Marvel’s new Guardians of the Galaxy makes Groot a planet-eating monster

It’s just in time Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3The Guardians of the Galaxy, the third and final part of the trilogy of blockbuster comics that helped put the Guardians of the Galaxy on the map, have released a new comic where the Guardians are… different than their film incarnations. I really admire their chutzpah.

It’s been about two years since the Guardians had their own Marvel Comic series, and this new series, penned by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly with art from Kev Walker, is leaning into the mystery of their very changed circumstances — especially Groot’s.

What transformed Groot from a simple root and branch swarm into an interstellar force that seeks out everyone and everything to root in?

What other things are happening in our favorite comics pages? We’ll tell you. Welcome to Monday Funnies, Polygon’s weekly list of the books that our comics editor enjoyed this past week. It’s part society pages of superhero lives, part reading recommendations, part “look at this cool art.” There may be some spoilers. It may be that there is not enough context. The comics will be fantastic. You can read it if you’ve missed out on the last issue.

Guardians of the Galaxy 1

Collin Kelly (left), Jackson Lanzing and Kev Walker/Marvel Comics

Guardians of the Galaxy #1 presents that question centrally, as we pick up with a Guardians team that movie fans would know by name — Peter Quill, Gamora, Nebula, Mantis, and Drax (Groot’s buddy Rocket conspicuously absent) — in medias res. They’re kitted out like a space Western and trying to convince a backwater space town to get on their ship and evacuate before the worst happens.

The worst is “grootfall,” the arrival of a titanic ball of scraggly plant matter with a face, and it wants make everyone Groot. Our team barely makes it off-world alive, and with only half the people they tried to save — and it seems like they’ve been staying one half-step ahead of Groot for a while now. But for how their big tree buddy wound up in this state, that’s a story Lanzing, Kelly, and Walker intend to reveal in future issues.

Eight Billion Genies #8

Image: Charles Soule, Ryan Browne/Image Comics

Eight Billion Genies — the comic about what happens in the first eight seconds, minutes, days, etc. after every single person on Earth gets their own personal one-wish genie — concluded this past week. Charles Soule, Ryan Browne go through every possible permutation if everyone on Earth received one irreversible desire at the same time. But EBGIt never forgets about the people and never becomes so absorbed in its characters, that it loses sight of how people might wish for something absurd.

If you haven’t been reading, the trade collection hits shelves in July. It’s a great one.

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi — Ewoks #1

Image: Alyssa Wong, Caspar Wijngaard/Marvel Comics, Lucasfilm

Make it your goal to read at least 1 Star Wars comic book this month. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi — Ewoks #1, because despite that egregious name it’s a three-story anthology of wordless tales told by a group of Ewoks sitting around a campfire. There’s a fable for all ages, an adventure in the forest, and even a story about a small Ewok that wanted to travel to outer space. One and done. This is the best of life.