Marvel Super-Heroes #18 featuring the debut of the Guardians of the Galaxy is one of my most favorite single comics. Written by Arnold Drake and drawn by Gene Colan this pure sci-fi one-off told of a future in which mankind has reached the stars but found there only a new species named the Badoon who have conquered the many worlds of mankind. People had spread across the solar system and even furter and new variations on mankind had developed such as the immense Charlie-27 to deal with the rigors of Jupiter or the diamond-skinned Martinex from distant Pluto.
Even before this migration and mutation of man, Major Vance Astro had launched toward Andromeda only to find that men were waiting after his thousand year voyage due to new notions of space flight. Trapped in a foil suit to protect from the rigors of time he found a partner in the silent Yondu, an alien from Andromeda who has a clever arrow that follows his whistled signals. These four were the Guardians and at the end of their first story which showcased how they came together and vowed to become freedom fighters, and I was eager to see more. But it didn't come...for quite a while.
When it did come it was in the pages of Marvel Team-Up and The Defenders as writer Steve Gerber sought to see how this grim future of a thousand years from now of men held captive by the Badoon Empire might develop. Later still the Guardians even joined forces with the Avengers themselves. The Guardians got their own comic in Marvel Presents and later Jim Valentino revived them yet again for a more lasting fame.
As everyone knows the Guardians of the Galaxy became the source of two of Mavel's most entertaining movies to date. But it's these four stalwarts who are my "Guardians of the Galaxy". Sorry about that Groot, we love you too in our own way.
Rip Off
No comments:
Post a Comment