Marvel Read-Through: Guardians 3000
The Guardians of the Galaxy — no not Star-Lord, Groot, and company, it’s the original team from the 31st Century. Who is this team you may ask, well I had the same question. The team mainly comprises of Martinex, Vance Astro, Charlie-27, Starhawk, and Yondu. If none of those names are familiar besides Yondu, don’t worry; I’m pretty sure even comic readers don’t know much about these Z-list heroes who had a short-lived run in the 70s and then disappeared until a moderately successful run in the 90s and then a couple more short-lived ones in the mid-2010s. Yondu became a major part of the MCU Guardians but the rest of the team never made much of a splash. A glorified cameo at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and a tiny role for Starhawk played by Sylvester Stallone didn’t do much to popularize these characters. But despite their unknown status, the team is actually pretty cool.
The team’s story is pretty simple: in the 31st Century Earth has colonized the Milky Way and beyond, but the conquering aliens the Brotherhood of the Badoon enslave and nearly wipe out humanity. The last survivors of Jupiter (Charlie-27), Pluto (Martinex), a native of an Earth colony beyond the Milky Way (Yondu), and a man frozen in time since the 1980s (Vance Astro) band together to free humanity. Living on different planets has changed human physiology so they all have powers and Mr. 1980s has (unexplained) psychic powers. We’ll find out in a long time that he’s a mutant, but that’s only revealed in the early 1990s New Warriors comics so for now he’s just a man out of time with superpowers, basically this team’s Captain America. The characters are an eclectic mix of originality and are very interesting. They’re very different from 20th Century heroes and having absolutely no link to any other part of the Marvel universe helps them stand out. The Guardians of the Galaxy of the 3000s are their own thing. They are different, which is always a breath of fresh air. They look different, the setting looks different, and they act different. It’s a fun sci-fi romp, and it happens all in one issue. Arnold Drake and Gene Colan created something special here.
And then the Guardians 3000 are immediately thrust into a crossover with the Defenders, which made me skeptical at first but it worked out quite well. Steve Gerber takes the reigns of the Guardians, introducing mysterious ally Starhawk and having the team succeed in defeating the Badoon. Time travel shenanigans give them a couple of issues in the 20th Century fighting alongside the Defenders and then a few more issues in the 31st Century still with the Defenders. I can never be upset about getting more Defenders content. Doctor Strange and Hulk are classics who have yet to play a major role outside of their own solo comics, while Nighthawk and Valkyrie and interesting heroes in their own right. It’s always a good time to check in with these characters, and it’s a really cool team up seeing the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Defenders together. Two completely different and separate teams acting as one. It’s just a cool superhero moment. Gerber gives us an exciting story of two teams allying to save the world, giving every hero a moment to shine. Once the Defenders return home, Gerber finishes the Badoon story arc. It’s nice that the Guardians’ original goal isn’t stretched out and is taken care of rather quickly, allowing to move on to other things, like figuring out who Starhawk is. After defeating the Badoon and splitting up, half an issue is spent showing how the Guardians can’t find their place in a free society and Starhawk ends up bringing them back together for a new mission. It’s a well-done subversion of their victory. Humanity is saved and they have achieved their goal, but something is still missing from their lives: these are born heroes who seek excitement and adventure, civilian life is not for them. Knowing these characters so well after just a few issues, many shared with the Defenders, is an impressive feat of characterization and writing.
Starhawk is powerful and seems to know everything but he never explains himself. The team is forced to trust him but they don’t seem to like his lack of openness with the team. They have no idea how he knows everything, who he is, or where his powers come from. It’s annoying as a reader, and I wonder if that was intentional on Gerber’s part to make us feel the same as the team, or if leaving out Starhawk’s origins and explanation for so many issues was just a poor decision. It definitely doesn’t help when he randomly turns into a woman who doesn’t have the Starhawk title or powers. At least it’s then that we get an origin arc. Flashbacks finally reveal that Starhawk is Stakar, the adopted brother of the woman, Aleta. They discover some sort of statue of an ancient hawk-god of their planet and Aleta’s mind is transferred into the statue. To save her, Stakar merges their minds and bodies, gaining hawk-god powers and becoming Starhawk. Their dad is now hunting them down but they end up making a life in a remote location and… have kids?? I try not to put too much thought into this. Are they lovers or siblings? If their bodies can’t exist at the same time how do they reproduce? It makes no sense and gets into some icky territory but here we are. The kids are some sort of psychic vampires so Starhawk’s dad kidnaps them to use their powers. Again, nothing about the kids is explained and new writer Roger Stern takes over in the middle of the arc. Maybe it was a miscommunication in the writing department due to the switch, maybe it’s just lazy writing. Whatever the case, the story with the kids and Starhawk’s dad was rushed and too much was left unexplained. It sadly ends with the kids dying which could make for good future stories with Starhawk, who now has gone from a perfect all-knowing force to a hero who suffered his first major loss. Also, Aleta blames Stakar so the the body-switching aspect could have some new drama. But that’s for another time, possibly when the Guardians of the Galaxy team up with the Avengers in my next post!
One last thing of note for me is the character Vance Astro’s history. While this version of the character becomes an astronaut who goes on a millennium-long space mission, the younger version of him on Earth in the main timeline ends up becoming a pretty notable hero: Marvel Boy aka Justice aka the mutant teenager Vance Astrovik, founding member of the New Warriors and later an Avenger. I love the New Warriors so I am familiar with Justice and he is one of my favorite lesser-known characters, but I never really knew what the deal was with his future self. But now I do! It cleared up some confusion from a few New Warriors comics I’ve read. It’s cool to see another take on a character I love. Also the Guardians gain a member, Mercurian-human Nikki, who is kind of in a relationship with Vance. This is an entirely different version of the character I know from modern-era books. I’d like to see him and his relationship with Nikki explored a bit more.
Issues Read:
Marvel Super-Heroes #18
Giant-Size Defenders #5
Defenders #26–29
Marvel Presents #3, #7, #9–11
Favorite issue: #3 was cool
