For all the build-up to Peter's confrontation with Thanos, it's fairly anti-climatic when it actually happens. Just as Peter unexpectedly has him on the ropes, Thanos reveals that Peter can't kill him lest the resulting release of cosmic energy destroy the Moon (and, subsequently, Earth). I sort of get that, since, after all, I don't think any of us really thought that Star-Lord was going to kill Thanos in the fourth issue of his solo series.
However, it's Humphries job to try to convince us that it could happen. Unfortunately, he doesn't try that hard. Peter resigns himself to the situation, rather than, I don't know, hurling Thanos off the Moon and killing him at a safe distance. Humphries doesn't even have Peter consider alternatives to defeating Thanos. He just sort of shrugs. It's this part and the bad spelling in his message to Kitty that really raised my hackles. We've suddenly turned one of the generals of the galaxy's war with Annihilus into a lazy, quasi-illiterate slacker. I've given Marvel a pass on making Peter look like Chris Pratt, but I draw the line at turning Star-Lord into a galactic version of Andy from "Parks and Recreation."
The most interesting part of this issue is the revelation that Star-Lord and Thanos reached some sort of truce when they left the Cancerverse, though we're still going to have to wait for Bendis to tell that story in "Guardians of the Galaxy." As a result, I have to wonder why Humphries had Peter confront Thanos now. If he had waited until Bendis finished telling his story, Peter's anger at himself and Thanos at least would've been clearer. Instead, this whole issue reads as a way to build anticipation for the eventual revelation in "Guardians of the Galaxy" of how the pair escaped the Cancerverse, but it relies on Peter's unbelievable lack of interest in killing Thanos to avoid revealing the truth. If this series is just going to be a hand-maiden to "Guardians of the Galaxy," I'm not sure how much longer I'll be getting it.
** (two of five stars)
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