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Trivia / Guardians of the Galaxy

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  • Executive Meddling: Starhawk was supposed to be turned evil and killed off, but the editors wouldn't let Valentino. His departure allowed Michael Gallagher (who did like the character) to keep him around and redeem him.
  • Science Marches On: Understandable for some things, when the team was introduced in the 60s. Descriptions of Martinex's home planet of Pluto, for example, have changed several times over the years as real world knowledge of it has changed. For example, pretty much no depiction of it ever got it right that it's mostly brown.
  • What Could Have Been:
    • Roger Stern had several ideas for the "Marvel Presents" run, including an exploration of what magic was like in the 31st century, based on the fact the Doctor Strange villain Sise-Neg came from that same era, as well as the Guardians making a return to Earth.
    • Jim Valentino has an entire thread here for this Trope. Essentially: Starhawk and Vance Astro would both die, the team would fight Kang and several of their groups of enemies (who would be redesigned to turn them into even more blatant Legion of Super-Heroes analogues), the Protege would turn out to be the Beyonder, and by the end of Valentino's planned run, the group would morph into a Legion of Super-Heroes type organization with a roster of over several dozen heroes.
      • After Jim Valentino proposed the Guardians of the Galaxy 1990 series be set in the 31st century, Tom DeFalco suggested the series be set in the 35th century, an idea used for the Galactic Guardians in issue #8, and a planned "Galactic Guardians" miniseries. Issue #19 was to feature the 1000 year old Wolverine after Rancor had already appropriated his skeleton. A character based on The Beast was featured instead. Issue #22 was to be titled "Enter: Shadowhawk", the new name for the dark Starhawk. This was overturned by Tom DeFalco, and the name was used for an Image character instead. Jim Valentino's run ends at #27 and does not officially count #28-29, two throwaway plots brainstormed with Rob Liefeld before leaving the book. The two issues were intended to have a Masters of Evil team with Absorbing Man and Yellowjacket II, who would betray the team, ally with the Guardians, and leave Vance Astro at the Avengers Mansion, with guest appearances by the New Warriors and Marvel Boy.
      • Issues #30-51, if continued by Jim Valentino, would have continued the plot of the Guardians in the 20th century, meeting the Starhawk re-living his life in an earlier time period mentioned in #7, and the repercussions of Vance idolizing Captain America in #30-34. #35-36 would have featured a War of the Worlds and Killraven story. #37-39 would take place in one of Kang's alternate realities. #40 would be a double-sized issue featuring a wedding between Vance and Aleta, with an older future Gladiator flashing back to the wedding in #41-43 and the future Galactics encountering a remnant of the Shi'Ar Empire confronting the Badoon invasion. Doctor Doom, appearing in #23, would have returned in #44. #45-50 would be the grand finale featuring the invasion of Earth and the death of Galactus and Vance Astro. #51 would be the epilogue, featuring Vance's funeral, followed by a year's worth of stories exploring new worlds with no ties to the Marvel Universe. Other story plans included the female Adam Warlock joining the Galactic Guardians, and Yondu's god Anthos being somehow related to Thanos. Another miniseries was planned to follow after the funeral, focusing on the evolution of the Guardians from 500 years in the future, with thousands of members, including those who abused their powers as dictators of other worlds.
      • Major Victory was named after a Timely character. Vance travelling into the past during Timely Comics' creation would have established a stable time loop by leading to the creation of the company Marvel Comics.
      • Jim Valentino proposed a Guardians of the Galaxy reboot similar to Supreme Power, with four story arcs outlined.
    • The now iconic Abnett and Lanning relaunch of the franchise (the one that would later serve as the basis for the movie) almost didn't happen. Originally, the plan was to use Annihilation: Conquest as a Backdoor Pilot for a new Quasar series starring Phyla-Vell. However, the readers really responded to the subplot about Peter Quill leading a Dirty Dozen-style team of cosmic criminals on a suicide mission, so the decision was made to have the surviving characters band together as a new team of Guardians.
    • Al Ewing originally planed for the 2020 series to be much darker in tone than it already was, which was reflected by the Arc Words "Things can always get worse." However he soon felt that the planned story was going in too depressing of a direction and toned these elements down as he prepared to start the New Age of Space era.
  • Word of God: Roger Stern devised his own explanation to explain the contradiction of superheroes existing in the same timeline as Killraven, which involved the Counter-Earth from Warlock, but never got a chance to put it in an actual issue.
  • Writer on Board: Roger Stern killed off Starhawk and Aleta's kids because he felt they weren't a match for the character and just got in the way.
  • Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: Steve Gerber had no idea where the plot with Starhawk and Aleta was going, which was something of a problem for Roger Stern when he took over mid-story, and had to improvise.


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