WRITERS: LONNIE NADLER, ZAC THOMPSON | ARTIST: JOHN MCCREA | PUBLISHER: MARVEL | FORMAT: TRADE PAPERBACK | RELEASE DATE: MAY 19TH

Thanks to the MCU movies, the character of Yondu is now best known as a bitter and tough-as-nails space-pirate with a heart of gold. This was perhaps one of the most notable changes from the original comics – the Guardians of the Galaxy books from the ’70s featured Yondu as a super-advanced, spiritual and wise noble warrior type from the distant future.  

Marvel Comics’ new Yondu title attempts to address this inconsistency by positing that pirate-Yondu is a distant ancestor of the more iconic noble-Yondu. And of course, it brings the pair of them together for a rip-roaring adventure. You can’t have a story like this without some sort of galaxy-altering MacGuffin, and here we get The Herald’s Urn, a cool looking green glowing thing that can destroy worlds. 

This morbid piece of kit falls into the hands of pirate-Yondu who immediately intends to sell it to the highest bidder. This version of the character is instantly recognisable to moviegoers. He’s rough, he says rude-words, and he’s only really out for himself. If you liked Dan Abnett’s run on Guardians of Galaxy or enjoyed Lobo, you’ll be familiar with this sort of thing. Of course, noble-Yondu turns up to tell pirate-Yondu that perhaps selling a weapon of cosmic mass-destruction to strangers is a bad idea. Wackiness ensues.

McCrea’s art is consistently fun throughout. It’s full of high energy action and filled with the inherent grottiness that Marvel space travel seems to enjoy. McCrea does excellent sight gags and eye-popping violence, though it’s never too gross or visceral. Thompson and Nadler’s writing is strong, introducing cool new ideas, fixing a bit of continuity, and treating us to some exciting space battles. It’s a little short, but then so is Yondu.