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Wayne Markley

by Wayne Markley

This blog is not about the adventures of James T. Kirk and the Starship Enterprise. Sorry. What this blog is about is Marvel’s various cosmic comics and characters, and with the Guardians of the Galaxy motion picture coming soon, this seems like an proper time to talk about them.

Fantastic four #2

Marvel’s first major tale of aliens and what really laid the groundwork for the future of Marvel’s intergalactic world was wonderful four #2 (available in wonderful four Essentials, FF Masterworks, and the soon to be released wonderful four epic Collection Vol. 1). wonderful four #2 well established that in the marvel universe there were a number of alien races other than earthlings out there, this this case, the Skrulls. marvel had done many alien stories prior to the FF #2 in short stories in Tales of Suspense, odd Tales, Tales to Astonish, etc., even in Rawhide Kid, but these were all alien races who were generally one and done. They did not reappear over the years as a recurring menace. except for a odd one off story called king of planet X from Tales to Astonish #13. The afore pointed out king was named Groot. Yes, the same character in the current version of the Guardians of the Galaxy. (A few of the other throw away monsters also made names for themselves years later, such as Fin Fang Foom, and one or two others, but the huge majority are lost to comic history.) The space Phantom, another alien, popped up in the Avengers #2, and soon afterward marvel would reveal there are a large number of the alien races, including the Kree, the Watchers, the Badoon, and others.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Tomorrow’s Avengers

For lots of years these alien races were used as needed as plot devices in stories, mostly by Stan Lee, and Stan would occasionally re-use a previous race, such as the Skrulls. He would typically make up something new depending on the needs of the story. When marvel launched Captain Marvell, they had a lead character from an alien race, the Kree, who were the sworn enemies of the Skrulls, making them mankind’s pals (even though you could not tell from the early Captain marvel stories that are collected in Captain marvel essentials or the Captain marvel Masterworks.) shortly after Captain Marvels debut in the pages of marvel incredibly Heroes, another group debuted in the same book, the Guardians of the Galaxy. These are not the Guardians that you may know from the modern comics, (Groot, Rocket Raccoon, Star-Lord, etc.) but these were a rag identify group of heroes battling the Badoon in the far flung future of the year 3000. This version of the Guardians would bounce around the marvel universe through-out the 1970s and 80s in various titles, including their own book. nearly all of these stories have been collected in a series of trades called Guardians of the Galaxy, Tomorrow’s Avengers. There is least one a lot more trade yet to come collecting all of their old adventures. Not to be left out, marvel is bringing back this group this fall in a new book called Guardians 3000 (title subject to change).

Star-Lord: Guardians of the Galaxy

In the early 70s and 1980s, marvel published a number of stories featuring a character called Star-Lord. These stories all featured Peter Quill and were never a substantial success, but the character was well remembered for respectable science fiction stories about him and his sentient space ship. all of these stories, (in both black and white and color) have been collected in one-shot comics called Star-Lord…(various sub titles) and all of the specials are collected into one complete trade paperback due out soon. These stories are only of interest because they set up the future Guardians of the Galaxy (the new version) lead by Star-Lord. (Some of the stories were by popular creative teams including Chris Claremont & John Byrne [X-Men] and Doug Moench & bill Sienkiewicz [Moon Knight] – Ed.)

Annihilation

By the early 2000s, marvel had redone their cosmic world with a lot more modern and lush storytelling. In 2006, marvel published a book written by Keith Giffen (and a series of miniseries) called Annihilation, which set up the modern day cosmic universe. This story was built around Annihilus, Star-Lord, Nova, Thanos, The Silver Surfer, Skulls, Ronan the Accuser (a Kree), and a number of other characters. Over the years, marvel was able to build a coherent universe in space with all sorts of good and bad races and this story attempted to tie them all together with a number of different alien races and heroes uniting against a common foe. The names a lot of closely associated with Marvel’s modern cosmic universe, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, wrote the Nova miniseries which was part of this event. overall this was an exceptional story available in a spiffy omnibus with just about everything orthree trades with just the Annihilation storyline. This was followed by the Annihilation: Conquest event, this one helmed by Abnett & Lanning, and the modern version of the Guardians first appeared here (though it would be a while before their membership solidified) in the Star-Lord miniseries by Keith Giffen & Timothy green II. There is also a great collection called Annihilation classic which collects the first appearances of Groot, Rocket Raccoon (well, Rocket Raccoon first appeared in a few panels of a throw away science fiction story in marvel preview #7, but few remember that and credit scores his miniseries as being his first appearance. It was his first real role in the marvel Universe. The miniseries had art by Mike (Hellboy) Mignolia, by the way), Nova, Quasar, Thanos, and more.

Avengers: The Kree/Skrull War

It must not be overlooked prior to the space revival of the 2000s, marvel first did an intergalactic story in the pages of the Avengers (guest starring Captain Marvel) called the Kree/Skrull War. This was in 1971-1972 and at the time it was a major event where you had all of the Avengers in space helping the Kree fight the Skulls for the control of the universe, and the Inhumans were thrown in for good measure (The Inhumans are a creation of the Kree). At the time, nothing like this had been done in comics as it was as cosmic a story as ever seen in comics up to that point. It was helped by amazing art by Neal Adams.

Silver Surfer #1 (1987). Art by Marshall Rogers & Joe Rubinstein.

Marvel also had their forlorn intergalactic space soaring hero, the Silver Surfer. He had his a short lived series in the late 1960s, where he battled a large variety of enemies, including the Badoon, who would later pop up in the pages of the Guardians. The Silver Surfer would be revived in his own book again in the 1980s in a run which went for a long time (146 issues). It was written by Steve Englehart, then Jim Starlin, and finally by Ron Marz. This was a terrific series that fleshed out the marvel Cosmic universe at the time, and richly should have to be collected. marvel has announced a Silver Surfer epic Collection so hopefully we will see these stories finally collected in order.

Infinity Gauntlet

Another major intergalactic story that started in the pages of the 1980s Silver Surfer is the Infinity Gauntlet, and a number of books and stories that came after that, such as Infinity War, Infinity Crusade, and more, but that whole story will have to wait for another blog.

This is just a brief sampling of Marvel’s galactic universe. While it started out small as a way to fill in a need for a villain, the Skulls, over the years marvel has been able to build a coherent universe with a number of warring factions that typically spill over onto Earth. In the process they have also been able to revise the universe and update it at times and make it even a better read and it has led to the new Guardians movie. I have just barely touched all of the various collections that are available collecting Marvel’s space characters. In future blogs I will look at Jim Starlin’s influence on the marvel Universe, and at the various cosmic entities that roam out there, such as Galactus, the Collector, Eternity, Ego the living Planet, and lots of more.

Everything written here is my opinion and does not reflect the thoughts or opinions of Westfield Comics or their employees. I welcome comments, corrections, disagreements, or just chit chat at MFBWAY@AOL.COM. What are your favorite cosmic characters? Do you think the Guardians of the Galaxy motion picture will do well or bomb? let me know.

Thank you.

Classic comic covers from the Grand Comics Database.