Little Sentient Dress: Reviewing ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ #9

Some of us have a hard time knowing who to be throughout life. Others choose to be every possible version. With only one issue left, it’s time for the Guardians to learn just what is up with their buddy Mantis.

A momentary step away from the overall plotline pulls back one of the final unopened curtains in Guardians Of The Galaxy #9. A girl’s trip with a bit of soul comes from Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Kev Walker, Walden Wong, Matt Hollingsworth, and Cory Petit.

Telling a continuous story requires sustained momentum, especially when delivering monthly installments. Any deviation can be compromising, as it risks stalling things out or causing the audience to tune out. Unless, that is, the deviation is carefully seeded along the way and comes at a point far enough in that it’s refreshing rather than distracting. It’s a good thing this creative team knows just what they are doing and how to take care of such things.

Since the beginning of this run, we’ve seen Mantis constantly shifting not just in personality but also in appearance/costume at the drop of a hat. It wasn’t clear where this plot might go and how it would be handled reveal wise. Such moments can often delve into mental health realms that aren’t fully developed or handled with care. With Mantis we get something that not only is handled with care but is more hopeful.

Turns out that Mantis liberated a sentient garment known as Dress, which connects to the wearer’s brain. With Mantis a connection was made that helped her deal with tons of trauma born of the years, most recently from how her sone Sequioa tried to conquer the universe (in the event Empyre).

Dress is not there to fix or wipe away Mantis trauma but allows her to shift and move through the possibilities of who she can and might be. As she puts it, it allows her to “surf the multiversal personality bank and together, all of me, from every possible universe, we can decide who we become.”

Essentially, therapy born of thinking clothing. Truly one of the most sci-fi things one might think of, and as Gamora said, it sounds kind of nice.

Kelly and Lanzing nail this issue, with the right balance of character development/growth, plot progression, and just overall fun. Following these two characters on their adventures, from bar moments to spilling secrets to connecting with the living Soul Stone, it’s just a smooth fun resonating issue. Especially since their quest is to find the original soul of Drax so that their friend can also experience the feeling of being truly whole again.

Throughout this series, there have been a lot of big bold things to allow for plenty of artistic stretching. Various vistas, action beats, alien beings, ships, planets, and so much more. One might think that an issue on Earth might be a step back, but not even closer. There are plenty of setting things to focus on but where Walker, Wong, and Hollingsworth really shine is the same place as usual, the emotional character beats.

Being a story mainly about two characters, with the Soul Stone wielding synthetic Multitude coming in later, it’s a closer more intimate situation. Lots of close up panels, rife with great facial and body language to really let the back and forth and revelations of the issue sink in. Walker pulls off lots of unique fun framing choices that mix things up, including a biker bar montage in Polaroids as well as slanted and slashed panels, adding motion energy in fight scenes. Together with Wong’s inks, there is so much depth and weight on display.

Each space feels dense, like a place that exists and can be touched and has great depth. Even when the backgrounds are pulled back to splashes of color none of that changes. As long as characters or things are on the page, it all feels alive.

I’m a big fan of the inherent roughness that comes with Walker’s style, adding a sharpness to everything. It reminds us that these characters themselves are not just rough around the edges in respect to their reputations and skills, but they have had hard goes of it through decades of crisis. At the same time the bit of exaggeration and whimsy, apparent in the way characters are depicted, reminds us that even when serious, these stories are fun. It all fits naturally, in a contrasting way, with the colors that Hollingsworth brings along.

You can find plenty of big vibrant in your face colors on every page. The palette is befitting of science-fiction and superhero style stories, really making certain elements stand out as fantastical or otherworldly. Among them though are far more toned-down, natural, colors that enhance the feeling of that tangible world I mentioned. Again, it’s a balance that is created and maintained so seamlessly through the issue and beyond.

Just like with the pervious issues, there is plenty of hues and color filters added that allow different spaces to feel unique as they should. Lots of heavy greens for within the Grootspace sections, washed out browns and yellows for wide open arid spaces on Earth, and the cold almost metallic yellows and other colors in the Spartax ship. Everything has its own energy, being, and feel that pops even more with the chosen colors.

Being an issue with personal discovery and revelation means lots of words for characters to share. In fact there is quite a lot of dialogue at times, but Petit, per usual, makes it work. It flows around the pages naturally, bouncing off the artwork to create an easy path for the eyes to follow taking everything in equally.

I do overall like the idea of the brown bubbles for the Groot-changed Guardians, speaking to their more plant-like reborn nature. There was one page where on arrival to Earth, Gamora and Mantis had gobs of dialogue where the tons of brown bubbles were a tiny bit hard to take in. Not a huge quibble though, as it just meant having to focus a bit and reading things a bit slower, which isn’t necessarily ever a bad thing.

I’m going to miss this series.

Guardians Of The Galaxy #9 is now available from Marvel Comics.