Drax Vol. 1: The Galaxy’s Best Detective

From the Past: This article was imported from one of my past blog sites and was written in 2017.

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PLOT

In between his missions with the Guardians of the Galaxy, Drax likes to return to his favourite hobby, hunting for Thanos. Although when his ship arrives on an inhabited moon, there might be adventure for him there, just not one that is as worthy as killing Thanos, of course.

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REVIEW

Even though they’re a team, the Guardians can never be together 100% of the time, and on one of their breaks, Drax decides to head out to attempt the only mission he thinks about: killing Thanos. By now, you know the tragic backstory of Drax and his family (seeing as he repeatedly states it in Guardians of the Galaxy). For those unaware, the simple version is he’s a warrior set on getting revenge on the man (well, alien) responsible for the death of his family.

Drax Vol. 1: The Galaxy’s Best Detective is a collection of the first 5 issues of Drax’s solo outing. We see the team complete a mission before heading their separate ways until they are eventually called forth again. Drax heads out to find Thanos before crash landing on an inhabited moon, where he’s roped in to uncovering a mystery about its disappearing population.

The biggest advantage the book has going for it is the opening, where we’re introduced to the team, Drax’s destructive power, and have him bounce around with Rocket. Seconds later, the group disbands, and we head out alongside Drax. The only problem with this is that the opening turns out to be the strongest part of the entire volume. Drax is at his best when bouncing off his team members and other characters alike, but once you take that away, you’re left feeling deprived of the taste you were teased with just moments ago. Writers Cullen Bunn and CM PUNK do their best to introduce new characters to help Drax play off of them, but Ora, the bar owner and the warrior Terrax fail to deliver, neither adding any real depth nor helping create strong moments in the action or comedy.

Cullen Bunn and Co writer CM PUNK never take Drax seriously though, instead they aim to make a goofy and fun adventure, which they mostly succeed with, there’s action, which is highlighted beautifully by artist Scott Hepburn, who helps create an expressive art style throughout each panel, you can feel every hit and emotion Drax is feeling, as well as encapsulating the shady feeling of the moon's town.

Unfortunately, a glaring issue is that the story is rather bland; there’s a sense of goofy fun, but the end product feels a bit underwhelming. There aren't really any standout moments in any area, either with the humour or the action. The final issue leads to an underwhelming antagonist, neither well-established nor executed. Perhaps the biggest crime the volume has is its lack of humour, well, more specifically, Drax’s dry wit and literal thinking, as it’s usually a comedy gold mine, but there’s barely a handful of moments that use it. Instead, it tends to favour Drax’s animalistic rage and play off of the bull in the china shop type of comedy, which, to its credit, when it works, is enjoyable, but it’s used a lot and tends to leave you wishing for more of the dry wit rather than brutishness.

Whilst still having some elements of fun, with writers Cullen Bunn and CM PUNK playing up to the goofy side of Drax. Its over-reliance on bull-in-a-china-shop humour and not enough of the literal Drax we’ve come to love makes the character fall flat for the majority of the narrative. Mix that with a mostly forgettable story, and we’re left feeling a bit meh about it all.

5.5/10