287: War of Kings

What’s Covered?

War of Kings # 1 - 6, GotG 1 - 17, X-Men Kingbreaker # 1- 4, Secret Invasion: Inhumans # 1 - 4

Roster Watch

Synopsis

I love the X-Men. When I started this comic blogging journey, I was inspired by the amount of X-Men and X-Force comics I read when I was around ten years old. I wanted to get into Krakoa, but decided that I wanted to read the entire history of the X-Men before going through that era. I'm bringing this up because while I read a lot of X-Men comics, I never finished an entire run. There was one comic, however, where I did. The Guardians of the Fricken Galaxy. I loved Jim Valentino's run in the 90's. I read every issue. I loved it. When it was announced that the Guardians would be getting a movie, I was stoked, even though I didn't know who Rocket Racoon or Groot was. One day, I'll go back and do blogs covering all of the GoTG. So what's the point of all this? When I was reading War of Kings and noticed I would be intersecting with early issues of the re-booted GotG, I couldn't help myself by going back to the very begging of the run. So naturally, that's where I started.

I also wanted to mention that I fricken loved War of Kings, even more than Secret Invasion which I just got done raving about last week. I've read more comics in the last two weeks than I ever have in that short of a time span. It's been a blast!

Ok, enough nerding out. Time to set the scene for War of Kings. The War of Kings is a colossal cosmic battle involved the Inhumans, Kree, Shi'ar, Starjammers (Havok's crew,) the GotG, and fricken Darkhawk, another 90's obsession of mine. Let's start by understanding who the GotG are!

Guardians of the Galaxy # 1 - 12

Writer - Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning

Pencils - Paul Pelletier

Adam Warlock is concerned about giant Cosmic rifts that are disrupting space and time, which is apparently the result of two giant space sagas that I feel tempted to go read (Phalanx & Annihlus.) In an effort to protect the universe, Star Lord (Peter Quill) puts together a group consisting of Gamora, Drax, Mantis, Quasar (Phyla Vell,) Rocket Racoon, Groot, and of course Adam Warlock.

I didn't realize how much this re-boot leaned into the 90's drama from the original series, but I loved it. At first they are shown fighting the Universal Church of Truth, which was a major part of Adam Warlock's origin, which I couldn't help myself from blogging about 4 years ago: 71: Infinite Gauntlet Prep: Meet Thanos and Adam Warlock.

On one of their missions, they find Major Victory (Vance Astro), who was one of my beloved OG GotG team members, frozen in ice and still in his space suit. He wakes up without many memories and joins the team throughout this entire run!

Shortly after joining the team, Major Victory is attacked by none other than Starhawk, another OG character who I absolutely adore. While it was fun to see the character, and we even saw them in their female form, they don't really touch on any of the original mythos which I was a tiny bit disappointed by. It turns out that Starhawk believes the Guardians shouldn't exist yet (since the future version, which is actually the past version in publishing years) shouldn't exist, and this is why they keep attacking the team.

During one of their escapades to stop a cosmic rift, the team finds themselves about to be burned to death by a rogue star/sun. Gamora sacrifices herself (or at least her skin) to save the team. This is how I learned that she has a healing factor, however she did spend the next few issues looking like a burnt pickle.

We finally get into the Secret Invasion stuff when there is an explosion on Nowhere (the dead Celestial head where the GotG are headquartered,) and they learn that a few of the inhabitants were Skrulls (their body transformed after dying.) Drax goes MIA and everyone thinks he's either a Skrull or insane, but it turns out that he found a way to identify the Skrulls. The only remaining Skrulls were Pacifists, only hiding out on Nowhere.

Around this time, the truth is revealed that Peter asked Mantis to use here mental powers to convince the team to join together. This causes the group to break up, but some of them stick around (Rocket, Groot, and Mantis) who are joined by a new member, bug.

Peter tries to warn the Kree about the Skrulls, but they already knew and this results in a battle between Ronan the Accuser and Peter. Peter loses (obviously) and is thrown into the negative zone, where he discovers that a villain named Blastaar is marshalling forces for an invasion of our universe!

Meanwhile, Drax and Quasar go on a mission to find Moodragon (the deceased daughter of Drax and lover of Phyla Vell,) which results in them being killed by Mentor. While being half dead, they run into Maelstrom.

This brings us up to the beginning of War of Kings, but let's check in on some other groups.

Secret Invasion: Inhumans # 1 - 4

Writer - Tom Raney

Pencils - Scott Hanna

When Medusa and the Inhumans learn that Blackbolt has been switched with a Skrull, they come hell bent on finding the real Blackbolt. It turns out that both Blackbolt and his son are being held by the Skrulls and they are trying to transform Blackbolt's voice into a weapon that can destroy planets (Deathstar?)

This pushes the Inhumans to get even more extreme and violent. Near the end of the arc, the Skrulls invade the Inhumans home on the blue side of the moon and attempt to destroy them. They Inhumans barely win and the royal family sets out to find Blackbolt. They meet with the Kree and agree that Crystal will marry Ronan in exchange for help getting him back. After a tough battle, they succed and find Blackbolt...who is PISSED.

War of Kings: Warriors (Gladiator & Darkhawk)

Writer - Cristos N. Gage, C.B Cebulski

Pencils - Mahmud Asrar, Harvey Talibao & Bong Dazo

The Warriors limited series includes a fascinating backup story about Gladiator. the head of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard. Apparently he was from a race of aliens (Strontians) who all held amazing powers like the Gladiator we know. This race was bred to be completely loyal to the Shi'ar, however the Shi'ar feared their powers. In a sick test of loyalty, Kallard (who we now know as Gladiator,) was asked to kill his own people. Many of the other Strontians broke their loyalty, but Kallard was the most loyal, in addition to the strongest.

We also check in with Darkhawk (Chris Powell) who had decided to move back in with his mom and brothers. However, his house was destroyed as another creatue that looked just like him (we'll later know as Talon) crashed into earth with some ancient alient following them. Chris learns that he is one of many Darkhawk's, but at the moment there are only the two of them left.

X-Men: Kingbreaker #1- 4

Writer - Christopher Yost

Pencils - Dustin Weaver, Paco Diaz

Checking back in with Havok's Starjammers, we find them (Havok, Polaris, Ch'od, and Raza) being held by Vulcan and being tortured. Meanwhile, Rachel, Korvac, and Lilandra are raiding the Shi'ar empire as she tries to win back her seat.

Vulcan puts together his own suicide squad to go after Lilandra: A Symbiote, an Uncreated, a female Strontian (Gladiator's race,) and other cooky characters. The Galactic Council asks to meet with Vulcan to get him to stop spreading their troops too thin and to stop invading new planets, but Vulan responds by slaughtering them.

Havok engineeros a prison break, but ends up protecting the Shi'ar guards from the other prisoners. Eventually Lilandra and the gang show up, but just in time to fight the Suicide Squad (my name for them, not Marvel's.)

When Gladiator learns that his cousin is alive, he goes nuts and attacks her. Havok is able to absorb the nuclear power of one of the cooky Suicide Squad teammates and that helps him to give his team the upper hand, however they are dealt a huge blow when the Phoenix force leaves Rachel. Deathbird attacks Lilandra, but she stabs her with a spear. Havok is determined to kill Vulcan, but they teleport away first. Raza is left behind as the computer didn't recognize him (to teleport him,) due to him being taken over by the Symbiote.

War of Kings Begins (Secret Invasion: War of Kings, War of Kings # 1, GotG 13, WOK: Ascension # 1

A pissed off Blackbolt takes the entire Inhuman city of Atillan to the skies, and annihilates most (or all) remaining Skrulls. Then they move on the Kree and force Ronan the Accuser to bow down, leaving the Inhumans as the rules of the Kree Empire. Vulcan takes it as an invitation for war.

Later, during the wedding of Crystal to Ronan, the Imperial Guard crash the wedding, kill many Kree, and kidnap Lilandra. This kicks off a war between the Kree (led by the Inhumans) and the Shi'ar (led by Vulcan.) This concerns Adam Warlock because the thinks it could make space time even more unstable. The GotG split into two teams with half the team joining forces with the Starjammers. Meanwhile, Chris Powell learns that the Darkhawks (Fraternity of the Raptors) are actually the bad guys!

War of Kings Continues (WoK # 2 - 4, GotG 14 - 15, WOK Ascension 2 - 3)

The Inhumans begin their advance and take out a Shi'ar fleet.

Starlord meets with the Inhuman ruling family trying to talk them out of war, but are only able to piss them off. Phyla Vell makes things worse by kidnapping Crystal. Meanwhile, Adam Warlock battles with Vulcan. Both halves of the GotG return back to Nowhere, with both the Imperial Guard (Shi'ar) and Inhumans (Kree) converging. After a protracted battle, both sides depart.

The Starjammers eventually join forces with the Guardians and rescue Lilandra. Gladiator shows up and has the opportunity to stop them, but FINALLY stops remaining blindly loyal to Vulcan, instead choosing to support Lilandra.

With the Support of Gladiator, the Guardians, and the Starjammers, Lilandra is able to execute a bloodless coup. However, the victory is short lived because she is murdered by Darkhawk, who's suit had been taken over by Talon (the other raptor I mentioned earlier.) Chris Powell is eventually able to regain control his suit and defeat Talon, but only after the damage was done.

War of Kings Ends (WOK # 5 - 6, GotG # 16 - 17, WOK: Who will Rule?)

After Lilandra’s murder, the capital city on Chandilar (Shi’ar homeworld) is in ruins.

Blackbolt thinks his only chance to win the war is to sacrifice himself and use a superweapon to turn every living being into Inhumans. However, Vulcan shows up and has an epic battle trying to stop him from using the weapon. It seems as though Blackbolt sacrificed himself to kill Vulcan end the war, however he tears a hole in space and time (the very thing Adam was scared of.) Adam is eventually able to close the hole, but at the expense of his own persona, allowing himself to be transformed into Magus, at the head of the Universal Church of Truth.

With there being unlimited bloodshed on Chandilar, Gladiator picks up the ruling scepter and gets everyone to calm down. He spends weeks denying that he would be the right person to rule the Shi'ar until Crystal convinces him to accept the responsibility.

My Connections and Creators

Boring or Great?

As I mentioned earlier, I absolutely loved this. Maybe it's just because I'm sick of reading nothing but X-Men for 5 years straight. Maybe it's because I love the Guardians, Adam Warlock, Darkhawk, etc. Regardless, I loved it!

Gladiator was one of the best parts. He's always been a fascinating character, but I really don't think he's ever had character development. I don't always read tie ins that get little fanfare, but in this case I'm glad I read the Warriors story to learn more about him. It built up slowly, with him even considering letting a sniper take out Vulcan at one point. It would have been great to see them fight at one point, but perhaps it's not too late.

Things to keep an eye on

• I highly doubt it, but will Blackbolt stay dead (at least for a while?)

• I think it's possible that Vulcan will stay dead, but I'm eager to see.

• How will the Magus be stopped!? More importantly, will I keep reading the Guardians or wait until I get to present day for the X-Men (like 2 years from now.)

• Will Crystal and Ronan's marriage last?

• Will the Inhumans stay ruling the Kree?

• Will the X-Men (Havok, Polaris, Rachel, etc.) come back home? (P.S. I snuck a peek and it looks like Rachel will be gone until XM Legacy # 150, and I'm only on 216 right now so that means she'll be gone for years.

My Rating- 10/10

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