20 best superhero comics to read after Infinity War

8. War of Kings

Remember Ronan the Accuser? He was a pretty good villain in the first Guardians of the Galaxy film, though, alas, he did not make it past the end of the movie. We probably can’t handle too many characters endlessly dying and then being resurrected in the film world, anyway. Naturally, however, he’s got a bit more time on the comics page than he did on screen.

That serves as the impetus for War of Kings, where Ronan starts things off by defeating Star-Lord so hard that Star-Lord is sent hurtling into the Negative Zone. Once there, Star-Lord has to negotiate with hostile prisoners who have taken over the Negative Zone prison (it’s a bit like the phantom zone from Superman II). Eventually, Star-Lord teams up with some less-bad prisoners to keep the prison’s portal to Earth out of the hands of the real bad guys.

Sounds really serious, but it turns out that War of Kings is pretty fun. The second-tier villains provide good comic relief, including one named Gorilla-Man. Turns out that Gorilla-Man is literally a man’s head on a gorilla body. He’s all too aware of that situation, thanks, but not so shy about it that he can’t take Star-Lord down for his own silly name.

The first section is followed up by War of Kings, Book 2, where the rest of the Guardians and their allies come together to fight none other than Magus. Perhaps Magus and Ronan can pair up for a serious talk about how to keep from getting endlessly killed by superhero teams.