New Guardians of the Galaxy Series…but…but…
New Guardians of the Galaxy Series…but…but…
Jan 24Indulge me for a moment, if you will, as I engage in a brief bit of classic bitchy fanboy complaining.
Marvel has announced that one of the ongoing titles spinning off their latest Annihilation extravaganza will be a new Guardians of the Galaxy series.
That’s fine, I guess…but hey, what about the OLD Guardians of the Galaxy?
A young Matt was at one time enraptured by the exploits of Vance Astro, Starhawk, Charlie-27 (come on, is there a more perfect name in the history of trash sci-fi than Charlie-27? It’s BRILLIANT), and the other Guardians as they had adventures set in some alternate future Marvel Universe. Inevitably, these adventures revolved around some lost, forgotten, or mutated version of a Marvel Universe mainstay…Tony Stark’s technology becomes the basis for a sect of odd robot hybrid creatures, Vance wants to find Captain America’s old shield, etc.
Written and drawn by Jim Valentino, the ongoing series was vintage late-eighties mid-tier Marvel–a little soap opera, a little smart-ass quippery, a lot of action. I just put it in my pile of “comics to sell so I can pay off my credit cards and emerge from the fog of debt I’ve existed in off and on since my late teens,” cause I thought it’s a likely candidate for an Essential volume in the next couple years…at least this new series makes it likely to get a release based solely on the name tie-in.
Maybe it’s just me, but the idea of weird versions of Marvel heroes battling in a dystopian alternate future sounds way too wacky and fun to go gently into the good night. Yet that looks to be the case.
Fare thee well, Yondu…you will be missed.
See, I go back farther than you, so I miss the 70’s Guardians, with Nikki and Starhawk, as done by Gerber and Milgrom in Marvel Presents. Damn fine funnybook space operas, those were. Everything since has just seemed to dilute the brand, as it were.
Either way, I think we both agree that this new Guardians won’t be worth the effort…
I’m calling it now – Rocket Raccoon, Annihilus, Drax, the ghost of Wendell Vaughn, Beta Ray Bill, Ego the Living Planet and Yondu.
Johnny: My hope is that we’ll get an Essential, and it will give us those early Gerber/Millgrom issues, AND a good chunk of the Valentino run from the very early nineties. I would love that.
Jeff: If you’re even half right, my bitterness will be overcome by my desire to check out a book pairing Beta Ray Bill and Ego the Living Planet.