I know, I know I have said I am not much of a Marvel fan but I enjoyed Lee’s nonfiction works and I have a passing knowledge of Guardians of the Galaxy due to my roommate watching them. With basic knowledge of the characters, I felt like this book would be a easy intro since it takes place and seeks to explain their background and sisterly dynamics pre-movie. Since I love sibling dynamics I immediately got sucked in.

Gamora and Nebula are both the last of their kind, adopted and raised under the mighty purple arm of Thanos, the Mad King and Planet Destroyer. And he has been pitting the two against each other for just as long with Gamora being the undsputed favorite. Predictably, their relationship isn’t the best with more punches and backstabbing than sisterly bonding. Thus colors the new mission Gamora has been sent on. A mysterious benefactor instructs Gamora to find the heart of the polluted planet, Torndune. She doesn’t know why, she doesn’t know who but Thanos told her to do it and she’s her father’s faithful soldier.

Nebula isn’t far behind as the other player in the game, hoping to steal Gamora’s claim so she can prove herself and gain some measure of respect, acknowledgement even from her father.

But I used the word game and players for a reason because this is one big chess game not the two know it. The hilarious gen-Z esque Grandmaster is behind this whole thing for funsies and the sisters are the unwitting champions in the game. It sounds like a spoiler but it isn’t, he’s the first person you meet on the page with a ripped body and awesomely stylish hair. Yes, those are his words.

Lee does a great job in describing the desolate waste of Torndune with its toxic atmosphere and polluting Crowtikemite which is a source of power for the planet while killing most of its inhibitants even if it’s breathed too long or exposed on bare skin. Very unfortunate that most of them are forced to work as poor miners while the rich live up in fancy buildings in well-ventilated and clean air. Are you drawing the connections to real life with economic disparities between the poor and rich alongside enviromental catastrophe fueled by capitalistic exploitation? You should which is fine because I think it’s a worthy message and Lee distances it enough from real life with sci-fi additions as electroblades and rocket ship docks that keep readers firmly in this galaxy.

Lee also brings that messaging with her induction of the Church of Unversal Truth which serves as a balm and sancturary to poor workers while hypocritically exploiting their flock’s hopelessness to brainwash them into paying more tithes and depending on the church even more instead of banding together to fight back. Nebula even compares them to cultists, but she sticks with them as they provide her as a cover and a path to getting closer to Gamora and the heart they’re after.

Not that there aren’t workers fighting back as Gamora gets involved with an underground resistance group via Versa Luxe who details the corruption and abuse that the workers suffer under what amounts to indentured servitutde with mounting taxes by the company that pays them to break their back.

Now, it may sound like they’re split most of the book, they do meet in the middle. Literally in the middle of the book and that’s when things really get interesting. With their combined information on the worker’s resistance and the Church’s shady dealings, they come to a truce and. . . well spoilers there.

As for Gamora and Nebula, Lee does a great job in describing their complex feelings for each other, both colored by their respective relationship with their father. Gamora pities her sister but is also expectant that Nebula will stab her in the back just for the chance to be the favorite. Nebula sees the same in that she thinks Gamora will kick her down so she can remain the favorite. That view is boosted immensely thanks to Gamora’s actions in a previous mission, abandoning her at Thanos’ behest when she gets trapped in a net, almost leaving her for dead.
Well not completely, Gamora gives her a knife which Nebula has no choice but to use it to amputate her own arm. She sees this as a final taunt from the woman that was always ontop.

However, Nebula gains more sympathy for me because despite her anger toward Gamora, there is also longing for the time before they turned against each other. She still longs for a sister, and a future where they can trust her. Which is painful as Nebula berates herself at the same time for that silly hope because life has taught her time and time again that her foolish trust is why she is always second. She is weak and that’s why she should die. It gets dark as Nebula constantly sees Thanos’ crush, Lady Death and wonders if she should just give up and accept that fate.

The book takes place shortly ater Nebula lost her arm so Lee has lots of time to explore Nebula’s adjustment to her cyborg prosthetic, the phantom pain Nebula has in regards to her arm and her struggling and invention when it comes to her new limb made out of junkyard scraps as Thanos is the worst. She never forgets that Nebula is a bit different as a cyborg and has her own arc as she learns to appreciate her new arm’s durability.

Anyway, back to Gamora, she longs for a sister too. She knows she can be swayed by doubts and she hates that about herself. Just as she hates that she is always under the thumb of her father and can’t quite break away from his manipulations but it just goes to show that despite the calousness, Thanos’ still has his hold over her because there is parental-child love underneath it all.

Which just makes their relationship all the more tragic because they want the same thing, the heart, a sister, freedom but Thanos’ abuse is so complete in keeping Gamora in his grasp and crushing Nebula’s self-esteem to the dust with this indifference.

Also I mentioned Lady Death whose wavery figment that creepily ecapsulates Thanos’ end goal and how she hovers over the lives of Gamora and Nebula and all the blood they spilled as soldiers and bounty hunters.

All in all, it’s moving, it funny, it echoes the tone of the movie in that way with a 70s song being mentioned as a poignant sisterly memory between them just as the movies highlight old hits for emotional poignancy.

My one quibble is that almost everyone but the Grandmaster and Thanos is female. Not that I have anything against females, I think my reading list would show that but it just feels noticable to the point that I wonder why Lee doesn’t say that the planet is populated by females. That’s a sci-fi trope after all, a plant of solely men, a planet solely of females, it makes sense. But she doesn’t which just. . . I don’t know it just bothers me. If you’re going to make everyone female from nameless guards to nameless workers to everyone can you at least put an in-universe example? That was just my minor quibble.

Anyway, I did enjoy this foray into Marvel literature with its tragic yet moving story about sisterhood. Perfect for anyone who’s a fan of the characters and want to see more of their complex dynamics or for a novice like me who doesn’t know anything and wants to learn more.