One of my favorite characters from the Guardians Of The Galaxy movies is Yondu Udonta. Michael Rooker, who should also receive kudos for his portrayal of Merle Dixon on The Walking Dead, appeared to be born to play the role of my favorite blue Space Pirate. Therefore, you can imagine how excited I was to find Yondu #1 and #2 at a recent visit to Conquest Comics.
Our introduction to Yondu finds him stealing fuel from the planet Oorga. He rationalizes his actions by explaining that he isn't stealing, but an act of "self-actualization." In an attempt to meet up with Kraglin, a fellow Space Pirate, Yondu walks into a scene where it appears that Kraglin's weapons deal didn't go as expected. Amidst the carnage, Yondu comes across a treasure that screams wealth, The Herald's Urn. Trying to figure out who would consider buying such a treasure, Yondu transports the Urn to his ex-girlfriend, Zhala. Living on Contraxia, the Snow Planet, Zhala wants nothing to do with this supposed treasure.
Meanwhile, Anthos fearing that the Centaurian race is facing extinction, sends Yondu's namesake from the future to protect Yondu from himself. The future Yondu Udonta is able to confront and aid his present day relative due to their spiritual connection, which is referred to as "The Way."
It appears that many space beings are interested in Herald's Urn, including The M'Kraan, The Skrulls, The Badoon, The Shi'ar and The Kree. The quest for the Urn led to a bad ending for Zhala. It appears that the Urn contains the remains of The Fallen One, who was connected to Galactus. It was Thanos that had The Fallen One cremated and the remains brought to the Dwarves of Nidavellir to create the Urn, which would contain the great cosmic power wielded by the deceased. These were the same Dwarves that worked on Thor's Hammer!
Yondu scoffed at the suggestion from his future namesake to allow the Silver Surfer to watch over the Urn. Chaos is expected to happen in issue #3 because during a battle with The Kavkov, Yondu releases the power within the Urn. Both issues were brilliantly written by Zac Thompson and Lonnie Nadler. Bravely taking on the artwork duties for both issues to make sure this story was given visual justice was John McCrea and Mike Spicer. While it took awhile to understand all of the characters' roles in the story, it came together really well as the action progressed. It was weird, however, seeing that Yondu felt that the Yaka Arrow was not his weapon of choice after it played a major part in the movies. In conclusion, this was a great way to kickoff a series featuring my favorite Space Pirate!
