The REAL Guardians of the Galaxy

I'm starting to notice a trend in the comics - they have no regard for what went before, no idea of history or nostalgia. They have now become as "trendy" and forward thinking as the other media forms. The latest casualty? My beloved Guardians of the Galaxy from Marvel Presents.... The new movie seems to be a comedy. Those aren't the Guardians I remember fondly from the 1970s, the Avengers of Tomorrow and saviors during the Korvac saga.... Rocket Raccoon was a failed one-shot from the 1980s that Marvel tried (desperately) to raise sales on. Same with the Starlord comic. Gamorra was an assassin from the pages of Warlock (who curiously enough isn't present, and is likely to show up in the next Avengers, since Thanos is the villain and the Infinity Gauntlet seems to be the theme.

Here are the TRUE Guardians of the Galaxy in their debut:






Notice that there are no talking raccoons, walking trees, or goofy guys in rocket packs. The whole origin of the Guardians was that they were natives of the Earth solar system during the 33rd century, after the alien Badoon took over the solar system. All were humans modified to exist on all the planets. Some were aliens from other worlds where the Badoon held sway. The original members were:

Vance Astro - a "Buck Rogers" type found floating in space. He wore a form-fitted space suit that was his life-line. He had spent centuries in the suit and the controlled environment preserved him while in stasis. If he ever tore a hole in the suit he would die, aging in minutes. His power was telekinesis that developed during his extended hibernation. He later acquired a symbol of freedom from the past  - Captain America's indestructible shield - which became a symbol for freedom from the Badoon.

Martinex - a native of Pluto who had been bioengineered into a crystalline form to withstand the extreme cold. He could project heat from one hand and extreme cold from the other. His crystalline form allowed him to exist in the vacuum of space for a while.

Charlie-27 - a native of the moons of Jupiter and former miner, this brute was bioengineered to withstand the crushing gravity of the Jovian system. In normal gravity he possessed enormous strength and endurance.

Yondu - the blue-skinned, red-sailed mystic alien from Alpha Centauri, the nearest system to Earth. He was empathic and was a skilled archer. His arrows could be directed in flight with whistle commands.

Starhawk - a fused being (consisting of a man and woman) from Arcturus. Starhawk had cosmic awareness and could tell when something threatened the very fabric of the multiverse. He could fly at tremendous speeds, even in deep space. His suit allowed him to survive the rigors of interstellar travel. Apparently he also possessed some sort of solar blast.

Nikki (not pictured above) - A junior member, this female from Mercury had fiery hair and gray skin. She was heat resistant and was a distinguished thief.

I first encountered these heroes in the Korvac saga presented during the Avengers in the late 1970s. They arrived from the future to warn the heroes of the cosmically powered criminal from their time (a man who had been surgically attached to a machine from the waist down). I believe it had something to do with the cosmic cube and how it had empowered the villain so that he could remake reality at a whim. In any case, the series showed the deaths of every Avenger of the time as they assaulted Korvac's hideout. It was a very dramatic story and ended with Korvac recanting the power and restoring life to all the heroes before dying himself.

I'm fairly certain that NONE of that made it into the movie. The movie is more likely based on the ill-conceived REPLACEMENT Guardians developed in the early 1990s. This band consisted of a motley crew of Marvels lesser known heroes and villains from the 1970s and early 1980s, probably done in such a way that they didn't lose copyright on any of them (in the comic business, it's "use it or lose it" as far as character names and concepts go). So this is the direction the producer chose to take and now I'm boycotting it on this fact alone. Is it really so hard to use the material as originally presented? Couldn't this movie be made with at least some relation to the original heroes? Some alteration for time difference is to be expected, but there's no reason to rewrite decades of Marvel history to make a buck!