Marvel Wastelanders: Star-Lord by Sarah Cawkwell is a Marvel Comics story set in the future. The set-up for this story is the question: what if the bad guys won and Earth was turned into a wasteland? This story is adapted from a Sirius XM and Marvel New Media podcast called Wastelanders by Benjamin Percy. The Wastelanders is a six part series with Marvel Wastelanders: Star-Lord being the first. This story is one of five and the way it ends there is a potential for more. After reading this I hope Aconyte Books writes more in the series. Marvel Wastelanders: Star-Lord has a fantastic beginning that captures the characters of Rocket and Peter Quill (Star-Lord) so well. The banter is perfect as they are instantly in danger and arguing over whose fault it was and how to get out of the situation. The humor is on point and does not let up, I laughed out loud more than a few times. The novel reads at a rapid pace with not many dull parts at all. When there are no action scenes there are humor scenes and sometimes a mix of both making it a very fun read. This novel also serves as a great pallet cleanser for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3. This book like the movie is surprisingly very emotional, and events with Rocket will make you cry all over again. This book is set in the future so the only Guardians of the Galaxy left are Rocket and Star-Lord, the book does fill you in with what happens with Groot, Gamora, and Drax. The novel is filled with twists and turns. There are a couple of twists at the very end that are so good and make you want to read the next book right away. This book features Emma Frost, the sometimes friend and sometimes foe of the X-men equipped with deadly telekinetic powers, Kraven the Hunter, A deadly foe of Spiderman that was raised to hunt and kill, The Collector, a powerful space being that collects objects and people of power, and Victor von Doom aka Dr. Doom, a former scientist that is a genius at robotic wants to rule the world with an iron fist, and is the ruler of the wastelands that is now called Doomwood. I read an advanced copy of Marvel Wastelanders: Star-Lord in exchange for an honest review thanks to Aconyte Books and Netgalley. Marvel Wastelanders: Star-Lord by Sarah Cawkwell is published on July 4, 2023.

Plot Summary: Star-Lord and Rocket are on a mission from The Collector to retrieve an object called the Black Vortex. The Black Vortex is an object that once you submit to it gives you unlimited cosmic powers. The Collector knows Star-Lord and Rocket and doesn’t trust them not to steal it for themselves puts an adamantium collar that will tighten in a week and remove them from their heads if they don’t comply. The collector gives them a map that points to the Black Hills of Earth. They end up getting trapped on a ship and meet Cora a Rigellian recorder bot that helps them escape and joins them on the mission. Now they head to Earth and Peter who hasn’t been there in thirty years notices this is not the Earth he left, there are no trees and no life for miles. They run into trouble immediately and find that Earth’s Avengers are dead Dr. Doom rules this territory. Kraven the Hunter is Dr. Doom’s lead enforcer and hunts and kills all his enemies. Dr. Doom’s robots Doombot patrol the streets. Peter learns that Black Vortex is somewhere in Doomwood formerly Deadwood. Peter and Rocket befriend a local and meet either a friend or a foe in Emma Frost. Can Rocket and Star-Lord find the Black Vortex in time or is it off with their heads?

What I Liked: The story is really solid, not just for a Marvel book just a really solid story. The humor is spot on I kept hearing the voices of Bradley Cooper and Chris Pratt in my head as the lines were delivered. This story is emotional and I was not prepared for it. This book will give you all the feels and a potential ugly cry. I loved the twists in this book especially at the end. Kraven the Hunter has some epic fight scenes and he is quite brutal. This book is a hard PG-13 for brutality alone the knife to the eye scene is a brutal one. The side character of Red Crotter is a great character, I was happy with his arc and how he got to serve the characters. Side characters do not get a lot of love it was nice for this character to have some good scenes and great dialogue. I also liked Cora the recorder bot and her story arc. I liked that Dr. Doom has taken over Deadwood and called it Doomwood. I also like how a little bit of Deadwood’s history is inserted into the story.

What I Disliked: The story was great but sometimes how it was told was not. I got a little tired of seeing the word “earlier” and it would bounce back and show what happened earlier. It happens about 6 times in the novel. This was a choice and was probably the way it was in The Wastelanders podcast it was adapted from. I felt it sometimes gave too much of the story away before it had to.

Recommendations and Rating: I can not recommend this story enough. I liked it and was surprised at how good the story was. The novel is a lot of fun that put a smile on my face the whole time. I like that the McGuffin is the Black Vortex, Which was featured in one of the best storylines from The Guardians of The Galaxy comics that crossed over with the X-men. People that read this book that only know the Guardians of the Galaxy from the movies could be a little confused as Star-Lord’s dad is J’son aka Mr. Knife in the comic and not Ego like he was in the movies, but the book does a pretty good version of setting up who J’son is. I rated Marvel Wastelanders: Star-Lord by Sarah Cawkell 5 out of 5 stars. This is my first read by Aconyte Books and their Marvel titles and will not be my last they set a pretty high bar with this book, but look forward to reading more.

This is a link to the Marvel Wastelanders: Star-Lord Sirius XM and Marvel New Media podcast trailer featuring the voice cast of Timothy Busfield as Star-Lord, Chris Elliot as Rocket, and Danny Glover as the Narrator.

About Marvel Entertainment

Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media for over eighty years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media.

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