An in-depth look at Marvel Comics' Cosmic Team from 1968 to 2011, with an extensive history of the character Peter Quill - Star-Lord - including insights from creator Steve Englehart, writers Chris Claremont, Timothy Zahn, Dan Abnett, Rafael Morin and more. Also includes in-depth profiles of Adam Warlock and Thanos, as well as extras on Killraven and Monark Starstalker. Some of this material originally appeared on-line in columns by Mike Luoma at the late, lamented ComicRelated.com and other sites where they're no longer available.

An in-depth look back at the comic book exploits of Marvel Comics' Cosmic Team the Guardians of the Galaxy from 1968 to 2011, including an extensive history of Peter Quill - Star-Lord, as well as the stories of Adam Warlock and Thanos. With Two "Cosmic Extras" a Bonus look back through the history of Marvel's Killraven, and a short piece on little-known cosmic character Monark Starstalker. Mike Luoma's Unofficial Comic Book History of the Guardians features summarized story points from the books' pages accented by interview insights from creators Steve Englehart, Chris Claremont, Timothy Zahn, Dan Abnett, Rafael Morin, Rob Liefeld, Howard Chaykin and more. Discover the stories of the Guardians of the Galaxy BEFORE the movies! New 2024 Edition

A collection of stories featuring a group of superheroes from an alternate timeline known as the Guardians.

Collects Old Man Quill #1-6. Peter Quill finally grew up. He used to be Star-Lord, but it's been some time since he's gone by that name. Taking over for his father as the emperor of Spartax, Quill put a life of spacefaring adventure behind him for one of leadership and responsibility. But things didn't go as planned. Decades have passed, and Peter is haunted by tragedy. Down and out, his existence means nothing - until the former Guardians of the Galaxy drag him out of his funk for one last mission! The heist of a lifetime - and Quill's harrowing last shot at redemption - takes him back to a transformed Earth. But the Wastelands are a dangerous place, with Gladiator and the Universal Church of Truth closing in! And the shadow of Doom hangs over the Guardians' every move.

Superhero meaning making is a site of struggle. Superheroes (are thought to) trouble borders and normative ways of seeing and being in the world. Superhero narratives (are thought to) represent, and thereby inspire, alternative visions of the real world. The superhero genre is (thought to be) a repository for radical or progressive ideas. In the superhero world and beyond, much is made of the genre's utopian and dystopian landscapes, queer identity-play, and transforming bodies, but might it not be the case that the genre's overblown normative framing, or representation, serves to muzzle, rather than express, its protagonists' radical promise? Why, when set against otherwise unbounded, and often extreme, transformation-human to machine, human to animal, human to god-are certain categories seemingly untouchable? Why does this speculative genre routinely fail to fully speculate about other worlds and ways of being in those worlds? For all their nonconformity, superhero stories do not live up to the idea of a radical genre, in look, feel, or tone. The mainstream American superhero genre, and its surrounding discourses, tells and facilitates an astonishingly seamless tale of opposing ideologies. But how? Recovering the Radical Promise of Superheroes: Un/Making Worlds serves a speculative response, detailing not so much a hunt for genre meaning as a trip through a genre's meaningscape. Looking anew at superhero meaning-making practices allows a distinct way of thinking about and describing the creative, formal, and ideological conditions of the genre and its protagonists, one removed from corralling binaries, one foregrounding the idea of a synergy-often unseen, uneasy, and even hostile-between official and unofficial agents of superhero meaning and one reframing familiar questions: What kinds of meaning do superhero texts engender? How is this meaning made? By whom and under what conditions? What processes and practices inform, regulate, and extend superhero meaning? And finally, superhero narratives present a new question: How might we reimagine its agents, surfaces, and spaces? Centering the experiences and practices of excluded and marginalized superhero fans, Recovering the Radical Promise of Superheroes reveals that genre meaning is not lodged in one place or another, neither in its official creators or fans, nor in "black and white" conservatism or in a "rainbow" of progressive possibilities. Nor is it even located somewhere in the in-between; it is instead better conceived of as an antagonistic, in-process nexus of meaning undergirded by systems of power. Ellen Kirkpatrick, based in northern Ireland, is an activist-writer with a PhD in Cultural Studies. In her work, she writes about activism, pop culture, fan cultures, and the transformative power of storytelling. She has published work in a range of academic journals and media outlets and her writings and work can be found at The Break and on Twitter @elk_dash.

Collects Guardians of the Galaxy (2019) #1-12, Guardians of the Galaxy Annual (2019) #1. Donny Cates’ complete Guardians saga in one stellar collection! Hundreds of worlds are at war. More than ever, the galaxy needs the Guardians — but in the aftermath of the Infinity Wars, who is left to answer the call? Thanos is dead, but the search for his successor has just begun. Who will it be? And who are the Dark Guardians? Cosmic chaos commences when the new Guardians take on Thanos’ Black Order — but could the Mad Titan be fighting his way back from the grave?! Plus: The Universal Church of Truth returns at the worst possible time — because Rocket Raccoon is dying! He’s still got some fight left in him, but his allies are few and the odds are slim. Can Rocket hold on long enough to make a difference?

The explosive outer-space epic that revitalized Marvel’s cosmos! Drax the Destroyer gets a new look, a fresh purpose — and a surprising friend. But when Annihilus, lord of the Negative Zone, unleashes his monstrous Annihilation Wave on our universe, the galaxy’s greatest heroes — and some you might call villains — must brace for war! Annihilus’ opening salvo devastates the Nova Corps, and Richard Rider’s life is changed forever! Can he carry the Corps’ powerful Worldmind alone without going mad? Silver Surfer unites with his fellow heralds to protect Galactus, but what dark bargain must he strike? And a personal mission takes Super-Skrull to the Negative Zone —where he faces betrayal! Plus: Quasar takes on Annihilus, and only one will survive! Collecting DRAX THE DESTROYER #1-4, ANNIHILATION PROLOGUE, ANNIHILATION: NOVA #1-4, ANNIHILATION: SILVER SURFER #1-4 and ANNIHILATION: SUPER-SKRULL #1-4.