REVIEW: Guardians of the Galaxy “Hitchin’ A Ride”

Spoilers Below

The Guardians head to another spot on the Cosmic Cube’s map that is inhabited by blood thirsty symbiotes.  Drax nearly gets turned into a symbiote, but both Rocket and Quill use flames to subdue the symbiotes long enough to take off on a rail car. A chase from the symbiotes goes down and leads to the Guardians ending up on the planet’s surface where they run into the Ravagers lead by Yondu.

After the battle, Yondu’s ship is destroyed, so the Guardians take off in the Milano which is now inhabited by a symbiote. Right away, the alien is causing havoc as it makes Groot its host and puts both Gamora and Drax in cocoons that are easy to get out of. The Venom-Groot sets the Milano’s coordinates for Hala, the Kree homeworld, with dreams of inhabiting the planet with a bunch of Venom hosts. Rocket removes the Venom host from Groot, but Groot disintegrates leaving behind just his arm in the storage dimension. Rocket opts to go in there to save his friend from the already inhabiting symbiotes.

Problem is, Rocket has no way to get out because Quill has to get him out of there, and Quill is being held by Yondu and his Ravagers. Fortunately, Peter is able to convince Yondu to open up the storage portal letting Rocket out with a bunch of symbiotes that take over the ship. The Ravagers and Guardians escape the ship, and Rocket blasts the joint and with Groot’s arm in tow, we should have a new Groot in no time.

Our Take

On one hand, this week’s episode officially makes Guardians of the Galaxy the best animated story-teller of the Venom symbiote in like 20 years. On the other hand, there were still some things wrong with the symbiote, and some of it just didn’t make sense. Venom symbiotes never left people in cocoons, and there was really no reason to have them if Drax and Gamora were able to get out rather easily.

Fortunately, for the most part, this episode was pretty good. It’s the first episode to have a licensed song in it in several weeks, and it was one of the more action-packed episodes in a while. From the chase scenes to the numerous fight scenes. I couldn’t help but think back to Aliens as potential inspiration, and I wouldn’t be able to think of a better movie to use as a template for a space-alien action adventure. And just the mere thought of this episode potentially being an open door for the potential of a Venom:Space Knight deal has me thinking about the future.