When The Guardians of the Galaxy show up unexpectedly in the pages of Marvel Two-In-One (arguably the most quintessential comic of the Marvel Bronze Age), it was a happy happy day for me.
Though they had been spruced up quite a bit thanks to some costumes from superhero design maven Dave Cockrum, these were still recognizably the four comrades in revolution who I fondly remembered from that halcyon issue of Marvel Super-Heroes. Major Astro, Charlie-27, Martinex and Yondu are all present and accounted for.
In the story by Steve Gerber and Sal Buscema, which actually begins with a team up between The Thing and Captain America, the Guardians come to the 20th Century and quickly Cap and Ben Grimm see the need to fight for what is right in the 30th Century. They time travel to the era of the Guardians and kick Badoon butt all over the place. As a consequence, one city is saved from the hegemony of the conquering Badoon, but that city is the beginning of the end of the domination. Grimm and Cap return to our time, but we know that battle will continue.
Some months later the Guardians are back in the 20th Century and their presence, or more particularly the presence of Vance Astro living in the same era as his younger self causes some dangers which get Doctor Strange and the other Defenders involved. In a story by Gerber and artist Don Heck the Guardians fight alongside the Hulk, Valkyrie, and Nighthawk as well as Strange to defeat the peculiar Eelar. After that, their thoughts turn to the future.
In their won regular title by Gerber and Sal Buscema, The Defenders travel to the 30th Century and join forces with the Guardians against the Badoon hordes. But things quickly go haywire and they end up all across space.
The Defenders and the Guardians battle the menace of the Badoon in many guises on many worlds and learn much about their enemy. One thing they learn on the Badoon homeworld is that all the invading Badoon are male and their female counterparts are isolated on the homeworld and the two distaff halves hate one another with only necessary interaction to preserve the race. The enmity of the Badoon Sisterhood is key to ultimate victory.
The Guardians also encounter the enigmatic Starhawk who defacto joins the group such as it is. His mystery will become key to the later Guardian saga. For now he pitches in to help defeat the Badoon.
And defeat the Badoon they do, with more victories against the world spanning foe. The Defenders having done their part head back to the 20th Century and leave the Guardians of the Galaxy poised to begin their own adventures.
More on that next week.
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I preferred the more weirdly flattened head of Charlie-27 (great name too) from the Marvel Super Heroes origin story. When we see him again in Marvel Two-In-One #5 he ends up with a much more generic super hero look unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that Marvel Two-in-One is arguably the most quintessential comic of the Marvel Bronze Age. And combining that with the Guardians of the Galaxy? That's even better than combining chocolate and peanut butter...almost.
ReplyDeleteI've always loved the look of the Guardians. That's what attracted me to them when I first spied them in the pages of the Avengers.
Having recently read through a bunch of old Guardians stories, I have to say that I found Starhawk extremely interesting.