# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/21 "2014-04-19T07:03:01Z")
How important of a character is Drax the Destroyer, who Dave Batista is playing in the movie? Because Batista really annoys me both as a wrestler and as a human being in general, and I’m not sure I’ll be able to enjoy the movie if his character is going to be getting a lot of screen time. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/22 "2014-04-19T07:08:43Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > 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. Me too. I get a bit of a ‘Fifth Element’ vibe from the trailers. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/23 "2014-04-19T08:09:34Z")
> [@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. I don’t think there’s a true word in that whole statement. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/24 "2014-04-19T09:54:36Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > I don’t think there’s a true word in that whole statement. 😃 Yep… that post is weird. The original Guardians had a far more badass concept–the last survivors of Earth’s colonies in the solar system (each genetically altered to survive on their different planets/moons) brought together by an American astronaut Buck Rogered into the 31st century and fighting the evil reptilian empire that destroyed Earth. Anyway-- the core concept of the movie Guardians is that they are cosmic outcasts brought together for a purpose. ---
**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, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/25 "2014-04-19T10:41:03Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Not “remember” as in the 70’s and disco, but “remember” as in things we wish we could just forget about. Who’s “we?” I thought the Ultimates was better than the 616 universe by a long shot and I wish they hadn’t fucked it up by killing off Ultimate Peter Parker. ---
**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 19, 2014, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/26 "2014-04-19T12:07:44Z")
> [@Push\_You\_Down](#): > > \ > > Anyway-- the core concept of the movie Guardians is that they are cosmic outcasts brought together for a purpose. As a concept, that doesn’t sound bad. But the trailer made it seem almost like a parody (was the lineup scene supposed to invoke _The Usual Suspects_?) ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/27 "2014-04-19T12:15:09Z")
They can’t all be dark and gritty. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/28 "2014-04-19T12:18:44Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > It could be worse… Remember “Marvel Zombies?” Or the “Ultimate” universe? I don’t know anything about the funnybooks business, but isn’t the “Ultimate” series the basis for a lot of the MCU films? ---
**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, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/29 "2014-04-19T12:35:13Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > They can’t all be dark and gritty. Thank God. The whole ‘dark and gritty’ about superpowered people in tights is ludicrous on its face. ---
**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, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/30 "2014-04-19T12:47:37Z")
> [@Southern\_Yankee](#): > > As a concept, that doesn’t sound bad. But the trailer made it seem almost like a parody (was the lineup scene supposed to invoke _The Usual Suspects_?) It can’t be the Usual Suspects. I mean, Benicio del Toro isn’t in it! > [@friedo](#): > > I don’t know anything about the funnybooks business, but isn’t the “Ultimate” series the basis for a lot of the MCU films? At least Ultimate Nick Fury, who is played by the guy who he is based on. ---
**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, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/31 "2014-04-19T13:02:18Z")
Allow me to quote [FilmDrunk](http://uproxx.com/filmdrunk/2014/04/guardians-of-the-galaxy-new-clip-chris-pratt/): > [@](#): > > I was sitting on the left with the other haters after Captain America 2, now even more so of the opinion that Marvel is at their best when they’re doing goofy fun, and at their dullest when they’re doing serious. But Guardians of the Galaxy has James Gunn on as director, Chris Pratt, a murderous raccoon, and Vin Diesel as a talking tree, which definitely sounds like a recipe for weird and goofy to me. MTV just released a new extended clip, and in my professional opinion… uh… yeah, this looks f\*cking awesome. > > John C. Reilly, a screaming raccoon shooting a machine gun, and the whole thing ends with “Hooked On A Feeling?” My God, I think I’m fully tumescent (what, you don’t get hard over John C. Reilly?). It’s really hard to get the tone right with these movies, and I think James Gunn might be the absolute perfect choice. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/32 "2014-04-19T13:58:04Z")
So what’s the backstory on the dude? He appears to be a 21st-century Earth-normal human. How does he end up on galaxy-spanning adventures? ---
**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, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/33 "2014-04-19T14:31:58Z")
Peter Jason Quill - called ‘Starlord’ - is half human. His mother was in love with some alien named (no kidding) J’Sonn and has a baby with him. That’s how Starlord was born. The 80s-era walkman has significance to Quill because that and the cassette are his only memories of his mother. Which is why it’s playing ‘Hooked on a Feeling’ and will doubtless supply an awesome 70s soundtrack to the movie. How much of this holds up in the MCU is up for grabs. The bio I gave above is already a retcon of his earlier origin. ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/34 "2014-04-19T14:40:53Z")
Okay, never even heard of them until the movie. In fact I thought it was a movie about the Imperial Guard until I read a thread about the movie in this same board. For what I’ve been able to put together, in the seventies Marvel published more than Superhero comics: there were westerns, romance, horror and sci-fi features. One of their sci-fi heroes was, Starlord, a forgotten Englerhart character up until recently, about a teenager that discovers he’s half-alien and decides to become some sort of space ranger. Never even heard of him. Apparently the only noteworthy feature is that Englehart made him “evolve” from a jerk to a nicer guy during the series. Another 70’s reject is Rocket Racoon, a Mantlo - Giffen created antropomorphic alien racoon. The superhero mania took over, and most science fiction characters got relegated to the sidelines of the Marvel Universe, appearing in Silver Surfer comics or F4 issues or similar every once in a while. There was also a team of sci-fi alien superheroes created in 69 by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan, reeeeeally similar to the Legion of Superheroes, in the sense that they were superpowered beings from different planets coming from the future (the 31st century in this case) The original Guardians of the Galaxy gives its name to the group from the movie, but it’s not particularly related. Or, I guess that the modern GOTG are the founders of the 31st century GOTG. I don’t really know. Well, now we reach 2008, when Abnett and Lanning went and launched a series with this name, using old sci-fi characters, like the aforementioned Starlord. It was cancelled two years later. Now, here we have Marvel trying very hard to make a movie of something that wasn’t tied to other studios, like the FF or the X-Men. A bit of scrapping the barrel was in order, I guess. Which means that, finally, the Squirrel Girl movie is not that far from being greenlighted. Ah, a geek can dream… ---
**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, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/35 "2014-04-19T14:44:34Z")
Because of this thread, I’m going to wear my Rocket Raccoon t-shirt out to breakfast this morning, just to see what comments I get. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/36 "2014-04-19T15:04:38Z")
> [@Sr\_Siete](#): > > Or, I guess that the modern GOTG are the founders of the 31st century GOTG. The current Guardians could lead to a future version in the 31st century, but the original Future Guardians are from a different universe - officially designated as Earth-691, it featured, among other things, complete environmental collapse in the '80s, Mutants fleeing Earth, and Martian conquest of Earth in the 21st century. Killraven is another major character from that universe (he fought the Martians). There’s also the Guardians of the Galaxy of Earth-669116 (a combination of 691 and 616, the designation of the mainstream universe), a version of the 691 Guardians who the modern Guardians met in an issue of their title. ---
**Author:** ![MilTan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@MilTan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MilTan)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/37 "2014-04-19T19:51:56Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > 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. Marvel can’t make a Wonder Woman movie for the more relevant reason that it’s not their property. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/38 "2014-04-19T20:30:00Z")
> [@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). In the comics, the Guardians frequently time traveled in order to team up with present day heroes and groups. Or, present day heroes would TT to the Guardians’ alternate future. It doesn’t look like the movie is going to have any time traveling, but you never know. So for now, I’d guess the main connection to the Avengers is via Thanos, a cosmic-level bad guy who continually threatens all life in the universe, in any time period he gets to. Usually his evil plans involve collecting powerful cosmic artifacts like “Infinity Gems” or “Cosmic Cubes” and things. We’ve seen some of those artifacts already in various movies. Theoretically, Thor could interact with the Guardians in the future, since he’s nearly immortal and someone already mentioned Odin possesses an artifact that Thanos will want to get his hands on. ---
**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, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/39 "2014-04-19T21:02:07Z")
> [@MilTan](#): > > Marvel can’t make a Wonder Woman movie for the more relevant reason that it’s not their property. They could make a “Valkyrie” movie without much loss of generality. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442/40 "2014-04-19T21:09:24Z")
Speaking of Valkyrie, I wonder if anyone’s thinking about a Defenders movie. We’ve got Hulk and Dr. Strange is coming up. Valkyrie has connections with Asgard. Silver Surfer is out, but they could come up with plenty of other heroes. The first time I saw the Guardians of the Galaxy was in a Defenders story. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvel-fans-break-down-guardians-of-the-galaxy-for-me/686442.md?page=3)