Comic Review: Old Man Quill (2019-) #1

Old Man Quill (2019-) #1

Marvel Comics

Writer: Ethan Sacks

Artist: Robert Gill

Coming off of (the excellent) Old Man Hawkeye, Marvel is giving us another old man version of a character. This time it’s the Star-Lord himself, Peter Quill, that’s getting the “Old Man” treatment. Earth-807128 is the Old Man Logan universe where this story takes place, but we should call it the “Bummer-verse”. It seems that nothing ends well for anyone in this universe. But I guess that’s what makes these stories different and fun, in their own way.

At some point in the future, Peter Quill leaves the Guardians of the Galaxy to rule his alien homeworld of Spartax. During a fight with the Universal Church of Truth, Spartax is left in ruins. Flash Forward to the even further future, and Peter Quill is an old man, when the remaining Guardians of the Galaxy come to him with one last mission.

Old Man Hawkeye was more of a prequel, and explored more of the universe than Old Man Logan did. I’m hoping we get to explore more of the galactic consequences of the Earth with no heroes. That doesn’t exactly happen in this issue, but there’s some small hints of it. There’s not much that happens in this issue though. We mainly get the set up to Peter Quill’s story, and a small hint at why the Guardians need him. We see some action a couple of times, but there’s nothing that expands on the story as much as I was expecting. This is only the first issue, so i’m hoping it picks up more in the next one.

The art in this book is wonderful. I especially like the designs for the older versions of the characters. Star-Lord and Rocket Raccoon have the frizzy, unkempt look to them. Drax has the face wrinkles and some scars across his head/body. Gamora has the haircut of a mom in her 40s. It’s short, but says “Hey world, I’m back in the dating game”. On top of that, there’s also that sort of faded filter to the colors that tell us we’re in the wastelands.

The Guardians of the Galaxy are one of Marvel’s bigger names these days, and it’s always a fun idea to get an alternate universe story like this. I mean, this is definitely the bummer-verse as far as alternate universes go, but it’ll be interesting to see where this goes. The art is good, and Ethan Sacks knows his way around and “Old Man” story. There’s not too much as far as the overall plot goes, but there’s definitely enough to keep us on the hook for the next issue.