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Contains Spoilers for The Ultimates #8!The Guardians of the Galaxy are now a classic Marvel team, but a new comic has just included a genius tribute the original Guardians, who are much less well known. The two main universe versions of the Guardians already have several links, despite being set centuries apart, but this new version of the team has combined both these teams in an exciting new way.
The Ultimates (2024) #8 has paid homage to the original Guardians of the Galaxy by making the original members a surprising part of this new Ultimate incarnation of the team.
In the issue — written by Deniz Camp, illustrated by Juan Frigeri, colored by Federico Blee and lettered by VC’s Travis Lanham — readers are introduced to the history of these new Guardians of the Galaxy. This team of Guardians hails from the 61st century and is more like a larger corp than a single team. Importantly, this larger corp includes all the oft-forgotten original members of the Guardians of the Galaxy.
The Original Guardians of the Galaxy Have Returned
The Originals Cameo as Part of A New Ultimate Universe Team
The original Guardians of the Galaxy debuted in 1969 and bear little resemblance to the modern team readers know best. First appearing in the main story of Marvel Super-Heroes #18 — written by Arnold Drake, penciled by Gene Colan, inked by Mike Esposito, colored by Stan Goldberg and lettered by Herb Cooper — the original Guardians are the space-faring heroes of the 31st century. The team crossed over with various Marvel heroes throughout the 1970s, before mostly falling into obscurity before the team’s name was revived in the mid-2000s for the incarnation that became especially huge after their MCU adaptation in 2014.
In Ultimates #8, the newly introduced Guardians of the Galaxy head back in time to ‘rescue’ their amnesiac teammate America Chavez. As the new Nova explains, something terrible is going to happen to time itself in the titular Ultimates’ near future. The first team of Guardians sent back in time to investigate this event was this universe’s version of the 1960s Guardians, and unfortunately for them, they didn’t survive whatever awaited them, the mysterious ‘Unmaker’, almost certainly Kang the Conqueror. It’s a bleak look at the original team, but it’s exactly on par for this Ultimate Universe’s tone.
Marvel Combining Both Versions of The Guardians is a Great Idea
It’s Shocking it Didn’t Happen Before now
What’s clever about including the original Guardians of the Galaxy in this new team is how it helps to bridge the two eras of the franchise. The ‘main’ new team include characters with titles familiar to modern Guardians readers, such as Star-Lord, Nova and Cosmo, but have a backstory much closer to the 60s incarnation. For those in the know, the brief appearance of the original team is a cheeky nod to exactly why writer Deniz Camp turned to the far future for his Guardians team, but it’s not essential knowledge either for newer readers.
In Ultimates #8, Nova also suggests that the Guardians saved the universe for millennia, so maybe this now-deceased team had actually lived all the way from the 31st century to the 61st. If so, they could have been part of the founding of the Guardians, truly tying the two versions of the team together in a way they’ve never fully been before. Or, more likely, this is just a fun little reference that doesn’t mean much more beyond a neat easter egg in this one-off story setting up the future of the series, in more ways than one.
Sometimes a Legacy Team Comes Before the Original
This is far from the first time that some version of the original Guardians have interacted with the more popular modern incarnation. The second issue of the modern incarnation of the team — Guardians of the Galaxy (2008) #2, written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, penciled by Paul Pelletier, inked by Rick Magnar, colored by Nathan Fairburn and lettered by Joe Caramagna —saw them encounter the time-displaced Major Victory, leader of the original Guardians. Victory, aka Vance Astro, not only gave his blessing for the modern team to use his team’s name, but also joined the team for a while.
There are also some links between the two mainstream universe teams not based in time travel, at least at first. Yondu of the future Guardians of the Galaxy is the descendant of Yondu of the contemporary Guardians. The two even got a chance to meet recently in Yondu (2019), written by Zac Thompson and Lonnie Nadler, illustrated by John Mccrea, colored by Michael Spicer and lettered by VC’s Joe Caramagna. The two incarnations of the Guardians of the Galaxy have never been that disparate or separate, and their new Ultimate incarnation is just another acknowledgment.
The Ultimates #8is on sale now from Marvel Comics.
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