Comic Book Recommendations

If your favorite MCU movies are the Guardians of the Galaxy movies then here are your comic book recommendations. I want to preface this with; the Guardians comics are nothing like their live action counterpart. In fact when my dad and I went to see it he was really not excited because the comics are very camp and goofy. But he was blown away by the movie and it became one of his favorites, so if you are experiencing Marvel in the reverse and taking comic recommendations off of the movies you might not experience the same love for the story. Especially if you are interested in origin stories. The further back you go into this team's appearances the less familiar it gets.

The team first appears in Marvel Super-Heroes #18 (1969) and the only character you would somewhat recognize is Yondu. There is no other crossover in the original team roster. The issue actually sold really well, and yet the team didn’t reappear for another 5 years. When they returned they were earthbound fighters until they went through a redesign. Writer Steve Gerber had this to say about the new direction for the Guardians…

”Most of the stories I was scripting were set in the present. I wanted to do something that combined the standard superhero elements with something a little different, so that I could give my imagination a bit more play. We had Dave Cockrum redesign the costumes, we created a new starship for them to pilot, and we revised the premise of the strip, so that they were no longer fighting the Badoon on Earth, and sent them off amongst the stars”.

This was the first major change that led to the Guardians that we know today.

Marvel Two-In-One #69 changed the team’s story quite a lot and was their last appearance for another decade. The comic book versions of the Guardians were very sporadic for quite a while, until the 1990 relaunch of the team in their own solo series.

The 62 issue series stood out amongst the other Marvel comics for many reasons. The strongest of which is that the 90s were a very dark and gritty time for comics and the Guardians of the Galaxy series was a stark contrast to that with its humor and feeling of fun. The team then had a spin off called the Galactic Guardians, another makeup of the team that you would not recognize. It wasn’t until the 2008 version of the team that the team started to resemble the MCU Guardians. If you are interested in the campy, funny version of the Guardians and aren’t overly tied to the characters that you originally saw in the movies then their self titled series is a good place to start.

The real comic to read if you enjoyed the movies is Guardians of the Galaxy volume 2 from 2009. This is the first collection where you get Starlord, Drax, Gamora, Groot and Rocket. Really the entire MCU team exists in this version of the comics as well as some new, interesting characters like Moondragon and Jack Flag.

Overall the Guardians of the Galaxy as a team is kind of all over the place, but the 2008 series really gave it some stability and consistency. The more recent stories bear a closer resemblance to the team that you know and love. That said the earlier stories are a fun read and I think they perfectly capture what comic books are at their core. They are a fun, light hearted experience and with that they do a very good job.