|
By Jason Bourgeois
So running out of bad titles for these columns, but that won't stop me! We've been going for ten years, and we're not done yet!
I've talked a lot about some of my favourite comics, both old and new in this column, and its predecessor; Excalibur, X-Men, Legion of Super-Heroes. All of those books have classic runs to me, but there's one book I absolutely adore that I've not touched upon at all, and with a new volume of the book kicking off this year, this is certainly a great time to do that.
As anyone can tell, I've always loved the future, getting hints of things to come with the various universe. Days of Future Past in the X-Men introduced my favourite character, Rachel Summers. While I came into the Legion in '98, I quickly became a huge fan and own way, way too many issues of the book. What If is also a favourite title of mine. I always loved the question of seeing what else could happen. With the way comics are, it's so rare to actually drag characters kicking and screaming past their status quo, so titles set in the future at least would offer up teases and hints of what could happen, whether or not the main timeline ever chose to coincide with those.
While DC had its Legion, Marvel had their own team, set in the 31st Century, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and I loved them long before I was pulled into the LSH fandom. They could be considered my gateway drug to the future.
The team had been around for almost 30 years before Marvel gave them a title of their own. The characters came from the distant future, where the lizard-like alien race, the Badoon, had once attacked our planet. We were ultimately victorious, and colonized the rest of the solar system, genetically engineering people to better work in the different environs.
In the present day, Vance Astro was shot into space, preserved for deep space exploration, to eventually wake up when his ship reached a distant planet. By the time he reached Alpha Centuari a thousand years from now, the human race had developed faster than light travel, and were awaiting his arrival. He was hailed as a hero, one of the first humans to explore into space, but he saw himself as a joke, since his mission was ultimately pointless.
Shortly after, the Badoon attacked again, and make a good run at it, but Vance teams up with several other survivors from the outer planets, and a native to Centauri IV, working as a band of resistance fighters.
They eventually travel back to the present day, and become honorary Avengers, aiding them in one of that team's greatest battles against the Guardians own foe, Korvac, who had gained the powers of a god, almost taking over all of humanity.
Shortly after they left and returned to their own time is where their first solo series finally kicks off, with writing and art by Jim Valentino. Jim stayed on the title for 26 issues before leaving to be one of the founding members of Image. He drew almost every issue of his run save for one or two, which is a pretty good run by anyone's standards back then, or even today.
Valentino literally explored the future of the Marvel Universe, with many things from today echoing into the future. The first arc centered around the team on a quest for the shield of none other than Captain America himself, and introduced the book's most frequent foes, Force. They were a team of aliens, also in search of the shield for their own purposes.
Along with Cap's shield, we find out that Iron Man's legacy is found in an alien race who found his armour and used its technology to become a warlike race conquering everything they see, in Iron Man's name - literally! They take on the name Stark as the name for their own race.
Across Jim's run, we meet the new Sorcerer Supreme, discover the fate of the mutants who left Earth during the first Badoon attack, a group of mercenaries called the Punishers, and no less than Galactus and the Silver Surfer themselves in the big wrap up of his time on the book.
Even after he left, the book still worked for me, however now that I've gone back and looked at those issues again, with a few more years on me, some more developed tastes, and learning what we would have gotten over the course of the next 25 issues if Valentino had stayed, they just aren't quite as good anymore. Those first two dozen or so issues, however, are some of the better comics put out in the early to mid 90s.
After only 61 issues, the book was cancelled, and almost no appearances since have kept the Guardians name quiet for almost a decade. There's always been talk of bringing the team back, but no idea ever quite stuck long enough to come to the stands. They briefly teased the fans with a miniseries called simply "Guardians" about a group of kids with very similar names to characters from the regular team, who met an alien and gained superpowers. The less said about it, the better. It was like the Guardians names being used in the plot of Power Pack, and it never took off.
I've talked a lot about Marvel's recent revival of their cosmic side of things with the two Annihilation event miniseries, the books leading up to it, and Nova. The cosmic titles had been in the background before them, and few and far between. Fortunately, those books have all been very well done, and have spawned the aforementioned Nova ongoing, and now a brand new Guardians of the Galaxy title.
While the title was being done by the guys who had done much of the work on the Annihilation books and Nova, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, as well as art by the always fantastic Paul Pelletier, I was concerned about one minor detail. While the book brought back the name, the book was set in the present day, and with characters involved in the two Annihilation attacks, and not the actual team that once held the name.
Fortunately, the good news is that the book is a great read in its own right. The pacing is great, and it uses a framing device of the team members being debriefed to give commentary on what's happening, as well as the occasional jokes about the absurdity of it all. The comic is very self aware, and even aware of its roots.
The book does indeed have a few ties with that which came before. The team starts out fighting the Universal Church of Truth, a religious sect that once troubled team member Adam Warlock, and in the far, far future would also trouble the Guardians through much of their time in the 90s. In the far future of the 90s. Books with time travel are fun.
With the second issue, the ties become even clearer, as the team discover a man frozen in ice, in the middle of a rip in time and space. When he thaws out, there stands Vance Astro himself, Captain America's shield and all. He even inadvertently names the team, when he says he's with the Guardians of the Galaxy, amd team member Rocket Raccoon thinks that it would make a great name for this new team they're forging.
There are also teases of things to come, with another member of the original team, Starhawk, turning up in the third issue. So while this is a whole new team, they are doing the right thing by having clear ties with the original book, hopefully making everyone happy.
Abnett and Lanning are well suited for this title. They've had lots of experience with future teams with the Legion, as well as cosmic titles, and they bring a dry sense of humour that really comes across with a strong voice.
Pelletier has no lack of crazy imagery to draw. The team itself consists of a bulky, green man, a woman who uses energy constructs as weapons, a talking, bipedal raccoon, a Russian cosmonaut dog, a tiny, sentient twig speaking from a pot, and their base of operations is the head of a Celestial floating at the edge of everything, called Knowhere. As if that wasn't crazy enough, how about the Universal Church traveling through space on ships that look like giant, flying cathedrals? Giant centipede like creatures frozen in limbo ice that attack the team when they find Vance? This title is not short on the astounding visuals.
Being a huge fan of cosmic stories, time travel, and the Guardians, as well as the creators involved, this book was a sure winner for me, even without the ties to the original book, those just made this title all the better, and is already one of my most anticipated titles of every month. I can't wait to find out what's up with Vance, and what awesome space thing will pop up to threaten the team next.
And how can you not buy a book that has a crazy talking raccoon and a dog who speaks with a Russian accent?
Jason M. Bourgeois
|
