Tomorrow's Avengers - Part One!

Guardians of the Galaxy: Tomorrow's Avengers collects the late Silver and Bronze Age saga of the Guardians of the Galaxy. The Guardians debut in Marvel Super-Heroes #18, dated January 1969, at the time a combination book with offered reprints and served as a "showcase" for possible future series. (I discussed this seminal comic a few days and now let me do so again. 

The debut story is by writer and co-creator Arnold Drake and exquisite artwork by fellow co-creator Gene "The Dean" Colan and Mike Esposito (under his "Mikey Demeo" disguise),  and relates the 31st Century future in which the Earth has colonized the solar system and beyond thanks to "Harkovian Physics" (move over Einstein), and finds a motley gang of aliens and hybrid humans joined to battle the deadly Badoon, a warlike lizard race from space.

Major Vance Astro is a 20th Century man sent into deep space to Alpha Centuari in 1988 only to find his long journey and the 1000 years it took unnecessary when he finally arrived at a fully settled colony on a planet in deep space. After realizing he is trapped inside his life-preserving copper foil suit, he joins up with Jovian militiaman Charlie-27 and Pluvian scientist the crystalline Martinex along with Yondu, a finned alien native from the Alpha Centauri system.

This unlikely gang of four battle the Brotherhood of the  Badoon in 3007 A.D. for one brief shining issue then disappear into the comic book mists.

They reappear many years later in the 1974 pages of Marvel-Two-In-One and enlist the time-traveling Ben Grimm and Captain America to help them in their ongoing future war with the deadly Badoon. These stories were written by Steve Gerber and drawn with precision by Sal Buscema.

That battle continues in the 20th Century in the pages of Giant-Size Defenders #5 with vibrant Don Heck artwork . Some of the Guardians are now sporting ginchy new costumes designed by Dave Cockrum.

Then the saga shifts back to the future in four issues of The Defenders regular comic again written by the  Gerber-Buscema team. The Badoon are ultimately defeated and the Guardians meet a new member, the enigmatic Starhawk.

These Defenders issues were a try-out of sorts for the space team of the future and it worked, with the Guardians next showing up in their very own comic under the official title of Marvel Presents. With scribe Steve Gerber and artist Al Milgrom in control, the Guardians at long last would find their way forward.

The team adds yet another member when Nikki, a firebrand from Venus hooks up with the Guardians. I'm of two minds about the addition of Nikki and Starhawk because I always felt that the original core group of four, Astro aside, were not developed sufficiently before these additions. Nonetheless the team pressed on.

One curious issue of Marvel Presents was a fill-in which featured some of Silver Surfer #2, the 1968 comic which actually debuted the Badoon battling the "Sentinel of the Spaceways" a few months before they show up in the future to conquer our solar system.

The run in Marvel Presents ended after a cool dozen issues and after this brisk but potent outing the Guardians were once again an itinerant team. More tomorrow in Part Two. 

NOTE: This is a Dojo Revised Classic Post. 

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