As part of an ongoing effort to give every member of the Guardians of the Galaxy a solo comic (Drax and Gamora will get their own series later this year), Marvel has thrust Groot into the spotlight with his own title by writer Jeff Loveness and artist Brian Kesinger. Last month’s debut issue of Groot highlighted the talking tree’s relationship with his best friend Rocket Raccoon, which heightened the stakes when Rocket was captured at the end of the story but also made Groot feel like a supporting character in his own book. With Rocket out of the picture, Groot can finally step into a leading role, and this preview of next week’s Groot #2 shows that this creative team is having a lot of fun getting into Groot’s head.
The best thing about this preview’s trip into Groot’s unconscious is that it expands his vocabulary beyond his “I am Groot” standard, and it will be interesting to see how Loveness finds a way over this storytelling hurdle once Groot wakes up. (Having other characters clarify Groot’s intentions gets a bit tedious after a while.) One of the easiest ways to fix this problem is to lean into the madcap cartoon elements of the story and put Groot in outlandish situations that don’t require him to speak much. Kesinger is also a Disney animator, and his huge character expressions make emotions clear without the need for text, which is a huge boon when your main character only says three words.