# Marvel fans...break down Guardians of the Galaxy for me **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 18, 2014, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442 "2014-04-18T21:27:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/1 "2014-04-18T21:27:24Z")
I don’t know much about this comic book series, so figured I’m come here to get a break down of what it’s about…so, feel free to put in comic book spoilers all you like (since the movie isn’t out yet, there is nothing to spoil there beyond the [trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B16Bo47KS2g)) I’ve seen the trailer for the up-coming movie, but it looks like a light comedy/Sci-Fi movie. What’s this series all about? Supposedly it’s linked to the Avengers in some way, but looking at the trailer it’s hard to see the connection, since the feel is so different (or is it?). ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/2 "2014-04-18T21:35:53Z")
Well… You know that thing that Star Lord is trying to steal in the trailer? It’s speculated that that item is an Infinity Gem (like the Tessaract and the Aether). All of the gems mount together on the Infinity Gauntlet, which was last seen in Odin’s vaults. The Bad Guy at the end of _Avengers_? That’s Thanos, who wields the Infinity Gauntlet in a major arc in the comics, destroying the Universe in the process. He is stopped by a couple of the characters shown briefly in the _GotG_ trailer. Among other things… ---
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/3 "2014-04-18T21:45:10Z")
OK, but what’s the premise of the comic? I’m a big comic book fan (as you can infer from the name) but like XT, I’ve never read Guardians of the Galaxy. I know some of the characters (such as Gamora) from other series, but what’s the overall concept of the book? ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/4 "2014-04-18T21:49:55Z")
Here’s how it goes: In the 40’s, DC made the Justice League/Society. This was so successful, they made a spin-off (with Superboy as the connecting member) called the Legion of Superheroes. This was so successful, Marvel copied them in the 60’s with the X-Men. Many of the members of the Legion have X-Men counterparts: Cosmic Lad: Magneto Polar Boy: Iceman Saturn Girl: Jean Grey In the late 60’s, suddenly Marvel corned the market on superteams with the Fantastic 4, the Avengers, and many others that outsold DC’s. Not to be outdone, DC then revamped their superteams into the super-superteam of the Justice League of America and added many more members to the Legion. In 1978 or so, the famous X-Men revamp arrived, copying many of the members of the new Legion: Timber Wolf: Wolverine Sunboy: Sunfire So Marvel said, alright muthafuckas, this is war, and the Guardians of the Galaxy was created as a 1-1 copy of the Justice League. The blue guy with the mohawk is just Superman painted blue. Interesting side note: The New Mutants copied Doom Patrol. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/5 "2014-04-18T21:57:26Z")
So, is this the first movie in a new Marvel series that will tie into the Avengers with new characters? I had heard that Marvel has plotted things out to some absurd timeline into the 2020’s…is this part of the plan? To me, watching the trailer, it seems this is going to be a silly comedy/sci-fi movie…and it’s hard to see how that feel fits in with the Avengers, who I consider more, I don’t know, serious I guess (the latest Capt. America was pretty serious). ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/6 "2014-04-18T21:59:51Z")
> [@XT](#): > > So, is this the first movie in a new Marvel series that will tie into the Avengers with new characters? I had heard that Marvel has plotted things out to some absurd timeline into the 2020’s…is this part of the plan? To me, watching the trailer, it seems this is going to be a silly comedy/sci-fi movie…and it’s hard to see how that feel fits in with the Avengers, who I consider more, I don’t know, serious I guess (the latest Capt. America was pretty serious). I just saw Thor drive a spaceship in Dark World last night. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/7 "2014-04-18T22:01:42Z")
> [@XT](#): > > So, is this the first movie in a new Marvel series that will tie into the Avengers with new characters? I had heard that Marvel has plotted things out to some absurd timeline into the 2020’s…is this part of the plan? To me, watching the trailer, it seems this is going to be a silly comedy/sci-fi movie…and it’s hard to see how that feel fits in with the Avengers, who I consider more, I don’t know, serious I guess (the latest Capt. America was pretty serious). If you saw the second Thor movie, Benicio Del Toro had a small cameo in a scene during the credits. It was the character he will be playing in GotG. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/8 "2014-04-18T22:03:39Z")
> [@XT](#): > > So, is this the first movie in a new Marvel series that will tie into the Avengers with new characters? I had heard that Marvel has plotted things out to some absurd timeline into the 2020’s…is this part of the plan? To me, watching the trailer, it seems this is going to be a silly comedy/sci-fi movie…and it’s hard to see how that feel fits in with the Avengers, who I consider more, I don’t know, serious I guess (the latest Capt. America was pretty serious). If I’m reading the tea leaves correctly, Marvel Studios is going to do a very clever thing, and make movies within the same universe, BUT not make all of them be straight up superhero movies, per se. Guardians of the Galaxy looks like it’s going to be a looser comedy/action piece. If Black Widow gets here own movie, it will probably be closer to a Jason Bourne movie than anything else. So while it will tie in to the Avengers and be consistent in terms of canon, it doesn’t have to be stylistically consistent. ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2014, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/9 "2014-04-18T23:53:29Z")
So, also, never having read the GotG comics, when I saw the trailer before the new Cap movie I kept thinking “what a bust that movie is going to be!” It looked stupid, and a raccoon? (Or whatever…) Really? Just my opinion of course. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/10 "2014-04-19T00:21:39Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > So Marvel said, alright muthafuckas, this is war, and the Guardians of the Galaxy was created as a 1-1 copy of the Justice League. The blue guy with the mohawk is just Superman painted blue. Maybe I’m just confused, but it sounds like you’re talking about the [Shi’ar Imperial Guard](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Guard_(comics)) (which is a Legion of Superheroes clone featuring a blue guy with a mohawk) or the [Squadron Supreme](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squadron_Supreme) (which is a Justice League clone). ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/11 "2014-04-19T00:46:10Z")
> [@JSexton](#): > > If Black Widow gets here own movie, it will probably be closer to a Jason Bourne movie than anything else. Fingers crossed. ---
**Author:** ![irritant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@irritant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irritant)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/12 "2014-04-19T01:10:44Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > Here’s how it goes: > > In the 40’s, DC made the Justice League/Society. This was so successful, they made a spin-off (with Superboy as the connecting member) called the Legion of Superheroes. This was so successful, Marvel copied them in the 60’s with the X-Men. Many of the members of the Legion have X-Men counterparts: > Cosmic Lad: Magneto > Polar Boy: Iceman > Saturn Girl: Jean Grey > > In the late 60’s, suddenly Marvel corned the market on superteams with the Fantastic 4, the Avengers, and many others that outsold DC’s. Not to be outdone, DC then revamped their superteams into the super-superteam of the Justice League of America and added many more members to the Legion. In 1978 or so, the famous X-Men revamp arrived, copying many of the members of the new Legion: > Timber Wolf: Wolverine > Sunboy: Sunfire > > So Marvel said, alright muthafuckas, this is war, and the Guardians of the Galaxy was created as a 1-1 copy of the Justice League. The blue guy with the mohawk is just Superman painted blue. > > Interesting side note: The New Mutants copied Doom Patrol. > [@hogarth](#): > > Maybe I’m just confused, but it sounds like you’re talking about the [Shi’ar Imperial Guard](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Guard_(comics)) (which is a Legion of Superheroes clone featuring a blue guy with a mohawk) or the [Squadron Supreme](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squadron_Supreme) (which is a Justice League clone). Yeah, that entire post is baffling to me, and appears to have to have nothing to do with the subject at hand. The Legion already had over a dozen members by the time of the X-Men. Polar Boy originated as a joke character, an excuse for the creation of the Legion of Substitute Heroes, and resembles Iceman, who first appeared only a few months later, only vaguely. Jean Grey began as only a telekinetic, whereas Saturn Girl is only a telepath. And while I have seen speculation that the X-Men were created in imitation of the Doom Patrol, the timing involved would make this unlikely. The NEw Mutants are nothing at all like the Doom Patrol in even an abstract way. They’re more like the Teen Titans to the X-Men’s JLA. The Justice League of America pre-exists the Fantastic Four; the FF were created because Martin Goodman hoped to repeat the JLA’s success. All-New All-Different X-Men artist Dave Cockrum had recently been fired from the LSH, and it is widely presumed that his Storm and Nightcrawler were new characters intended for that team. Wolverine and Sunfire were pre-existing characters (Sunfire had fought the X-Men almost a decade before). I guess it’s possible that Cockrum wanted to use Wolverine because of his resemblance to Lone Wolf/Timber Wolf. The Shi’ar Imperial Guard is a straight copy of the LSH (with blue-skinned, mohawked Gladiator as the ersatz Superboy), perhaps created so that Cockrum could settle some scores with his ex-employers. None of this has anything to do with the Guardians of the Galaxy. The Guardians began as a sort of Marvelized Legion, seeing as how they were from the 31st Century, but the version of the team that’s going to appear in the movie is only tentatively related to the original. This one was created only a few years ago, spinning out of the Annihilation comic event, and combining various “cosmic” characters into one book. I don’t know much about it beyond that. They’re like the Avengers in Space. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/13 "2014-04-19T01:26:44Z")
Every so often, Marvel spins something off, to see if it has appeal. This was how we got the “Illuminati” comics, where a team of the heaviest hitters went to the Skrull world to kick butt. It’s where we got an “Inhumans” subplot that kinda petered out. The whole Thanos thing was an experiment of sorts. The Marvel continuity was set up with a bunch of loose ends. So some clever jasper decided to sweep 'em up and put ‘em in the pot. Kind of an Irish Stew of obscure heroes. Rocket Raccoon had his own limited series, and, since then, kept bouncing around. Nothin’ wrong with a li’l raccoon in the stew… As a tie-in, Iron Man dropped in for a while. Then there was an X-Men meet-up. It really harks back to old-fashioned round-the-campfire story telling. They throw some ideas at us, and see which ones we like. It could be worse… Remember “Marvel Zombies?” Or the “Ultimate” universe? ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/14 "2014-04-19T02:13:43Z")
> [@Southern\_Yankee](#): > > So, also, never having read the GotG comics, when I saw the trailer before the new Cap movie I kept thinking “what a bust that movie is going to be!” It looked stupid, and a raccoon? (Or whatever…) Really? Just my opinion of course. Whereas I have the exact opposite thing. I think it’ll be a big success in the ‘hilarious space opera’ genre. I watch the trailer just to giggle. And I’ve taught my girls the words to ‘Hooked on a Feeling’. That said, Marvel has a LOT of goodwill right now. Some of the movies have been silly, but there hasn’t been a loser in the batch so far. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/15 "2014-04-19T02:23:23Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > It could be worse… Remember “Marvel Zombies?” Or the “Ultimate” universe? Is that a whoosh? “Remember” the Ultimate universe? It’s still around and they incorporated quite a bit of it into the MCU. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/16 "2014-04-19T02:32:50Z")
> [@Southern\_Yankee](#): > > So, also, never having read the GotG comics, when I saw the trailer before the new Cap movie I kept thinking “what a bust that movie is going to be!” It looked stupid, and a raccoon? (Or whatever…) Really? Just my opinion of course. As somebody on this board noted: DC: “We still can’t figure out how to do a Wonder Woman movie.” Marvel: “Raccoon with a machine gun. Have fun.” ---
**Author:** ![heathen\_earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/13edae/32.png) [@heathen\_earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heathen_earthling)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/17 "2014-04-19T02:59:01Z")
I enjoyed Marvel Zombies. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/18 "2014-04-19T03:44:41Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > Is that a whoosh? “Remember” the Ultimate universe? It’s still around and they incorporated quite a bit of it into the MCU. Not “remember” as in the 70’s and disco, but “remember” as in things we wish we could just forget about. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/19 "2014-04-19T06:20:39Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > Maybe I’m just confused, but it sounds like you’re talking about the [Shi’ar Imperial Guard](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Guard_(comics)) (which is a Legion of Superheroes clone featuring a blue guy with a mohawk) or the [Squadron Supreme](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squadron_Supreme) (which is a Justice League clone). I was big into Marvel as a kid, but somehow completely missed GotG. I assume it is [Yondu](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yondu) who is referred to, but he doesn’t appear as much in the press material as the other characters? I don’t know how much he resembles Superman. A Marvel ripoff is better than a DC superhero original. ETA: the middle Shi’ar guy looks like [Ruby Rhod]([http://wallpoper.com/images/00/32/81/70/ruby-rhod\_00328170.png\](http://wallpoper.com/images/00/32/81/70/ruby-rhod_00328170.png%5C)). ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/20 "2014-04-19T06:27:22Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > As somebody on this board noted: > > DC: “We still can’t figure out how to do a Wonder Woman movie.” > > Marvel: “Raccoon with a machine gun. Have fun.” Now we just need a middle ground, between companies who won’t give Wonder Woman a movie because they’re too busy making Batman and Superman movies, and companies who won’t give Wonder Woman a movie because they’re too busy making a movie about a damn raccoon. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442.md?page=2)