Legendary Star-Lord #9

by Kalem Lalonde on February 19, 2015

Writer: Sam Humphries
Artist: Paco Medina 

The Black Vortex crossover got off on a wrong footing this month. The first two chapters of this event were extremely underwhelming because the story just didn’t feel worthy of such an immense crossover. I wanted to like this story because it spins out of my favourite Marvel underdog title “Legendary Star-Lord” but the pieces just didn’t come together right. This is why I went into Legendary Star-Lord #9 with low expectations and given said expectations, I had a good time. This was better than the previous chapters of the crossover but it didn’t impress the way this title has in the past. Black Vortex, unfortunately continues to be an underwhelming event.

This issue, like the chapters before it has a lack of forward momentum or an interesting plot. We’re essentially given the same type of issue as last week where a bunch of heroes argue over whether they should use the Black Vortex or not. The story in this series is simply not worthy of a huge crossover. It’s conventional hero vs hero stuff with the darkened personalities twist. Last event that played on personality twist didn’t work too well for Marvel and it isn’t working any better here.

I’ve loved Legendary Star-Lord since it debuted in August. It was simple, incredibly fun and offered the best portrayal of Peter Quill I could imagine. This series spins out of Star-Lord’s solo title but loses all of its charm. I noticed in this issue that Peter Quill has little to no focus and that’s just playing against the strength of Sam Humphries’ writing. He’s a strong character writer yet fails to bring really strong plots to the mix and this story has been emphasizing his flaws. With the huge cast of this story, Humphries isn’t able to focus enough on any character to truly characterize well enough to be compelling.

He writes some really fun interactions, though which is why one of the reasons I liked this issue more than the previous two. Said interactions are humorous and goofy, which was a main attraction to Star-Lord’s solo title in the past. As for another strong element, Humphries creates a great chaotic tone by this issue’s end as a few character’s journeys merge without making anything feel too hectic. It reminded me of the awesome climaxes to some Y: The Last Man arcs, though which is a positive and a negative.

The tone is obviously good and everything coming together feels awesome and creates some opportunities for epic action. But I don’t know if we should be reaching that point in this story yet. There hasn’t been much sense of buildup to this series and it feels a little early to have all the characters meet for a chaotic battle.

Paco Medina returns to this series after being absent for 2 issues and he does as solid a job on visuals as usual. His style is such a strong fit for Humphries’ script and he draws the massive cast of characters really well. His Captain Marvel looked a little strange to me but that’s a small hiccup in an overall great visual issue.

I don’t think the Black Vortex should be such a huge crossover. Though, Humphries writes some really fun interactions and creates an entertaining and chaotic tone there is too little material presented here to have any strong draw. The plot is extremely one-note and has barely budged since the first issue. I can already tell that this is another elongated event by Marvel. Too bad, one of my favourite books has to be part of it. 
 

Our Score:

6/10

A Look Inside