Guardians of the Galaxy Week!

To say I'm excited for Guardians of the Galaxy would be a severe understatement. I'm so psyched that I'm going to try and squeeze in a whole week of posts leading up to the movie's release on Friday. Or maybe I'll cop out at four posts since a lot of places are doing advance screenings Thursday night. I won't be attending then, which is kind of a bummer as I'll miss the exclusive premier poster (below). Maybe they'll still have some when I go.

I haven't been this excited for a theatrical movie since Tron: Legacy. I was totally in for Avengers, but not to the point that I'm manically hunting for merchandise! So just what is it that has me so pumped about this movie? It's not necessarily that it's part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, although it does mean potential Avengers crossovers down the line. 

The crazy thing is that I've only been reading Guardians since their most recent comic series started last year, so it's not that I'm a long time fan from the comics. I know a lot of fans had issue that they weren't going with the original Guardians line-up. But I'd be less happy if they weren't using the current 616-Universe team because one of them is one of the two main things that set my fanboy heart aflutter. 

First, is the trailers. The look and feel of what I've seen has been giving me a major old school Star Wars vibe: adventure, aliens, action, character banter. I read several people that went to the IMAX 17-minute sneak peek a couple weeks ago had the same feeling, which is fantastic. Based on what little I've seen, I would love for this to become a franchise and possibly launch a resurgence of fun action sci-fi movies. Although back in '04, I was really hoping Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow would kickstart a new round of pulp movies, so...

Second is a little thing called Rocket Raccoon:

Rocket Raccoon was inspired by the Beatles' "Rocky Raccoon".

I have no doubt the studio plans for him to be the breakout character of the group, and that's ok with me! I've been a fan of his since his limited series run in 1985, which I recently reread for the first time in decades.  What I didn't know in '85 was that this series was penciled by Mike (Hellboy) Mignola. 

The limited series was pretty crazy with Rocket and his pal Wal Russ (yes, he's a walrus!) protecting an abandoned colony of mentally ill humans from Lord Dyvnne and an army of killer clowns. I can't explain it and do it any kind of justice. So 15 year old me is still in shock that Rocket is appearing in a live action movie, even though he'll be a little different.

During the San Diego Comic Con weekend, Marvel confirmed a sequel for Guardians is already in the works. And they also announced an animated series coming to Disney XD. They've made appearances in other Marvel animated series but the new series will have a new style from previous Marvel shows. I'll have to wait and see the show before making any decision on it (even though I'm not loving Rocket's look here) but the galaxy is wide open for their adventures.

If you want to do some homework before the movie, here's a few things to check out. On the left is the original Guardians crew. In the middle is where I started in 2013. And finally is a trade collection of some prequel comics that are directly tied to the movie universe.