Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "guardians-of-the-galaxy"

Guardians of the Galaxy: Tomorrow's Avengers, Vol. 1 by Steve Gerber

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book collects the early appearances of the original Guardians of the Galaxy Team that feature Major Vance Astro from Earth, Charlie-27 from Jupiter, Yondu from Centauri IV and Martinex, the Crystal Man from Pluto. Later Starhawk and Nikki, a Mercurian Girl were added later. The book features the Guardian's pilot story in 1969's Marvel Superheroes #18, their Guest Appearance with the Thing and Captain America in Marvel Two-in-One #4 and 5 and with the Defenders in Giant Sized Defenders #5 and Issues 26-29 before they took over Marvel Presents for Issues #3-12.

The stories are okay. The pilot issue by Arnold Drake introduces but doesn't give them a lot of definition. Writer Steve Gerber's obsession with them, even to the point of bringing modern Marvel Characters to the future in these crossover stories explains why the Guardians survived, even though the actual stars really dominated the stories. I liked the idea in Marvel Two-in-One #5 that Captain America's legend inspires people fighting for freedom even a millennia later and the Guardians' big focus is on freeing the Earth which both the Defenders and Captain America and the Thing gave them a hand towards.

In Marvel Presents #3, this plot was dispense summarily so that our heroes could enjoy the freedom of the Stars with Starhawk joining the series and Nikki coming along to be the "token woman" to quote an interview with Gerber published in the back of this volume. Such brilliant character development led to some flat characters. He worked in one dimension to each character, with Vance he chose to make him unbalanced. A dubious creative choice given that as someone originally from the 20th Century was actually the character readers could relate to. Gerber focused on social commentary including the idea that the apocalypse was brought about in the 1980s as a result of not banning aerosol spray cans.

However, as often happened at Marvel in the 1970s, Gerber became over-tasked as evidenced by Issue 8 which mostly reprints a Silver Surfer story with a half hearted Guardians frame around it. Gerber started Part One of the origin of Starhawk but ended up handing the storyline off halfway completed to Roger Stern without actually knowing how it ends. Stern actually does a pretty good job with the hand he was dealt and finishes the series off with style.

This is a very choppy and uneven series of comics. This answers the question of the origins of the original Guardians of the Galaxy Team and provides some average comics (through Issue 8) and then the book gets a bit better.



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Guardians of the Galaxy: Tomorrow's Avengers, Vol. 2 by Jim Shooter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects the original Guardians of the Galaxy in the Bronze Age with guest appearances in Thor Annual #6, Avengers #167-168, 170-177, and #181. Ms. Marvel #23, Marvel Team-Up #86, and Marvel Two-in-One #61-63 and #69.

The book is hard to view as some must-read for fans of the Guardians because for most of the book, particularly the Avengers issues, they were purely guest stars. The Avengers issues are the Korvac Saga and it's a fairly good classic Avengers story. It also has a sub-plot with the government becoming concerned with the Avengers lack of security leading to revocation of their special Avenger privileges including flying the Quinjet which leads them to have to take the bus to the final confrontation. While this was funny, it also set up much of the problems that costumed characters would have with the government in more modern Marvel stories like Civil War.

The books after the Avengers have more to do with the Guardians themselves. Marvel Team Up #86 has to do with their preparations to leave Earth, and Marvel Two-in-One #69 features some key events in Vance Astro's storyline. The previous Marvel Two-in-One Three issue series had Starhawk teaming up with the Thing in an Adam Warlock tale. What the book shows is that Marvel in the 1970s didn't really throw away storylines. If a book was cancelled or a set of characters didn't prove popular, they'd be carried on in another book and Marvel Two-In-One and Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-man where popular places to do it.

Overall, the book is worth reading as a sampler pack of Bronze Age comics. They're good and give you a feel for the era as well as a few stories with the original Guardian team in them or at least certain members.



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Guardians of the Galaxy by Jim Valentino Volume 1 by Jim Valentino

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book collects Issues 1-7 of Jim Valentino's run on Guardians of the Galaxy from the 1990s with the original team. The book also collects the four-part Korvac Quest which has the Guardians crossing over with the Fantastic Four, Thor, and Silver Surfer before concluding the story in their own annual.

The book gets a lot right. In general, Valentino makes the characters far more likable than when Steve Englehart was writing them in the 1970s. The first six issues comprise an epic story arc that has the Guardians hunting for Captain America's shield. The climax is interesting based on the nature of the final tests they face and the results, as well as Vance Astro giving an absolutely epic speech.

Issue 7's not that bad either. The art remain good and the story has a clever story telling method even though there's not a ton of substance to it.

The Korvac Quest is probably what makes this book three stars instead of four. It tells the story that Korvac when he apparently died, he sent his energy forward in time and the Guardians travel forward to stop it from reaching Baby Korvac. It's not bad, but it's not great. The Fantastic Four and Thor entries are okay (although with a Thor hammer wielder from the future), the Silver Surfer entry has some good ideas but feels pointless once you reach the end. Despite the title, the only portion of the Korvac Question actually written by Jim Valentino was the Guardians of the Galaxy Annual. While that story's not perfect, they do have to deal with some key dilemmas, and in terms of getting a desired result, it doesn't turn out well. It's a solid story, but taken as a whole, this four parter was disappointing.

Still, the strength of the first six issues do make me curious to check out more Guardians stuff from this author.



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