Annihilation, Book Three by Keith Giffen

“We were trying to resuscitate them like we had done with Nova make them more relatable and bring them back in popularity.” Abnett had a gut feeling his childhood heroes could be bigger stars.

It was through Star Wars Weekly that Abnett read Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s Star-Lord, and the Bill Mantlo/Keith Giffen story “The Sword and the Star” (where Rocket Racoon debuted under the name “Rocky”). “We churned through the stuff very fast,” Abnett says. In his native U.K., their original comics were reprinted in the black-and-white series Star Wars Weekly, which first printed Marvel’s licensed Star Wars comic before running out of issues and turning to Marvel’s sci-fi stories. They hadn't become big characters.” “You didn't try to hide that this is a team that doesn't get on and work well.”īut Abnett had been in love with these misfit toys for years. They occupied “the bottom of Marvel’s toy box,” says Abnett.

They were created separately by different artists at different times, but they had one thing in common. “The idea was that if worked, we would get a team book,” Abnett says.Ĭonquest featured all the characters who would star in Abnett and Lanning’s Guardians. The seeds for the Guardians of the Galaxy, as fans know them today, were planted in Annihilation: Conquest, a sequel to a crossover comic starring virtually all of Marvel’s space-based heroes and villains.Īt its helm were Abnett and Lanning, who had just proved their chops with a miniseries on the character Nova and were hoping for something bigger. “We could do anything because nobody cared.” “There was a great deal of freedom to do whatever we wanted to do because we weren't dealing with Thor and Spider-Man,” Abnett says.

The book was helmed by Dan Abnett and then-creative partner Andy Lanning, who tapped into their shared obsessions for Star Trek and the British sci-fi comic 2000 A.D. “It was definitely version that inspired him.” “I was astonished.”īefore James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy shattered records and expectations, its rag-tag heroes Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Groot, and Rocket (and Mantis, who joined the sequel in 2017) first united in the pages of the 2008-2010 comic book series that sourced its ensemble of oddballs and catchy alliterative title from deep in Marvel’s history. “They went, ‘No, it’s Guardians of the Galaxy. That’s when Abnett heard whispers Marvel Studios was looking to make a space sci-fi. At the time, the Marvel Cinematic Universe had only just successfully launched with hits like Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger. “I got a call from the editor who said, ‘You’re never gonna guess the next Marvel movie,’” Abnett tells Inverse. Dan Abnett remembers when he learned his semi-obscure comic book was becoming a movie.

Annihilation, Book Three by Keith Giffen