Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, drax, entertainment, film, Gamora, guardians of the galaxy, jack kirby, jim starlin, kieth giffen, Marvel Comics, rocket raccoon, stan lee, star-lord, thanos, Yondu

Looking At The Heroes of Guardians Of The Galaxy By Looking At The Comics

Published Fri, 01 Aug 2014 10:00:08 -0500

by Hannah Means Shannon

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[Part 1, Looking at the Villains of Guardians of the Galaxy by Looking at the Comics was previously published on Bleeding Cool. This is Part 2, Looking at the Heroes]

By Ian Melton

Tickets are bought and later today at the time of writing, the family will be seeing Guardians of the Galaxy. My 8 year old son is stoked and will be taking his Lego Star-Lord and Rocket Raccoon with him to watch movie. His knowledge and excitement for this movie is perhaps higher than any other Marvel movie, but I do have wonderful memories of taking him to Iron Man 2 dressed as Iron Man, Captain America dressed as Captain America, and The Amazing Spider-Man dressed as Gwen Stacy …. (kidding, I don't do child cross play). Guardians for me though is a very interesting build up as I had several loves reading comics as I grew up and one of those was the cosmic corner of the Marvel Universe. Silver Surfer Volume 3, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 1, Warlock and the Infinity Watch … all of this leads me to look at the heroes, comics, and the new movie. So again what do we know? (Mild spoilers but think of this as primer material again though some of it looking ahead…)

1. Star-Lord (Peter Quill) in comics is almost 2 different characters. First appearing in Marvel Preview (Volume 1), #4, 1976, he was used in many "off the beaten path" Marvel magazines and comics and had some very interesting stories … that didn't even always make sense with each other in terms of consistency, let alone continuity. None of these adventures seemed to really be part of the Marvel Universe proper, but the basic origin mother human, father from Spartax, Peter leaves Earth and becomes Star-Lord were there, but no other broader Marvel Universe ideas. One writer changed that (and his name will appear a few times in this article) by bringing Peter Quill into the Marvel Universe proper in (of all titles) Thanos #8, in 2004, (yes Peter Quill has only been part of the Marvel Universe proper for a decade.) Keith Giffen introduced a more cybernetic looking Peter Quill here, interacting with Thanos, and then brought him into the Annihilation crossover where he got his own mini-series and led the character to where we now know him best, the modern day Guardians of the Galaxy. (A Thanos / Star-Lord connection has been kept throughout comics since through Annihilation and even into the upcoming Original Sins arc in upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy (Volume 3).) In approaching the movie everything that is in Guardians of the Galaxy (Volume 3) by Brian Michael Bendis is what informs the character best, and has been by and large kept for the movie leading us to have an idea that for the sequel we will likely see the Spartax empire, and his father, since that part of Peter's backstory is not played with much in the first movie. For a character that has been around for a long time, Peter Quill is a very fresh canvas and much of what you see on the screen will likely leak back into the comic pages as how the character is viewed.

2. Although not much of a hero in the movie, we should discuss real quick another character that has been grafted onto Star-Lord's, Yondu. Now the comics and the movie are very very different here. Yondu in the comics was one of the original Guardians of the Galaxy, who all debuted in Marvel Super-Heroes (Volume 1), #18, 1969. The original Guardians come from the future and Yondu along with his fellow Guardians sought to free the galaxy from the Badoon, a very nasty alien race, who have enslaved many planets, including Earth. Yondu, thinking he is the last of his people (a theme for many Guardians of the Galaxy characters it seems) he joined the team and they helped "guard the galaxy" in the future, and even in the past, teaming up with the Avengers. The name Guardians of the Galaxy ended up with the modern team when during Volume 2, when the future Guardians leader, Major Victory, ended up in the past saying the name and giving Star-Lord and Rocket Raccoon a good name for their new team (yes, they stole the moniker).

Now the original comics Yondu was a peaceful character who had a massive fin on his head that looked like a mow hawk, and could control his arrows through whistles. These parts have been adapted for the movie, but the movie Yondu is not from the future and is much more of a mercenary leader of the Ravagers who adopted and helped raise Peter Quill. The major interesting hold over that could show up in the future of the franchise for this character is that Yondu's people had a major deity that Yondu always worshipped, Anthos, was later revealed as a possible mix up of another word, and that Yondu's people may have always been worshipping Thanos! (Was someone watching Red Dwarf at the time?)

3. The character that most are predicting as the one everyone will remember, and that all kids will want, also has an interesting comic's history, Rocket Raccoon. Rocket first debuted in Marvel Preview (Volume 1) #7, 1976, as Rocky Raccoon created by Bill Mantlo and that Keith Giffen guy, but next showed up and was called Rocket Raccoon in Incredible Hulk (Volume 1) #271, 1982. Rocket was established in the comics as the "only one of his kind" and having a huge attitude that dwarfed his smaller size. Rocket Raccoon had one mini-series in 1985 written by Bill Mantlo and drawn by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. However, after that Rocket's appearances were few and far between until Keith Giffen brought him into the Annihilation crossover with Star-Lord. Rocket Raccoon, for having debuted in the 70's does not have a lot of backstory, much like Star-Lord, and the main element brought into the movies from the comics, beyond being unique is his close bond with the next hero…

4. Groot is actually the oldest character in Guardians, having debuted in Tales to Astonish (Volume 1) #13, 1960, and he is unique in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as being like Thor and the Hulk and having been created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. However, Groot at first in the comics was an alien monster that wanted to conquer Earth. Since then Groot has changed a lot, but has seen almost no use until (shock of shocks) the Annihilation Crossover where he was incarnated by the Kree. Groot sacrificed himself to help out those fighting the Annihilation Wave (Star-Lord, Rocket, the future Guardians basically) and was survived by a small sapling of himself that Rocket help care for and regrow, bringing Groot back into the fold. From here on Groot and Rocket were pretty much inseparable and we get the Rocket/Groot bro-mance that the film shows off so well, and establishes in the film as having existed before the movie starts. Groot is also "the only one of his kind" / last member of his species.

5. Now we have three main themes that many of the Guardians share 1) only one of their kind / last surviving member of their race, 2) ties to Thanos, and 3) brought together as part of the Guardians during the Keith Giffen written Annihilation crossover. Gamora is all three and has the most explicit ties to Thanos since she is … well his daughter. Debuting in Strange Tales (Volume 1) #180, 1975 and created by Jim Starlin, Gamora was saved as the last member of her species by Thanos, and then raised by him, and made cybernetically enhanced when she was a child after being brutally assaulted. Of any character, comic wise, no other character has spent more time with Thanos then Gamora, and yet she betrays him in both media. In the comics she met Adam Warlock, and allied with him first with Thanos, and then against him, several times… (usually involving objects called the Soul Gems or Infinity Gems … but I'm sure the movies won't mention those…) For the longest time if you saw Gamora it was with Adam Warlock with Jim Starlin writing them, first in Strange Tales, then Warlock's monthly, then years later in the Infinity Gauntlet crossover, and then Warlock and Infinity Watch, where Gamora was a member.

However, after the Infinity Watch was canceled, Gamora was little used until the Annihilation crossover where she joined Star-Lord and the others, eventually joining the Guardians of the Galaxy. Her main romantic interests have been Adam Warlock, and Rich Rider (Nova), but her interest and attraction toward Star-Lord have become noticeable in the comics as the movie gets closer. Gamora is the main tie of the movie as she is a former servant of Thanos, "sister" of Nebula and rival, and has rejected Thanos to help the world. Her character arc, like in the comics, as servant of evil to hero of good is one to root for, and gives this movie, and sequels lots of conflict as "the world's most dangerous woman" did used to live to serve the greatest threat to life in the universe (though it looks like he'll soon be the greatest Avenger ever… go Thanos!).

6. The last member of the Guardians is also very similar to Gamora, but has one key tie to Thanos no one can surpass, he debuted with him. Drax the Destroyer first debuted in Iron Man (Volume 1) #55, 1973 with Thanos and was created by Thanos' father and grandfather to destroy him (though he has only succeed once). In the comics Thanos was responsible for the death of Arthur Douglas and his wife (though his daughter survived). Brought back to life and recreated as Drax the Destroyer, Arthur Douglas was given one purpose: destroy Thanos! Since then that is what Drax, in almost every reincarnation has tried to do, even when he has been dumb as a sack of rocks.

Drax was used most by Jim Starlin who created him and like Gamora showed up whenever Starlin was using Adam Warlock or Thanos, so Drax was also a member of the Infinity Watch with Gamora, and then later the Guardians. Drax though got a limited series, written by Keith Giffen, set before the Annihilation crossover that set up many elements of the Annihilation story, and crafted Drax as a ruthless, grim, berserker … who still wanted to kill Thanos. The trappings of his character for the movie are mostly the same, though Drax seeks vengeance against Ronan in the film and is not a former human, as he is in the comics. Drax's singular purpose once fulfilled is hard to use as continuing story, though the aftermath of trying to find purpose when one has been successful in their one goal can give us some good stories. We'll see where they take Drax in the next movie since the comics has not really explored much of Drax's story beyond just being with the Guardians.

7. The last "heroes" are the only ones who don't fit into the mold of the Guardians and that is the Xandarians police force, the Nova Corp. The concept was first shown in Nova (Volume 1) #1, 1976, where Richard Rider got the Nova power from the last surviving Xandarian member of the corp. Since then the group has had more history and members shown but by and large has been a very similar concept to the Green Lantern Corp with super powers given to members to protect the galaxy. The movie concept is less like that and more that Xandar, is one of the premier galactic worlds and though the Nova Corp protect Xandar, without super powers, they also try to police the rest of the galaxy, with limited success. One fun irony is that the Xandar planet was once destroyed by Nebula … food for thought…

In writing out all this information I am reminded there is a lot of material that future sequels could use for the Guardians so I hope everyone is as excited as my son is to see the movie and enjoy!

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