trash planet called Ubilex. The planet reminds me of the prison planet in the Chronicles of Riddick, where everyone is a criminal in a hyper-realized ‘survival of the fittest’ environment.

As luck, or plot, would have it, Gamora crash lands and the first person she meets is the princess she’s supposed to kill. Gamora doesn’t recognize her. The Princess saves Gamora and they fight off some random bad guys before getting separated.

This comic throws every action movie plot device at the reader. The characters race against a 48 hour clock before the planet is sucked into the event horizon of a black hole. The future of an empire hinges on the rescue of a princess. An assassin clandestinely teams up with her quarry, causing even the characters in the story to question whether it’s destiny. There’s a bounty hunter, a drug trade, smugglers, intergalactic politics and even a superweapon that Thanos is chasing down.

The last two issues have enough story for an entire comic book universe, yet it doesn’t get bogged down by any one storyline. They all tie neatly and sensibly together. The introduction of Ubilex is exactly what a space-faring fantasy needs. It’s a unique planet with its own rules and society. We see the story threads start entangling by the end of issue #2 and things kick into high gear. The next few installments in this series are shaping up to be great action-fantasy.