Guardians of the Galaxy: Holiday Special

Hi there. It's that friend you have that is in to comics. I know this blog should talk more comic stuff, but there's SO MANY SHOWS based on comics, my focus has shifted a little. So the topic of this post is that Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday special that popped up on Disney+ a week ago. What I am going to say is independent of this review, but I gotta say it. I don't love the exponential increase in Marvel content Disney has been pushing out. This is going to accelerate people's super hero burnout. We have long ago reached a oversaturation point. Have they been good? Mostly, yeah, but they have not paced themselves. By the time they get to the bottom of the vast list of characters, no one is going to care anymore.

Sorry. This special. James Gunn has been hit or miss for me. I loved Guardians of the Galaxy and Peacemaker. I hated Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 and The Suicide Squad. What did I think of this? I think it falls in the middle. It was fun and I liked it a little bit, but I definitely didn't love it. 

There are some good music numbers here and sorry if this is a spoiler, but we get Kevin Bacon, a fun payoff to a joke way back in the first movie. 

My issue with this special is it feels like they didn't have the actors' schedules lined up, so it was mostly a "Who's available and let's push a thing out." kind of thing. Unfortunately for me, that meant spending time with two of my least favorite members of the team, Mantis and Drax. Peter Quill, Nebula, Rocket and Groot make what feels like cameo appearances in something that should have had more of them. 

Also, Drax and Mantis feel like an odd pairing. They did what they could, but I found myself trying to make myself like this more than I actually did. That told me how I really felt. I think they could have gone with a fun, "Previously on Guardians of the Galaxy" to get us up to speed at the beginning because it has been a long time since we've seen this group on their own. I know they appeared in Thor: Love and Thunder, but here they are on Nowhere, set up as leaders, etc. and I don't remember ANY of that happening before. They don't mention any adventures with Thor either, so where in the timeline does this even sit?

I mean, I really don't have much else to say about this, other than the song about Christmas by this band, 'The Old 97's' that plays over the credits. I have high hopes that they will be on track for the third movie, then they lose James Gunn to DC for the foreseeable future. A loss for Marvel, because he fits their aesthetic to a T and now he is going to bring that humor to DC, where it is sorely needed. It's Christmas time, so get your Christmas fix.