The Story Behind the Creation of Guardians of the Galaxy (and the Sad Aftermath)

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The Guardians of the Galaxy was a massive hit movie in 2014 but it didn't come out of nowhere. This episode discusses the writers and editors that formed the characters and settings that were eventually used to make the movie, including the work of Jim Starlin, Keith Giffen, Andy Schmidt, Bill Rosemann, Dan Abnett, and Andy Lanning. But what happened to them once the movie was being made?
70s music by Dar Golan
/ @dargolan

[@bsgconsulting]

I loved the part where Nova shows up on Earth in the middle of the Civil War and just basically chews everyone out for how silly it seemed compared to what was really important.

[@MFDoomguy21]

That was the best, he came down to earth and told them that in no form of sugarcoating they were all idiots 😂😂😂

[@angusjamieson9236]

My favourite line from that issue is "i pulled him(annihilus) inside out to save the universe, what have you done lately tony?" And then later on he arrests the thunderbolts

[@maldon3659]

Hoping Rich makes it into the movies

[@anthonyscheibmeir2444]

@@maldon3659 that would be dope.

[@Tigerkaya]

That was a good "What If"

[@pauldigscomics7810]

The Annihilation run of cosmic Marvel comics from Thanos & Drax all the way to Thanos Imperative is my all time favorite comic run. I go back and read it every few years or so (I have all the omnibus collections). I've been a Nova fan since the New Warriors days and him becoming a cosmic badass was huge for me as a fan. Al Ewing's run from a couple years ago is the only run I can remember coming close to the Giffen/ DNA heyday. Thanks for the video Chris. I love the Guardians in all its forms.

[@vitorrodrigues7698]

it is truly amazing. MCU GOTG is terrible compared to the masterpiece present in the comics

[@Vagran]

Was a part of that when Thanos get's a change of heart and surrenders to the Nova Core? I think it was a 4 issue mini series but I forget the name. He's voluntarily in prison for like 4 issues. I remember it was really good.

[@pauldigscomics7810]

@@Vagran I'm pretty sure that was the 12 issue mini that Starlin wrote (6 issues of) right before the Drax mini that kicked off the whole Marvel cosmic Annihilation saga. I remember him in prison where he meets Starlord and Gladiator from the Shiar. Good stuff !!

[@pauldigscomics7810]

@@vitorrodrigues7698 I hated when Bendis wrote the book because I'm sure it was mandated from Editorial to make the comic as close to the film as possible. Of course, Bendis had to take his favorite characters along for the ride like The Thing & Kitty Pride & Venom (Flash Thompson). I didn't mind the Kitty & Starlord angle, but the Thing felt out of place for me.

[@xxlovehaterxx]

The Thanos Imperative tpb was the first comic book I read as an adult and it got me into comics. I then found reading guides and went back and read the whole cosmic run he talks about in the video. It's still probably my favorite run of anything I've read just because it was my first. It's the only run I've read more than once.

[@EvilCoffeeInc]

Guardians 1 is the movie that got me into reading comics, and I still love the Abnett/Lanning run. Petty tragic that they aren't writing the team anymore. Also, Nova and Rocket showed up in Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 years before the movie made Rocket into a star, and to this day Nova is still tragically unknown. But I love that they made it into the game anyways.

[@pauldigscomics7810]

I loved that damn game. Nova could whip some butt in that game, lol.

[@DETHMOKIL]

Abnett has a half dozen Warhammer books to finish at any one time lol

[@Jezee213]

same here, I went backwards, the movies and adaptations got me curious about comics, now I'm going from recent comics to old ones all the way back to the start of marvel with FF and stuff.

[@BoyNamedSue4]

The original run with DnA are among my all times favorites. This and their Nova run were always at the top of my stack.

[@NeilBlumengarten]

Agreed. I've been thinking it's time to do another read-through of the run.

[@brandonmedina4471]

I think the biggest lesson from The Guardians of the Galaxy (both the future and modern teams) is the effectiveness of combining space stories with the special operations/mercenary genre/style. Both teams became more popular after adopting it and I think you also see that in Abnett & Lanning’s Legion Lost run on Legion of Super Heroes.

[@Ashguy733]

The DnA run honestly was such a nice synergy tbh. It took characters that Starlin heavily used like his Infinty Watch characters like Gamora, Drax, Moondragon and added other Cosmic characters like Star-Lord, Nova, Bug, Mantis, Vance Astro, Quasar etc and modernized them, taking the Cosmic Existentialism of Starlin's characters and made the characters more relatable and a shift to more conflicts against Empires and cults vs Cosmic Entities that Starlin's era was. As a Marvel Cosmic fan, this is one of the biggest issues for most people is that many Marvel Cosmic characters are usually just put into events without much development character wise or focus heavily on grand plots over character development. I loved that Nova got development along with the Guardians and wish they would do another series for Nova again. My main issue though is bringing earth bound Heroes into cosmic series when I think Cosmic Events should be an opportunity to grow and develop cosmic characters instead of just inserting them and relying heavily on the Earth Bound heroes. Honestly Ewing is the closest since DnA to bringing back the Guardians to some good development.

[@andrewgrant6516]

When Nova came back to Earth after Annihilation, found Speedball in prison being tortured, and stood his ground against Iron Man, it was such a payoff. This nobody loser from New Warriors that nobody respected, transformed offstage into a leader and a war hero, while Iron Man was faffing around trampling over heroes' civil rights. Cometh the hour, cometh the man.

[@pauldigscomics7810]

@@andrewgrant6516 Yes! When Nova came back to Earth and got flagged by Shield for being a class 5 threat (I think they called him?), nergasms!! Plus, the friendship that blossomed between Rich and Quasar/Wendell Vaughn- just great stuff. I can go on and on. Miss that run!

[@astrangehero]

It makes me so upset that Marvel cut off Ewing's run after it was getting good. It seems like the Guardians can't have a good modern series that goes for long, I wonder why.

[@chemfan8398]

The worst thing that happened to the Guardians of the Galaxy was relaunching them with Bendis. On one hand it make it official that they were A-listers now, on the other hand Bendis did his usual and wrote the book the same way he was writing every other book. He didn't adapt to the different concept, but instead he changed the style of the book to resemble more his style. During his time Carol Danvers, Iron Man, Kitty Pryde and even Venom (sigh) joined the team. The Guardians were teaming up with the Time Displaced original 5 x-men, were fighting in the civil war II (because reasons) and as people were saying at the time Hickman's Avengers were having more universe wide stories than the ones we were reading on the pages of GoG. No Thanos, no universal wide wars, no big stories...

[@ricardofredes9527]

The end of the run is them beating Thanos and the other intergalactic baddies basically admitting "yeah, we're not gonna deal with them" Like, that's some children TV show level of logic

[@sarasamaletdin4574]

@Ricardo I mean I haven’t red this but this kind of thing depends on scenario wheather it works. To me it’s silly how in comics some villains never learn of their own and other villains failures. It’s not good idea to get attention of some people. But if it’s the villains just giving up their plans they had good reasons (for them) to have very easily it’s different.

[@GamingDreamer]

This guyvis bad news to anything he touches, besides original comics or characters no one is using

[@orinanime]

I'd say the worst thing that happened to Guardians of the Galaxy where the movies turning them into complete freaking morons.

[@AlexJota]

Yet another marvel franchise that bendis wrecked

[@OK-hl6qd]

Dan Abnett is one of the best writers out there today. He's been killing it in the warhammer 40k universe for 20+ years

[@echidna8159]

His 2000 AD stories are consistently good too. He's one of the hardest-working writers in the business: he rarely turns down a gig, but he never half-asses it.

[@tomcolby5821]

Thanks Chris, for discussing some of my favorite formerly D-List characters. I love it when obscure, forgotten and under developed characters are given another chance by quirky and very talented creatives. Its even better when they all end up in one book especially when you never thought you'd see them again (Bug!). Who remembers Jack Flag?

[@TheNickcone]

I do!

[@truefanforum3273]

I also remember Jack Flag.

[@colincasey440]

this guy sounds like Sean gunn(kraglin)

[@aurrickan]

it really sucks how after the thanos imperative ended on a pretty massive cliffhanger, it took the new writers of nova and guardians several years to resolve that plotline or even explain what happened. star lord and thanos just kinda showed back up out of nowhere. it was really frustrating to read through bendis's run on guardians just wanting answers that didn't seem to want to be given.

[@lancergt1000]

Somehow Rocket Racoon in his Annhilation costume managed to show up in Marvel vs Capcom 3, 3 years before the GoTG movie

[@MudflapNichols]

When the movie came out, the only comic I was reading was Saga, and the only Guardians of the Galaxy I remembered was the original team and the revamp from the 90s. I had no desire to see the movie, but a friend wanted to watch it. The movie blew me away, and it is by far my favorite Marvel movie. Thanks for this video! As always, you taught me something I didn't even know I wanted to know!

[@sharpsonmusic]

Good times, Civil War and Annihilation, two of my all time favourite runs and just when I started getting really into comics

[@yaboi5047]

I have been out of comics for decades, your video and explanation helps me understand what has happened since the marvel began pushing movies and series. Thank you!

[@Johurph86]

What a great sponsorship! I'm glad you got a sponsor that so closely aligns with your passions!

[@InterdimensionalCowlick]

Annihilation might be my favorite Marvel event of all time, I had already always loved their cosmic books. When the first trailer for that movie dropped I was blown away and couldn't believe that I now lived in a world that would see these characters become household names.

[@theajshow]

Was a huge fan of the Valentino run in the 90s, so this is great hearing about how the very concept evolved to the modern team. Absolutely amazing episode, thanks for making it!

[@tomthespaceknerd5396]

That cosmic run from Annihilation to the Thanos Imperative is incredible. Nova and GotG have never been better.

[@stevesorensen7069]

I LOVED the Annihilation to the Thanos Imperative! It was a great blend of space opera and superhero stories. I loved that C-Listers vs. C-Listers and characters could die, and the stakes were higher. After the Thanos Imperative, Bendis took over. Starlord has had a significant personality change and is a vastly different character. Starlord went from Master Chief from the Halo series to Deadpool in space. Hell, they rebooted his origin at least 3 times. Most GothG titles have yet to be as good as Giffen, Abnett, and Lanning.

[@TheDayd111returns]

Exactly! I always like the Master Chief vibe from Star-Lord in the original run. They changed his personality to fit the bumbling vibes from Chris Pratt and I was very disappointed.

[@Cooleepable]

I was one of those 25K or so people back in the day, and I remember being bitterly disappointed in the "cancellation". Looking back, I think it ended just at the right time. It never got boring or formulaic, it never slowed down, the team apparently careened from crisis to crisis which culminated in a big blow out ending & DNA got to tell a complete story. Sadly, the trades are hard to find these days. Hopefully Marvel re-prints the omnibus editions sometime soon.

[@ryanwhaley5041]

Civil War got me back into comics but between Guardians and Green Lantern made cosmic comics the best genre of the era.

[@zzodysseuszz]

Holy broccomoly a dynamite comics sponsor!? And gargoyles issues?? Man. My day is improved even tho the day of over in my country. I really wanna see ferosa show some self reflection on her wrongdoings and open up to the fact that all her problems can’t be blamed on everyone else all the time. I hope the new issues will expand on that

[@gpgp9198]

Hey Chris! congrats for the new sponsor. Also, the quality and edition of your recent videos has improved a lot. Keep up your good work. Greetings from Argentina: the land of the Eternaut and Mafalda.

[@irongiant775]

Great to know that there's a great run that I can read up on in trade paperback from. Thank for sharing this! Also, I always dug the Phyla-Vell design of Quasar and would have loved to see her on the big screen with the rest of them.

[@MinimateMaster42k]

Seriously love your videos Chris the effort you put in your videos is on another level! Great vid as usual!

[@andrewhoffman8427]

This title was such an awesome respite from the normal super hero type titles...even the ones I like. These caem out of nowhere and rapidly went to the top of my reading list any week a related title came out. Abnett and Lanning are brilliant. Bug, Groot, and Rocket made me laugh out loud at least once a comic. time to go back and reread these..

[@ianbyrne465]

Damn Chris, first with the great intro but also a Dynamite sponsorship? That’s great, congratulations man! Glad to see my favorite creator in the comics youtube space getting recognition from a fairly big publisher!

[@nickdirienzo2849]

Congrats on the sponsorship! You deserve it, keep up the great work!

[@CinemaniacComicsCorner]

Yes! Another “Oh hi! You got me…” intro! I love those

[@kazual6149]

Drax to Thanos Imperative is easily my favorite story arc in Marvel comics. These books planted the seed for my love of sci-fi & spaces operas.

[@oliverortiz5226]

I was not aware of this run that influenced the Guardians movies. Now I see the connection from my original team to the one featured in the movies. I always thought that the MCU created this current team. Thank you. Those creators are some of the best..

[@jeffsantos93]

The editing is on another level in this one! Pretty cool!

[@gabrieljimenez9762]

Man, this era of Marvel was sooo fun. This was my last hurrah with Marvel; I was so disappointed how they handled the cosmic side after this that I just left Marvel afterwards. I remember when they announced the movie I was so excited because I recognized the characters they would use. My wife was very put off by the trailer and I had to force her to watch the movie with me and by the end we both loved the characters. I still think that original Star Lord mini-series where the Guardians basically form is one of the best that Marvel has ever done. Generally speaking, Annihilation was a welcome respite to the mess that Civil War was. It was my quiet corner of the Marvel Universe to me. Thanks Chris for bringing back so many great memories.

[@VundalI]

i freaking LOVED the cosmic events of this era. Amazing writing and the later remarks of Nova when he learns why no one on earth came to help (civil war,etc) was a great moment !

[@yfnw461]

That original Annihilation through Guardians run will always hold a special place in my heart, since it was one of the first comics I read when I first got into comics. Ever since, Nova has been my favorite Superhero bar none. I really liked a lot of the work subsequent writers did with him though, especially Al Ewing's run on Guardians.

[@MFDoomguy21]

Annihilation was sooooo good. We were eating from the banquet during that time. It was probably the best run GoG will ever have, along with everything cosmic in Marvel.

[@usuk_76]

DAN ABNETT WROTE FOR MARVEL???? THE DUDE BEHIND SOME GREAT WARHAMMER STUFF? DAMNNN

[@blandclanvideos]

Dynamite sponsor, that's so cool and you certainly earned it! I started reading Vampirella after your video on the character and I buy every new issue each week it comes out! Dynamite never would have got my readership without you! Congratulations and another great video! I gotta check out that Guardians run!

[@bendegarmo8366]

Loved this one, the Annihilation stuff has been on my "to read" list for a while, I know they recently put out a big omnibus. Truly amazing what happens when Marvel/DC give creators the room to run with B and C list characters and just let them run with it all. Keep up the great videos! Top tier channel here!

[@JurassicRod]

I'd love to hear you cover the history of Gargoyles comics. Great to see Dynamite continuing from the comic season 3.

[@portland-182]

Oh hi! You caught me leaving a comment. Another top quality video. Thanks Chris!

[@GabezPolanski]

Hey Chris, I really missed this kinda of intros!! Keep on going with the amazing content

[@jessop-]

Wow! The effects budget on this video must be through the roof!

[@ComicTropes]

A few million.

[@darthsneaky]

I love getting reading recommendations from you, Chris. You are all about a good story and thats what Im after too! Great video!

[@Cooleepable]

Honestly that was the only thing I liked about Civil War. The only other thing I liked that came afterwards was Thor's reaction to finding out what happened... That was cathartic.

[@colineustice603]

SO happy you covered The Thanos Imperative even if just briefly. My favorite superhero book ever.

[@pfn]

Appreciate all this back story because the Guardians I knew were from the 70's and never could figure out how they came up with the current MCU team (I've gotten away from comic collecting for quite some time obviously). Now I have more trade paperbacks to look for! :)

[@Andrew-tn1mf]

Abnett and Lanning's GoTG was one of the first comics I ever read. Really set the bar high with just a straight up fun book. Definitely need to go back and read it some time!

[@TheJMuise87]

Annihilation is such a great comics event. Going to need to do a re-read now after watching this. Great video Chris, thanks for all the great content!

[@Doctor-Shoebill]

Man, what a great episode! Also excellent timing since I'm wrapping up the Guardians of the Galaxy game right now. Which, if you haven't played it, I highly recommend it. It's one of the best super hero franchise based games I've played. You can really tell that the creative team cared about it and wrote an excellent story to drive the action of the game. Once again, great job, Chris. Definitely worth the wait. Double salute!

[@andersonic]

I'm so glad you covered this. The 2014 film made me a Marvel comics reader. I got an Unlimited subscription and started digging up the surprising space-noirish early material, Annihilation, a few hard lessons in keeping up with crossover events, and eventually the Bendis run that set the modern tone. For my money Skottie Young does the best comedic Guardians, but I'm glad they've lately tried to steer the characters away from their movie incarnations into new ideas.

[@juniorjames7076]

I remember 2014 as an exciting time for the MCU. Not only was Guardians of the Galaxy a surprise hit, CA Winter Soldier also come out that year, and at Fox- X-Men Days of Future Past. Great memories! Superhero films were getting better and better, and you couldn't wait for the next film in the pipeline. I miss it, but I really think this era is over.

[@GuessWho7197]

The thing I loved most about the DnA-era of Cosmic Marvel was how it felt like the landscape was constantly changing. There were these big, galaxy-spanning wars like in Annihilation, Game of Thrones-like political drama in War and Reign of Kings, etc. Everything just felt so exciting and epic. I haven't given the Ewing or Cates runs a chance, at least not yet, but I think it's the fact that that aspect has been missing ever since the Bendis run that has kept me from connecting with Guardians again.

[@Ashguy733]

That is very true, just like with the impact of Civil War on comics for a period, Annihilation and its subsequent stories had a nice landscape change for Marvel Cosmic and as a longtime Marvel Cosmic fan, I can't say since D&A that there has been anything major though Al Ewing's run of Guardians is good they literally had two mini events in space with the name Annihilation in the last 5 years, Scourge and Last Annihilation that kinda came out of nowhere. Besides Empyre establishing the Kree-Skrull Empire ruled by Hulkling and Death of the Inhumans and Cates stuff with the Symbiotes which is more to do with Venom, the Marvel Cosmic landscape in my mind hasn't had too many major shifts.

[@walterlivingston4596]

I picked up both Disney books this week! Glad you got an awesome sponsor! I even heard some people at my LCS talking about your channel!

[@TheMaestroMizerous]

16:13 This is also the run where Moondragon got "pregnant" btw.

[@Octavius_DelMonte]

The Annihilation Era of Marvel Cosmic was the height of my fandom. Annihilation, Annihilation Conquest, Guardians of the Galaxy, War of Kings, Realm of Kings, the Thanos Imperative and of course the Nova Ongoing that tied most of the arcs together. It sucked that Marvel decided to hand both Nova and GoTG to "superstar" talent like Jeph Loeb and BMB but the fallout between Abnett and Lanning probably didn't help either. If Keith Giffen were able to come back to help correct the ship it would have had promise but alas that time has long passed.

[@geeky1818]

The Starlord limited series by Giffen and Green II was amazing! The art and the dialogue were top notch!

[@UncleKumaa]

Love your videos bro! I'm not a native English speaker but I practice my listening with your videos. Thanks for the recommendation!

[@jessepearson557]

Bro what an awesome episode - this channel just keeps getting better all the time! 😁

[@Israel_hans]

Congratulations on the dynamite sponsorship,That's cool.

[@supernova1969]

Thank you for this long awaited episode

[@kbar4462]

I loved, loved, loved the Annihilation era cosmic marvel. One of the best epic space stories that dwarfed Civil War in scope and quality. Admittedly it took me a while to warm up to MCU version of the GotG, specifically Starlord. Also congrats on the Dynamite sponsorship, definitely an appropriate and great one to have! They have some solid books out 👍

[@TheDayd111returns]

And I appreciate how Abnett can take some unknown characters and turn them into something amazing. He was god tier in writing for Marvel. Reminds me of how Frank Miller reinvented Daredevil. Some Marvel writers got that flare while some are just trash.

[@Pegwarmers]

Great episode!

[@hankdobson1784]

once again watching an amazing comic tropes video while i eat my lunch in the park!! great watch, chris!

[@wolverine9049]

I remember as a kid running to the comic store and seeing annihilation. From then on Nova and the gaurdians became some of my favorites

[@humachine6738]

What an interesting story, Chris! It's really fun to take obscure characters, put them on a team together, and see what happens. Also, thank you for acknowledging the works of Jim Stalin, Keith Giffin, Dan Ablett, Andy Lanning, and the rest. Their work is important because each creator built off of each other to create something new.

[@Alpharius79B]

Truly one of my favorite comic runs, this and also Nova. If anyone is into military sci fi check out Gaunt Ghosts series of books by Abnett.

[@theconqueringram5295]

This video probably had one of the best intros yet. Also, this is probably the only KZbin advertisement that interests me. Anyway, this is an interesting video. The Guardians of the Galaxy movie came out before I really started to read comics, so it's cool to learn of the characters's background in the source material. It is a shame the comic book didn't have a large audience, but at least the team are household names now.

[@matiasmendoza9274]

Loved that Wolverine reminiscing about Andy Schmidt

[@wesleydodds]

Excellent episode. Thank you for the amount of time and energy spent on this.

[@WeyounSix]

Getting sponsored by Dynamite is so cool!!! What a perfect sponsor for this show!

[@belgiumcomics2537]

So cool seeing a comic book KZbin channel being sponsored by a actuall comic book company. More comic book publishers should sponsor KZbin channels.

[@shauntothefuture6253]

Great Job in this in depth break down!!! I still find it amazing that aside of this 90s swimsuit of Gamora I really didn’t know much about her till I got a HEROCLICK of her.

[@BionicRambutan]

Honestly, I'm really glad you got a sponsor for the video. Even better that is related to your show.

[@TheZooropaBaby]

I think president of Dynamite is a fan of the show, and knows Chris

[@StegoKing]

I've been watching your videos for years, and you are looking great, man. You look healthy and vibrant and seem so energetic these days. Keep it up!

[@IvanOrdell]

Thank you for these awesome stories and videos. Nice to see ppl on here who are passionate about comics and know so much. I love how you manage to come up with original and interesting ideas for videos. My notifications are turned on!

[@revoltpuppy]

The sad aftermath doesn't dwell enough on Bendis writing the team into the ground for year after year.

[@Fragment38]

Thanks very much for this!!! I quit comics in the early 90's and started again a couple years ago, but mostly re-reading all the issues I'd loved or issues I simply didn't have access to back then (Like early FF issues which I didn't collect unlike the Avengers). I'd had the original appearances of the Guardians, but always wondered what was up with this movie team and noticed it had evolved from comics I hadn't come across. I knew Keith Giffen as more an artist than a writer so it was very interesting to me that he'd shaped the team. You've given me a lot of books to read, I appreciate that! Also, I watched this with my 9 year and he was just as interested as I was! Thank you!

[@OmegaJager]

Funny enough, I JUST downloaded the Guardians of the Galaxy game last night. I really love these characters! I always weird people out by talking about how I related to Groot, but I still do. Just him being a big guy who sticks with his group and is constantly known as a "dumb tree" are things that I see myself as really

[@juniorjames7076]

I remember 2014 as an exciting time for the MCU. Not only was Guardians of the Galaxy a surprise hit, CA Winter Soldier also come out that year, and at Fox- X-Men Days of Future Past. Great memories! Superhero films were getting better and better, and you couldn't wait for the next film in the pipeline. I miss it, but I really think this era is over.

[@TheDayd111returns]

Yep! The MCU is dead and it's trash now. I'm not exciting for the next films anymore like how I used to be.

[@tomteacher5885]

Great video. Thanks Dynamite!!😉

[@Huguillon]

First time I'm glad a channel is sponsored

[@MattDraper]

Great work, Chris! Thoughts on the GOTG game from 2021?

[@ComicTropes]

Underrated game! I think most folks haven’t heard of it, but I thought the gameplay was solid and the story was cool. It remixed some characters and allowed me to be surprised. I recommend it.

[@matthewschwartz6607]

Don’t forget all of the cosmic work that Steve Engelhart and Ron Marz did, too. Classic .

[@joshua2814]

Great opening. I only tried a few issues of GotG back in the 90s, but I read all of the Infinity War and Saga. I was expecting something very different (from hazy memories) when I went to that 2014 movie. But I loved what I got.

[@frofrozzty]

It's always a great day when we get a new ComicTropes, can't wait to dive in!

[@withthesetwohands]

In regards to the complaint about Drax being a "dumb Hulk"... this was due to his character suffering brain damage during the event of being brought back from the dead for the Infinity Watch series. It was not a "great" path for the character, but he was not of diminished capacity from the outset. in fact, I have the impression that Starlin went this path with Drax because it eventually got harder and harder to explain why Drax, who was actually very formidable in his initial form, would continually fail to stop Thanos at, well, just about anything. This at least gave him the opportunity to make Drax a bit more than a single-minded "gotta kill Thanos" Terminator with 0% efficacy.

[@PaulNtabuyeButera]

I have nothing to add: Chris said it all in this video and I for one share 100% of his thoughts on the topic.

[@TevyaSmolka]

I love the original guardians of the galaxy run by dan Abnet and Keith giffen they were really awesome and badass.

[@tigerbread78]

I'll take the OG Guardians over those present day dullards any day

[@TheNickcone]

Annihlation and everything building up to it and that came after it is one of the greatest things Marvel has ever done. It gave a spotlight to many obscure but cool characters and felt like it was going somewhere. It made Nova one of my favorite characters. Guardians of the Galaxy respected the past iterations and blazed its own unique path and no run since DNA's run has come close to matching it. Their Guardians run was so fun. It makes it tragic that Marvel hasn't followed up or matched anything from this period with any of these characters. Bendis's run especially was awful, although I give him credit for his amazing work on other characters in the past like Daredevil. I miss these versions of these characters like Starlord, Rocket, Phyla-Vell, and Gamora. They weren't afraid to have real consequences for characters. Great video!

[@JShocks7]

Chris, I just want you to know that this video inspired me to buy the GotG DnA omnibus from my comic store. Thank you!

[@ganjjabarsmedium2347]

One of your best intros yet Chris! 😂😂

[@derekshropshire2513]

Nice deep dive. Jim Starlin's Adam Warlock was, is, and always will be my favorite but some of the stories since then have been really enjoyable too. Can't wait to finally see him in the MCU.

[@kalyanroy8712]

Nice coverage. Loved the bloopers.

[@Oddlogical]

This is an excellent episode Chris! I knew the original GotG, and enjoyed them a lot, but not so much the modern day (Starlord, etc) version. This provided great information on the series. I was not aware Dan Abnett had written them! I need to check out the comics you recommended. Thanks so much! Congrats also on the cool sponsor!

[@cthulhupthagn5771]

Making this a separate comment because this will help the algorithm I hope and also my comment about the Guardians was long. Regarding Thanos, I've always admired the fact that Jim Starlin over the course of 40 years has wrote a singular story, heavy on metaphysics and philosophy and other weighty matters, using the same core characters. Whenever he comes back to Marvel, anything done by his key characters explained away. For example, Thanos. Anyting Jim doesn't think fit the character, gets written off as being a clone or plans within plans. You're right about the Infinity Series getting diminishing returns. Everything leading up to Infinity Gauntlet was phenomenal. Infinity War wasn't as effective, and in my opinion suffered from being way too heavy on the crossovers. The final miniseries, Infinity Crusade, never had a chance to be good and under any kind of editorial mandate wouldn't be. For those not in the know, Infinity War involved the Magus, Adam warlocks Dark Half, going into the Multiverse to obtain different types of Infinity Stones to power a massive machine all to ensure that he again can exist because he had been written out of the timestream. Infinity Crusade was based on the posit that the reason why magus existed again was because Adam Warlock when he had the gauntlet subconsciously perched himself of any good or evil tendencies. So Crusade was all about what his good half was up to. Crusade started off really heavy, with various religious characters of the Marvel Universe receiving Vision asking them to join a mysterious entity on a big Crusade. It's soon determined that his good have looks like a female version of him in medieval armor, and there's some good implications but this is much like most of Starlings work going to delve into some very weighty philosophical matters. I've always presumed that thing's been taking turn to the boring because of editorial mandate and fear of offending people. Determined that his good half is just as evil as the magus, she recreates counter Earth, and most of the comic is a slugfest between the non mind-wiped Heroes and everyone else on this planet. Quite a step down from the heavier matters up to this point

[@JAbramowski88]

I have the abnett and lanning 25 paperback and love them but now I want the surrounding events too!! Great episode!!!

[@maxpower4757]

That intro was amazing!

[@c62west]

Thanks for being awesome, AGAIN!

[@Nuff.98]

Great research too always have the best videos thanks Chris

[@CalebMorea]

The annihilation run are some of my favorite comics

[@RealMuperSan]

It’s insane that the comic creators basically get nothing when movies based on their stories make $700 million.

[@anthonymarziano9984]

I never seen the Comics but I love the movie with its intense action seen, also I love that the DarkwingDuck comics are getting a fresh take.