Guardians of the Galaxy: 5 things to know before playing

Guardians of the Galaxy

Many things can be said, positive and negative, about the colossal film operation set up by Disney and Marvel Studios in the last ten years, but it is certainly curious that this combination has managed to transform franchises and characters into a multi-billion dollar business that until recently did not nobody was spinning. Because, let's face it, Guardians of the Galaxy fans up until 2014 were literally four cats: the film directed by James Gunn redefined these antiheroes, giving them a visibility and media prominence that has influenced practically every medium, including, of course, the videogames.

The Guardians will be the protagonists of a game of their own, developed by Eidos Montréal on behalf of Square Enix, the same publisher of the controversial Marvel's Avengers. In the coming days our review will express itself on this new single player adventure in third person, but if you know little about these characters and want to know more in the round, we have prepared 5 things to know about the Guardians of the Galaxy ranging from comics to movies , videogames.

The formation

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, the complete team Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy by Square Enix is ​​not inspired by any particular story, but many will have recognized the five protagonists for the simple fact that Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket and Groot are the Guardians made famous by the Marvel Studios movies. Perhaps not everyone knows, however, that this is only one of the many formations that have passed through the same, high-sounding name. The Guardians of the Galaxy, in fact, make their debut in # 18 of the Marvel Super-Heroes series which dates back to 1969: they are Vance Astro, Martinex T'Naga, Captain Charlie-27 and Yondu Udonta. The latter will then inspire the character played by Michael Rooker in the cinema. The others are names that will say practically nothing to anyone, and in fact belong to that "cosmic side" of Marvel made up of unusual and surreal characters. After that 1969 issue, we will have to wait until 1974 and the writer Steve Gerber, who will recover the team for some short stories in the Marvel Two-In-One and Defenders series.

The Guardians' editorial run continues for years in fits and starts, while the authors constantly changed the lineup. Despite this, the first iteration of the team now considered "mainstream" appears for the first time only in 2008, following the events told in the fantastic cycle of stories Annihilation and Annihilation: Conquest. It is the team that will inspire the films, but the characters are very different from those seen in the cinema, both in the storylines, much more articulated, and in appearance: Star-Lord, for example, has a cyber eye.

The tones of their adventures are even more serious and dramatic and in fact we will have to wait until 2012 and the prolific writer Brian Michael Bendis - who had relaunched Spider-Man in the Ultimate editorial line and created the character of Miles Morales - to the detour to science fiction comedy.

The success of the films would then induce Marvel to align the comic book series with film productions through infinite ret-con, while continuing to partially modify the lineup with temporary annexes that included Iron Man, among others, Agent Venom, Kitty Pryde of the X-Men and the Thing of the Fantastic Four. An iteration of the Guardians of the Galaxy also appears as a cameo in the film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: they are the Ravagers of Sylvester Stallone, who plays their leader Starhawk. Today most fans identify the Guardians in the actors who have lent their faces to the cinema and who, in a sense, have taken off professionally thanks to the extraordinary success of the films: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana and Dave Bautista (Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel only give voice to Rocket and Groot respectively).

The game is full of easter eggs

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, a fight as Star-Lord The video game of Eidos Montréal follows the cinematographic formation also in the look, albeit with some small divergences and in the trailer we have seen some supporting actors like Mantis, a sign that the winks are not limited to that.

We can in fact expect that the title, despite it stands on its legs, is chock full of tributes, references and quotes to films and comics, just as happened with Marvel's Avengers which, beyond any criticism, the fanservice did it very well. Only the trailer is peppered with goodies that true Guardians fans will likely have picked up on. For example, in the scene with Mantis calling him "Sun-Lord" in the easter egg there are actually two: one refers to the recurring gag in the movies, in which no one ever recognizes Peter, while the other is about his origins before. Brian Michael Bendis rewrote them. Peter, in fact, obtains the title of Star-Lord and his elemental pistol from an entity called Master of the Sun in Marvel Preview # 4, dated 1976.

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, Cosmo the dog telepath Any other examples? In the trailers there is also Cosmo, the dog seen in the movies, a prisoner in the Collector's museum. Cosmo had been sent into space by the Soviet program and, after being bombarded by cosmic rays and having acquired telepathic powers, had arrived in Everywhere, quickly becoming responsible for security. Later, he temporarily joined the Guardians of the Galaxy as well: his role in the video game, however, is still unknown. In the trailer we also see the Nova Corps, much more similar to the space cops from the movies than the super-beings from the comics, and Peter Quill's characteristic elemental gun, which however is not in the movies. Another tasty easter egg? The Blood Brothers, the big alien thugs who attack Star-Lord in a scene from the trailer, first appear in the comics in 1973's Iron Man issue 55. Do you know who else appears in that same book signed by Jim Sterlin? Drax is none other than Thanos. If only the Guardians of the Galaxy trailers are so full of quotes, let alone the full game.

The Cinematic Guardians

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, the Nova Corps As we said, the movies were certainly the main source of inspiration for the Square Enix game. On a character level, the characters are very similar, if not identical, and even the internal conflicts of this bizarre extended family remain for good or bad the same. It is necessary to understand how much the game casts its hand on feelings, given that however the two films by James Gunn were also able to move. Released in theaters in 2014 and 2017, Guardians of the Galaxy and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 were an extraordinary success with audiences and critics.

Prior to 2014, James Gunn had only directed two films: Slither and Super, but he had written a lot of material for TV and film, including Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Living Dead. Producer Kevin Feige and director Joss Whedon, who directed the first Avengers, had chosen Gunn for an experiment as Guardians of the Galaxy precisely because he had the right crazy ideas: after all we were talking about films in which a cyber-raccoon and a tree talking, they saved the universe

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, a scene from the game Despite being an adventurous space comedy - many have defined it as Marvel Studios' Star Wars - Guardians of the Galaxy faced perhaps trivial but always current issues : we choose the family, anyone can be a hero and so on. The second film also treads the hand on feelings, when Gunn introduces the character of Ego, a celestial played by Kurt Russel who turns out to be the father of Star-Lord (in the comics, however, the story is very different). The heterogeneous cast and the charm of a somewhat sketchy, but fundamentally good team broke into the hearts of viewers, awarding the first film with nearly $ 800 million in global gross.

Although existing in one of its bubbles, the first Guardians of the Galaxy was fundamental to give a true and proper the so-called Infinity Saga: it is in this film, in fact, that Thanos has his first important scenes , after only appearing between the credits of Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, the team in front of a monstrous alien Guardians of the Galaxy also introduces the Infinity Stones once and for all and paves the way for all subsequent developments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Despite this, fans had to wait for Avengers: Infinity War to see the Guardians of the Galaxy interact with other Marvel heroes like Iron Man, Thor and Spider-Man. Despite having a small role, the Guardians perform very important functions for better or for worse: it is Star-Lord who, basically, allows Thanos to complete his Gauntlet, while it is Groot who sacrifices an arm to complete Thor's Stormbreaker and allow the God of Thunder to save the Avengers in Wakanda. Avengers: Endgame, then, grants a crucial space to the character of Nebula, first a nemesis and then an ally of the Guardians, and potentially puts Gamora back into play, which Thanos sacrifices in Infinity War to conquer the Soul Stone. The lineup at the end of the Infinity Saga has therefore changed from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: the team lost Gamora, but gained no less than Thor as a member.

The James Gunn controversy

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, a fight The success of Guardians of the Galaxy is unquestionably due to the vision of James Gunn, who as we said has influenced every other medium linked to the franchise. Except, at some point, we went so far as to lose that vision. In 2018, in fact, Disney became aware of a series of tweets that Gunn had written ten years earlier. In these bad taste tweets, Gunn made fun of rape and pedophilia: the director admitted that they wanted to be provocative at a time when he was trying to get talked about and that in the meantime he grew up humanly and professionally, but Disney fired him anyway. for putting the studios in a bad light in a delicate moment like what is commonly called "#MeToo era".

Gunn's departure, however, had a devastating effect on social media, which immediately denounced the hypocrisy of this choice. The star system has tightened around Gunn: the actors who play the Guardians have signed a letter in which they found it absurd that Disney would not give a second chance to the director who has directed two successful films focused on second chances.

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, Groot and Rocket Ideally, the cast wouldn't have wanted to return for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 but Disney was adamant and, as they say, money is money. Bound by contracts and quibbles, the actors had to scale down the protest and ask only that the film use at least Gunn's script, which had already laid the plot in previous films: in the third chapter, in fact, the director would have turned the spotlight on Rocket. - a character who in his opinion reflects him deeply - and on the Gamora of the past left around after the events of Avengers: Endgame.

After unsuccessfully trying to mediate a return, Gunn in the meantime had found another job at Warner Bros. who, always in trouble with his schizophrenic DC Universe cinematic, had not missed the opportunity and l 'had precept to regenerate a franchise in some ways very similar to Guardians of the Galaxy, namely Suicide Squad. Failed to launch this heterogeneous team of super villains with the bad film by David Ayer, we tried again with James Gunn at the helm and a sort of reboot that kept only a part of the original cast.

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, in the game we will visit strange alien worlds We tell you right away: if you liked the two Guardians of the Galaxy, recover The Suicide Squad. Released a few months ago, the film was a critical success, but a flop at the box office: it is indeed a really well made, compelling and carefully shot cinecomic. Above all, you really feel Gunn's spirit and his sensitivity; in a way he is literally the Guardians of the Galaxy in the controversial DCEU. Only without a galaxy.

Disney must have understood that a good movie could come out of it, who at one point risked seeing one of their crown jewels move to the competition without looking back. And so, towards the end of 2018, Walt Disney Studios creative director Alan F. Horn again hired Gunn for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 which, in the meantime, with no director and no writers, had slipped by years on the calendar. of the outputs. Gunn willingly agreed, provided he finished work on Suicide Squad and its spin-off TV series Peacemaker first. Filming for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will begin next month and will continue hand in hand with Guardians of the Galaxy: Holyday Special, a mysterious production that we will see at Christmas 2022. The film, on the other hand, will be released in theaters in May 2023.

Guardians video games

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, there will also be the space station Everywhere We conclude this roundup of curiosities by returning to the starting point: video games. Marvel's Guardian of the Galaxy isn't actually the first title to focus on these characters. In 2017, in fact, Telltale made a graphic adventure in five episodes entitled Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series. Inspired half by comics and half by movies, the series told an unprecedented multi-choice adventure that was appreciated for fiction and dubbing, while disappointing from a technical point of view.

If we exclude the mediocre mobile titles baked to ride the wave of films, the Guardians then appeared in various video games, unfortunately always as supporting actors or appearances of lesser importance. Following the success of the films we found them in almost all container titles, for example LEGO Marvel Super Heroes and Disney Infinity, and also in some unsuspected games such as Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, in which Rocket was playable, and Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite in which, in the roster, Gamora was added to Rocket. The mainstream cast has appeared all over the place when possible: in the late Marvel Heroes and Marvel: Contest of Champions, often accompanied by characters such as Nebula, Yondu, Nova and Angela.

A special mention certainly deserves the excellent Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order for Switch, in which Star-Lord, Gamora and Rocket are playable characters from the beginning, with Groot fighting together to Rocket as one unit.

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