With the Guardians Of The Galaxy movie generating significant buzz, we look at the comic book roots of the Marvel team!
The Fantastic Four, X-Men, Spider-Man, Captain America, The Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, the Avengers, Daredevil, and arguably Doctor Strange, these are the core concepts and characters of the Marvel Universe. Virtually everything else in the Marvel Universe has a thread that connects to one of these titles. For the most part, these are the brands that the mainstream world is familiar with. With Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel and Disney are about to take a huge gamble, one that can pay off by doing what the comics have traditionally failed to do: expand the Marvel Universe past that core list of titles. Marvel has a rich back catalogue of characters that hardcore fans traditionally refer to as B or C list characters. The thing is these characters should be just as marketable as the A-list or mainstream ones. And if the first trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy is any indication, they just might be.
The Guardians of the Galaxy have been around for a long time, since the waning days of the Silver Age, and while the title has had periods of moderate success it usually failed to make any lasting impact on the world of Marvel publishing. The Guardians are a footnote, an obscurity, a title with a cult following but no history of sustainability. The Guardians of the Galaxy film could do what almost fifty years of print (yes, they’ve been around that long) couldn't. Even if they fail, they still have the juggernaut called the Avengers to off-set any potential flop. Looking at Marvel’s recent track record, failure is a remote possibility at best. Still, the Guardians of the Galaxy could be a tough nut to crack as their publishing history, and team make-up has gone through some complex changes over the years. Heck, Marvel even switched the team’s time period in the past decade!
When the Guardians first appeared in 1969, the team that made its debut in Marvel Super-Heroes #18 was completely different than the team that will make its film debut in August of 2014. Guardians of the Galaxy will hold the distinction of being the first Marvel Studios film not based almost exclusively on concepts created by Stan Lee or Jack Kirby. While it’s possible that Lee had some input into the Guardians’ creation, the first appearance of the team was penned by Arnold Drake, best known for creating DC’s Doom Patrol, with art by the great Gene Colan. It’s ironic that with his illustrious career primarily with DC, that Marvel is getting an Arnold Drake creation to the silver screen before Warner Bros., but that’s a snark for another column.
The original Guardians were introduced as a team of aliens led by a human who was trapped in a cryogenic sleep for 1000 years. Members of the team include a crystallized Plutonian named Martinex, a giant from Jupiter named Charlie-27, and a fin-headed archer from Alpha Centauri named Yondu. In interviews taking place in the intervening years, those involved claimed the mission statement of the title was Star Trek meets The Dirty Dozen, but what fans got was a static, uneven sci-fi piece as the foursome took on the evil aliens, the Badoon in the far future. It was the idea of the future that made this otherwise forgettable one-shot stand out, as this was the first time Marvel readers were able to see the future through the eyes of protagonists. Sure there was Kang in the Avengers, but he came to the present, readers never got to see more than a glimpse of what Lee and Kirby’s universe may become. Alas, Drake’s throwback style didn’t fit in within the bombastic Marvel Universe and the series was soon forgotten…until Steve Gerber.
When Steve Gerber became the writer of the Guardians feature in Marvel Presents #3, the writer worked the same magic he had on Howard the Duck, Man-Thing, and the Defenders. Gerber took characters that were practically blank slates and brought his own unique personality to the character’s already appealing designs. Gerber added the enigmatic Starhawk, and Nikki, a young girl from Mercury who added a youthful exuberance to the cosmic adventures as well providing the book a much needed point-of-view character. When Gerber was done with the Guardians, the team had fleshed-out characters with deep motivations. The team quickly popped up in Marvel Two-In-One and, most importantly, Avengers, where they played a pivotal role in one of the 1970s' most popular story arcs, “The Korvac Saga.” Their participation in the battle against Korvac, one of the most iconic stories of the Bronze Age, established the Guardians as legitimate players in the Marvel Universe.
The Guardians hung out on the periphery until the nineties when editor in chief Tom Defalco wanted to expand the Marvel line. He turned to Jim Valentino to guide the Guardians’ first solo title, and the book was an instant hit thanks to Valentino’s energetic storytelling. Mr. Valentino took advantage of the futuristic setting by using familiar elements of the Marvel Universe in very new ways to keep a new generation of comic readers engaged and guessing. Familiar elements like Captain America’s shield, Tony Stark’s tech, the Phoenix, Ghost Rider, and even a time traveling female Yellowjacket, who joined the team providing the book with a tether to the present. The book even had a spinoff mini-series, the Galactic Guardians. Yet, it seemed that it was Valentino that readers were rallying around not the Guardians themselves, as the book quickly fizzled when he departed to co-found Image Comics. Valentino told exciting stories, but it was his crackling dynamism that made the Guardians pop. Marvel seemed disinterested in trying again without Valentino, at least with the original future Guardians.
While all this was going on, the Guardians were not the only cosmic beings exploring the Marvel cosmos. Creators Jim Starlin and Steve Englehart excelled at cosmic adventure introducing characters like Adam Warlock, Thanos, Drax and Gamora, and many more alien heroes and villains that served to enrich the Marvel Universe outside of Earth. In the '80s, the heroic Marvel population grew by one when Bill Mantlo and Keith Giffen introduced Rocket Raccoon in the obscure Marvel Premiere back-up feature “The Sword in the Star.” Meanwhile, Star-Lord, created in 1976 by Steve Englehart and Steve Gan, had been bouncing around the Marvel Universe. Star-Lord had a brilliantly conceived origin and was worked on by such luminaries as Chris Claremont and John Byrne, but the adventures of Peter Quill failed to find a foothold in the ever changing and finicky publishing landscape that was the newsstand.
These obscure characters existed, they were fleshed out, and they were ready for a talented creator or creators to step in and make them realize their full potential. Enter, Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, otherwise known as DnA, and their cosmic opus, Annihilation. DnA wanted to present a cosmic crossover event with cinematic action and huge stakes. They just needed the cosmic players to populate the tale of universal armageddon.
One of the titles Abnett and Lanning revived was Guardians of the Galaxy, but this time they needed the team to be smack dab in the present Marvel Universe. The old Guardians were removed from the Marvel Universe proper; it would be hard to convince the modern comic reader that the future Guardian’s adventures “counted.” So DnA picked up the threads of visually stunning but underutilized characters like Drax and Gamora, added Star-Lord and Phylla-Vell (the daughter of the original Captain Marvel), and did something absolutely unexpected. The writing duo added Rocket Raccoon to the mix along with, startlingly, the long forgotten Kirby monster, Groot, the sentient tree. Moreover, the writing duo played the farcical pairing completely straight, and against all odds, the formula worked.
The synergy of the characters and the sweeping narrative revitalized the cosmic characters of the Marvel Universe. Before DnA, there had been a number of attempts to revive Silver Surfer or Captain Marvel, but nothing stuck. DnA’s Guardians of the Galaxy popped, the fans that were daring enough to try something outside the accepted insular confines of the Marvel Universe proper were treated with characters that crackled with energy. There was just something fun about the Guardians, the creative daring that allowed for Rocket Raccoon and Groot to exist side by side with Adam Warlock and other “serious” cosmic characters. Abnett and Lanning’s Guardians of the Galaxy title premiered during a huge industry downturn, but the critical attention was there, and those who discovered it, loved it. DnA stuck around for a number of years, guiding the team to new heights, and while the dollars weren’t always there, no one can argue the duo succeeded artistically.
The book garnered a cult following, but also, and more importantly, it got the attention of Marvel Studios who saw the energy and marketability of the team. Hopefully, in eighteen months, when Guardians of the Galaxy hits the big screen, the contributions of DnA will not be forgotten, because it was their writing acumen and daring that propelled the Guardians into the spotlight after five decades. Now that the film is imminent, Marvel will need more Guardians material, especially featuring the current team, to fill up book shelves when the film debuts. And that's where the current Guardians of the Galaxytitle, written by Brian Michael Bendis and having played host to a number of terrific artists like Steve McNiven, Francesco Francavilla, and others, comes in. Marvel seems to finally have found a formula that works for this team of freaks, misfits, and outcasts...and big screen success can't be far behind!
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