Not So New Comic Review: Guardians of the Galaxy (1991) #44

                Hey, Yondu’s back!  And he brought guest penciler Jeff Moore with him.  Unfortunately Moore is more Dale Eaglesham than Kevin West, so this’ll be another long issue I fear. 

                We open on Aleta carting around the rest of the Guardians in an energy bubble, why they couldn’t just take the Guardians’ ship I’m not 100% sure.  Thanks to Aleta and Vance having yet another lovers’ quarrel we get a slight recap of recent events, including the Beyonder and Bubonicus.  We then get a close up on where the Guardians are heading, to Centauri IV, the home of Yondu. 

                We make a slight detour to Malevolence and the Protégé who are still stuck in the Beyonder’s crystal in the never-ending storyline.  Some weird looking guy with at stick shows up and apparently uses said stick to break the crystal and free its inhabitants.  The Beyonder destroys the guy with the stick (who turns out to be Mephisto in disguise) and in so gives the Protégé a chance to mimic his power.  They become locked in an epic battle (I assume) and gives Malevolence a chance to lament over her dearly departed father with some strange forced-perspective pose that looks like it’s out of Dale Eaglesham’s porn mag.  Mephisto isn’t dead though because, well, he’s the devil. 

                We see Hollywood harassing some poor bastard as he tries to find Dr. Doom only to have someone else come in and harass him some more to shut up about Dr. Doom. 

                Back on Centauri IV the Guardians land to a not-so-warm reception from Yondu.  Yondu is pissed because his society has been destroyed by the Badoon.  Wait, but we know that already, that’s what brought the Guardians together.  Oh, his society was destroyed earlier than he expected…oh, ok.  Plus it gave us some creepy Badoon-Centauri hybrids.  Why did this happen, you ask?  Because of Charlie’s dagger that he left when he was fighting the Captain Universe Badoon.  Aleta needs Yondu’s help on some magic quest she wants to undertake but Yondu has withheld his services until the past is put right and his people get to survive for a few more years, the things this guy takes a stand about…

                Anyway, at the end of the issue guess who pops up?  The one and only Starhawk, because plotlines couldn’t get any more convoluted.

Next issue: it’s Starhawk vs. Aleta in a battle no one cares about.