Marvel's 'Guardians of the Galaxy,' Who The Hell Are They?

As most folks know, Marvel is creating an incredible film franchise known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  It's included movies from the Marvel comics world characters of Captain America, Thor, Hulk, and of course, Iron Man.  They all came together into one movie, adding a few other supporting characters, and it was helmed by Joss Whedon, titled The Avengers.

But you already know that.  And The Avengers culminated the end of Marvel's Phase One.

Now, on to Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  That will be including five movies - sequels and new movies, Thor: The Dark World (2013) Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and The Avengers 2 (2015).  

Of many of the comic book titles I used to follow, I had never read anything under the Guardians of the Galaxy title, and so when I see articles lamenting the excitement about this film, it just flies right over my head.

So today I saw an unsubstantiated snippet over on Giant Freakin Robot that it's possible that Disney/Marvel might be putting together an animated series to help introduce the Guardians of the Galaxy to the world.  Huh... that actually might be a good idea.  I say good idea because right now, I'm so "meh" about the idea.

That is of course, we might get quick little intros to them in other movies leading up to their title.

The movie will be directed by James Gunn, the screenplay written by Nicole Perlman, Chris McCoy, and Gunn.

The cast includes Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Michael Rooker, Lee Pace, Ophelia Lovibond, Glenn Close, Karen Gillan, Benicio del Toro and John C. Reilly.

This is early concept art for the movie.  (Those star-like things in the background are presumed to be Nova Corp ships!)

I started looking up these Guardians... apparently there were two comic versions... one from 1969 and 2008.  Judging from what I've seen, it's the 2008 rendition of the title we'll be getting in the new Marvel film.

On the bright side, I believe Nova Corps will in the movie, and I liked the Nova titles.

Per Wikipedia,

{In the aftermath of the Phalanx invasion of the Kree, Star-Lord decides to form a team of interstellar heroes that will be proactive in protecting the galaxy, rather than reacting to crises as they happen. To this end, he recruits Adam Warlock, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, Phyla-Vell (the new Quasar), Rocket Raccoon, and Groot, with Mantis as support staff.

On the recommendation of their ally, Nova, the group establishes a base of operations on the space station Knowhere, which possesses a teleportation system with near-universal range.

An intelligent, telepathic dog named Cosmo is Knowhere's chief of security and works closely with the new team. After a confrontation with the Universal Church of Truth, the team meets a semi-amnesiac man who identifies himself as Vance Astro - Major Victory of the original Guardians of the Galaxy. Astro's declaration inspires the as-yet-unnamed team to adopt the "Guardians of the Galaxy" name for their own. When the team learns Star-Lord directed Mantis to telepathically coerce the heroes into joining the team, they disband.}

Well then... I almost care a wee bit more now.

Right now under IMDb, the summary says,

{A jet pilot gets stranded in space, and must unite a diverse team of aliens to form a squad capable of defeating cosmic threats.}

If Nova is in it, I'm on board.  Everything else will hopefully come together for me.

Guardians of the Galaxy might grow on me like Thor and Capt America did.  I didn't really drool all over myself about those movies when they were in theaters, but on subsequent viewings on Netflix or wherever, I seem to like them more and more.  Especially Thor.

Director James Gunn's resume includes Movie 43, Super, and Slither.  To me, not an exciting resume, but Marvel has been doing fine with most of their cinematic decisions to date, more or less.  (Do. Not. Ask. Me. About Shane Black though!)

That's all I got for ya right now!  Thanks for coming by.  -Bruce
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