Get to the bottom of Guardians’ roots
Tracking down the backstories of hit franchise’s main characters reveals twists and turns in early tales before blockbusters
So you’ve just seen the latest Guardians of the Galaxy movie and want to find out more about the characters?
Well, don’t look in the original Guardians of the Galaxy story, because it has only one character who has become a regular in the films.
Fortunately, Marvel comics history is completely clear and never confusing or bizarre, so we can easily bring you up to speed on the backgrounds of moviegoers’ second- or maybe thirdfavourite space team.
Star-Lord
In Peter Quill’s original appearance, he was born because the planets aligned and caused his mother to give birth to an immaculately conceived miracle child. Later, writers thought this was too sacrilegious, so they decided that his mom just had sex with an alien. After his mother was killed by space visitors, Peter gained a racist hatred of all aliens and became the Star-Lord to “make those spacemen pay!”
Yondu
The only movie principal who was in the original Guardians story.
But instead of hanging around with Star-Lord, he teamed up with a different Earth kid to attack a race of evil space lizards by shooting arrows at them.
Recently, Marvel replaced this Yondu in the comics with a different Yondu, who looks like Michael Rooker and hangs around with Star-Lord. You know, for artistic reasons.
Drax the Destroyer
In the comics, he was a dad who was driving home from an Elvis Presley concert when Thanos attacked his car, killing him.
He was brought back to life as a superstrong green man. Then, he was killed again by his telepathic priestess daughter and when he came back to life, his power was enhanced, but he’d lost all his intelligence.
In comics, stupidity is a superpower.
Gamora
Just like in the movies, she became a deadly warrior after her family was killed. However, in the comics, her family was killed not by Thanos, but by a New Age church.
So, she went back in time to wipe out the entire church.
She joined the Guardians of the Galaxy after getting possessed by an alien hive mind that was totally not a ripoff of the Borg.
Groot
In the ‘60s, before superheroes took over, the biggest fad in comics was for monsters.
So, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created a story about a talking tree monster named Groot.
Unlike the version we know, this one could talk. And talk. And talk.
Mantis
A Vietnamese ex-prostitute who married a tree (not Groot, another tree).
After becoming pregnant with the half-human, half-plant equivalent of Jesus Christ, she changed her name to Willow, and then Lorelei, so her creator could use her at two other companies without getting sued. After becoming Mantis again, she split into five different people, then helped form the new Guardians of the Galaxy by brainwashing most of the other members into joining.
Nebula
She was created as a mercenary villain who delighted in wiping out alien races, trying to take over the universe, and having actual hair.
Rocket Raccoon
The first time he appeared, in the same 1970s black-and-white magazine that introduced Star-Lord, his name was “Rocky Raccoon.”
But when he moved to the colour comics, his name was changed to Rocket, to avoid the wrath of the deadliest creatures in the universe: Paul McCartney’s lawyers.