If you're a fan of timey-wimey, you might appreciate the backstory of the Guardians of the Galaxy.
So let's talk about the Guardians of the Galaxy. No, not the movie. The team.
I'm no comics expert, but it's interesting to see how the hodgepodge group of random creatures and beings from the Marvel comic book universe was crammed together into the head of a celestial to become an interstellar group of ass-kickers. I mean, that's really how the Guardians came to be, at least the Guardians we're seeing in James Gunn's film coming out this week.
A little background:
If you're a fan of timey-wimey, you might appreciate the backstory of the Guardians of the Galaxy. The original Guardians of the Galaxy made their first appearance in 1969, and were from all the way in the 31st century. What does that mean? The first group that comic books fans got to know were the second known group of the Guardians in the comic book universe. The folks you see above—Peter Jason Quill, a.k.a. Star-Lord, Drax, Gamora, Groot, and Rocket—were the first in the Earth-616 timeline but not the first in Marvel history.
We'll get to the original team in a moment.
First, let's meet the current Guardians.
Peter Quill, the Starlord. Half-human, half-alien, Peter Quill was raised by a single mother on Earth before getting into intergalactic peace keeping as the Starlord. He was a relatively minor character throughout issues of Marvel Preview throughout the 70s, but became a more visible character during the Annihilation event in 2006. The above picture is what he looked like during Annihilation.
Here's what he looks like now:
So… he's gotten some work done.
He's known now for creating the modern Guardians of the Galaxy team, convincing some known thugs and murderers he's ran into during his galactic escapades into joining a team to save the universe from certain doom.
Things to know: he's been a fixture (though a minor one) in galactic stories in the Marvel universe for quite some time now. He's mixed it up with Thanos quite a bit, and he's a bit of a womanizer. His current storyline in the comics has made him into the son of the Emperor of Spartax, who is pretty much just a giant evil bastard all the time.
Next up: Drax.
For a long time he was a giant, green, dumb muscly guy that was more or less on the wrong side of galactic battles. Before that he was a human being called Arthur Douglas, whose family was killed by the Mad Titan, Thanos. Needing someone to battle the evil Thanos, Kronos takes Arthur Douglas's spirit and places it in a giant, green, muscly body. And that's how Drax was born.
He was later re-born in Annihilation, losing his ability to fly and shoot random power beams. He befriended an annoying Alaskan Earthgirl and then ditched her on a random spaceship in outer space to join Starlord and the Guardians of the Galaxy. He would later find out his daughter, Heather, was alive and known as Moondragon.
This brings us to the other green person in the movie group, Gamora.
Gamora is the last of the Zen Whoberi, and the adopted daughter of Thanos. She's a green badass, known for being incredibly powerful and ruthless, and for her very rapid healing ability. She was originally adopted by Thanos to be used as a weapon against Magus, the evil side of Adam Warlock. When she realizes Thanos is a greater threat that Magus, she decides to fight with the Guardians and galactic good guys to take down her former father figure.
She's gotten a makeover lately, too.
Then there's the giant living tree, Groot.
Groot's first appearance is in Tales to Astonish #13 from 1960. He was basically a sci-fi baddy that the hepcats of planet Earth had to defeat. He came from the Planet X, and was pretty much a one-off evil creature. He made a handful of appearances in comics in the 1970s as a creature from Tales to Astonish, but didn't really come into prominence until his character was repurposed in 2006 for use with the Guardians of the Galaxy.
He become infinitely more interesting in 2006, even if his vocabulary dwindled. If he breaks or gets destroyed, a mere sliver can be used to grow back to normal size.
But even better than that, he's the best friend and muscle of Rocket Racoon, the loud-mouthed, gunslinging non-racoon.
Rocket Raccoon made his first appearance (as Rocket) in Incredible Hulk #271 titled "Now Somewhere In the Black Holes of Sirius Major There Lived a Young Boy Named Rocket Raccoon." An obvious nod to the Beatles song "Rocky Raccoon." In it, Hulk helps Rocket stop a villain from stealing "Gideon's Bible." He had a run of four solo issues in 1985, which no one seemed to care about.
He's best know for being a master tactician, expert marksman, loving to blow stuff up, and having a tree for a best friend. He's also gotten a bit of a makeover recently.
We find out in the series small stories that ran in the back of Annihilators books that Rocket came from the Keystone quadrant, where he was a guardian and peacekeeper at a penal colony for the mentally ill. He and a group of other genetically modified woodlands creatures (and a walrus, if I remember correctly) were enchanted and given human-like skills, knowledge, and abilities to act as wardens at the institution.
He's also cute.
Part of the reason that most casual moviegoers and casual comic book readers are unaware of the team is because they're kind of a random team. In 2006 when the Guardians of the Galaxy book was spun off from the Annihilation event, the characters were taken from very random places and repurposed. They are ragtag in every sense of the phrase.
But like I mentioned before, they're not the first group of the Guardians of the Galaxy, even if they are the modern group. Back in the 1970s we met the "original" Guardians, though not the first. The group is technically from Earth-629, an alternate version of Earth-616 (the main Earth in most Marvel books).
When the Earth-616 Guardians formed (for us, in 2006) they discovered Vance Astro, a.k.a. Major Victory, in a block of ice. As the boundary of the universe is collapsing, different time periods and realities start breaking apart and falling into each other. This ends up being one of the major story arcs for the newly-formed Guardians team.
The gentleman in the front of the picture is Yondu Udonta, a founding member of the Guardians of the Galaxy (31st-century version) and a member of the "primitive" Zatoan tribe of Centauri-IV. It appears they've repurposed him for the film, though it'd be interesting to see if they somehow explain him as a being from the future that comes back and prepare Peter Quill to lead the modern Guardians into battle against Thanos. That is entirely speculation, but would be cool. Though my sneaking suspicion is that they are reworking the character for a different purpose, much like every other member of the Guardians came from somewhere else. Marvel is economical like that.
So what Guardians characters are not featured above that I sincerely hope get at least a nod in the film?
Moondragon, the daughter of Arthur Douglas, is a really cool, mystic/psychic galactic character, in addition to being the love of Phylla-Vell, daughter of Mar-Vell (Captain Marvel) and known as Quasar, Captain Marvel, and later Martyr.
Seeing them off to the side in Knowhere or maybe even in the prison or a galactic battle would be really great.
Cosmo is the chief of security at Knowhere, the hollowed out head of a Celestial floating in space that is used as the HQ of the modern Guardians team. He was a dog sent into space by the Russian space program that somehow managed to gain telekinetic and telepathic powers. He wears a doggy space suit and often has a doggy-sizes space helmet on.
He speaks in a comicese Russian accent, which is super fun to read.
I hear he is in the movie very briefly, possibly in the Collector's collection. I hope if they make another Guardians movie he has a more prominent role, as he does become an important liaison to the modern Guardians team on Knowhere.
Mantis started out as a baddie, like a lot of the folks that joined the Avengers over the years. She is an expert martial artist and has advanced cognitive abilities that give her foresight and the ability to talk telepathically.
She gets a bit more green and alien-like as time goes by, due to her really interesting cosmic story. Go check that out; it's a bit convoluted by very interesting. These days she's a liaison to the modern Guardians at Knowhere, and has been know to help take care of Groot when he needs to regrow.
Adam Warlock is pretty much the coolest character out of all the ones featured in this post. He first appeared in Fanstastic Four in the late 60s in a cocoon, then in his humanoid form, and had a fight with Thor, then ran into the High Evolutionary in space and became Warlock. He has a dark side called Magus, who is incredibly powerful and terrible.
From what I can tell we caught a climpse of Adam Warlock's cocoon in Thor 2 at the Collector's collection. I hope we get to see the real Adam Warlock, and potentially, the real Magus, sometime in the future. His story is quite deeply intertwined with Thanos' quest for the Infinity Gauntlet, so I can't imagine we won't see him by the time Avengers 3 rolls around.
So there you have it. Hopefully you learned a bit about these characters by sticking out this long, picture-filled article. If anything I hope you see how totally weird and out-there this group is, which makes the fact that they're getting a feature film pretty wonderfully odd and fantastic. Good job, Marvel. Embrace the weird, embrace the camp. You know how to make it all work out.
I'm no comics expert, but it's interesting to see how the hodgepodge group of random creatures and beings from the Marvel comic book universe was crammed together into the head of a celestial to become an interstellar group of ass-kickers. I mean, that's really how the Guardians came to be, at least the Guardians we're seeing in James Gunn's film coming out this week.
A little background:
If you're a fan of timey-wimey, you might appreciate the backstory of the Guardians of the Galaxy. The original Guardians of the Galaxy made their first appearance in 1969, and were from all the way in the 31st century. What does that mean? The first group that comic books fans got to know were the second known group of the Guardians in the comic book universe. The folks you see above—Peter Jason Quill, a.k.a. Star-Lord, Drax, Gamora, Groot, and Rocket—were the first in the Earth-616 timeline but not the first in Marvel history.
We'll get to the original team in a moment.
First, let's meet the current Guardians.
Peter Quill, the Starlord. Half-human, half-alien, Peter Quill was raised by a single mother on Earth before getting into intergalactic peace keeping as the Starlord. He was a relatively minor character throughout issues of Marvel Preview throughout the 70s, but became a more visible character during the Annihilation event in 2006. The above picture is what he looked like during Annihilation.
Here's what he looks like now:
So… he's gotten some work done.
He's known now for creating the modern Guardians of the Galaxy team, convincing some known thugs and murderers he's ran into during his galactic escapades into joining a team to save the universe from certain doom.
Things to know: he's been a fixture (though a minor one) in galactic stories in the Marvel universe for quite some time now. He's mixed it up with Thanos quite a bit, and he's a bit of a womanizer. His current storyline in the comics has made him into the son of the Emperor of Spartax, who is pretty much just a giant evil bastard all the time.
Next up: Drax.
For a long time he was a giant, green, dumb muscly guy that was more or less on the wrong side of galactic battles. Before that he was a human being called Arthur Douglas, whose family was killed by the Mad Titan, Thanos. Needing someone to battle the evil Thanos, Kronos takes Arthur Douglas's spirit and places it in a giant, green, muscly body. And that's how Drax was born.
He was later re-born in Annihilation, losing his ability to fly and shoot random power beams. He befriended an annoying Alaskan Earthgirl and then ditched her on a random spaceship in outer space to join Starlord and the Guardians of the Galaxy. He would later find out his daughter, Heather, was alive and known as Moondragon.
This brings us to the other green person in the movie group, Gamora.
Gamora is the last of the Zen Whoberi, and the adopted daughter of Thanos. She's a green badass, known for being incredibly powerful and ruthless, and for her very rapid healing ability. She was originally adopted by Thanos to be used as a weapon against Magus, the evil side of Adam Warlock. When she realizes Thanos is a greater threat that Magus, she decides to fight with the Guardians and galactic good guys to take down her former father figure.
She's gotten a makeover lately, too.
Then there's the giant living tree, Groot.
Groot's first appearance is in Tales to Astonish #13 from 1960. He was basically a sci-fi baddy that the hepcats of planet Earth had to defeat. He came from the Planet X, and was pretty much a one-off evil creature. He made a handful of appearances in comics in the 1970s as a creature from Tales to Astonish, but didn't really come into prominence until his character was repurposed in 2006 for use with the Guardians of the Galaxy.
He become infinitely more interesting in 2006, even if his vocabulary dwindled. If he breaks or gets destroyed, a mere sliver can be used to grow back to normal size.
But even better than that, he's the best friend and muscle of Rocket Racoon, the loud-mouthed, gunslinging non-racoon.
Rocket Raccoon made his first appearance (as Rocket) in Incredible Hulk #271 titled "Now Somewhere In the Black Holes of Sirius Major There Lived a Young Boy Named Rocket Raccoon." An obvious nod to the Beatles song "Rocky Raccoon." In it, Hulk helps Rocket stop a villain from stealing "Gideon's Bible." He had a run of four solo issues in 1985, which no one seemed to care about.
He's best know for being a master tactician, expert marksman, loving to blow stuff up, and having a tree for a best friend. He's also gotten a bit of a makeover recently.
We find out in the series small stories that ran in the back of Annihilators books that Rocket came from the Keystone quadrant, where he was a guardian and peacekeeper at a penal colony for the mentally ill. He and a group of other genetically modified woodlands creatures (and a walrus, if I remember correctly) were enchanted and given human-like skills, knowledge, and abilities to act as wardens at the institution.
He's also cute.
Part of the reason that most casual moviegoers and casual comic book readers are unaware of the team is because they're kind of a random team. In 2006 when the Guardians of the Galaxy book was spun off from the Annihilation event, the characters were taken from very random places and repurposed. They are ragtag in every sense of the phrase.
But like I mentioned before, they're not the first group of the Guardians of the Galaxy, even if they are the modern group. Back in the 1970s we met the "original" Guardians, though not the first. The group is technically from Earth-629, an alternate version of Earth-616 (the main Earth in most Marvel books).
When the Earth-616 Guardians formed (for us, in 2006) they discovered Vance Astro, a.k.a. Major Victory, in a block of ice. As the boundary of the universe is collapsing, different time periods and realities start breaking apart and falling into each other. This ends up being one of the major story arcs for the newly-formed Guardians team.
The gentleman in the front of the picture is Yondu Udonta, a founding member of the Guardians of the Galaxy (31st-century version) and a member of the "primitive" Zatoan tribe of Centauri-IV. It appears they've repurposed him for the film, though it'd be interesting to see if they somehow explain him as a being from the future that comes back and prepare Peter Quill to lead the modern Guardians into battle against Thanos. That is entirely speculation, but would be cool. Though my sneaking suspicion is that they are reworking the character for a different purpose, much like every other member of the Guardians came from somewhere else. Marvel is economical like that.
So what Guardians characters are not featured above that I sincerely hope get at least a nod in the film?
Moondragon, the daughter of Arthur Douglas, is a really cool, mystic/psychic galactic character, in addition to being the love of Phylla-Vell, daughter of Mar-Vell (Captain Marvel) and known as Quasar, Captain Marvel, and later Martyr.
Seeing them off to the side in Knowhere or maybe even in the prison or a galactic battle would be really great.
Cosmo is the chief of security at Knowhere, the hollowed out head of a Celestial floating in space that is used as the HQ of the modern Guardians team. He was a dog sent into space by the Russian space program that somehow managed to gain telekinetic and telepathic powers. He wears a doggy space suit and often has a doggy-sizes space helmet on.
He speaks in a comicese Russian accent, which is super fun to read.
I hear he is in the movie very briefly, possibly in the Collector's collection. I hope if they make another Guardians movie he has a more prominent role, as he does become an important liaison to the modern Guardians team on Knowhere.
Mantis started out as a baddie, like a lot of the folks that joined the Avengers over the years. She is an expert martial artist and has advanced cognitive abilities that give her foresight and the ability to talk telepathically.
She gets a bit more green and alien-like as time goes by, due to her really interesting cosmic story. Go check that out; it's a bit convoluted by very interesting. These days she's a liaison to the modern Guardians at Knowhere, and has been know to help take care of Groot when he needs to regrow.
Adam Warlock is pretty much the coolest character out of all the ones featured in this post. He first appeared in Fanstastic Four in the late 60s in a cocoon, then in his humanoid form, and had a fight with Thor, then ran into the High Evolutionary in space and became Warlock. He has a dark side called Magus, who is incredibly powerful and terrible.
From what I can tell we caught a climpse of Adam Warlock's cocoon in Thor 2 at the Collector's collection. I hope we get to see the real Adam Warlock, and potentially, the real Magus, sometime in the future. His story is quite deeply intertwined with Thanos' quest for the Infinity Gauntlet, so I can't imagine we won't see him by the time Avengers 3 rolls around.
So there you have it. Hopefully you learned a bit about these characters by sticking out this long, picture-filled article. If anything I hope you see how totally weird and out-there this group is, which makes the fact that they're getting a feature film pretty wonderfully odd and fantastic. Good job, Marvel. Embrace the weird, embrace the camp. You know how to make it all work out.
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