Guardians of Nowhere /Guardians of the Galaxy Crossover Tie-in to the Se...

My Guardians of the Galaxy 1 and Vol. 2 Movie Review

So Today I bring you guys my super late review to Guardians of the Galaxy 1 and Vol. 2. Now I must say that these flicks really captured the spirit of the source material and ran with it, just adding a ton of things to it in a way that actually impacted the Guardian of the Galaxy comic book series in a positive way especial after the first movie came out. James Gunn has embraced the scale, the bizarre, the absurdity, the adventure and the dangers of Marvel's cosmic universe, the man has done his homework the level of detail and his love for really obscure characters has created a fascinating world chucked full of Easter Eggs and fan service, that what's I'm going to focus on in this double review and breakdown.

SPOILERS

Now I mashed these two reviews because I am a freaking lazy fuck and I'm going to center on the growth of the characters from one movie to the other, but I'm not going to analyze the plot directly but there will be a ton of spoilers.

Characters:       
Heroes:
•    Starlord / Peter Quill (Chris Pratt): I love the characterization of Starlord in both movies even though he's pretty Deadpoolish, with his wit, sarcasm and pop culture references being very present, which are not as present in the comic until this movie came out, at least at this level. In the first flick  Starlord bands together a motley crue of space rejects, that ends up evolving into a high dysfunctional family/space hero team, filling the void that Quill had ever since he lost his mother to cancer and never met his father. After surviving ticking off Ronin the accuser and squabbling with his foster father Yondu and his ravagers, both over the same the reason, an intergalactic relic that turns out to be an infinity stone/gem. In the second flick, Starlord meets his father which turns out to be Ego the Living Planet and discover his place in the universe. It just fantastic to see this character development in both movies.
•    Gomora (Zoe Zaldana): Surprisingly these movies made me care for Gomora, humanizing her, she isn't just a fighting/killing machine, she has issues. In the first flick, she breaks away from the control of her foster father Thanos, not wanting to be his assassin anymore and discovering the beauties of friendship with Guardians, while trying not to be killed by her sister Nebula. In the second flick we get into some deep cuts into the relationship that Gamora had with Nebula, all the messed up stuff Thanos made them do. At the end of this movie, we have Nebula and Gamora resolving their differences.
•    Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista):  These movies also made me care for Drax, just like Gamora he was just an unstoppable fighting machine. The way he is written in both of these movies is incredible, the way he can't understand the context in language and his certain level of innocence just made this character my favorite and funny as hell.  Especial in the second flick he establishes a very funny and profound relationship with Mantis that I just loved. And I really hope in the third movie it would dive in more into his backstory.
•    Groot (Vin Diesel): He's actually just like he is in the comics, but baby Groot in the second movie almost steals the show.
•    Rocket (Bradley Cooper): Rocket is also pretty much like in the comic, even though the director is able to make you care for him more because he's always trying to hide his softer side by being an asshole most of the time. In the progression of both movies, we get a Rocket that matures emotionally, to care for his friends and not be such a dick. You know I've recently realized the Rock actually take the same role that Pip the Troll did in the Infinity Watch team that played the same role that the Guardian did back in the 90's
•    Mantis (Pom Klementieff)  Joins the team in the second flick and I love her interactions with Drax. They did a fantastic job making me care for a character that in the comics is pretty uninteresting.  
•    Kraglin ( Sean Gunn): Character shows potential for the third flick. 
        
Antagonist:
•    Yondu Odonata (Michael Rooker): The director James Gunn did something incredible he made one of Marvel lamest characters, Yondu into one of the coolest characters in the MCU. Yondu in the first movie is Quill's foster father and leader of a group of intergalactic mercenaries/pirates called the Ravagers. Yondu had commissioned Starlord to retrieve a relic for a client but Peter goes A-wall. So Yondu puts a bounty on Starlord's head and sets the Ravager out to capture him, but when the shit hit the fan with Ronin Yondu sides with the Guardians of the Galaxy to save the Nova Corps home world. Now in the second flick, we discover that Yondu had always protected  Peter Quill, from his father Ego. Ego had commissioned the Ravagers to kidnap Peter Quill from Earth and bring the boy to him, but Yondu hid the boy when he found out what Ego had planned for him.  

Villains:
•    Ronin the Accuser (Lee Pace): This dude is the villain for the first flick and even though he hell-bent on destroying the Nova Corps home planet using an infinity gem that he had taken from Starlord. Sadly this villain is still as one-dimensional  as he is in the comics.
•    Nebula (Karen Gillan): Nebula sort of sucked in the first movie, not much to her other than that she wants to take Gamora down for her daddy Thanos. But in the second flick, she gets a ton of character development, we discover how Thanos used to torture both girls and pit them against each other. They actually made me care for this character that I've never given a shit about.
•    Korath ( Djimon Housou): This minion of Ronin from the first movie looks nothing like the character.
•    Thanos (Josh Brolin): Marvel Please deliver with Infinity War. 
•    Ayesha and the Sovereign: Villains in the second flick, they played it safe in not calling these aliens the Sovereign and not the Universal Church, but I loved the Arcade drones and how they set up the creation of Adam Warlock.
•    Taserface ( Chris Sullivan): I was totally surprised that this character actually existed in the Guardians of the Galaxy lore, my hat goes off to Gunn for digging up this obscure character from the 90's series. I just loved his faceoff with Rocket.
•    Ego ( Kurt Russell): I never liked this villain, he seemed super stupid, but Gunn actually made this character work and does fuse this villain with an elder of the galaxy called the Gardener, and that was a nice detail. Him being the father of Peter and what he had planned for his own son, made him into the total d-bag villain so I loved to see him be clobbered by Peter. I liked they didn't go for the comic version of Starlords dad, which is a pretty uninteresting character.

Sporting Cast:

The Collector (Benicio Del Toro): Del Toro actually made this bland character interesting, even though his basic function in the first movie is for the exposition of what the Infinity stones are. Thanks to his role it impacted the comic book character and is much cooler now.


Issue Summary:
Repercussions and Lasting effects:
•    The franchise seems to have affected the tone of the Third Thor movie Ragnarok. 
•    Adam Warlock is coming.
•    Old School Guardian for the third flick?¿?¿

The Bad:
•    Ronin was as one-dimensional as you can get with a villain, he was pretty bland.
NO Silver Surfer fuck you FOX

The Good:
•    Both soundtracks with some really interesting tracks Gunn did a fantastic job putting both sound tracks together, I discovered and rediscovered a shit ton bands.
•    The Color and Detail of this universe, even with the over saturation of FX and CGI in movies nowadays, both these movies impressed me especially the second move that just takes things up to another level of craziness.
•    The characterization of all of the Guardians and Yondu is just fantastic, I loved how they reworked Yondu powers.
•    Ego was a ballsy but fantastic choice for a villain in the second flick.
•    We get the classic Guardians of the Galaxy lineup being lead by Starhawk Stallone, fuck yeah life is good.
•    Stan Lee works with the Watchers!
•    These movies have a shit ton of heart.

Rating Vol I: 9 out of 10  VolII: 9.5 please bring Major Victory and Cormo on the team for the third flick.

My Top Ten Cosmic Character Ranking + Cosmic Titles Summaries During the 2000's upto Marvel Now: Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy

To start this post on Marvel's Cosmic Titles  I'm going to give you guys my Top 10 favorite Cosmic Character, and if any of you reader want to post your top 10, put it at the bottom in the comment section  it would be super cool: 

·         10 Darkhawk: Now I was really happy that Marvel made a move to bring this character  during the War of Kings, he was a major player, and even though he's slept back into irrelevance again, its cool to see someone remembered Hawk. Now the reason that I like this character so much is that my local super market back in the early 90's sold this comic book with the New Warrior title, so they are the bedrock of my comic book collection.

·         9 Gladiator, out of all of Marvel's Superman copies this guys is my favorite, and he looks cooler than the real Mc Coy.

·         8 Adam Warlock, this guys is another  character that I discovered during in the very early days when I started collecting and I discovered him during the Infinity Gauntlet crossover .

·         7 Thanos has dropped in my ranking over the years, but not becuase he less of an atomic bad ass and more thanks to the fact  that Marvel has done fantastic job with the rest of the cosmic pantheon.

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·         6 Drax used to be a one directional and boring character, he was like a  really stupid flying cosmic Hulk, but writers over the years have refined this character made him really interesting, and in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie took Drax to another level.

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·         5 Galactus is one of those character that you know that if he makes an appearance you know the story arc will be great.

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·         4 Nova: As I said in my comments on Darkhawk, I started my collection with that title and New Warriors so I was super happy when Marvel in the 2000's  revamped this character and made him a central character in the cosmic crossovers.

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·         3 Starlord: Who would have ever thought that such an obscure character like Starlord would be so popular in the 2000's and that he would be such an important character for Marvel even during the latest Secret Wars arc.

·         2 Groot: Marvels equivalent for Chewbacca, I just love the nobility of  both of these characters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

·         1 Rocket Raccoon: The revamp of this character was an act of pure brilliance, nuff said  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nova

Nova issue 1-3

Nova returns to Earth and collides head first with Iron man’s registration and initiative.

Characters:                                                    

Heroes: Nova

Villains: Diamond Head

Antagonist: Iron Man, Thunderbolts

Supporting cast: Justice, Penance

                                                              

Issue Summary:

·         Nova returns to Earth

·         Tony offer Nova to register and join the initiative, Nova battles his old foe Diamond Head.

·         Because of Nova’s super heroe’ing the Thunderbolts appear to take him in. nova mops the floor with them.  

Repercussions and Lasting effects:

·         Nova discovers what happened to the New Warriors and how they are responsible for the Civil.

·         Nova shocked to discover the Penance is Robbie Baldwin ex his ex team mate Speed ball.

The Good:

·         Issue show Nova having a hard time adjusting to life back on Earth.

Rating: 8

Nova 8-9: Nova discovers Sapiensal and helps Cosmo the talking Russian dog, deal with major problem the space station has been dealing with thank to the Luminals.

Repercussions and Lasting effects: Introduction of Sapiensal, which will be the Guardians of the Galaxy base of operation and the introduction of Cosmo which will become members of the same team.

The Good: Cosmo is probably the coolest character ever, jajajaja.

Rating: 8  
 

Annihilation Conquest

The Phalanx has infected what’s left of the Kree Empire, sending everything into another galactic war, yupi.

Characters:                            

Heroes: Phyla-Vell, Nova, Guardian of the Galaxy ( actual they are not called this yet), Ronin, Super Skrull, Adam Worlock, Worlock ( from the new Mutants), Wraith and his super poncho.

Antagonist: Brood Queen and High Evolutionary.

Ravenous, Annihilation bugs.

Villains: Phalanx, Ultron, Super Adaptoid, Korath, Xemnu… 

Sporting Cast:

Issue Summary:

·         Destiny 1-4: Phyla-Vell brings back Adam Worlock, from hibernation saves him from being captured by the Phalanx.

·         Starlord 1-4: Is given a taskforce to infiltrate the Phalanx and discover all of their secrets, for the Kree People.

·         Wraith 1-4: Wraith saves super Skrull, Praxagora and Ronin from the Phalanx’s control.

·         Nova 10: Nova on the run from phalanx infected Gomorra and Drax.

·         Nova Annual 1: Rider almost gives in to the Phalanx

·         Annihilation Conquest 1:  Phyla-Vell, Moon Dragon and Adam Worlock are on the run with the Phalanx hot on their tails and seek refuge with the High Evolutionary. We discover that Ultron is the one controlling the Phalanx.

·         Annihilation Conquest 2-3:  Ronin arrive to Kree-Lar to seek cooperation from  Ravenous to help battle the Phalanx, but he refuses, Ronin take him hostage with the help of Wraith, the Kree with the dark poncho. Ultron tracks Adam Worlock to High Evo’s space base. Star-Lord gets captured by Ultron trying to infiltrate his center of operations.  

·         Annihilation Conquest 4:  Ronin uncovers a huge stock pile of Kree Sentinels that he’ll use to level Hala to put out of their misery his Kree compatriots infected by the Phalanx, High Evo betrays Adam Worlock allowing him to be captured by Ultron.

·         Annihilation Conquest 5: Issue show how Ultron took control of the Phalanx. Ultron plans in using Adam Worlock body as a host body and how High Evo will help him create an army of perfect soldier to take over the cosmos.

·         Nova 11-12: Nova gets Worlock (ex Douglock not Adam Worlock) to join him on his crusade to stop the Phalanx.

·         Annihilation Conquest 6: Heroes battle Ultron in the final confrontation and defeat him.

Repercussions and Lasting effects:

·         Moon Dragon becomes the Moon Dragon and is later gets killed by Ultron.

·         The return of Adam Worlock

·         The return of the other Worlock from the New Mutants, the ex Douglock.

·         The formation of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

·         Death of Korath.

·         Gabriel the host body for Captain Universe is killed by Blastar.

·         Ultron returns to Earth and the sets in to motion the events of the Age of Ultron.

·         Death of Proxagora, who kills herself before Ultron can infect her.

The Bad:

·         The Introduction of a forgettable character like Wraith the Kree with the dark poncho powers.

·         Groot speaks in the Star-lord series but he use “I’m Groot” after that.

The Good:

·         I love to see Ultron battling someone else than Avengers.

·         The Guardian of the Galaxy on their way back.

Rating: 8

Guardians of the Galaxy 1

In the aftermath of the Annihilation Conquest, has left the very fabric of space broken and things from other universes are trying to cross over, and it the Guardians of the Galaxy’s job to stop this from happening. The Guardians battle the Church of Universal Truth in their first mission.

Repercussions and Lasting effects:

·         Team sets their base of operations on Sapiencial.

 

Rating: 9

Guardians of the Galaxy 2

Something has crossed into marvel 616 universe, and the Guardian discover it the Avengers mansion with Major Victory that has time traveled to the past.

Repercussions and Lasting effects:

·         Major Victory joins the Guardians

Rating: 8

Guardians of the Galaxy 3

Guardians go for round two against the Church of Universal Truth, Starhawk appears out of nowhere starts to attack Major Victory.

Repercussions and Lasting effects:

·         If Warlock is out and about, who the hell is in the cocoon  that the Church of Universal Truth has?

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Nova 13-15: Nova has a little run in with Galactus and his herald the Silver Surfer

Rating: 8

 Guardians of the Galaxy 4-6+8 and Nova 16-18 Secret Invasion check out this post.

Guardians of the Galaxy 7:  Guardians Clash for the first time the Badoon. Meanwhile Drax searching for Cammi discovers that Moon Dragon his daughter possible is alive and ¿why is Star-Lord in the Negative Zone?

Guardian of the Galaxy 9-10: Blastar tries to use Star-Lord to break into the prison that Tony Stark and Reed Richard built in the Negative Zone. Blastar knows that that this detention center has got to have   portal out of the Negative Zone. Guardians jump in to save the day stopping the complete massacre of all the inmates, at the nick of time saving their team mate.

Repercussions and Lasting effects:

·         Jack Flag, who is one of the inmates, captured during the initiative, joins the Guardians of the Galaxy

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Guardian of the Galaxy 11-12: Moon Dragon is brought back from the dead, after Drax Phyla-Vell defeat Maelstrom.

·         Phyla-Vell loses the quantum bands, and becomes an agent of death.

·         Quasar regains his Quantum bands, ¿but is he back from the dead yet?

·         Moon Dragon joins the Guardians.

Nova 23: Quasar gives Richard Rider the Quantum bands, to give him a hand and help the Nova corps.

War of Kings

The Inhumans have set out in to space to take the rightful place as the rulers of the Kree Empire, but they crash head on, with the ambitions of the new Shi’ar emperor Vulcan and his aggressive expansion campaign. 

Characters:                            

Heroes: Inhumans, Kree, Star Jammers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Nova, Nova Corps, Star Jammers

Antagonist:  Magus

Villains: Vulcan,   Shi’ar, Imperial Guard, Skrulls

Sporting Cast: Luminals

Issue Summary:

·         Secret Invasion, War of Kings One Shot: The Inhumans has shot out into space becoming the new rulers of the Kree Empire.

·         X-Men King Breaker 1-4: Vulcan creates a task force to take out the Star Jammers, and our heroes barely make it alive.

·         Guardian of the Galaxy 13: The Guardians break into two teams to negotiate with the Kree and Shi’ar to stop hostilities but things go south for both task forces.

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·         Guardians of the Galaxy 14: Worlock becomes Magus to battle Vulcan and his Imperial guard, while Quasar/Phyla-Vell kidnappes Crystal of the Inhumans to force negotiations, in a turn of events both factions Kree Inhuman and Shi’ar, Imperial Guard  end up battling each other

·         Nova 24: Nova corps joins in on the war on the Kree side, on their first mission they get easily defeated by the Imperial Guard.

·         Nova 25: Richard becomes Nova prime again.

·         Nova 26: Richard sets out to rescue his that has been lot in action.

·         Nova 27-28: Richard finds his brother and with other Nova Corps they defeat the Shi’ar Praetorian.

·          

Repercussions and Lasting effects:

·         Seeming death of Blackbolt.

·         Death of Vulcan

·         Birth of Magus

The Bad:

The Good:

·         Kree vs. Shi’ar is always good.

Rating: 9

Guardians of the Gakaxy 15-16: Part of the Galaxy start falling through time and end up at the end of time meeting old school Guardian of the Galaxy battling the Badoon.

Guardians of the Galaxy 17: Fallout from the final battle between Blackbolt and Vulcan ripped a hole in the universe, F%·$ed up S%&$ start to come from the other side, Warlock uses all of his powers and those of the Universal Truth, his secret allies to stop things from crossing over, but converts completely into Magus killing Gomorra.

Guardians of the Galaxy 18-19: Team keeps on falling through time and end up meeting Kang that give Starlord the cosmic cube to stop Magus, team goes back to the present to battle Magus, they are able to stop him but he kills half the team (not really Magus has tricked everyone and has Kidnapped them).

Nova 29-30:  Introduction of Star Stalker, how he helps Nova defeat a group of renegade Mindless Ones. 

Nova 31: Confronts Darkhawk over the death of  Lilandra at his hands.

X-Men Emperor Vulcan 1-5

The Star Jammers and Vulcan with his Imperial Guard, have to join forces to stop a new alien race called Scy’ar that has popped out of nowhere, and these guys are out annihilate  the whole Shi’ar race dropping stars on their planets.

Characters:                            

Heroes: Star Jammers

Antagonist: Vulcan, Imperial Guard and the Shi’ar Phoenix kill Squad.  

Villains: Scy’ar

 

Issue Summary:

·         1 A new alien race has arrived and is out to destroy the Shi’ar and they are dropping stars on their planets.

·         2  Vulcan and Havok declare a temporary truce  to stop the Scy’ar

·         3 The Star Jammer’s and the Imperial Guard discovers that the Scy’ar have a very large arsenal of stars to drop on planets.

·         4 Vulcan defeats the Scy’ar leader.

·         5 Vulcan captures the Star Jammers.

Repercussions and Lasting effects:

·         Vulcan captures some of the Star Jammers.

·         Vulcan reaffirms himself as the emperor of the Shi’ar.

·         The Scy’ar where really called M’Kraan, the Shi’ar stole the crystal with same name from them and destroyed their civilization, and these guys are out for pay back.

·         The Shi’ar kill squad that that killed Rachel’s maternal family actually was under the order of Araki, the Shi’ar’s second high public official.  

The Bad:

The Good:

·         We actually get to see Vulcan as a pragmatist.

·         The Bad guys win.

·         Vulcan vs.  Havok

Rating: 9

Realm of Kings One-Shot:  Quasar jumps into the rift to see what's on the other side, to discover the horrors of the Cancer-Verse, he meet the twisted version of the Avengers that are all kinds of evil.

Lasting Repercussion:

·         The Quasar that make it out is actually the Cancer-verse one, the 616 Quasar is still stuck inside.

Nova 29-30:  Introduction of Star Stalker, how he helps Nova defeat a group of renegade Mindless Ones. 

Nova 31: Confronts Darkhawk over the death of  Lilandra at his hands.

Realm of Kings: Inhumans:

·  1-2: Inhumans are attacked by Devos the Destroyer, they defeat him with help of Henry Pym's Mighty Avengers, who have dropped in for a visit.

·  3: Gorgon and Crystal hunting down a Kree separates group discover that they are robots being control by Maximus.

·  4: It seems that Maximus is under Medusas orders using the separates attacks to unite the Kree and accept the Inhuman Rule.

Repercussions and Lasting effects:

·  Quicksilver clean his name with the Inhumans establishing that a Skrull had taken his place and stole the Terrigen Crystals (actually he's lying) and all returns the Xeno Crytals that the Avengers had recuperated from battling the inhuman called the Nameless one.

·  Triton discover that Blackbolt is seemingly dead and accidentally bring something back from the cancerverse

  

 

Nova 32-35: Nova team up with Reed Richards, Blackbolt, Namorita and Darkhawk to defeat the Sphinx.

Repercussions and Lasting effects:

·         Namorita comes back from the dead.

Realm of Kings 1-5: The Imperial Guard Venture in the Rift to see if they can stop the Cancer-verse monsters from flow out. So the Imperial Guard and the Star Jammers enter the rift to discover a horrid universe full off monsters and the Cancer-verse X-Men that almost destroys both teams.

Lasting Repercussions:

·         Teams find the true Quasar lost in the Cancer-verse

The Good:

·         You get some good character development of some memebers of the Imperial Guard and from the Star Jammers.

·         It interesting to see how Gladiator hates being a head of State.

·         The Evil Darkhawk has hitched a ride, he has his own dark agenda in the Cancer-verse

Nova 26: Nova confronts the fake Quasar from the cancerverse.

Guardians of the Galaxy 20: Guardians battle all kinds of monsters jumping out of the cancerverse, and Moondragon is infected by one.

Guardians of the Galaxy 21: Moondragon is kidnapped by the Universal Church, Drax tries to stop them but fails.

Guardians of the Galaxy 22: The Church wants to know what's inside Moondragon, Guardian's  and the Luminal's jump in to save their teammate.

The Repercussions:

·         Phyla, Cosmo, Mantis and Major Victory are alive and Magus has them.

Guardian of the Galaxy 23-24: Phyla and company escape Magus prison and battle the members of the Church, they find Cocoon Phyla unleashes what's inside Thanos that kills her.

Guardian of the Galaxy 25: The Guardians save their teammate but also find a rampaging Thanos who they capture with the Cosmic cube Starlord has from Kang.