Top 10 Awesome Guardians of the Galaxy Facts

Yeah, the Guardians weren’t exactly overnight sensations. They first popped up in 1969 in an issue of Marvel Super-Heroes. This was a comic that was kind of a “tryout” for new series. If there was big reader response, the series got its own comic. If not…well, they ended up like the Guardians, drifting around from one Marvel comic to another until they either found their niche or disappeared. Finally, in 1990, the gang finally received their own self-titled comic. It had a healthy 62-issue run before being cancelled in 1995. After that? Not a lot of action for another decade or so.

So, like any good superhero publisher, Marvel has lots of different universes with alternate pasts, presents and futures. Earth-616 is the one that houses the “official” Marvel Universe. If something happens that later doesn’t fit in continuity, it’s said to have happened in one of the other universes. Convenient eh? That’s the case with the Guardians. Their adventures from 1969 up until their revival in 2008 were determined to have happened in the timeline belonging to Earth-691 until they joined the main 616 universe.

Moviegoers who fell in love with the wacky Peter Quill, verbally challenged Groot and the rest of the Guardians crew are in for a shock if they go back to the original 1969 gang. None of the movie’s Guardians were part of that first story – or of any Guardians stories for quite a few years. Based in the 31st century, the first team of Guardians was led by an Earthling named Major Vance Astro. His partners were Martinex T’Naga, a being whose body was made of crystal; Captain Charlie-27 of Jupiter; and a blue-skinned dude that we’ll get to later on. Not what made it to the screen, but still good to hang with if you’re ever in the 31st century.

#7: They Were the Rebels of the 31st Century

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Top 10 Guardians of The Galaxy Villains

The Marvel Universe is a pretty contentious place even in the present, with hostile races like the Kree , Skrulls and all sorts of aliens fighting across numerous galaxies. By the 31st century, the reptilians known as the Badoon are making major inroads into controlling – well, just about everything. When the Guardians first get together, it’s with the intention of taking out the Badoon – making them a lot like the rebel forces in Star Wars. And just like those rebels, the Guardians may be small in number – ridiculously small, really – but they still can kick Evil’s ass around the block a few times. Especially when other Marvel heroes step in to help.

So none of the original Guardians was a Guardian in the movie – but one of them made an appearance in a different function. In the film, Peter Quill was kidnapped as a young boy by Yondu, an alien from Alpha Centauri. Onscreen, Yondu led a band of Ravagers, a gang of intergalactic pirates and he more or less treated Peter as his adopted son. At least until Peter crossed him. But in the comics, Yondu was one of the four original Guardians of the Galaxy. The rest of Yondu’s species were destroyed by the power-hungry Badoon – which gave Yondu a good reason to join with the original Guardians to bring them down.

Rocket Raccoon has been popular both in comics and in the movie – but there are some big differences between how he’s portrayed in each medium. For example, in the comics Rocket was originally one of many intelligent animals taking care of a planet full of mental patients. He was their security office, of course. But more importantly, Rocket in the pages didn’t have the same distinctive, snarly voice pattern that Bradley Cooper gave him in the movie. No, Rocket’s dialogue was originally British and even Cockney in some instances. Since he was named after a character in a Beatles song, it makes sense – sorta.

#4: Groot Used to Be a Villain

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The tree-like hero Groot was the breakout character of the 2014 movie, despite his somewhat limited dialogue – which Vin Diesel claims he recorded over 1000 times. But in the comic book, Groot originally had a much more expansive vocabulary and no trouble with expressing himself. His origin precedes any of the original Guardians, going all the way back to 1960. And in that story, Groot wasn’t a friendly lunkhead. He was an alien being who came to Earth to capture humans. Why? To study them so he could figure out how to conquer Earth – what else? Glad he had a change of heart somewhere along the way.

When the Guardians were rebooted in 2008, it introduced the heroes that would comprise the team in the film version. Later on, the comic added an intelligent, telepathic dog by the name of Cosmo, who has a sometimes-contentious relationship with Rocket. In the comics, Cosmo tends to hang out on Knowhere, the giant disembodied head that serves as the Guardians’ base. In the movie, Knowhere is the base for the Collector’s operations. Cosmo handles security for the Guardians – and does a pretty good job. In the first movie, he makes a couple of cameo appearances as the dog in the spacesuit who has been captured by the Collector. Why Howard the Duck dislikes him is anyone’s guess.

You wouldn’t know it from looking at him, but the mighty Drax originally was a humble little Earthling named Arthur Douglas. A real estate agent with a fondness for the saxophone, Douglas had the misfortune to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The evil Thanos had snuck onto on Earth and, thinking Douglas had seen him, killed him. But Thanos’ father, thinking his son really needed to be taught a lesson, grabbed Arthur’s spirit and put it in a new body. He was renamed Drax the Destroyer, and given the mission to hunt down Thanos and totally annihilate him. Before we reveal our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions: In the Movie, Peter Quill’s Spaceship is Named after Alyssa Milano The Guardians Were on the Small Screen Before the Big Screen Venom was Made a Member of the Guardians of the Galaxy

#1: Peter Quill May Have Been Conceived Without Sex

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When Star Lord burst on the scene in 1976, his origin story drew a parallel between his birth and that of Jesus Christ. In the first two pages, writer Steve Englehart proposed that the planets of the solar system all lined up in a special way on the day Jesus was born. And guess what? They lined up exactly the same way when Peter Quill was born. Now, Quill’s mother wasn’t exactly a virgin – but the story implies Peter’s conception was due to the planets’ alignment, not to any human involvement. In later versions, Peter’s father turned out to be an alien – but in the beginning, it was much more mystical in nature. Agree with our choices? What other cool facts about the universe-spanning Guardians of the Galaxy should we have included? For more enthralling top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.