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This is a team that definitely hit its heyday way before most of the people reading comics today were even born. They first appeared in 1969, bounced around for a while in the 70’s, and actually had a long-running title in the 90’s, lasting 62 issues before it’s cancellation in 1995, with the comic bubble bursting. They were recently revived in name by the great team of Abnett and Lanning as part of their cosmic Marvel Universe and some of their original line-up has appeared in that title. So, since not too many fans know of the original Guardians, Marvel released this collection, called Earth Shall Overcome, and it chronicles the early appearances of the Guardians of the Galaxy.
-Marvel Super-Heroes #18- This is the debut of the Guardians of the Galaxy, as written by Arnold Drake and penciled by Gene Colan. It first hit stands in January of 1969. We meet the four members of the Guardians, Charlie-27, a super-strong guy from Jupiter, Martinex, a crystallized Pluto denizen who can shoot either really hot or cold blasts from his hands. They are joined by Vance Astro, an astronaut from earth with psycho-kinetic powers and Yondu, an archer from Alpha Centauri. They are living in a future (the year 3014), that is overrun by an alien race called the Badoon. They say they will prevail, and that’s the issue. This introduced us to the characters and set up what their battle would be, and then they were put on the backburner and probably forgotten.
-Marvel Two-In-One #’s 4 & 5- The Thing and Captain America team-up and meet a stowaway from the year 3014 who traveled to the past. Thing and Cap head to that future to help, are overtaken, and then team-up with the Guardians to fight the Badoon. They are victorious in battle, and Thing and Cap leave to let the Guardians finish the war. Steve Gerber revived this team when this two-parter hit the stands in July of 1974, almost five years after their debut. Sal Buscema handled the artistic chores for these two issues.
-Giant-Size Defenders #5- Steve Gerber must’ve liked the characters, since he returned (along with a whole host of other’s) to bring the Guardians back in July of 1975. The Defenders meet with the Guardians, who have arrived to the present to find a Badoon device that could prevent their future conquest of the solar system. They ultimately can’t find the device but there is a really cool twist in here with a young Vance Astro seeing the team and being inspired to be an astronaut. This also served to have the Guardians in a more main-stream title, and probably the first time many readers got a glimpse of the Guardians.
-Defenders #’s 26-28- This is right after the Guardians appearance in the Giant-Size Defenders, and spans August through October of 1975. The Defenders go to the future with the Guardians in order to finally defeat the Badoon. The issue’s take us through a whirlwind of events, including Valkyrie and Vance meeting Starhawk and Hulk and Yondu engaging in a televised battle to the death a la Running Man. The Guardians and Defenders to defeat the Badoon, with the help of Doctor Strange, as the Defenders head home and the Guardians are now joined by Starhawk. This was a real entertaining three-parter, though the dues ex machina of Strange made it a little too much at times. Steve Gerber penned all three issues, with Buscema and Vince Colleta handling art chores.
-The Bottom Line- There is no other extras here, no foreword and no artwork to speak of. That’s understandable since most of the main people that worked on this have passed on. The great thing about a collection like this is that at $25, it is a real steal. Putting together these Silver-Bronze era comics would definitely cost more than the price paid for this collection and it wouldn’t look as good. The stories weren’t anything groundbreaking but were all enjoyable and that’s what you’d want in comics. If you don’t know anything about the original Guardians, this is the perfect introduction.
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