As it appears the episode titles have gone from cool classic rock to just ridiculous groaning puns, the Guardians of the Galaxy find themselves in Asgard, battling Thor and Angela to discover the origin of the Cosmic Seed. Meet me after the celestial jump for my thoughts on “We Are the World Tree.”
Star-Child
Perhaps I’m just too old for this but Star-Lord’s childishness, especially with Will Friedle’s voice, is starting to wear on me. Yeah, I dug Chris Pratt as the jerk Star-Lord in the movie version of Guardians of the Galaxy, but here in the animated series the character seems more an idiot and a brat. My first impression of the character, a slicker version in blue from the 1970s, was nothing like this guy. What happened?
This Star-Child has proven time and again that he rarely thinks of anyone but himself, including the Guardians, he rarely thinks before speaking, and he frequently throws fits when he doesn’t get his way. This is a hero? Maybe he should have been in a DC Comics film. This is most prominent when he thoughtlessly almost sends his newly adopted Spartax Empire to war on more than one occasion. I’m done with this idiot.
Thor and Angela
And then there’s the Asgardians, with whom in this continuity has a tenuous peace with the Spartax Empire. The showrunners really want the Guardians to tangle with Thor and Asgard. While as I said last time Asgard has never really been all that much a spacefaring race, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has made them more technological than magical, because assumedly mythology and reality don’t mix well.
Animated Thor seems a good match for Star-Lord in that he has always been a bit of a child in the Marvel Animated Universe, but it’s his relationship with Angela that puzzles me. They are awful close, as if they grew up together but that’s just not the case. Thor and Angela have known each other just a few seconds longer than Star-Lord and Captain Victoria have known each other. Is Asgardian blood that tight that connections are made quickly?
The Cosmic Seed
After the Guardians are banished, sans Quill (gee, what a brat move), the Star-Lord confronts his father about the CryptoCube and the Cosmic Seed. We get some explanation that seems to rationalize some of the stops on the trip so far. The Seed was using the Cube to collect excess cosmic energy at all the places J’Son had stopped when he had the seed.
Midway back to Spartax, J’Son crash landed on Earth, cue Star-Lord origin flashback, and then when he’d heard wrongly that his love and their son had been killed by Ravagers, J’Son hurled the Cube and Seed into space. But now with the Cube and the teleporter thingy on Knowhere, the Guardians can find exactly where the Seed is… and they end up on Asgard…
The World Tree
As we know, but the Guardians don’t, J’Son is in the thrall of Thanos. By denying Quill can go after the seed, he has assured they will. He even supplies the tools Star-Child will need to get the Cosmic Seed back from Asgard, such as knockout gas for Heimdall. As it turns out, the Cosmic Seed appears to be beneath Yggdrasil, the World Tree, which connects the earth, the heavens, and the underworld.
As seen in our special sneak peek last week, the Guardians get caught and end up fighting Thor and Angela. Again I am amazed at the knowledge Gamora possesses. I guess Thanos sent her to all the best schools. But I had to fight to remember, don’t Thor and Drax know each other? I’m thinking maybe back in the days when Drax dressed like the Martian Manhunter, but perhaps that’s not in this continuity.
Spankings
Needless to say, the Guardians get spanked by Thor and Angela, and to show (for once) what a good king he is, the thunder god decides no harm, no foul, and sends them back to Spartax and chalking it up to youthful indiscretion. Even J’Son agrees with Thor until he leaves and promises to punish his son and his friends.
As soon as Thor is gone however, J’Son changes his tune and asks where the Seed is. Yeah, the Guardians are getting how bad this guy is now. They bail, hopefully leaving Spartax and their pending war with Asgard behind. Yeah, right…
Next: Exes and Paybacks!
