Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

I didn't see any real problematic issues in this volume: the fridging seems to be a thing of the past, and no slurs!   Yay!   It means that not only do I not feel squicky about loving this, I can bump it up to five stars.   I can also continue to hope that the author made a mistake on the slur, and that he doesn't rely on fridging/damsels in distress as his fallback.   He has other cards to pull, and he pulls them out.   

Then again, he did include Gamora as well as Rocket in the first volume, so I had reason to hope.   The thing about women is that there's not much of a female presence in this volume.   Sam's mother and his love interest, Carrie, are pretty much in the background; the strongest female presence is some space bounty hunter's wife, but she leaves quite an impression.   At first you think she's just some kinda slave/submissive, but by the end, she turns out to be like Sam's mother, rolling her eyes at the boys, understanding when to toe the line and when to put her own foot down.   (It comes off as she wins, every time she puts her foot down, because she's just that strong a personality.)

Also, the best thing about a titular character who is literally a human rocket bouncing around space?   Space guest stars!   And there are plenty of this in this particular volume.   There's also the fact that money is tight on the home end, so the family/home life issues are being kept on the back burner even when they're not in your face.   And to be honest, I was happy to see a full action-packed book.   It felt very old-school comics, which is a good deal of fun.  

Comics have gotten more full, more in touch with the current issues - socio-political and psychological - and they reflect our complex world more and more.   It makes them more interesting, more true-to-life, more relevant and gives the reader a more fulfilling experience.   But a lot of us started reading comics because of the action; it's a large part of the draw and to just really dwell in that for a couple issues was nostalgic and just a great deal of fun. 

I'm looking forward to volume six!