Line #5 YMMV/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy


1	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Some like to think Peter's movie-inspired characterization in the comics is in part the character putting on a StepfordSmiler routine (which, given the sheer amount of horrific crap he's been through, wouldn't exactly be a stretch...). Even Creator/AlEwing has raised the idea in interviews.
2	* AudienceAlienatingEra: Some fans believe Volume 3 was this to the Guardians due to the excessive changes in the book, which are thought to have been at least partially driven by Bendis' infamous tendency to disregard established continuity in favour of doing his own thing. Bendis has defended his creative decisions by saying he wanted to respect the [=DnA=] era by not trying to imitate it, but for many fans this still doesn't justify the extent of the changes he made with regards to things like character, setting and tone.
3	* BaseBreakingCharacter: Angela, who is either a badass ActionGirl who complements Gamora, or a bland character and a pointless addition to TheTeam ''because'' she fills the same role as Gamora.
4	* BrokenBase:
5	** A rift seems to have developed between fans of the most recent team led by Star-Lord and fans of the original team. Especially when the 2014 film was merely being talked about, and was set to include Star-Lord's team; which eventually turned out to be the case.
6	** The biggest fight in the franchise history is between fans of the [=DnA=] (Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning) era and fans of the Creator/BrianMichaelBendis era of the Star-Lord team. The former believe Bendis took everything that made special about the Guardians like the big space sagas or the serious tone of their characters and replaced it with Avengers type stories filled with characters that are caricatures of their former selves; while the latter believe Bendis did many things to improve the franchise like making the characters more likable and appealing for a wider audience or giving them a more important role in the Marvel Universe instead of just letting them play in their own corner separated from the rest.
7	** Starcat, the relationship between Peter Quill and Kitty Pryde. Some despise it and feel it came out of nowhere just for the sake of making 'Kitty dates a lot of Peters' jokes and because of Bendis' well known love for Kitty, while others found it quite endearing and enjoyed it due to their fun, committed and flirty dynamic.
8	* CantUnhearIt: In light of the MCU ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'' movies, just try reading any of Rocket's dialogue without hearing Creator/BradleyCooper's voice in your head. Some older fans might still apply this to Greg Ellis' takes from ''Marvel vs Capcom 3'' and ''Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes''.
9	* CompleteMonster: See [[Monster/MarvelComics here]].
10	* EnsembleDarkhorse:
11	** Rocket himself was fairly popular with fans even before the Guardians. Especially with Hulk's fans due to his first canonical appearance in the Marvel Universe being in Hulk's book.
12	** As far as other Halfworlders go, there are two standout examples. First is Blackjack O'Hare, Rocket Raccoon's rival and the only character from Rocket's original mini besides Rocket himself to have anything resembling a recurring role after the Rocket joined the Guardians. His popularity with both fans and writers has lead to him showing up in several of Rocket's solo titles, appearing in a handful of animated shorts to oppose Rocket, and possibly joining the Guardians of the Galaxy as well on a secondary team lead by Gamora under Al Ewing's run on the series.
13	** The second is Captain Sale, a female Halfworld Raccoon who played a fairly major role in Rocket's 2014 solo series, making her more or less the only remaining Halfworlder to have a major role in any recent works.
14	* FanNickname:
15	** ''[=DnA=]'' for the creative team behind the 2008 series, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning.
16	** Gotgino (''Guardians of the Galaxy'' InNameOnly) for Bendis run on the series.
17	* FanonDiscontinuity: The Cancerverse arc (the tie-in to ''ComicBook/OriginalSin'') is considered to be the ultimate low point of Bendis's run (which directly contradicts large swathes of the ending to ''ComicBook/TheThanosImperative'' and has inconsistently spelled named among other issues), with many fans wanting to forget it. The Nova tie-in to ComicBook/TheBlackVortex may or may not have iturned this into CanonDiscontinuity as well depending on how one interprets the images the Black Vortex shows the new Nova.
18	* HilariousInHindsight:
19	** Yondu's people subscribe to a belief they call "[[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994 The Circle of Life]]". Not helping is a scene where Yondu tells Photon she could "break the Circle".
20	** In one issue of vol 2., the Guardians fight an alien invasion in New York. [[Film/TheAvengers2012 Sound familiar?]] Even better, they're fighting in the exact place the Avengers gathered. History never repeats, but sometimes it rhymes, indeed.
21	** In the ''Rocket and Groot'' back-up story from ''Annihilators: Earthfall'', Mojo [[ItMakesSenseInContext sends "action figure variants" of Rocket]] into combat, identified with toy ads boasting a "Build-A-Groot" collectible figure. Sure enough, the Marvel Legends series for ''Guardians of the Galaxy'' has such a figure included in pieces with each toy.
22	* InformedWrongness: Aleta is apparently wrong to be angry at Starhawk, despite the fact that due to his origins he could have done something to prevent the deaths of their children, never mind the fact that he never took the time to try and allow them to exist as separate beings before the Stark attack.
23	* ItsPopularNowItSucks: Zig-zagged. While fans couldn't be happier with seeing their favourite characters on screen, many of them are less enthusiastic about the massive push their comic counterparts have been given as a result. This is generally thought to be due to a combination of Bendis' perceived ''Avengers''-style writing and continuity slip-ups (covered elsewhere on this page), and the characters being shoehorned into massive crossover events like ''Civil War II'' and ''Secret Empire'' [[note]](while the Guardians had been involved in crossovers before, those at least took place within the cosmic setting)[[/note]].
24	* LesYay: The 2013 series and the Secret Wars miniseries "Guardians of Knowhere" have quite a few of these moments between Angela and Gamora.
25	-->'''Intercom:''' Will you marry me?\
26	'''Angela:''' You're too short, Rocket.\
27	'''Intercom:''' This is Gamora.\
28	'''Angela:''' I'll consider it.
29	* MemeticBadass: "I AM GROOT!"
30	* MyRealDaddy:
31	** The original team was created by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan, based on an idea of Roy Thomas's, but in the Silver Age, Steve Gerber was the one who wrote them the most at that time, including introducing Starhawk and Nikki to the team. On the visual front, Dave Cockrum gets MRD points for redesigning the team's outfits to their more recognisable ones. In the 90s, Jim Valentino may have kick-started the ongoing, but Mike Gallagaher was the one who wrote it from issue #29 to its cancellation at issue #62, alongside artist and co-plotter Kevin West.
32	** For the modern day team, the credit goes to Keith Giffen, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. Giffen was the one who, in the first ''ComicBook/{{Annihilation}}'' crossover and in the ''Annihilation: Conquest - Starlord'' miniseries, decided to reintroduce old cosmic characters who had fallen into disuse for years or even decades, such as Star-Lord, Gamora, Rocket Raccoon, Mantis, and Groot. Abnett and Lanning then took the reins from Giffen with their ongoing ''Guardians of the Galaxy'' series, which established most of the things generally thought of as being the defining elements of the Guardians and its characters.
33	* {{Narm}}:
34	** The first enemy the team faces in the 90s series is a terrifying foe by the name of... Taserface. It's narm in-universe as well. And then he gets his name changed to the name of ''Overkill''.
35	*** To say nothing of his horrifying '''FACE BEAMS!''' (the emphasis and over-dramatic delivery are from the comic).
36	** Yondu's people believe in "the Circle of Life". It makes it hard to read through his and Photon's scenes and keep a straight face.
37	* NightmareFuel: [[NightmareFuel/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy The franchise has its own page]]
38	* OlderThanTheyThink: The five most famous members of the team debuted far before the team was established in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse (and way before most people who were introduced to them in the movie think).
39	** Groot debuted in ''Tales to Astonish Vol. 1 #13'' (1960).
40	** Drax debuted in ''ComicBook/IronMan Vol. 1 #55'' (1973).
41	** Gamora debuted in ''Strange Tales Vol. 1 #180'' (1975).
42	** Star-Lord debuted in ''Marvel Preview Vol. 1 #4'' (1976).
43	** Rocket debuted in ''Marvel Preview Vol. 1 #7'' (1976).
44	* PopularWithFurries: Rocket Raccoon has managed to make it big in the UsefulNotes/FurryFandom ever since appearing in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'', thanks to his role as a main character. [[OlderThanTheyThink He has actually appeared in other media before it]], it's just that Rocket's appearance here (and possibly the comic beforehand) is when his rise in popularity within the furry fanbase truly began.
45	* {{Squick}}:
46	** Starhawk marrying his sister and having kids with her. Even if they are ''adopted'' siblings, it's still pretty messed up.
47	** The scene from Vol 2 of the alien squid monster thing forcing its way down Moondragon's throat, complete with ''lovingly'' drawn froth... gaaah.
48	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks:
49	** Volume 2 not featuring the same team who were in the original series.
50	** Some fans were not 'pleased' with Star-Lord's retro inspired redesign nor Gamora's costume changes for Volume 3. Star-Lord undergoing another makeover later on the run, this time to his costume from the film, wasn't recieved very well either. Although many fans seemed to prefer this change to his last 2 costume changes.
51	*** Older fans of Quill aren't too fond of the changes made to Quill since 2012, and even more so the changes made to make him more like his movie-self.
52	** Rocket Raccoon:
53	*** In volume 3, he's not as well liked as he was in volume 2, mainly because of how he gleefully shouts about murdering enemies, and because he now seems to have a disdain for Earth, both traits that had not been there before. On top of that, his origins being changed from a mutated raccoon to a member of a race of aliens that look like raccoons.
54	*** As of issues 7 and 8, both complaints about Rocket Raccoon seem to have been addressed, as Rocket referenced his original origin and other characters have discouraged Rocket from using his new catchphrase as they find it "annoying and disturbing."
55	*** Rocket's origin and species seems to constantly flip-flop from issue to issue.
56	** ''Bring back [=DnA=]'' (Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning) was their fandom's catchphrase. Sadly Abnett and Lanning no longer work together and Abnett (the only one of the team who remained at Marvel) decided to go exclusive with DC after the failure of his last cosmic comic "Guardians of Infinity".
57	** Volume 3 being more Earth-focused than either previous series, with the inclusions of [[SpotlightStealingSquad Iron Man, Captain Marvel and Agent Venom]] being commonly pointed to.
58	** Drax suddenly talking like his "Space Hulk" persona from the 90's despite his character development given by Keith Giffen, Abnett and Lanning.
59	** Venom's race being changed from space parasites called Symbiotes to noble space warriors that are easily corrupted called Klyntar.
60	* ValuesDissonance: Gerber's run with the original team has the characters and narrative throw a ''lot'' of casual and not-so-casual racism Yondu's way, with the words "savage" and "primitive" used many times, and at one point the narration even stating Yondu's mind is "too primitive" to understand why Nikki uses sarcasm.
61	* {{Wangst}}: Yondu's heartbroken reaction to being separated from Photon, and acts like he's lost the love of his life. Except he's only known her for ten minutes, and she spent those ten minutes trying to kill him, and expounding how much she hated her species, and its culture, and was honestly glad the Badoon had tried to wipe them out.
62	* WinBackTheCrowd: Gerry Duggan's run was seen as a welcome improvement for the title following Bendis' Earth-centric, crossover-heavy "Avengers in space" run. It introduces elements from the films without them feeling too forced (such as Star-Lord's mixtapes), while at the same time incorporating concepts from Starlin's classic sagas (such as Soul World).
63	** The following volume by Donny Cates continued this trend. Cates' run shifted the team's line-up away from the more movie focused teams from the past few years, brought back fan favorite members like Moondragon and Phyla-Vell, and even incorporated other fan favorite cosmic heroes like Beta Ray Bill.
64	** [[ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2020 Al Ewing's run]] is mostly seen as a full return to form for the team in terms of theme and character portrayals. Rocket Raccoon, a victim of constant retcons and OutOfCharacter since Bendis' run, was mostly in line with his portrayals from his classic series and Abnett and Lanning's Guardian's run. Other notable victims such as Gamora were addressed and given in universe explanations and several [[ContinuitySnarl Continuity Snarls]] including Rocket's origins and [[spoiler:616-Moondragon falsely being declared dead]] were addressed and fixed.

Context YMMV / GuardiansOfTheGalaxy