Reprints Marvel Super-Heroes #18, Marvel Two-In-One #4-5, Giant-Size Defenders #5, Defenders #26-29, Marvel Presents #3-12
Written by Arnold Drake, Steve Gerber, Roger Stern, Gerry Conway, Roger Slifer, Len Wein, Chris Claremont, Scott Edelman and Stan Lee.
Penciled by Gene Colan, Sal Buscema, Don Heck, Al Milgrom and John Buscema.
Inked by Mike Esposito, Frank Giacoia, Vince Colletta, Pablo Marcos, Al Milgrom, Howard Chaykin, Terry Austin, Bob Wiacek, Dave Hunt, John Tartaglione and Joe Sinnott.
Ben Grimm (better known as the Thing of the Fantastic Four) is hanging out at the Baxter Building. Captain America and his girlfriend Sharon Carter (an agent of SHIELD) are visiting. Suddenly, a woman materializes in the next room. She calls herself Tarin and claims to be from Earth in the year 3014! She is shocked to see Cap and the Thing alive.
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| Tarin takes Cap, Sharon & the Thing into the future. |
In her timeline, the alien race known as the Brotherhood of the Badoon conquered Earth. They killed most Earthlings and enslaved the survivors. Ben, Captain America, and Sharon are moved by her story and decide to time-travel into the future to fight the Badoon.
Upon arrival, they're attacked by Zoms, humans who are programmed by the Badoon to be killing machines. The heroes have the upper hand at first. But the Badoon release the Monster of the Badoon, which proves too much for Cap, Ben and Sharon. Tarin escapes and seeks help.
Upon arrival, they're attacked by Zoms, humans who are programmed by the Badoon to be killing machines. The heroes have the upper hand at first. But the Badoon release the Monster of the Badoon, which proves too much for Cap, Ben and Sharon. Tarin escapes and seeks help.
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| The Monster of the Badoon knocks out Ben & Cap. They are taken prisoner by the Badoon. |
The Badoon decide that the heroes will be executed at once, but they have other ideas. The Thing attacks the Monster and frees Captain America and Sharon. They escape and run through 31st century New York. The Badoon catch up with them, but help arrives in the form of the Guardians of the Galaxy!
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| Tarin contacts the Guardians Of The Galaxy. |
The Guardians consist of:
Major Vance Astro, an astronaut from the 20th century who spent 1000 years in suspended animation. He shoots psychokinetic mind beams and serves as the Guardians' leader!
Charlie-27, a Jupiter-born Earthman. Massive. Superstrong. Bred to survive in Jupiter's gravity!
Yondu, an archer from planet Centauri IV, the last of his race.
Martinex from Pluto, who turns light waves into heat or cold blasts.
The combined power of the Guardians and the 20th century heroes is enough to take over New York City. The Badoon still run the world, but New York becomes a beacon of freedom and will hopefully inspire the rest of the world to overthrow their conquerors.
Major Vance Astro, an astronaut from the 20th century who spent 1000 years in suspended animation. He shoots psychokinetic mind beams and serves as the Guardians' leader!
Charlie-27, a Jupiter-born Earthman. Massive. Superstrong. Bred to survive in Jupiter's gravity!
Yondu, an archer from planet Centauri IV, the last of his race.
Martinex from Pluto, who turns light waves into heat or cold blasts.
The combined power of the Guardians and the 20th century heroes is enough to take over New York City. The Badoon still run the world, but New York becomes a beacon of freedom and will hopefully inspire the rest of the world to overthrow their conquerors.
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| The Guardians, Captain America & The Thing take out some Badoon soldiers. |
Back in the present day, a Badoon-created device has somehow appeared in New York Harbor. It gives off radiation that turns an electric eel into Eelar, half-man, half-eel. He attacks the city with electric beams. The Defenders—made up of Doctor Strange, Hulk, Valkyrie and Nighthawk—intervene and battle Eelar.
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| Doctor Strange & Valkyrie defend New York from Eelar. |
Thankfully for the Defenders, the Guardians of the Galaxy have time-traveled back to the 20th century in search of the Badoon device. The Guardians team up with the Defenders to end the threat of Eelar.
Shortly after that battle, the Guardians' space ship, The Captain America, has been discovered by a news crew. This attracts the attention of the military, who are going to shoot the Guardians, when they're saved by none other than Vance Astro. But it's the adolescent version of Vance, before he became an astronaut. This prompts his 31st century counterpart to tell the story of how Earth came to be conquered by the Badoon, and how he ended up in the year 3014. But Vance Astro never tells his younger self that they're one and the same.
After hearing about the future fate of Earth, Doctor Strange tells the Guardians that the Defenders will join them in the future to battle the Badoon!
But the Badoon have other ideas! When they try to teleport to Earth's surface, the Defenders and Guardians are hit with a beam that separates the heroes from one another and sends them to various planets.
Valkyrie and Vance Astro wind up on a world ruled by Badooon women. They seem even more savage than their male counterparts. The female Badoon injure Valkyrie in a fight, but she is healed by a mysterious stranger.
Shortly after that battle, the Guardians' space ship, The Captain America, has been discovered by a news crew. This attracts the attention of the military, who are going to shoot the Guardians, when they're saved by none other than Vance Astro. But it's the adolescent version of Vance, before he became an astronaut. This prompts his 31st century counterpart to tell the story of how Earth came to be conquered by the Badoon, and how he ended up in the year 3014. But Vance Astro never tells his younger self that they're one and the same.
After hearing about the future fate of Earth, Doctor Strange tells the Guardians that the Defenders will join them in the future to battle the Badoon!
But the Badoon have other ideas! When they try to teleport to Earth's surface, the Defenders and Guardians are hit with a beam that separates the heroes from one another and sends them to various planets.
Valkyrie and Vance Astro wind up on a world ruled by Badooon women. They seem even more savage than their male counterparts. The female Badoon injure Valkyrie in a fight, but she is healed by a mysterious stranger.
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| L:Valkyrie & Astro fight off the Sisterhood of Badoon |
They learn that he is Starhawk, a being of great (and vaguely defined) power. Starhawk helps Valkyrie and Astro make peace with the Badoon women and depart their world.
At the same time, Hulk and Yondu have been sent to a planet where life-and-death gladiatorial duels are treated like game shows.
Doctor Strange uses his mystic powers to set the stage for the overthrow of the Badoon, with a minimal loss of life.
Sometime later, the Guardians decide that with the Badoon defeated, they can better serve Earth by exploring the universe. They set out in The Captain America to study new planets.
Vance Astro enters Starhawk's quarters and is surprised to find a woman in the room. We learn that Starhawk is made up of two beings, siblings named Stakar and Aleta. They hail from the planet Arcturus.
The Guardians encounter a ship carrying a lone passenger who joins the team. Her name is Nikki, she comes from a colony on Mercury. Every other member of the colony was killed by the Badoon. Nikki has the power to survive in extreme heat and shoots heat blasts from her hands.
The Guardians' interstellar journey will bring them into conflict with various space-based menaces, including:
The Topographic Man, a genocidal giant who is as big as a solar system!
Alien "gangsters" who live on a planet that resembles New York.
Karanada, the "opposite of spirit!" that threatens to consume all energy in its path!
At the same time, Hulk and Yondu have been sent to a planet where life-and-death gladiatorial duels are treated like game shows.
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| Youndu & Hulk are "contestants" on Super-Death Sweepstakes. |
Doctor Strange uses his mystic powers to set the stage for the overthrow of the Badoon, with a minimal loss of life.
Sometime later, the Guardians decide that with the Badoon defeated, they can better serve Earth by exploring the universe. They set out in The Captain America to study new planets.
Vance Astro enters Starhawk's quarters and is surprised to find a woman in the room. We learn that Starhawk is made up of two beings, siblings named Stakar and Aleta. They hail from the planet Arcturus.
The Guardians encounter a ship carrying a lone passenger who joins the team. Her name is Nikki, she comes from a colony on Mercury. Every other member of the colony was killed by the Badoon. Nikki has the power to survive in extreme heat and shoots heat blasts from her hands.
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| The Convent of Living Fire use Nikki for a ritual sacrifice; Charlie-27 intervenes. |
The Guardians' interstellar journey will bring them into conflict with various space-based menaces, including:
The Topographic Man, a genocidal giant who is as big as a solar system!
Alien "gangsters" who live on a planet that resembles New York.
Karanada, the "opposite of spirit!" that threatens to consume all energy in its path!
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| Starhawk goes after a Karanada all by himself! |
Drydock, a gigantic, sentient space station that attacks the Guardians with its defense mechanisms!
Review:
Guardians Of The Galaxy: Tomorrow's Avengers Vol. 1. is a real mixed bag. It gets off to a good start, with the Marvel Two-In-One two-parter. But the Guardians seem to work a bit better as guest stars than as headliners in their own adventures.
Story:
I'll cut to the chase and say that the stories contained here aren't great. But they're not exactly terrible either.
Vance Astro works nicely as a surrogate for the reader. He's a "regular guy", AND a man out of time, feeling like he's surrounded by a bunch of philosophers (especially Starhawk and Yondu). Charlie-27 serves as comic relief and is a fun character. But beyond them, the other characters have somewhat generic powers (ice, fire, archery, superstrength) and aren't very interesting.
The Eelar story, from Giant-Size Defenders #5 is credited to six (six!) different writers and is sort of a mess. Eelar looks cool on the cover, but that's about it.
Another problem is the Badoon. They aren't a very interesting adversary. They're sort of "skrulls without the ability to shapeshift". For the first half of the tpb, there are too many instances that feature "generic gang of Badoon attack" only to be easily beaten by the heroes.
Things pick up for a little while when the Guardians get their own title. It feels a bit like Gerber was going for "Star Trek with a crew of superheroes." I don't think it's a coincidence that the Guardians' ship, The Captain America, resembles the Enterprise.
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| Aleta & Stalkar transform into Starhawk for the first time; They tell their origin story to the Guardians. |
The story that featured the Karanada and Topographical Man was pretty good. And the introduction of Nikki brings some fun to the stories. But the rest of the stories just aren't very good. One of them is actually reprint of a Silver Surfer story from the Silver Age, because Gerber had trouble meeting deadlines. Roger Stern eventually takes over writing duties, with Mary Skrenes assisting on one issue. This is some of Stern's earliest work at Marvel. He's one of my favorite writers, but Stern can't save the series.
Art:
This tpb contains some very good art...and some that isn't so great.
The best art comes from Al Milgrom's pencils taken from the stories reprinted from Marvel Presents. Milgrom is embellished by 5 different inkers, with Bob Wiacek inking five issues worth of pages. But the highpoint of the book is the portion penciled by Milgrom and inked by Terry Austin. It's one of the times the art matches the epic, cosmic nature that the stories are shooting for (but rarely hitting).
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| The Karanada attacks the Guardians' spaceship, nice work by Milgrom & Austin. |
Sal Buscema penciled the Marvel Two-In-One story and he did a great job. I thought this two-page spread depicting New York architecture of the 31st century was particularly nice.
Buscema also drew the Defenders issues reprinted here, but he's over-inked by Vince Colletta. The result is that we see more of Colletta's work than Buscema. It's frustrating because you get an occasional glimpse at how great the art could have looked. Don Heck penciled the Eelar story. He's inked by three different inkers and it doesn't look very good. Eelar looks more like he's half-horse than half-eel.
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| The Guardians' ship, The Captain America, is attacked by the Reavers of Arcturus. |
How Does It Look?:
Looks good to me, no obvious signs of recoloring. For the sake of comparison, here's a scan from a copy of Marvel Presents #3, found on Diversions Of The Groovy Kind:
And here's how it looks in the tpb:
The Guardians first appeared during the Silver Age in Marvel Super-Heroes #18 and that's reprinted in this book. We get two columns about the Guardians written by Gerber and Stern, that were first published in Foom, Marvel's in-house fanzine. Plus, the tpb reprints several columns about the Guardians written by Steve Gerber that were published on the letters page of Marvel Presents.
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| Charlie-27 slugs it out with Brutag! |
Guardians of The Galaxy: Tomorrow's Avengers Vol. 1 isn't very good, but it does serve as a solid introduction to the Guardians. Plus, Milgrom's art makes up for some of the lackluster stories. Those factors save it from receiving a lower rating.
J.A. Morris' rating:
.5
2 and a half Sals.
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