Guardians of the Galaxy: Origins

Don't worry, this post won't be nearly as bad as Wolverine: Origins. I promise!

I'm not going to go too deep into the character back stories in the comics. Today's going to be a little word light, because honestly, other people have done their homework already and I'm not going to copy from them. If you want a quick read with a little more detail, check out an article on the Hollywood Reporter.

Peter Quill aka Star-Lord

First Appearance:  Marvel Preview #4, 1976

Wiki page

Star-Lord has his work cut out for him as the leader of an intergalactic band of misfits. He's the only human Guardian and has no "super" powers or enhanced abilities. Unless you count his sense of humor and wit.

Rocket Raccoon
First Appearance: Marvel Preview #7, 1976
Wiki page

 

I included The Incredible Hulk #271 (1982) instead of his first appearance because Rocket's not on that cover. The Hulk issue is his first color appearance. In addition to the enhanced senses you'd expect from a raccoon, Rocket is a great pilot and marksman...marksaminal? He is also known for his love of heavy ordnance.

Groot

First Appearance: Tales to Astonish #13, 1960

Wiki Page

Groot was a bit different way back in 1960. I just read this story the other night in Rocket Raccoon & Groot: The Complete Collection. In it, Groot is an alien attacking the Earth. Pretty typical stuff for that era of giant monster comic stories. How did humanity stop nearly indestructible alien? Termites, they used termites.

Gamora

First Appearance: Strange Tales #180, 1975

Wiki page

In Gamora's first appearance, she was known only as "female alien." She's since evolved into a gorgeous green-skinned woman that could kick Capt. Kirk's butt in a fist fight. She's said to be one of the most lethal martial artists in the Marvel Universe! She's also the adopted daughter of Thanos and the last living member of her species.

Drax the Destoyer

First Appearance: Iron Man #55, 1973

Wiki page

In the comic continuity, Drax is actually the soul of a human placed in an alien body for the sole purpose of destroying the mad titan Thanos. He was previously able to fly through space and shoot energy beams from his hands. More recently, he's lost most of his original powers except superhuman strength and has taken a liking to using knives in combat.

I fully expect their movie counterparts to have differing origins. But I'm really looking forward to seeing how James Gunn is going to pull these characters together into what he's called "Avengers in Space."

Guardians of the Galaxy Merch

For Day 3 of Guardian week, I'll be showing off some movie related merch.

Before I get to the good stuff, I wanted to talk about the Hasbro toys for a minute. I feel like they dropped the ball a bit this go round. I get what they're doing with scaling down the figures so they can make vehicles inexpensively and I would have loved having those when I was a kid. Toys like that were good in the early 80s.

The only 3.75" scale figures are re-releases from the Marvel Universe line and they're not the movie versions. I'm not a fan of the "bellboy outfit" costumes of the comic versions. So the only option I have for good movie figures are from the $20 Legends line which I can barely find at retail. The only figure I'm looking for, Rocket Raccoon, is the most popular so I can't find him in stores or online. Ok, I have found the whole wave of Legends at a local chain store called Newbury Comics but they price their figures as collectibles instead of using MSRP. They're asking $30 each or $40 for Rocket! No thank you.

Ok, ranting over! Here's some neat stuff that I have found.

I would have thought this movie would have had fast food tie-ins with McDonald's or BK, the two places I generally associate with summer movie toys. Come to think of it, I don't remember any Marvel Studios movie having kids' meal toys. What up with that?

Anyway, I got these cinch bags from Subway for $1 each. If you're lucky you can find a store that will sell them without having to buy a kids meal. They're kid-sized so they're not huge but you could toss a few things in them to carry around, maybe a place to keep your stuff at the beach or something. There's a total of 6 bags to collect, one for each character (although Groot shares his with Rocket) and the team one.

Here are a couple of Mystery Mini Bobbleheads from Funko. I found them in Newbury Comics so I probably overpaid a couple bucks at $7.99 each but I'd been wanting them for so long I didn't care. They're blind boxed (if the word Mystery didn't give it away) but the 12 figures seem to have been given equal distribution so they're all the same "rarity." Some characters have alternate poses and some have glow in the dark or metallic variations.

Ronan over on the left is pretty cool with his hammer and armor. Drax, on the other hand...I don't know if I got a bad figure or what but I'm not really digging it. His head is positioned so that you can't see the face unless he's at your eye level or higher. The pose he's in would be good for him to be sitting high up like he's going to jump down on you, but otherwise you're looking at the top of his head. The peg the head sits on should have been positioned back more so he could be looking forward instead of down.



I know I'll be getting a few more of these to get other characters but I may be trolling Ebay for deals so I can get the exact ones I want.



For now, this is the only Rocket Raccoon that I have but he's adorable! As far as I know, he's a TRU exclusive. Protip: if you get him in the store, check their online price. My store had it for $4 more than the TRU online price! He stands about 15" tall and has wires in his legs so you can kind of make him sit down. There aren't any wires in the arms, which is too bad.

Update: Plush Rocket is also one of the few items available in the Disney Store and they have him at $24.99. They also have an awesome hoodie, but it's not in adult sizes!

In addition to these things, I have seen school supplies like a backpack and matching lunch bag at TRU and notebook and folders at Target. There's also an assortment of books aimed at the younger crowd: movie junior novelization, sticker book, and step into reading books. I'm staying away from spoilers so I haven't checked any of those out beyond their covers.

Finally, it was announced at SDCC that the Guardians are coming to Disney Infinity 2.0. I don't have a console to play the game on, but I may end up picking up the figures for their artistic interpretations. Maybe it's a good thing I can't play the game...

Now Hear This - Guardians of the Galaxy Soundtrack

I forgot to mention in yesterday's Guardians post that as of right now the movie has a 97% rating at Rotten Tomatoes with 33 reviews. Yesterday it had 25 reviews and 100% rating. Not sure if that one person voted it rotten just to bring it down (because you know how the internet is!) or if they really hated it. I'm not reading any reviews to find out!

After the full trailer debut back in February, it seemed like everyone was "Hooked on a Feeling." The following day, the track's sales were up 700%! The song choice for the trailer was spot on as it helped set the tone for what audiences might expect from a movie with an anthropomorphic talking raccoon. After the "Awesome Mix Vol 1." track list was announced by James Gunn at the start of July, fan made playlists started popping up all over Spotify.

Both the soundtrack and the score are landing in stores today along with a deluxe edition that includes both. I only wish the score album had been released earlier. I grabbed the Tron: Legacy soundtrack day of release which was well in advance of the movie. I had plenty of time to listen and get to know it. When I finally saw the movie, I felt like I had more of a connection to it by knowing the score so well. It added another layer to the experience because I was able to better contextualize the scenes with the music.

I've listened to the score a couple times now and I think it's pretty good! There's plenty of action-y sounding tracks and a few others that sound pretty epic and big in scope. As usually happens, it seems like the bad guys have all the good songs!

It will be interesting to see/hear how the tunes of the 70s will fit into the modern space-faring movie, even if Star Lord himself is a little tired of some of the tracks. Using music that most people are familiar with will give them something to connect to out among the alien worlds. I'm personally thrilled to see "Cherry Bomb" by The Runaways on the soundtrack. I've been a Joan Jett fan since "I Love Rock n Roll" came out. It wasn't until later on that I discovered The Runaways and they quickly became one of my favorite bands. It's pretty cool that a new generation will have a chance to discover them.

I heard people wondering why Quill would have a mix tape from before the time he was likely born. While this will be explained in the movie, I'd say it's not any different than me liking the music of the 50s/60s or 20-somethings digging music from the 80s. I think it's something in most people's DNA that latches on to the "oldies", whether it's ironic or not.

Here are links to listen via Spotify if you have it.

Fan made Soundtrack playlist

Original Film Score by Tyler Bates

And if you like what you hear, you can click on any of the above album covers to order them from Amazon. The deluxe version will also have a vinyl release in September.