Of all the "Secret Wars" tie-in issues, this one was the one that probably intrigued me the most. After all, the residents of Battleworld think that they are the sole planet in the universe. If they believe that, it makes it hard to believe in the Guardians of the Galaxy as anything beyond the Guardians of, well, Battleworld.
The good news is that Bendis has a clever answer that gets us on stable ground pretty quickly. In this revised history, Doom was the one to slice off the head of the Celestial that would come to house Knowhere. It's now Earth's moon, and the Guardians protect it and its residents. That said, this answer doesn't really resolve all outstanding issues. For example, an unseen narrator tells us that only conspiracy theorists on Battleworld believe that aliens live there. However, didn't anyone question from where the Celestial itself came? If a creature like a Celestial could appear from the Void, then doesn't it stand to reason other aliens could exist? Plus, if they do exist, then doesn't it prove that the Void isn't as empty as Doom says that it is? Given that everyone in "Captain Marvel & the Carol Corps" also suffers from this lack of curiosity, I have to wonder if something other than the liberal definition of blasphemy on Battleworld keeps everyone this lobotomized.
Moreover, it leaves us with the small questions of what the aliens living on Battleworld themselves believe. Clearly they know that they're aliens, so they've got to know that they come from somewhere. I wonder if the answer is that they do know that they're not alone in the universe, but Doom's ban on traveling between domains at least keeps that truth isolated on Knowhere. After all, it would confirm why it's such a big deal to the Thors that Gamora has been breaking this rule. We don't yet learn why she's doing so, though she utters Thanos' name, implying that her cosmic powers might be leading her to the truth. (That said, she doesn't believe that Doom exists, so I'm not sure how reliable said powers are.) However, before we got any conclusions, someone called Yotat attacks because he's got some sort of vendetta against Drax.
All in all, it's an OK issue. The cosmology of "Secret Wars" weighs down the action, but that's more or less to be expected, given the nature of the series. It makes me wonder, though, if this issue isn't going to be one of the ones that spells doom (heh) for Doom's iron-fisted control over Battleworld.
** (two of five stars)
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