About

Guardians of the Galaxy is an American comic book and film series. Noted for their meta and irreverent humor, the Guardians of the Galaxy are an intergalactic gang of superheroes connected to the Marvel Comics and Cinematic Universe.

History

The Guardians of the Galaxy first appeared in Marvel Superheros #18 in January 1969. The original Guardians were Vance Astro, Martinex, Charlie-27, and Yondu.^[20] While they appeared occasionally in a variety of Marvel comics, the team did not receive their own comic book until 1990. In June 1990, Guardians of the Galaxy #1 was released (shown below). The series ran for 62 issues, but Marvel canceled it in 1995 (final issue shown below).^[19]

In May 2008, Marvel rebooted the Guardians with writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, introducing many of the characters found in the Guardians of the Galaxy film series. Founded by Star Lord Peter Quill, a half Human and half Spartoi, the team included Adam Warlock, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, Phyla-Vell, Rocket Raccoon, and Groot, with Mantis as support staff. Vital to the cosmic aspects of the Marvel universe, specifically in Annihilation, War/Realm of Kings and the Thanos Imperative, the Guardians have featured such Marvel mainstays as Iron Man, Agent Venom, Captain Marvel among many othe.

Films

Guardians of the Galaxy

On August 1st, 2014, Marvel Studios released Guardians of the Galaxy, a film based on the comic book series. The film starred Chris Pratt as Peter Quill, the outlaw turned hero, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, a genetically altered assassin raised by the man who killed her parents, Dave Bautista as Drax, a man bent on avenging the death of his family, and the voices of Vin Diesel as tree-creature Groot and Bradley Cooper as genetically modified raccoon creature Rocket. The film follows Quill, who, following the death of his mother, is abducted by aliens and spends his life as a petty intergalactic criminal. After he's arrested, he meets Gamora, Drax, Groot and Rocket, teaming up with them to sell a dangerous stone that's integral to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was announced even before the first film premiered and began filming in February of 2016.^[24] On December 3rd, Marvel released the first trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (shown below). As of June 2017, the trailer has been viewed more than 15 million times.

Released on April 10h, 2017, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 follows Peter Quill's reunion with his father played by actor Kurt Russell on the planet of Ego.

Reception

The first Guardians of the Galaxy broke the record for the biggest weekend premiere in North America^[2], earning over $94 million. The film was also a critical success, earning a score of 76 on Metacritic^[3] and a rating of 92% on RottenTomatoes.^[4] In their "Critics Consensus," the site says, "Guardians of the Galaxy is just as irreverent as fans of the frequently zany Marvel comic would expect -- as well as funny, thrilling, full of heart, and packed with visual splendor."

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 received a 67 from Metacritic^[22] an 81% from Rotten Tomatoes^[21]. In their Critics Consensus, Rotten Tomatoes writes, "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2's action-packed plot, dazzling visuals, and irreverent humor add up to a sequel that's almost as fun -- if not quite as thrillingly fresh -- as its predecessor. As of June 2017, the film has grossed more than $799 million.

Controversy

James Gunn Firing

On July 19th, 2018, The Daily Caller published an article titled "After Attacking Conservatives, Disney Filmmaker's Tweets Reveal Homophobia and Assault Against Children," reporting that The Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF) had uncovered "racist, anti-semitic, homophobic and rape-related remarks" made by Gunn on Twitter since 2008 (shown below).

That day, Gunn tweeted an apology for the tweets (shown below).^[29]

The following day, Variety^[30] reported that Gunn had been fired from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 over the controversy. The article contained a statement by the studio's chairman Alan Horn, who condemned Gunn's tweets:

"The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James’ Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio’s values, and we have severed our business relationship with him."

On July 20th, a petition titled "Re-hire James Gunn" was submitted to Change.org,^[33] where it gathered upwards of 194,200 signatures within 72 hours (shown below).

On July 21st, 2018, Gunn's brother Sean posted a series of tweets responding to the controversy, saying that while Gunn was "downright stupid" in the past, he had become a better person after working on Marvel movies (shown below).^[31] The following day, Twitter published a Moments^[32] page about the tweets titled "James Gunn's brother pens response to rape joke scandal."

On July 30th, 2018, Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper and several other members of the Guardians of the Galaxy cast signed an open letter in support of James Gunn and advocating for his re-hiring. When posted to Pratt's Instagram, ^[34] the letter (shown below) received more than 1.4 million likes. The letter said:

We fully support James Gunn. We were all shocked by his abrupt firing last week and have intentionally waited these ten days to respond in order to think, pray, listen, and discuss. In that time, we've been encourage by the outpouring of support from fans and members of the media who wish to see James reinstated as director of Volume 3 as well as discourage by those so easily duped into believing the many outlandish conspiracy theories surrounding him.

Two days later, Variety^[35] reported that despite pleas from the cast, it was unlikely that James Gunn would be re-hired by Disney. One source indicated that Disney would not re-hire him due to their family-friendly image. said, "I don’t see Disney re-hiring him. Those tweets were so horrible and Disney has a different standard than other studios."

Rehire James Gunn Billboard

On September 20th, 2018, GoFundMe ^[36] Gio Mustang posted a campaign for series of billboards that advocate for the rehiring of James Gunn to be placed outside of Disney theme parks in Anaheim, California and Orlando, Florida. They wrote:

Purpose: raise money for Rehire James Gunn billboards outside Orlando and Anaheim Disney Parks.

Goal: One billboard near each park for at least one month, preferably during the holidays to maximize exposure.

Should we fail to raise enough money for at least one billboard for one month, all money will be refunded to contributors.

First steps: seeking potential billboard designs, scouting designs, sharing campaign to raise funds.

Please contact us if you are willing/able to help. Every little bit helps! Thank you to all of our Guardians of the Galaxy family!

Within one month, the campaign generated more than $4,900 from donations from 160 people.

On October 29th, Mustang posted that they had used the money to purchase the billboard and that they had selected a locations "a few miles away from Disneyland."

That day, Twitter^[37] user @Erulite tweeted a series of photographs of the billboard. They wrote, "Out in the real world, 3 miles south of @Disneyland sits a message: @JamesGunn for Vol. 3 We can’t make it happen, but we can let those who CAN make it happen know what the right side of history is Let’s get the @Guardians back on track #SaveGunnSavetheGalaxy #RehireJamesGunn." The tweet received more than 50 retweets and 90 likes in two days.

On October 30th, Mustang told the Hollywood Reporter,^[38] "We really love Gunn as both a creator and the man we've seen him mature into. Even if this wasn't going to cause Disney to see their mistake, we could at least show James Gunn how much support he has in his corner of the galaxy."

Gunn Rehired

On March 15th, 2019, Deadline^[39] reported that James Gunn had been rehired by Disney to direct Guardians of the Galaxy 3.^[39] Deadline wrote that Disney chairman Alan Horn was persuaded by Gunn’s public apology and his handling of the situation after. The decision reportedly had been made for several months. Gunn tweeted his appreciation of Disney's decision (shown below).

Online, fans celebrated the decision. Several fans drew comparisons to actor Dave Bautista's displeasure to a recent promo he gave on Monday Night Raw where he yelled at Triple H "Give me what I want!" One tweet, by CPerry404 gained over 380 retweets (shown below).

Others joked about the move being a loss for the alt-right media figures who had spearheaded the campaign, like Mike Cernovich. Vic Berger called the rehire a "massive failure" for Cernovich (shown below, left). User @NathanTBernard did the same (shown below, right).

Cernovich claimed the news made him "just sad for the children in Hollywood."

Online Presence

As of June 2017, Guardians of the Galaxy's official Twitter account^[5] has gained 735,000 followers and its Facebook page^[6] has gained over 3.9 million likes and 3.9 million followers.

Fandom

On November 3rd, 2013, Redditor LazyProspector launched the subreddit /r/GotG.^[27]

There are several Tumblr blogs dedicated to the film including fuckyeahguardiansofthegalaxy^[8], starlord-peterquill-gotg^[9] and fyeahgotg.^[10] Fans tag their content with the film's title and gotg.^[11] As of August 2014, DeviantArt ^[7] has over 7,000 pieces of fan art tagged Guardians of the Galaxy.

Rocket Raccoon

Rocket Raccoon^[16] is popular character in the fandom, with fans viewing GIFs and fan art on the Tumblr blog fuckyeahrocketraccoon^[17]. Bill Mantlo, who helped create Rocket in the original comic, was able to watch Guardians of the Galaxy in his nursing home, where he's been cared for after a 1992 car accident which caused Mantlo to suffer brain damage. However Mantlo's brother Michael is currently fighting Marvel over profits which might belong to his brother. Rocket Raccoon was originally designed as a Raccoon that lived on the Halfworld, a abandoned colony for the mentally ill and the animals such as Rocket were genetically modified to have intelligence and Bi-pedal bodies to become care takers of the inmates and Rocket was a Ranger of Halfworld that protected the colony from threats.

Groot Bread

On February 15th, 2017, Disney announced the "Summer of Heroes" promotion at Disneyland in California.^[24] The summer-long promotion saw the introduction of the Guardians of the Galaxy Mission: BREAKOUT! ride, as well as Groot Bread, a popular snack sold exclusively at Disney's California Adventure. Groot Bread is sourdough break shaped like Groot with black olive eyes and jalapeno cheese hair.

Posing with Groot Bread has become very popular on Instagram with park goers holding the Groot Bread as a mask (shown below). Groot Bread has been covered by several news outlets, including Uproxx,^[25] Grub Street^[26] and more.

Impact

The use of pop songs of the 1970s set against the science fiction backdrop of the Guardians of the Galaxy became one of the films distinguishing features. This technique later influenced DC Comics' Cinematic Universe, particularly when retooling the 2016 film Suicide Squad, releasing trailers that feature the music of 70s rockbands Queen and The Sweet (shown below, left and right, respectively).

That film also attempted to capitalize on Guardians sense of humor, which many critics found unconvincing.^[28]

Related Memes

I Am Groot

I Am Groot is a memorable quote oft-repeated by Groot, a sentient alien character embodied in the shape of a tree and member of Marvel's superhero team Guardians of the Galaxy. Due to its frequent appearance in the 2014 live-action film adaptation of the comic book series, the self-referential quote quickly gained recognition among the fans of the film, in a similar vein to the creation of fan art surrounding the phrase Hodor, which is the only phrase uttered by the eponymous character in HBO's medieval fantasy TV series Game of Thrones.

I'm Mary Poppins, Y'all

"I'm Mary Poppins, Y'all" is a quote from the character Yondu uttered in the 2017 film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. The line has become popular among fans, inspiring fanart and memes.

Viral Videos

On March 4th, 2014, YouTuber OnlyLeigh^[12] uploaded a video titled "Guardians Of The Galaxy Post Credits Scene" which imagined what the film's post credit scenes might entail. As of August 2014, the video has gained over 160,000 views. On June 21st, 2014, YouTuber The Unusual Suspect^[13] uploaded a video titled "Star Wars (Guardians of the Galaxy Style!)" which features a trailer for Star Wars with the soundtrack from Guardians of the Galaxy. As of August 2014, the video has gained over 2.1 million views.

Also on June 21st, YouTuber atlantismedia83^[14] uploaded a video titled "Guardians of the Galaxy Zombie Parody Trailer." As of August 2014, the video has gained over 21,000 views. On July 31st, YouTuber Joseph Germani^[15] uploaded a video titled "Guardians of The Durians." As of August 2014, the video has gained over 40,000 views.

Search Interest

External References