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* UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks: It was the nineties, so some of the mores of the era do tend to crop up. Rancor, for example, is a walking poster-child of nineties clichés (ridiculous costume, ridiculous hair, misspelt name, Wolverine-knock off). That said, see LighterAndSofter.
to:
* UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks: MediaNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks: It was the nineties, so some of the mores of the era do tend to crop up. Rancor, for example, is a walking poster-child of nineties clichés (ridiculous costume, ridiculous hair, misspelt name, Wolverine-knock off). That said, see LighterAndSofter.
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[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/guardians_of_the_galaxy1_5551.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:250:Marvel Cosmic Old School...]]
[[caption-width-right:250:Marvel Cosmic Old School...]]
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[[caption-width-right:250:Marvel
[[caption-width-right:350:Marvel Cosmic Old School...]]
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Deleted line(s) 58 (click to see context) :
* GreenLanternRing: The Silver Surfer has acquired Quasar's Quantum Bands.
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* SwissArmySuperpower: The Silver Surfer has acquired Quasar's Quantum Bands.
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Moving Tropes. See Guardians 3000
Deleted line(s) 21 (click to see context) :
** ''Guardians 3000'' in a nutshell. The team do what they can to find out what's wrong with time, only for it all to come to nothing when the [[ComicBook/SecretWars2015 Final Incursion]] destroys all reality.
Changed line(s) 23,24 (click to see context) from:
* AnIcePerson: Martinex
* AnimeHair: Rancor, being Wolverine's descendant, has inherited his hairstyle, albeit taken up a notch.
* AnimeHair: Rancor, being Wolverine's descendant, has inherited his hairstyle, albeit taken up a notch.
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* AnimeHair: Rancor, being Wolverine's descendant, has inherited his hairstyle, albeit taken up
Deleted line(s) 27 (click to see context) :
* AsYouKnow: The first issue has Martinex and Yondu reminisicisng over their past adventures. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] when Martinex points out he was there, and he can remember what happened.
Deleted line(s) 34 (click to see context) :
** ''3000'' reintroduces Nikki in this fashion, blowing up a number of Stark units that were... [[NiceJobBreakingItHero talking with the team about potential solutions]].
Deleted line(s) 36 (click to see context) :
* BoomHeadshot: In the final issue of ''3000'', Yondu plugs Korvac mid-monologue, telling Geena he could only do it because she'd got him going. Of course, since this is [[PhysicalGod Korvac]], he doesn't stay dead.
Deleted line(s) 38,40 (click to see context) :
* CallBack:
** In ''3000'', due to a spot of time-travel, the original team meets the modern day Guardians, and they bicker about the shared name, along with the fact that the modern team had their own version of Major Victory.
** In issue 7, the two Guardian teams trace the temporal disturbances to [[ComicBook/TheKorvacSaga Forest Hills, Queens]].
** In ''3000'', due to a spot of time-travel, the original team meets the modern day Guardians, and they bicker about the shared name, along with the fact that the modern team had their own version of Major Victory.
** In issue 7, the two Guardian teams trace the temporal disturbances to [[ComicBook/TheKorvacSaga Forest Hills, Queens]].
Deleted line(s) 42 (click to see context) :
** Defied in ''3000'', where the Badoon have found ways to prevent that. The team have to find a work-around using Galactus.
Deleted line(s) 45 (click to see context) :
* TheChosenOne: The 31st century Star-Lord, like his distant progenitor, was chosen for the role.
Changed line(s) 47,50 (click to see context) from:
* CoolOldLady: Rael Rider is over two-hundred years old, and she's a Nova Centurion (the last, actually). She's also incredibly snarky.
* CoolSpaceship:
** The Guardians get around in ''The Captain America''. Except when it's being shot out of the sky. Then it was replaced with the ''Freedom's Lady''. Which also got shot out of the sky. Then they replaced it with a stolen Stark ship, ''The Captain America II''.
** In ''3000'', the Star-Lord of the 31st has inherited his predecessor's living ship, Ship.
* CoolSpaceship:
** The Guardians get around in ''The Captain America''. Except when it's being shot out of the sky. Then it was replaced with the ''Freedom's Lady''. Which also got shot out of the sky. Then they replaced it with a stolen Stark ship, ''The Captain America II''.
** In ''3000'', the Star-Lord of the 31st has inherited his predecessor's living ship, Ship.
to:
* CoolOldLady: Rael Rider is over two-hundred years old, and she's a Nova Centurion (the last, actually). She's also incredibly snarky.
* CoolSpaceship:
**CoolSpaceship: The Guardians get around in ''The Captain America''. Except when it's being shot out of the sky. Then it was replaced with the ''Freedom's Lady''. Which also got shot out of the sky. Then they replaced it with a stolen Stark ship, ''The Captain America II''.
** In ''3000'', the Star-Lord of the 31st has inherited his predecessor's living ship, Ship.II''.
* CoolSpaceship:
**
** In ''3000'', the Star-Lord of the 31st has inherited his predecessor's living ship, Ship.
Deleted line(s) 53 (click to see context) :
** The ''Guardians 3000'' version manages to be worse. The Badoon are killing off (or have already killed off) almost every empire out there, and no-one seems to be able to stop them.
Deleted line(s) 62 (click to see context) :
* DownerEnding: ''3000''. Hoo-boy. [[spoiler:The Guardians don't save their reality, and never could. Korvac's attempts to fix everything are scuppered by Doctor Doom's actions over in ''New Avengers'', and all reality goes down the tubes.]] Yay?
Deleted line(s) 71 (click to see context) :
* FutureSlang: ''3000'' is filled with it. A lot of it makes the transition through to the team's appearance in ''Guardians of Infinity''.
Deleted line(s) 73 (click to see context) :
* GenderBender: Starhawk, in ''3000'', changes gender depending on the iteration, while still being fully-aware of being a different gender. He/she mentions that as confusing as it may be for everyone else, it's even weirder for him/her.
Changed line(s) 75,79 (click to see context) from:
* GroundhogDayLoop:
** Starhawk has a Groundhog Day Life.
** The first issue of ''Guardians 3000'' deals with a small one, where the team dies at the hands of the Badoon, implied to have been going on for some time.
* HandCannon: Geena gets one from Yondu in ''Guardians 3000'', one that's several degrees more powerful than the larger gun she already had, and won't knock her on her behind to boot.
* HalfHumanHybrid: Starhawk is the son of ComicBook/{{Quasar}} and [[[[ComicBook/Warlock1967 Adam Warlock]] Her]], making him half human, half orange-skinned [[ArtificialHuman Artificial Being]].
** Starhawk has a Groundhog Day Life.
** The first issue of ''Guardians 3000'' deals with a small one, where the team dies at the hands of the Badoon, implied to have been going on for some time.
* HandCannon: Geena gets one from Yondu in ''Guardians 3000'', one that's several degrees more powerful than the larger gun she already had, and won't knock her on her behind to boot.
* HalfHumanHybrid: Starhawk is the son of ComicBook/{{Quasar}} and [[[[ComicBook/Warlock1967 Adam Warlock]] Her]], making him half human, half orange-skinned [[ArtificialHuman Artificial Being]].
to:
* GroundhogDayLoop:
**GroundhogDayLoop: Starhawk has a Groundhog Day Life.
** The first issue of ''Guardians 3000'' deals with a small one, where the team dies at the hands of the Badoon, implied to have been going on for some time.
* HandCannon: Geena gets one from Yondu in ''Guardians 3000'', one that's several degrees more powerful than the larger gun she already had, and won't knock her on her behind to boot.
* HalfHumanHybrid: Starhawk is the son of ComicBook/{{Quasar}} and [[[[ComicBook/Warlock1967 Adam Warlock]] [[ComicBook/Warlock1967 Her]], making him half human, half orange-skinned [[ArtificialHuman Artificial Being]].
**
* HandCannon: Geena gets one from Yondu in ''Guardians 3000'', one that's several degrees more powerful than the larger gun she already had, and won't knock her on her behind to boot.
Deleted line(s) 81 (click to see context) :
* HistoryRepeats: In ''3000'', there's a human named Rider, who's a Nova centurion, the last even, stuck with the Worldmind for company, once more.
Changed line(s) 85,89 (click to see context) from:
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: In ''3000'', the team have forgotten all about Nikki thanks to time falling apart at the seams.
* LastOfHisKind:
** The premise starts here; the [[LizardFolk Badoon]] have attacked, and the four originals are survivors of their worlds. [[spoiler:Yondu, from Centauri IV in the Alpha Centauri system, eventually discovers that a large number of his people survived and saves them from Galactus.]]
** Rael Rider, in ''3000'', is the last Nova Corps member alive.
* LegacyCharacter: Major Victory for Captain America, amongst others.
* LastOfHisKind:
** The premise starts here; the [[LizardFolk Badoon]] have attacked, and the four originals are survivors of their worlds. [[spoiler:Yondu, from Centauri IV in the Alpha Centauri system, eventually discovers that a large number of his people survived and saves them from Galactus.]]
** Rael Rider, in ''3000'', is the last Nova Corps member alive.
* LegacyCharacter: Major Victory for Captain America, amongst others.
to:
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: In ''3000'', the team have forgotten all about Nikki thanks to time falling apart at the seams.
* LastOfHisKind:
**LastOfHisKind: The premise starts here; the [[LizardFolk Badoon]] have attacked, and the four originals are survivors of their worlds. [[spoiler:Yondu, from Centauri IV in the Alpha Centauri system, eventually discovers that a large number of his people survived and saves them from Galactus.]]
* LegacyCharacter:
**Rael Rider, in ''3000'', is the last Nova Corps member alive.
* LegacyCharacter:Major Victory for Captain America, amongst others.
* LastOfHisKind:
**
* LegacyCharacter:
**
* LegacyCharacter:
Deleted line(s) 91,92 (click to see context) :
** The first issue of Guardians 3000 introduces the 31st century Star-Lord, Peter Quill's descendant.
** Issue 3 introduces a descendant of [[ComicBook/{{Nova}} Richard Rider]]. She is also a Nova.
** Issue 3 introduces a descendant of [[ComicBook/{{Nova}} Richard Rider]]. She is also a Nova.
Deleted line(s) 95 (click to see context) :
** Just narrowly averted by the team when they run into the Bendis-era modern day team in ''3000''. Afterwards, they talk about how this is what ''usually'' happens when superhero teams meet.
Deleted line(s) 98 (click to see context) :
* TheManBehindTheMan: The Badoon in ''Guardians 3000'' are being controlled by someone. It turns out to be the Stark.
Deleted line(s) 102 (click to see context) :
* MyOwnGrampa: A throwaway line in ''3000'' has the Star Lord of the 31st century discover that he's Peter Quill's ''ancestor'', not his descendant.
Changed line(s) 105,108 (click to see context) from:
* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
** Centuries back, Tony Stark launched all his Iron Man technology into space in an attempt to stop the Martians getting it. It crashed landed on an alien planet, and was found by the locals, who eventually figured out how to use it, and became galactic conquerors.
** In ''3000'', rather than launching his tech into space, Stark creating A-Sentience, designed to become active when the Avengers died. After a thousand years, their programming's gone a bit wrong, and their solution tends to involve murdering the Guardians.
** The Guardians manage to talk the A-Sentience down momentarily, and are just about to suggest working together when Nikki bursts in shooting. A-Sentience resets to their default plan: KillEmAll.
** Centuries back, Tony Stark launched all his Iron Man technology into space in an attempt to stop the Martians getting it. It crashed landed on an alien planet, and was found by the locals, who eventually figured out how to use it, and became galactic conquerors.
** In ''3000'', rather than launching his tech into space, Stark creating A-Sentience, designed to become active when the Avengers died. After a thousand years, their programming's gone a bit wrong, and their solution tends to involve murdering the Guardians.
** The Guardians manage to talk the A-Sentience down momentarily, and are just about to suggest working together when Nikki bursts in shooting. A-Sentience resets to their default plan: KillEmAll.
to:
* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
**NiceJobBreakingItHero: Centuries back, Tony Stark launched all his Iron Man technology into space in an attempt to stop the Martians getting it. It crashed landed on an alien planet, and was found by the locals, who eventually figured out how to use it, and became galactic conquerors.
** In ''3000'', rather than launching his tech into space, Stark creating A-Sentience, designed to become active when the Avengers died. After a thousand years, their programming's gone a bit wrong, and their solution tends to involve murdering the Guardians.
** The Guardians manage to talk the A-Sentience down momentarily, and are just about to suggest working together when Nikki bursts in shooting. A-Sentience resets to their default plan: KillEmAll.conquerors.
**
** In ''3000'', rather than launching his tech into space, Stark creating A-Sentience, designed to become active when the Avengers died. After a thousand years, their programming's gone a bit wrong, and their solution tends to involve murdering the Guardians.
** The Guardians manage to talk the A-Sentience down momentarily, and are just about to suggest working together when Nikki bursts in shooting. A-Sentience resets to their default plan: KillEmAll.
Deleted line(s) 112 (click to see context) :
* OhCrap: In the first issue of ''Guardians 3000'', the fact that Starhawk ''doesn't'' know what's going on serves as a big one for all concerned.
Deleted line(s) 119,120 (click to see context) :
* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Starhawk and Aleta once retired and settled down, only for Aleta's father to find them and kill their children in front of them.
* PlanetEater: Galactus is still around. Averted in ''3000'', where he's "sleeping" [[spoiler:as he waits for reality to collapse completely and the next version to begin]].
* PlanetEater: Galactus is still around. Averted in ''3000'', where he's "sleeping" [[spoiler:as he waits for reality to collapse completely and the next version to begin]].
Deleted line(s) 126,129 (click to see context) :
* PutOnABus:
** ''Guardians 3000'' just has Vance, Charlie, Marty and Starhawk around, with no sign of the other Guardians. Nikki reappears in issue 4, but that's about it for the rest of them.
** Aleta gets a mention by Nikki in issue 4, when she mistakes Starhawk for her (Justifiable, since they have been known to dress similarly, and Stakar at that point was female, though Stakar's hair is brown, while Aleta is blond).
* {{Rewrite}}: Despite apparently being set in the same universe as the original series, with the same characters, there are a few differences in ''Guardians 3000'', like the Stark not being a matriarchal warrior society, and instead Tony Stark's tech gone wrong, or the team-members missing for whatever reason, or Galactus "sleeping" when previous depictions of the 30th century showed he was still very much around. Justified, since a recurring theme of the series is that time is falling apart.
** ''Guardians 3000'' just has Vance, Charlie, Marty and Starhawk around, with no sign of the other Guardians. Nikki reappears in issue 4, but that's about it for the rest of them.
** Aleta gets a mention by Nikki in issue 4, when she mistakes Starhawk for her (Justifiable, since they have been known to dress similarly, and Stakar at that point was female, though Stakar's hair is brown, while Aleta is blond).
* {{Rewrite}}: Despite apparently being set in the same universe as the original series, with the same characters, there are a few differences in ''Guardians 3000'', like the Stark not being a matriarchal warrior society, and instead Tony Stark's tech gone wrong, or the team-members missing for whatever reason, or Galactus "sleeping" when previous depictions of the 30th century showed he was still very much around. Justified, since a recurring theme of the series is that time is falling apart.
Deleted line(s) 132 (click to see context) :
* TheSingularity: A-Sentience, in 3000, is a hive-mind of Stark Tech.
Deleted line(s) 139 (click to see context) :
* TimeCrash: ''3000'' centers around one. Reality keeps shifting, usually in ways that make the Guardians' lives worse, making allies vanish or forget they ever existed. As Galactus reveals, [[spoiler:there's no saving the Guardian's home time because there's no time to ''save''. Reality's dead and gone, and the Guardians are just clinging to the fragments.]]
Deleted line(s) 142 (click to see context) :
** ''Guardians 3000'' has another one, where Gladiator mentions having met Vance several hundred years ago, before figuring out it must be a Vance from the future.
Changed line(s) 150 (click to see context) from:
* WorthyOpponent: The one who sent Captain America's shield into space? Doctor Doom, out of respect for the good captain and to stop the Badoon getting their hands on it.
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* WhatOtherGalaxies: The Guardians of the ''Galaxy'' do this just by name alone, both original and modern since their remit is protecting the entire universe (whenever they can). {{Enforced}} because "Guardians of the Universe" was already taken by ''ComicBook/GreenLantern''.
* WorthyOpponent: The one who sent Captain America's shield into space? Doctor Doom, out of respect for the good captain and to stop the Badoon from getting their hands on it.
* WorthyOpponent: The one who sent Captain America's shield into space? Doctor Doom, out of respect for the good captain and to stop the Badoon from getting their hands on it.
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Changed line(s) 18,19 (click to see context) from:
* AbsoluteCleavage: Very popular in the future -- used by the women ''and'' some of the men.
* ActionMom: Rancor.
* ActionMom: Rancor.
to:
*
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* NavelDeepNeckline: Very popular in the future -- used by the women ''and'' some of the men.
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Up To Eleven is a defunct trope
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* AnimeHair: Rancor, being Wolverine's descendant, has inherited his hairstyle, albeit taken UpToEleven.
to:
* AnimeHair: Rancor, being Wolverine's descendant, has inherited his hairstyle, albeit taken UpToEleven.up a notch.
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Changed line(s) 80 (click to see context) from:
* HalfHumanHybrid: Starhawk is the son of ComicBook/{{Quasar}} and [[[[ComicBook/{{Warlock}} Adam Warlock]] Her]], making him half human, half orange-skinned [[ArtificialHuman Artificial Being]].
to:
* HalfHumanHybrid: Starhawk is the son of ComicBook/{{Quasar}} and [[[[ComicBook/{{Warlock}} [[[[ComicBook/Warlock1967 Adam Warlock]] Her]], making him half human, half orange-skinned [[ArtificialHuman Artificial Being]].
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Updating Link
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* HalfHumanHybrid: Starhawk is the son of ComicBook/{{Quasar}} and [[ComicBook/AdamWarlock Her]], making him half human, half orange-skinned [[ArtificialHuman Artificial Being]].
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* HalfHumanHybrid: Starhawk is the son of ComicBook/{{Quasar}} and [[ComicBook/AdamWarlock [[[[ComicBook/{{Warlock}} Adam Warlock]] Her]], making him half human, half orange-skinned [[ArtificialHuman Artificial Being]].
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Deleted line(s) 20 (click to see context) :
* AdultFear: Starhawk and Aleta once retired and settled down, only for Aleta's father to find them and kill their children in front of them.
Added DiffLines:
* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Starhawk and Aleta once retired and settled down, only for Aleta's father to find them and kill their children in front of them.
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Direct link.
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%%* SmartGuy: Martinex
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%%* SmartGuy: TheSmartGuy: Martinex
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[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/guardians_of_the_galaxy1_5551.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:250:Marvel Cosmic Old School...]]
-->''"Earth shall overcome!"''
The Guardians of the Galaxy first appeared in ''Marvel Super-Heroes'' #18 (January, 1969), created by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan. They are a science fiction comic series set in the future, the 31st Century. An alien race known as the Badoon have conquered Earth in the year 3007 A.D., leading a telekinetic astronaut from the 20th Century (preserved by 1,000 years in suspended animation) to gather a team of heroes to free Earth. They eventually do, and go on to do other stuff.
The series ran in various Marvel Anthology books in the [[TheSeventies 1970s]], with guest appearances in ''ComicBook/TheDefenders'' and ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'' in between anthology runs. The characters' most notable appearance during these early years was in ''The Avengers'', during ''ComicBook/TheKorvacSaga''.
The characters vanished into limbo during the 1980s, but were revived and given their own book in 1990. Originally written and drawn by Jim Valentino (with only one fill-in artist, Mark Texiera, for a single issue), Valentino revived the book with gratuitous continuity nods to existing Marvel characters: these included a new Phoenix, Wolverine's evil great-great-great-granddaughter Rancor and her army of evil mutants, a revived Church of the Universal Truth, "The Punisher" militia, Doctor Doom (whose brain was implanted into Wolverine's body), and Mephisto's daughter among other things. The series was popular, but ultimately around issue #28, Jim Valentino jumped ship to go found Creator/ImageComics after the other founders made a surprise offer to let Valentino come with them.
The book was then turned over to Michael Gallagher, who resolved Valentino's various storylines before introducing a new opponent derived from elements of another 1970s sci-fi book (ComicBook/{{Killraven}}) into the franchise, causing the Guardians to fight the last Martian, Ripjak. The series lasted for 62 issues (June, 1990-July, 1995). It also had its own spin-off mini-series: ''Galactic Guardians'', which featured a ''lot'' of future versions of Marvel characters, including: [[ComicBook/JeanGrey Phoenix]] [[ComicBook/RachelSummers IX]], [[Comicbook/GhostRider the Spirit of Vengeance]], Mainframe (ComicBook/TheVision) and Hollywood (ComicBook/WonderMan).
They hadn't seen much use for a long time, before making the occasional appearances in the present day team's series and eventually a revival of the original team starred in a new series called ''Guardians 3000'' launched in Fall of 2014. It only lasted about eight issues, before being cancelled at the start of ''ComicBook/{{Secret Wars|2015}}''. After that, some members of the team reappeared in ''Guardians of Infinity'' alongside their modern-day counterparts. While the movies focused on the modern-day version of the Guardians, Yondu appeared as Peter Quill's father figure, as a reference to being one of the team's predecessors. In ''Vol. 2'', it's revealed that Yondu is a disgraced member of a group based on the original Guardians (though in the movies they never called themselves as such). At the end of the film this team decides to reunite.
----
!!''Guardians of the Galaxy (1969)'' Contains Examples of:
* AbsoluteCleavage: Very popular in the future -- used by the women ''and'' some of the men.
* ActionMom: Rancor.
* AdultFear: Starhawk and Aleta once retired and settled down, only for Aleta's father to find them and kill their children in front of them.
* AllForNothing:
** Vance Astro spent a thousand years travelling to Centauri IV, giving up everything and everyone, and going a teeny bit mad on the way there... only to find mankind beat him to it by several hundred years.
** ''Guardians 3000'' in a nutshell. The team do what they can to find out what's wrong with time, only for it all to come to nothing when the [[ComicBook/SecretWars2015 Final Incursion]] destroys all reality.
* AlternateHistory: When they go back in time to team up with Comicbook/TheAvengers, they change Major Victory's history, making their future an alternate timeline. The Earth-616 version of Vance Astrovik goes on to become Justice of the ComicBook/NewWarriors. Incidentally, this makes him the only person [[TimeyWimeyBall to be an Avenger twice as two separate people]] rather than just having one person with multiple identities. They've even technically met in JLA vs. Avengers, although we don't see them talking to each other. [[FridgeLogic And for some reason, they have slightly different powers and even different hair colours]].
* AnIcePerson: Martinex
* AnimeHair: Rancor, being Wolverine's descendant, has inherited his hairstyle, albeit taken UpToEleven.
* ArtificialLimbs: Yondu, [[spoiler:after Interface from Force uses his power to transmute matter to turn Yondu's hand to gas. Yondu gets a replacement, and still managed to remain an archer despite missing a hand.]]
* AscendedExtra: The whole freaking team. From a one-off story in ''Marvel Super-Heroes'', they didn't reappear for several years after, when Steve Gerber took a liking to them and gave them several appearances in ''Defenders''.
* AsYouKnow: The first issue has Martinex and Yondu reminisicisng over their past adventures. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] when Martinex points out he was there, and he can remember what happened.
* AxCrazy: Yondu tends to go ax crazy at the drop of a hat. This concept has been quietly dropped in his modern depictions, though he's still pretty ruthless.
* BadFuture: By and large averted, but the late 21st century sucked, what with the Martian invasion killing off most of Earth's heroes, and the Badoon invasion of the 31st century dramatically reducing mankind's numbers and turning Earth into a crapsack world.
* BeastMan: The first issue of the 90s series has the team saving a planet of dog-people from the Stark.
* BigBad: Usually the Badoon, but if not them then it's Michael Korvac.
* BigDamnHeroes:
** The Ancient One and Kruugarr save the Guardians from Korvac in this fashion.
** ''3000'' reintroduces Nikki in this fashion, blowing up a number of Stark units that were... [[NiceJobBreakingItHero talking with the team about potential solutions]].
* BodySurf: Korvac manages to cheat his first death by doing this, throughout multiple eras of history. It takes four tries for the Guardians to finally catch him.
* BoomHeadshot: In the final issue of ''3000'', Yondu plugs Korvac mid-monologue, telling Geena he could only do it because she'd got him going. Of course, since this is [[PhysicalGod Korvac]], he doesn't stay dead.
* ButNowIMustGo: Starhawk, immediately after being separated from Aleta, takes off. In the middle of a fight with the Stark. [[spoiler:It's so he can get Fire-Lord's attention, but he doesn't bother explaining these things ahead of time.]]
* CallBack:
** In ''3000'', due to a spot of time-travel, the original team meets the modern day Guardians, and they bicker about the shared name, along with the fact that the modern team had their own version of Major Victory.
** In issue 7, the two Guardian teams trace the temporal disturbances to [[ComicBook/TheKorvacSaga Forest Hills, Queens]].
* CasualTimeTravel: The team can hop back and forth between the 30th and 20th century easy.
** Defied in ''3000'', where the Badoon have found ways to prevent that. The team have to find a work-around using Galactus.
* CatGirl: Talon is a Cat Boy.
* CatchPhrase: "Earth shall overcome!"
* TheChosenOne: The 31st century Star-Lord, like his distant progenitor, was chosen for the role.
* ClingyCostume: In order to survive a thousand-year space journey, Vance Astro had to be vacuum sealed for his freshness. If his suit is breached, he'd age and die in seconds.
* CoolOldLady: Rael Rider is over two-hundred years old, and she's a Nova Centurion (the last, actually). She's also incredibly snarky.
* CoolSpaceship:
** The Guardians get around in ''The Captain America''. Except when it's being shot out of the sky. Then it was replaced with the ''Freedom's Lady''. Which also got shot out of the sky. Then they replaced it with a stolen Stark ship, ''The Captain America II''.
** In ''3000'', the Star-Lord of the 31st has inherited his predecessor's living ship, Ship.
* ConservationOfNinjitsu: When the Stark attack the Guardians, they have a harder time fighting them than the scout that attacked the team only the issue before.
* CrapsackWorld: It's a Marvel Comic. The 30th century is pretty awful.
** The ''Guardians 3000'' version manages to be worse. The Badoon are killing off (or have already killed off) almost every empire out there, and no-one seems to be able to stop them.
* {{Crossover}}: The 90s series had The Korvac Quest, spread through the annuals of ''Fantastic Four'', ''Thor'', ''Silver Surfer'' and ''Guardians'', as the team tracks Korvac's attempt to cheat death across time.
* CuteMonsterGirl: Despite her ridiculous hair and bad temper, Rancor is actually good-looking when she takes her mask off and stops snarling.
* {{Cyborg}}: Michael Korvac, one of the more dangerous enemies of the Guardians, had his legs removed by his Badoon overseers and replaced by a computer bank.
* UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks: It was the nineties, so some of the mores of the era do tend to crop up. Rancor, for example, is a walking poster-child of nineties clichés (ridiculous costume, ridiculous hair, misspelt name, Wolverine-knock off). That said, see LighterAndSofter.
* DeadpanSnarker: Charlie gets very snarky when Starhawk's around.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Stakar's response when Martinex points out marrying your adopted sister and having kids with her is pretty messed up.
* TheDividual: Starhawk and Aleta, on account of their sharing a physical space. She wasn't even considered a full member of the team for years.
* DontYouDarePityMe: A story set during the team's earliest days shows Major Victory wigging out when Charlie accidentally makes an insensitive comment, and apologising for it, about being stuck in his space-suit.
* DownerEnding: ''3000''. Hoo-boy. [[spoiler:The Guardians don't save their reality, and never could. Korvac's attempts to fix everything are scuppered by Doctor Doom's actions over in ''New Avengers'', and all reality goes down the tubes.]] Yay?
* EnfantTerrible: A baby Korvac, possessed by the essence of his future self, graphically kills his own father within ''seconds'' of being born.
* ExposedExtraterrestrials: Martinex is a crystalline transhuman from the planet Pluto. His body is composed entirely of crystal, and he never wears clothes.
* FantasticRacism:
** Nikki believes ReptilesAreAbhorrent, thanks to the Badoon near-annihilating her people when she was seven. This somehow extends to the disguised Skrull Replica before anyone suspects she might not be human.
** Racial strife between, at least, Jovians and Pluvians is alluded to briefly in the team's first appearance, but this was dropped in later comics and never mentioned again. After the Badoon were defeated, the unaltered humans of Earth were seen to mistreat Charlie and Martinex for their inhuman appearances; this partially motivated the reformation of the team and their return to the stars.
** The reason the Badoon want to kill every other life-form.
** And even in the 30th century, the poor Inhumans still get shafted. Mankind has colonised the Moon, and the Inhumans are forced to live on a reservation, with their movements constantly watched. And then the Badoon came a'calling...
* FieryRedhead: Nikki. Slight Aversion in that she's not quite a redhead so much as that being from the planet Mercury, the pores on her head are exhaust ports for a high, constant body heat. The result? Actual constant fire that looks like hair.
* FutureSlang: ''3000'' is filled with it. A lot of it makes the transition through to the team's appearance in ''Guardians of Infinity''.
* GangOfHats: The Punishers. Three guesses what that hat is, and the first two don't count.
* GenderBender: Starhawk, in ''3000'', changes gender depending on the iteration, while still being fully-aware of being a different gender. He/she mentions that as confusing as it may be for everyone else, it's even weirder for him/her.
* GreenLanternRing: The Silver Surfer has acquired Quasar's Quantum Bands.
* GroundhogDayLoop:
** Starhawk has a Groundhog Day Life.
** The first issue of ''Guardians 3000'' deals with a small one, where the team dies at the hands of the Badoon, implied to have been going on for some time.
* HandCannon: Geena gets one from Yondu in ''Guardians 3000'', one that's several degrees more powerful than the larger gun she already had, and won't knock her on her behind to boot.
* HalfHumanHybrid: Starhawk is the son of ComicBook/{{Quasar}} and [[ComicBook/AdamWarlock Her]], making him half human, half orange-skinned [[ArtificialHuman Artificial Being]].
* {{Heavyworlder}}: Charlie-27, like all of Jupiter's inhabitants.
* HistoryRepeats: In ''3000'', there's a human named Rider, who's a Nova centurion, the last even, stuck with the Worldmind for company, once more.
* HumanPopsicle: Major Victory spent one thousand years, on-and-off, as one, on his way to the Centauri system.
* IJustKnew: Starhawk (Stakar, not Aleta): Starhawk's [[CatchPhrase Catch Phrase]] was 'Accept the word of One Who Knows.' What he would tell Martinex later is that Stakar was not a precognitive; he was fated to go back in time, and his disembodied consciousness [[GroundhogDayLoop inhabit his infant body to start all over again]].
* LadyLand: Planet Stark is a {{Matriarchy}} where men are second-class citizens at best. Some male Stark aren't even given names, having to earn them.
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: In ''3000'', the team have forgotten all about Nikki thanks to time falling apart at the seams.
* LastOfHisKind:
** The premise starts here; the [[LizardFolk Badoon]] have attacked, and the four originals are survivors of their worlds. [[spoiler:Yondu, from Centauri IV in the Alpha Centauri system, eventually discovers that a large number of his people survived and saves them from Galactus.]]
** Rael Rider, in ''3000'', is the last Nova Corps member alive.
* LegacyCharacter: Major Victory for Captain America, amongst others.
** Rancor is a villain legacy for Wolverine.
** The first issue of Guardians 3000 introduces the 31st century Star-Lord, Peter Quill's descendant.
** Issue 3 introduces a descendant of [[ComicBook/{{Nova}} Richard Rider]]. She is also a Nova.
* LetsYouAndHimFight:
** Gets a LampshadeHanging when the team travels back to the 90s. Starhawk has them teleport into the Fantastic Four's reception, rather than Reed Richard's main lab, because otherwise they'll get into a pointless fight. Since they don't, nobody fights, and Reed instead helps them. Starhawk notes it happens to them a lot.
** Just narrowly averted by the team when they run into the Bendis-era modern day team in ''3000''. Afterwards, they talk about how this is what ''usually'' happens when superhero teams meet.
* LighterAndSofter: The mission statement of the 90s series, surrounded by the grimness of 90s comic books, was to be a throwback to Bronze or Silver Age style stories.
* MamaBear: Aleta is ''incredibly'' pissed off at Stakar for the death of their children (since he could've known about it or tried to prevent it). And yet Mainframe expects her to forgive him just like that.
* TheManBehindTheMan: The Badoon in ''Guardians 3000'' are being controlled by someone. It turns out to be the Stark.
* MassTeleportation
* {{Mutant}}: Most of the Mutants took for the stars centuries back. Vance Astro happened to miss that particular bus.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Marshach, a friend of the Silver Surfer's in the 26th century, has this reaction when he uses his RealityWarper powers to try and kill the Guardians (who are trying to remove that power from him, since it belongs to Korvac).
* MyOwnGrampa: A throwaway line in ''3000'' has the Star Lord of the 31st century discover that he's Peter Quill's ''ancestor'', not his descendant.
* NarratingTheObvious: Given the time the first series was made, it's a given.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
** Centuries back, Tony Stark launched all his Iron Man technology into space in an attempt to stop the Martians getting it. It crashed landed on an alien planet, and was found by the locals, who eventually figured out how to use it, and became galactic conquerors.
** In ''3000'', rather than launching his tech into space, Stark creating A-Sentience, designed to become active when the Avengers died. After a thousand years, their programming's gone a bit wrong, and their solution tends to involve murdering the Guardians.
** The Guardians manage to talk the A-Sentience down momentarily, and are just about to suggest working together when Nikki bursts in shooting. A-Sentience resets to their default plan: KillEmAll.
* NotBloodSiblings: Stakar and Aleta are a married couple with three kids. They're also adopted siblings.
* NotSoOmniscientAfterAll: Starhawk is the One Who Knows, so when he ''doesn't'' know, he tends to react poorly.
* NowWhat: Happened to the team in the 70s. They'd founded to defeat the Badoon. And with the help of the Defenders, and the Sisterhood of the Badoon, they'd done just that. So what now? Fortunately, humankind solves that question by being so awful the Guardians decide to take off into space to ''actually'' guard the galaxy(s).
* OhCrap: In the first issue of ''Guardians 3000'', the fact that Starhawk ''doesn't'' know what's going on serves as a big one for all concerned.
* OhMyGods: Charlie and Marty tend to swear by Harkov, the guy who discovered faster-than-light travel.
* OldMaster: The Ancient One, or as he used to be known, Doctor Stephen Strange.
* OnlyTheChosenMayWield: The shield of Captain America, which is guarded by Mainframe (formerly known as the Vision), who tests the Guardians to see who should wield it. Major Victory eventually gets it.
** Hollywood, formerly known as Wonder Man, initially objects to the idea of Major Victory wielding the shield, but he soon comes around.
* OnlyYouCanRepopulateMyRace: Yondu, to Photon. Unfortunately, Photon's an atheist and Yondu is sworn to murder any of his kind who are. Although it was ''she'' who was trying to kill ''him''. [[spoiler:No one ended up killing anyone, although he caught her off-guard and badly hurt her at one point. (Valentino intended them to ''eventually'' get together, but it never panned out.)]]
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: The Zoms, henchmen of the Badoon are created using cybernetic implants.
* PlanetEater: Galactus is still around. Averted in ''3000'', where he's "sleeping" [[spoiler:as he waits for reality to collapse completely and the next version to begin]].
* PlanetOfHats: The Stark are ProudWarriorRaceGuys and PlanetLooters.
* PlayingWithFire: Firelord, Martinex, and Nikki (Nikki, who was in a relationship with Charlie-27 at one point, and had to immerse herself in water to cool down enough so they could touch).
* PoorCommunicationKills: Rather than explain to the Silver Surfer that an old friend of his is possessed by Korvac's power, the team instantly demand to remove it without explaining ''why''. Cue a fight between them and an angry Silver Surfer.
* PowerCopying: The Protege can permanently duplicate any powers and skills he sees, all the way up to the CosmicEntity level. He's also [[GooGooGodlike a child]]. This quickly leads to AGodAmI.
* PurpleIsPowerful: Major Victory's first outfit, the molecular shell keeping him from dying, was solid purple.
* PutOnABus:
** ''Guardians 3000'' just has Vance, Charlie, Marty and Starhawk around, with no sign of the other Guardians. Nikki reappears in issue 4, but that's about it for the rest of them.
** Aleta gets a mention by Nikki in issue 4, when she mistakes Starhawk for her (Justifiable, since they have been known to dress similarly, and Stakar at that point was female, though Stakar's hair is brown, while Aleta is blond).
* {{Rewrite}}: Despite apparently being set in the same universe as the original series, with the same characters, there are a few differences in ''Guardians 3000'', like the Stark not being a matriarchal warrior society, and instead Tony Stark's tech gone wrong, or the team-members missing for whatever reason, or Galactus "sleeping" when previous depictions of the 30th century showed he was still very much around. Justified, since a recurring theme of the series is that time is falling apart.
* SecretTestOfCharacter: Mainframe gives the team one of these to see whether they're worthy enough to wield Captain America's shield. Aleta and Nikki fail theirs, Aleta because she won't forgive Stakar for the death of their children, Nikki because her FantasticRacism lead her to try and murder Scanner the Snark.
* SharingABody: Starhawk and Aleta, from their first appearance. They were [[NotBloodRelated adopted siblings]] who encountered a device that made them share the same physical space, so only one of them could manifest at a time. They made the most of it by getting married. Everything seemed okay until Aleta started falling for Vance... and their children were killed
* TheSingularity: A-Sentience, in 3000, is a hive-mind of Stark Tech.
* SlasherSmile: Rancor was responsible for pulling off some [[https://imgur.com/a/KzmAIXW positively]] [[https://imgur.com/a/eBYbCEX terrifying]] ones whenever she wasn't snarling or frowning.
%%* SmartGuy: Martinex
%%* TheStoic: How Starhawk appears.
* SuddenlyEthnicity: Martinex is revealed at one point to be of African descent.
* ThatManIsDead: Mainframe is very insistent that he's not the Vision any more.
* ThouShaltNotKill: Averted in several instances, unlike most of Marvel's heroes the Guardians aren't big on this one. In one instance, Nikki tries to kill Scanner outright.
* TimeCrash: ''3000'' centers around one. Reality keeps shifting, usually in ways that make the Guardians' lives worse, making allies vanish or forget they ever existed. As Galactus reveals, [[spoiler:there's no saving the Guardian's home time because there's no time to ''save''. Reality's dead and gone, and the Guardians are just clinging to the fragments.]]
* TimeyWimeyBall:
** Time is unchangeable, which is why Starhawk is stuck in his GroundhogDayLoop. Time travel also creates alternate timelines, such as when Vance Astro went back in time and prevented his younger self from going into space without erasing himself from existence.
** ''Guardians 3000'' has another one, where Gladiator mentions having met Vance several hundred years ago, before figuring out it must be a Vance from the future.
* {{Transhuman}}: Martinex, Charlie-27, and Nikki are all from races of humans genetically modified to live on Pluto, Jupiter, and Mercury respectively. Also TranshumanAliens.
* {{Unobtanium}}:
** Harkovium, the mineral that allows ships to travel faster than light, named after the man who discovered it.
** At least one version of Vance Astro's outfit is made out of adamantium.
** The metal Yondu's yaka arrow is made of, which is only found on Alpha Centauri 4.
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Replica (a Skrull)
* TheWatcher: Uatu's still alive, still watching, still telling us he's the Watcher and that he's sworn never to interfere, and so forth.
* WorthyOpponent: The one who sent Captain America's shield into space? Doctor Doom, out of respect for the good captain and to stop the Badoon getting their hands on it.
* YouCantFightFate: Starhawk is in a stable time loop. He has tried fighting it, but due to Marvel's rules of time travel, it just creates alternate realities while his life continues repeating.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: The Stark planned to do this to the Badoon, once they were done controlling them.
----
[[caption-width-right:250:Marvel Cosmic Old School...]]
-->''"Earth shall overcome!"''
The Guardians of the Galaxy first appeared in ''Marvel Super-Heroes'' #18 (January, 1969), created by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan. They are a science fiction comic series set in the future, the 31st Century. An alien race known as the Badoon have conquered Earth in the year 3007 A.D., leading a telekinetic astronaut from the 20th Century (preserved by 1,000 years in suspended animation) to gather a team of heroes to free Earth. They eventually do, and go on to do other stuff.
The series ran in various Marvel Anthology books in the [[TheSeventies 1970s]], with guest appearances in ''ComicBook/TheDefenders'' and ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'' in between anthology runs. The characters' most notable appearance during these early years was in ''The Avengers'', during ''ComicBook/TheKorvacSaga''.
The characters vanished into limbo during the 1980s, but were revived and given their own book in 1990. Originally written and drawn by Jim Valentino (with only one fill-in artist, Mark Texiera, for a single issue), Valentino revived the book with gratuitous continuity nods to existing Marvel characters: these included a new Phoenix, Wolverine's evil great-great-great-granddaughter Rancor and her army of evil mutants, a revived Church of the Universal Truth, "The Punisher" militia, Doctor Doom (whose brain was implanted into Wolverine's body), and Mephisto's daughter among other things. The series was popular, but ultimately around issue #28, Jim Valentino jumped ship to go found Creator/ImageComics after the other founders made a surprise offer to let Valentino come with them.
The book was then turned over to Michael Gallagher, who resolved Valentino's various storylines before introducing a new opponent derived from elements of another 1970s sci-fi book (ComicBook/{{Killraven}}) into the franchise, causing the Guardians to fight the last Martian, Ripjak. The series lasted for 62 issues (June, 1990-July, 1995). It also had its own spin-off mini-series: ''Galactic Guardians'', which featured a ''lot'' of future versions of Marvel characters, including: [[ComicBook/JeanGrey Phoenix]] [[ComicBook/RachelSummers IX]], [[Comicbook/GhostRider the Spirit of Vengeance]], Mainframe (ComicBook/TheVision) and Hollywood (ComicBook/WonderMan).
They hadn't seen much use for a long time, before making the occasional appearances in the present day team's series and eventually a revival of the original team starred in a new series called ''Guardians 3000'' launched in Fall of 2014. It only lasted about eight issues, before being cancelled at the start of ''ComicBook/{{Secret Wars|2015}}''. After that, some members of the team reappeared in ''Guardians of Infinity'' alongside their modern-day counterparts. While the movies focused on the modern-day version of the Guardians, Yondu appeared as Peter Quill's father figure, as a reference to being one of the team's predecessors. In ''Vol. 2'', it's revealed that Yondu is a disgraced member of a group based on the original Guardians (though in the movies they never called themselves as such). At the end of the film this team decides to reunite.
----
!!''Guardians of the Galaxy (1969)'' Contains Examples of:
* AbsoluteCleavage: Very popular in the future -- used by the women ''and'' some of the men.
* ActionMom: Rancor.
* AdultFear: Starhawk and Aleta once retired and settled down, only for Aleta's father to find them and kill their children in front of them.
* AllForNothing:
** Vance Astro spent a thousand years travelling to Centauri IV, giving up everything and everyone, and going a teeny bit mad on the way there... only to find mankind beat him to it by several hundred years.
** ''Guardians 3000'' in a nutshell. The team do what they can to find out what's wrong with time, only for it all to come to nothing when the [[ComicBook/SecretWars2015 Final Incursion]] destroys all reality.
* AlternateHistory: When they go back in time to team up with Comicbook/TheAvengers, they change Major Victory's history, making their future an alternate timeline. The Earth-616 version of Vance Astrovik goes on to become Justice of the ComicBook/NewWarriors. Incidentally, this makes him the only person [[TimeyWimeyBall to be an Avenger twice as two separate people]] rather than just having one person with multiple identities. They've even technically met in JLA vs. Avengers, although we don't see them talking to each other. [[FridgeLogic And for some reason, they have slightly different powers and even different hair colours]].
* AnIcePerson: Martinex
* AnimeHair: Rancor, being Wolverine's descendant, has inherited his hairstyle, albeit taken UpToEleven.
* ArtificialLimbs: Yondu, [[spoiler:after Interface from Force uses his power to transmute matter to turn Yondu's hand to gas. Yondu gets a replacement, and still managed to remain an archer despite missing a hand.]]
* AscendedExtra: The whole freaking team. From a one-off story in ''Marvel Super-Heroes'', they didn't reappear for several years after, when Steve Gerber took a liking to them and gave them several appearances in ''Defenders''.
* AsYouKnow: The first issue has Martinex and Yondu reminisicisng over their past adventures. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] when Martinex points out he was there, and he can remember what happened.
* AxCrazy: Yondu tends to go ax crazy at the drop of a hat. This concept has been quietly dropped in his modern depictions, though he's still pretty ruthless.
* BadFuture: By and large averted, but the late 21st century sucked, what with the Martian invasion killing off most of Earth's heroes, and the Badoon invasion of the 31st century dramatically reducing mankind's numbers and turning Earth into a crapsack world.
* BeastMan: The first issue of the 90s series has the team saving a planet of dog-people from the Stark.
* BigBad: Usually the Badoon, but if not them then it's Michael Korvac.
* BigDamnHeroes:
** The Ancient One and Kruugarr save the Guardians from Korvac in this fashion.
** ''3000'' reintroduces Nikki in this fashion, blowing up a number of Stark units that were... [[NiceJobBreakingItHero talking with the team about potential solutions]].
* BodySurf: Korvac manages to cheat his first death by doing this, throughout multiple eras of history. It takes four tries for the Guardians to finally catch him.
* BoomHeadshot: In the final issue of ''3000'', Yondu plugs Korvac mid-monologue, telling Geena he could only do it because she'd got him going. Of course, since this is [[PhysicalGod Korvac]], he doesn't stay dead.
* ButNowIMustGo: Starhawk, immediately after being separated from Aleta, takes off. In the middle of a fight with the Stark. [[spoiler:It's so he can get Fire-Lord's attention, but he doesn't bother explaining these things ahead of time.]]
* CallBack:
** In ''3000'', due to a spot of time-travel, the original team meets the modern day Guardians, and they bicker about the shared name, along with the fact that the modern team had their own version of Major Victory.
** In issue 7, the two Guardian teams trace the temporal disturbances to [[ComicBook/TheKorvacSaga Forest Hills, Queens]].
* CasualTimeTravel: The team can hop back and forth between the 30th and 20th century easy.
** Defied in ''3000'', where the Badoon have found ways to prevent that. The team have to find a work-around using Galactus.
* CatGirl: Talon is a Cat Boy.
* CatchPhrase: "Earth shall overcome!"
* TheChosenOne: The 31st century Star-Lord, like his distant progenitor, was chosen for the role.
* ClingyCostume: In order to survive a thousand-year space journey, Vance Astro had to be vacuum sealed for his freshness. If his suit is breached, he'd age and die in seconds.
* CoolOldLady: Rael Rider is over two-hundred years old, and she's a Nova Centurion (the last, actually). She's also incredibly snarky.
* CoolSpaceship:
** The Guardians get around in ''The Captain America''. Except when it's being shot out of the sky. Then it was replaced with the ''Freedom's Lady''. Which also got shot out of the sky. Then they replaced it with a stolen Stark ship, ''The Captain America II''.
** In ''3000'', the Star-Lord of the 31st has inherited his predecessor's living ship, Ship.
* ConservationOfNinjitsu: When the Stark attack the Guardians, they have a harder time fighting them than the scout that attacked the team only the issue before.
* CrapsackWorld: It's a Marvel Comic. The 30th century is pretty awful.
** The ''Guardians 3000'' version manages to be worse. The Badoon are killing off (or have already killed off) almost every empire out there, and no-one seems to be able to stop them.
* {{Crossover}}: The 90s series had The Korvac Quest, spread through the annuals of ''Fantastic Four'', ''Thor'', ''Silver Surfer'' and ''Guardians'', as the team tracks Korvac's attempt to cheat death across time.
* CuteMonsterGirl: Despite her ridiculous hair and bad temper, Rancor is actually good-looking when she takes her mask off and stops snarling.
* {{Cyborg}}: Michael Korvac, one of the more dangerous enemies of the Guardians, had his legs removed by his Badoon overseers and replaced by a computer bank.
* UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks: It was the nineties, so some of the mores of the era do tend to crop up. Rancor, for example, is a walking poster-child of nineties clichés (ridiculous costume, ridiculous hair, misspelt name, Wolverine-knock off). That said, see LighterAndSofter.
* DeadpanSnarker: Charlie gets very snarky when Starhawk's around.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Stakar's response when Martinex points out marrying your adopted sister and having kids with her is pretty messed up.
* TheDividual: Starhawk and Aleta, on account of their sharing a physical space. She wasn't even considered a full member of the team for years.
* DontYouDarePityMe: A story set during the team's earliest days shows Major Victory wigging out when Charlie accidentally makes an insensitive comment, and apologising for it, about being stuck in his space-suit.
* DownerEnding: ''3000''. Hoo-boy. [[spoiler:The Guardians don't save their reality, and never could. Korvac's attempts to fix everything are scuppered by Doctor Doom's actions over in ''New Avengers'', and all reality goes down the tubes.]] Yay?
* EnfantTerrible: A baby Korvac, possessed by the essence of his future self, graphically kills his own father within ''seconds'' of being born.
* ExposedExtraterrestrials: Martinex is a crystalline transhuman from the planet Pluto. His body is composed entirely of crystal, and he never wears clothes.
* FantasticRacism:
** Nikki believes ReptilesAreAbhorrent, thanks to the Badoon near-annihilating her people when she was seven. This somehow extends to the disguised Skrull Replica before anyone suspects she might not be human.
** Racial strife between, at least, Jovians and Pluvians is alluded to briefly in the team's first appearance, but this was dropped in later comics and never mentioned again. After the Badoon were defeated, the unaltered humans of Earth were seen to mistreat Charlie and Martinex for their inhuman appearances; this partially motivated the reformation of the team and their return to the stars.
** The reason the Badoon want to kill every other life-form.
** And even in the 30th century, the poor Inhumans still get shafted. Mankind has colonised the Moon, and the Inhumans are forced to live on a reservation, with their movements constantly watched. And then the Badoon came a'calling...
* FieryRedhead: Nikki. Slight Aversion in that she's not quite a redhead so much as that being from the planet Mercury, the pores on her head are exhaust ports for a high, constant body heat. The result? Actual constant fire that looks like hair.
* FutureSlang: ''3000'' is filled with it. A lot of it makes the transition through to the team's appearance in ''Guardians of Infinity''.
* GangOfHats: The Punishers. Three guesses what that hat is, and the first two don't count.
* GenderBender: Starhawk, in ''3000'', changes gender depending on the iteration, while still being fully-aware of being a different gender. He/she mentions that as confusing as it may be for everyone else, it's even weirder for him/her.
* GreenLanternRing: The Silver Surfer has acquired Quasar's Quantum Bands.
* GroundhogDayLoop:
** Starhawk has a Groundhog Day Life.
** The first issue of ''Guardians 3000'' deals with a small one, where the team dies at the hands of the Badoon, implied to have been going on for some time.
* HandCannon: Geena gets one from Yondu in ''Guardians 3000'', one that's several degrees more powerful than the larger gun she already had, and won't knock her on her behind to boot.
* HalfHumanHybrid: Starhawk is the son of ComicBook/{{Quasar}} and [[ComicBook/AdamWarlock Her]], making him half human, half orange-skinned [[ArtificialHuman Artificial Being]].
* {{Heavyworlder}}: Charlie-27, like all of Jupiter's inhabitants.
* HistoryRepeats: In ''3000'', there's a human named Rider, who's a Nova centurion, the last even, stuck with the Worldmind for company, once more.
* HumanPopsicle: Major Victory spent one thousand years, on-and-off, as one, on his way to the Centauri system.
* IJustKnew: Starhawk (Stakar, not Aleta): Starhawk's [[CatchPhrase Catch Phrase]] was 'Accept the word of One Who Knows.' What he would tell Martinex later is that Stakar was not a precognitive; he was fated to go back in time, and his disembodied consciousness [[GroundhogDayLoop inhabit his infant body to start all over again]].
* LadyLand: Planet Stark is a {{Matriarchy}} where men are second-class citizens at best. Some male Stark aren't even given names, having to earn them.
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: In ''3000'', the team have forgotten all about Nikki thanks to time falling apart at the seams.
* LastOfHisKind:
** The premise starts here; the [[LizardFolk Badoon]] have attacked, and the four originals are survivors of their worlds. [[spoiler:Yondu, from Centauri IV in the Alpha Centauri system, eventually discovers that a large number of his people survived and saves them from Galactus.]]
** Rael Rider, in ''3000'', is the last Nova Corps member alive.
* LegacyCharacter: Major Victory for Captain America, amongst others.
** Rancor is a villain legacy for Wolverine.
** The first issue of Guardians 3000 introduces the 31st century Star-Lord, Peter Quill's descendant.
** Issue 3 introduces a descendant of [[ComicBook/{{Nova}} Richard Rider]]. She is also a Nova.
* LetsYouAndHimFight:
** Gets a LampshadeHanging when the team travels back to the 90s. Starhawk has them teleport into the Fantastic Four's reception, rather than Reed Richard's main lab, because otherwise they'll get into a pointless fight. Since they don't, nobody fights, and Reed instead helps them. Starhawk notes it happens to them a lot.
** Just narrowly averted by the team when they run into the Bendis-era modern day team in ''3000''. Afterwards, they talk about how this is what ''usually'' happens when superhero teams meet.
* LighterAndSofter: The mission statement of the 90s series, surrounded by the grimness of 90s comic books, was to be a throwback to Bronze or Silver Age style stories.
* MamaBear: Aleta is ''incredibly'' pissed off at Stakar for the death of their children (since he could've known about it or tried to prevent it). And yet Mainframe expects her to forgive him just like that.
* TheManBehindTheMan: The Badoon in ''Guardians 3000'' are being controlled by someone. It turns out to be the Stark.
* MassTeleportation
* {{Mutant}}: Most of the Mutants took for the stars centuries back. Vance Astro happened to miss that particular bus.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Marshach, a friend of the Silver Surfer's in the 26th century, has this reaction when he uses his RealityWarper powers to try and kill the Guardians (who are trying to remove that power from him, since it belongs to Korvac).
* MyOwnGrampa: A throwaway line in ''3000'' has the Star Lord of the 31st century discover that he's Peter Quill's ''ancestor'', not his descendant.
* NarratingTheObvious: Given the time the first series was made, it's a given.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
** Centuries back, Tony Stark launched all his Iron Man technology into space in an attempt to stop the Martians getting it. It crashed landed on an alien planet, and was found by the locals, who eventually figured out how to use it, and became galactic conquerors.
** In ''3000'', rather than launching his tech into space, Stark creating A-Sentience, designed to become active when the Avengers died. After a thousand years, their programming's gone a bit wrong, and their solution tends to involve murdering the Guardians.
** The Guardians manage to talk the A-Sentience down momentarily, and are just about to suggest working together when Nikki bursts in shooting. A-Sentience resets to their default plan: KillEmAll.
* NotBloodSiblings: Stakar and Aleta are a married couple with three kids. They're also adopted siblings.
* NotSoOmniscientAfterAll: Starhawk is the One Who Knows, so when he ''doesn't'' know, he tends to react poorly.
* NowWhat: Happened to the team in the 70s. They'd founded to defeat the Badoon. And with the help of the Defenders, and the Sisterhood of the Badoon, they'd done just that. So what now? Fortunately, humankind solves that question by being so awful the Guardians decide to take off into space to ''actually'' guard the galaxy(s).
* OhCrap: In the first issue of ''Guardians 3000'', the fact that Starhawk ''doesn't'' know what's going on serves as a big one for all concerned.
* OhMyGods: Charlie and Marty tend to swear by Harkov, the guy who discovered faster-than-light travel.
* OldMaster: The Ancient One, or as he used to be known, Doctor Stephen Strange.
* OnlyTheChosenMayWield: The shield of Captain America, which is guarded by Mainframe (formerly known as the Vision), who tests the Guardians to see who should wield it. Major Victory eventually gets it.
** Hollywood, formerly known as Wonder Man, initially objects to the idea of Major Victory wielding the shield, but he soon comes around.
* OnlyYouCanRepopulateMyRace: Yondu, to Photon. Unfortunately, Photon's an atheist and Yondu is sworn to murder any of his kind who are. Although it was ''she'' who was trying to kill ''him''. [[spoiler:No one ended up killing anyone, although he caught her off-guard and badly hurt her at one point. (Valentino intended them to ''eventually'' get together, but it never panned out.)]]
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: The Zoms, henchmen of the Badoon are created using cybernetic implants.
* PlanetEater: Galactus is still around. Averted in ''3000'', where he's "sleeping" [[spoiler:as he waits for reality to collapse completely and the next version to begin]].
* PlanetOfHats: The Stark are ProudWarriorRaceGuys and PlanetLooters.
* PlayingWithFire: Firelord, Martinex, and Nikki (Nikki, who was in a relationship with Charlie-27 at one point, and had to immerse herself in water to cool down enough so they could touch).
* PoorCommunicationKills: Rather than explain to the Silver Surfer that an old friend of his is possessed by Korvac's power, the team instantly demand to remove it without explaining ''why''. Cue a fight between them and an angry Silver Surfer.
* PowerCopying: The Protege can permanently duplicate any powers and skills he sees, all the way up to the CosmicEntity level. He's also [[GooGooGodlike a child]]. This quickly leads to AGodAmI.
* PurpleIsPowerful: Major Victory's first outfit, the molecular shell keeping him from dying, was solid purple.
* PutOnABus:
** ''Guardians 3000'' just has Vance, Charlie, Marty and Starhawk around, with no sign of the other Guardians. Nikki reappears in issue 4, but that's about it for the rest of them.
** Aleta gets a mention by Nikki in issue 4, when she mistakes Starhawk for her (Justifiable, since they have been known to dress similarly, and Stakar at that point was female, though Stakar's hair is brown, while Aleta is blond).
* {{Rewrite}}: Despite apparently being set in the same universe as the original series, with the same characters, there are a few differences in ''Guardians 3000'', like the Stark not being a matriarchal warrior society, and instead Tony Stark's tech gone wrong, or the team-members missing for whatever reason, or Galactus "sleeping" when previous depictions of the 30th century showed he was still very much around. Justified, since a recurring theme of the series is that time is falling apart.
* SecretTestOfCharacter: Mainframe gives the team one of these to see whether they're worthy enough to wield Captain America's shield. Aleta and Nikki fail theirs, Aleta because she won't forgive Stakar for the death of their children, Nikki because her FantasticRacism lead her to try and murder Scanner the Snark.
* SharingABody: Starhawk and Aleta, from their first appearance. They were [[NotBloodRelated adopted siblings]] who encountered a device that made them share the same physical space, so only one of them could manifest at a time. They made the most of it by getting married. Everything seemed okay until Aleta started falling for Vance... and their children were killed
* TheSingularity: A-Sentience, in 3000, is a hive-mind of Stark Tech.
* SlasherSmile: Rancor was responsible for pulling off some [[https://imgur.com/a/KzmAIXW positively]] [[https://imgur.com/a/eBYbCEX terrifying]] ones whenever she wasn't snarling or frowning.
%%* SmartGuy: Martinex
%%* TheStoic: How Starhawk appears.
* SuddenlyEthnicity: Martinex is revealed at one point to be of African descent.
* ThatManIsDead: Mainframe is very insistent that he's not the Vision any more.
* ThouShaltNotKill: Averted in several instances, unlike most of Marvel's heroes the Guardians aren't big on this one. In one instance, Nikki tries to kill Scanner outright.
* TimeCrash: ''3000'' centers around one. Reality keeps shifting, usually in ways that make the Guardians' lives worse, making allies vanish or forget they ever existed. As Galactus reveals, [[spoiler:there's no saving the Guardian's home time because there's no time to ''save''. Reality's dead and gone, and the Guardians are just clinging to the fragments.]]
* TimeyWimeyBall:
** Time is unchangeable, which is why Starhawk is stuck in his GroundhogDayLoop. Time travel also creates alternate timelines, such as when Vance Astro went back in time and prevented his younger self from going into space without erasing himself from existence.
** ''Guardians 3000'' has another one, where Gladiator mentions having met Vance several hundred years ago, before figuring out it must be a Vance from the future.
* {{Transhuman}}: Martinex, Charlie-27, and Nikki are all from races of humans genetically modified to live on Pluto, Jupiter, and Mercury respectively. Also TranshumanAliens.
* {{Unobtanium}}:
** Harkovium, the mineral that allows ships to travel faster than light, named after the man who discovered it.
** At least one version of Vance Astro's outfit is made out of adamantium.
** The metal Yondu's yaka arrow is made of, which is only found on Alpha Centauri 4.
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Replica (a Skrull)
* TheWatcher: Uatu's still alive, still watching, still telling us he's the Watcher and that he's sworn never to interfere, and so forth.
* WorthyOpponent: The one who sent Captain America's shield into space? Doctor Doom, out of respect for the good captain and to stop the Badoon getting their hands on it.
* YouCantFightFate: Starhawk is in a stable time loop. He has tried fighting it, but due to Marvel's rules of time travel, it just creates alternate realities while his life continues repeating.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: The Stark planned to do this to the Badoon, once they were done controlling them.
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