Guardians of the Galaxy #22 Review

Guardians of the Galaxy dives deeper into the ‘Planet of the Symbiotes’ by having nothing to do with the Planet of the Symbiotes at all. That may seem like a flippant comment but when you tout a three-part storyline exploring the very origin of the Venom symbiote by visiting the symbiote’s home planet, and then give  us two parts of the storyline with not even a sniff of a Symbiote planet you invite a certain amount of derision.

Don’t get me wrong, Guardians of the Galaxy #22 is a pretty fun romp around the team’s spaceship with a storyline reminiscent of Ridley Scott’s Alien film but tinged with the comedic elements of the Guardians of the Galaxy. However as a Spider-Fan it’s immensely frustrating to invest in a storyline that promises to bring us ground-breaking content on Venom’s origin and then get what appears to be something else entirely.

Instead what we get is a space-bound Benny Hill chase sketch that showed us the members of the Guardians of the Galaxy running around their spaceship chasing the Venom symbiote with each member getting hilariously taken over and then chasing each other again. There’s almost no plot advancement in this comic at all at least when ‘Planet of the Symbiotes’ is concerned. The issue starts with a member of the team hosting Venom, and it ends with a different member of the team hosting Venom. What’s the point?

That means there’s now only one issue left to actually explore the ‘Planet of the Symbiotes’ and they’re not even there yet. That’s not a lot of page space left to explore something that I feel should’ve absolutely taken every page of all three comic book issues to tell the story which is a major source of my disappointment. However Bendis has done a great job with both Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man and All-New X-Men so there’s every chance he’ll redeem himself in the next issue and give this story-arc a satisfactory resolution.

Schiti continues his good work with the art in this issue especially with the separate renderings of the Guardians of the Galaxy team-mates whilst hosting the Venom symbiote, with Rocket Raccoon’s transformation particularly sticking out as a sinister and well-drawn change. If this issue was good for nothing else, at least we got to see what certain characters would look like with the Venom symbiote but sadly not Gamora.

Bendis also displays marvelous use of comic timing almost entirely centered around Tony Stark’s symbiote controlling device that serves as a fun little Chekhov’s gun that eventually turns into a Chekhov’s misfire or Red Herring which is made all the more stronger because we’ve already seen it work in Guardians of the Galaxy #21. Stark’s device continues to pop up throughout the issue with Peter Quill constantly scrambling to get it and use it, however the comedic payoff of Venom-Raccoon destroying it really worked!

Let’s just hope that we see the ‘Planet of the Symbiotes’ in the next issue.

If you enjoy what you’ve read here at Whatever a Spider Can, we’ve got some exciting news for you — you can be part of the team here too! We’re looking for enthusiastic Spider-Fans to write for us on anything Spider-Man related. just fill in the form you’ll find here and tell us why you want to write for Whatever a Spider Can. We look forward to hearing from you!

Want more Spider-Man news? Subscribe to the Whatever A Spider Can newsletter to get the latest news and rumors about upcoming movies, TV shows and comics before anyone else. Or you can follow us on Twitter @WhatASpiderCan or like us on Facebook.