History ComicBook / GuardiansOfTheGalaxy

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[[caption-width-right:350:Marvel Cosmic Old School...]]
-->''"Earth shall overcome!"''

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[[caption-width-right:250:...Marvel Cosmic New School]]
-->''"Feels like someone turned the symbolic homage up to eleven."''

''This page describes the Guardians of the Galaxy team itself, if you're looking for the ''Guardians of the Galaxy'' comic series, please see [[Franchise/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy the franchise page]].''

The Guardians of the Galaxy is a Creator/MarvelComics SuperTeam whose members consist of several of the Franchise/MarvelUniverse's [[SpaceOpera cosmic]] superheroes. The team has had two prominent incarnations as listed below starting with the original.

See '''[[Characters/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy here]]''' for character sheets.

See the [[Franchise/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy franchise page for more details on the adaptations]].

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[CListFodder Who?]] '']]

This page describes the team itself, if you're looking for the ''Guardians of the Galaxy'' comic series, please see [[Franchise/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy the franchise page]].

If you're looking for the ''Franchise/GreenLantern'' supporting characters, those are the Guardians of the ''Universe''.

They hadn't seen much use for a long time, before making the occasional appearances in the present day team's series and eventually a revival of the original team starred in a new series called ''Guardians 3000'' launched in Fall of 2014. It only lasted about eight issues, before being cancelled at the start of ''ComicBook/{{Secret Wars|2015}}''. After that, some members of the team reappeared in ''Guardians of Infinity'' alongside their modern-day counterparts. While the movies focused on the modern-day version of the Guardians, Yondu appeared as Peter Quill's father figure, as a reference to being one of the team's predecessors. In ''Vol. 2'', it's revealed that Yondu is a disgraced member of a group based on the original Guardians (though in the movies they never called themselves as such). At the end of the film this team decides to reunite.

See the [[Franchise/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy franchise page for more details on the adaptations]]

A Creator/MarvelComics [[SpaceOpera cosmic]] SuperTeam, has had two prominent incarnations as listed below starting with the original. If you're looking for the ''Franchise/GreenLantern'' supporting characters, those are the Guardians of the ''Universe''.

* CoolSpaceship: The Guardians get around in ''The Captain America''. Except when it's being shot out of the sky. Then it was replaced with the ''Freedom's Lady''. Which also got shot out of the sky. Then they replaced it with a stolen Stark ship, ''The Captain America II''.

A live-action ''Film/{{Guardians of the Galaxy|2014}}'' movie, set within the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, was released in August 2014; with one sequel (''[[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2 Vol. 2]]'') released in May 2017 and another in production, set for release in 2023. The Guardians have also made the rounds in several of Marvel's mid-2010s animated shows, including ''The Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes'' (as said above), ''Anime/MarvelDiskWarsTheAvengers'', ''[[WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan2012 Ultimate Spider-Man]]'', and ''WesternAnimation/AvengersAssemble''; largely using the movie team for cross-promotion (except for the ''Earth's Mightiest Heroes'' episode, which predated the final movie cast and used a different selection of modern team members). The Guardians later received [[WesternAnimation/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2015 an animated series of their own]] in 2015.

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[[caption-width-right:250:Marvel Cosmic Old School...]]

The Guardians of the Galaxy first appeared in ''Marvel Super-Heroes'' #18 (January, 1969), created by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan. They are a science fiction comic series set in the future, the 31st Century. An alien race known as the Badoon have conquered Earth in the year 3007 A.D., leading a telekinetic astronaut from the 20th Century (preserved by 1,000 years in suspended animation) to gather a team of heroes to free Earth. They eventually do, and go on to do other stuff.

The series ran in various Marvel Anthology books in the [[TheSeventies 1970s]], with guest appearances in ''ComicBook/TheDefenders'' and ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'' in between anthology runs. The characters' most notable appearance during these early years was in ''The Avengers'', during ''ComicBook/TheKorvacSaga''.

The characters vanished into limbo during the 1980s, but were revived and given their own book in 1990. Originally written and drawn by Jim Valentino (with only one fill-in artist, Mark Texiera, for a single issue), Valentino revived the book with gratuitous continuity nods to existing Marvel characters: these included a new Phoenix, Wolverine's evil great-great-great-granddaughter Rancor and her army of evil mutants, a revived Church of the Universal Truth, "The Punisher" militia, Doctor Doom (whose brain was implanted into Wolverine's body), and Mephisto's daughter among other things. The series was popular, but ultimately around issue #28, Jim Valentino jumped ship to go found Creator/ImageComics after the other founders made a surprise offer to let Valentino come with them.

* BadFuture: By and large averted, but the late 20th and 21st century sucked, what with the Martian invasion killing off most of Earth's heroes, and the Badoon invasion of the 31st century dramatically reducing mankind's numbers and turning Earth into a crapsack world.

* BigDamnHeroes:
** The Ancient One and Kruugarr save the Guardians from Korvac in this fashion.

* AIIsACrapshoot: The first time the Guardians find ''Drydock'', its controlling AI has gone a little mad after all the human crew died, and then several years being on its own. By the time the Guardians arrive, it decides to kill or surgically experiment on them. Charlie's forced to destroy it.

* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: The fate of the Brotherhood of the Badoon is to be taken back to their homeworld by the Sisterhood (Badoon genders being otherwise completely separated). One passing human figures it's a FateWorseThanDeath.

* UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks: It was the nineties, so some of the mores of the era do tend to crop up. Rancor, for example, is a walking poster-child of nineties clichés (ridiculous costume, ridiculous hair, misspelt name, Wolverine-knock off). That said, see LighterAndSofter.

* FramingDevice: ''Marvel Presents'' #8 is an interesting example of {{filler}}. The intended ''ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' story was running late, and they couldn't reprint their first appearance from ''Marvel Super-Heroes'' #18, as ''Astonishing Tales'' #29 already reprinted it at the time. Cleverly, ''Marvel Presents'' instead reprinted ''ComicBook/SilverSurfer'' #2 (featuring the debut of the Badoon, the Guardians' main antagonists), framed as a ''Guardians'' story by Creator/RogerStern (in his first writing gig for Marvel) where the Guardians recover a Bandoon "Mento-Corder", which projects the Badoon's encounter with the Silver Surfer into their minds.

* KilledOffForReal: While Roger Stern killed Starhawk and Aleta's children, he did it with a caveat they could potentially be brought back (possibly through their powers). So far, no-one has.

* NotBloodSiblings: Stakar and Aleta are a married couple with three kids. They're also adopted siblings.

* NowWhat: Happened to the team in the 70s. They'd founded to defeat the Badoon. And with the help of the Defenders, and the Sisterhood of the Badoon, they'd done just that. So what now? The Guardians decide to take off into space to ''actually'' guard the galaxy(s).

* RapidAging: The fate of Starhawk's children. Brainwashed by their grandfather into attacking Stakar, it turns out use of their powers causes their age to accelerate. The team tries freeing them, but the shock of what was done to them causes them to start aging further, and they die of old age, before crumbling into dust.

* VictoryIsBoring: Major Victory's problem with a post-Badoon Earth. After all, he's stuck in his containment suit, so he does need to eat or drink, and he can't have sex, so that's most human interaction out the window right there.

* AllForNothing: Vance Astrovik volunteers to be sent on a mission to Centauri IV, which is a thousand year-long journey. He has to be sealed inside a special suit to prevent him dying of old age on the way there, and cryogenically frozen, with the occasional while spent making sure the ship's still on course. He [[GoMadFromTheIsolation Goes Mad From The Isolation]], but his Mutant powers kick in as a result. ... and when he finally gets there, it turns out mankind figured out how to go faster than light a few centuries after he left, making his entire mission superfluous.
** And then, a few months after he's unfrozen, the Badoon appear and try to wipe out mankind, and do a damn thorough job of it, making Vance one of the last humans alive.

* CoolSpaceship: The Guardians get around in ''The Captain America''. Except when it's being shot out of the sky. Then it was replaced with the ''Freedom's Lady''. Which also got shot out of the sky. Then they replaced it with a stolen Stark ship, ''The Captain America II''.

* ''ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'': Martinex is an ice-person, as was his entire civilization of human colonists. They'd been genetically engineered that way to live on Pluto.

* EntitledToHaveYou: Yondu pulled an ''extreme circumstances'' on Photon, thinking they were [[OnlyYouCanRepopulateMyRace the last two]] of [[LastOfHisKind their species]], in the 1990s ''ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy''. It didn't go well. [[spoiler:(Jim Valentino ''meant'' to eventually get them together, but [[WhatMightHaveBeen it never panned out]].)]]

* LetsYouAndHimFight: Gets a LampshadeHanging when the team travels back to the 90s. Starhawk has them teleport into the Fantastic Four's reception, rather than Reed Richard's main lab, because otherwise they'll get into a pointless fight. Since they don't, nobody fights, and Reed instead helps them. Starhawk notes it happens to them a lot.

* StarterVillain: Draang, the Badoon warlord in charge of Earth in the 31st century, is the villain for the first two stories featuring the Guardians, before getting defeated thanks to help from a time travelling Captain America, the Thing and Sharon Carter.

** AliensAreBastards: Aliens killed Earth's heroes and took over the galaxy for a time as the backstory for the series. Which alien race is responsible depends on the {{retcon}}.

** And then, a few minutes after he's unfrozen, the Badoon appear and try to wipe out mankind, and do a damn thorough job of it, making Vance one of the last humans alive.

* BadFuture: By and large averted, but the late 21st century sucked, what with the Martian invasion killing off most of Earth's heroes, and the Badoon invasion of the 31st century dramatically reducing mankind's numbers and turning Earth into a crapsack world.

* ColonizedSolarSystem: The series is set in a distant future where humanity had colonized every world in the solar system, resulting in some pretty odd evolutionary offshoots of the species. In the team we had a crystalline man from Pluto, a {{Heavyworlder}} from Jupiter, and a flaming girl from Mercury.

* FlamingHair: Firelord, and Nikki from the original ''ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy''. According to "The Handbook Of The Marvel Universe", Nikki's hair only ''looks'' like flame. Though some artists didn't seem to realize that. Following a sequence in the comic where she was swimming and clearly shown as bald, [[WordOfGod the letters page]] said the Handbook was in error.

* LadyLand: Planet Stark is a {{Matriarchy}} where men are second-class citizens at best. Some male Stark aren't even given names, having to earn them.
* LastOfHisKind: The premise starts here; the [[LizardFolk Badoon]] have attacked, and the four originals are survivors of their worlds. [[spoiler:Yondu, from Centauri IV in the Alpha Centauri system, eventually discovers that a large number of his people survived and saves them from Galactus.]]

* LetsYouAndHimFight:
** Gets a LampshadeHanging when the team travels back to the 90s. Starhawk has them teleport into the Fantastic Four's reception, rather than Reed Richard's main lab, because otherwise they'll get into a pointless fight. Since they don't, nobody fights, and Reed instead helps them. Starhawk notes it happens to them a lot.

* MassTeleportation

* NowWhat: Happened to the team in the 70s. They'd founded to defeat the Badoon. And with the help of the Defenders, and the Sisterhood of the Badoon, they'd done just that. So what now? Fortunately, humankind solves that question by being so awful the Guardians decide to take off into space to ''actually'' guard the galaxy(s).

* TimeyWimeyBall:
** Time is unchangeable, which is why Starhawk is stuck in his GroundhogDayLoop. Time travel also creates alternate timelines, such as when Vance Astro went back in time and prevented his younger self from going into space without erasing himself from existence.

* GreenLanternRing: The Silver Surfer has acquired Quasar's Quantum Bands.

After ''ComicBook/InfinityWars2018'', the main ''Guardians'' title relaunched with an all-new lineup comprised of Star-Lord, Groot, Moondragon, Phyla-Vell (the latter two are alternate universe versions of the still-deceased 616 members) and newcomers Beta Ray Bill and Lockjaw. This new team is the most substantial update to the Guardians’ personnel since the 2013 relaunch ahead of their 2014 movie. Tropes specific to this series can be found in ''ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2019''. Then, at the end of the year, they got relaunched ''again''. Tropes for that series can be found [[ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2020 here]].

Following the conclusion of the 2020 volume, Marvel would not relaunch the book until 2023 and on the cusp of the third MCU film's premiere. Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing will be the creative custodians of ''ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2023''.

A live-action ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' movie, set within the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, was released in August 2014; with one sequel (''[[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2 Vol. 2]]'') released in May 2017 and another in production, set for release in 2023. The Guardians have also made the rounds in several of Marvel's mid-2010s animated shows, including ''The Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes'' (as said above), ''Anime/MarvelDiskWarsTheAvengers'', ''[[WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan2012 Ultimate Spider-Man]]'', and ''WesternAnimation/AvengersAssemble''; largely using the movie team for cross-promotion (except for the ''Earth's Mightiest Heroes'' episode, which predated the final movie cast and used a different selection of modern team members). The Guardians later received [[WesternAnimation/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2015 an animated series of their own]] in 2015.

* FlamingHair: Firelord, and Nikki from the original ''Comicbook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy''. According to "The Handbook Of The Marvel Universe", Nikki's hair only ''looks'' like flame. Though some artists didn't seem to realize that. Following a sequence in the comic where she was swimming and clearly shown as bald, [[WordOfGod the letters page]] said the Handbook was in error.

* IJustKnew: Starhawk (Stakar, not Aleta): Starhawk's [[CatchPhrase Catch Phrase]] was 'Accept the word of One Who Knows.' What he would tell Martinex later is that Stakar was not a precognitive; he was fated to go back in time, and his disembodied consciousness [[GroundhogDayLoop inhabit his infant body to start all over again]].

* EarthIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse: Peter Quill's father, Emperor J'Son of Spartax, argues for the destruction of Earth for this very reason. He points out that in a short span of a single generation, humans have managed to defeat Comicbook/{{Thanos}}, the Phoenix Force and even Comicbook/{{Galactus}}, all on multiple occasions, each of whom had been responsible for the destruction of countless other worlds. He then suggests that should humans ever leave Earth and begin visiting other worlds, it would lead to untold cosmic disasters.
*** He later tears strips off Gladiator during ''The Trial of Jean Grey'', because of his boneheaded decision to kidnap Teen Jean, pointing out - perfectly accurately - that first, she is quite obviously a frightened teenage girl, ''not'' the Dark Phoenix, second, if she really was the Dark Phoenix, the knowledge that the Shi'ar killed her entire family would set her off and mean that she would kill everyone present, including Gladiator, and third, her friends will come after and they will tear through armies to get her back, because that's what humans (particularly mutants) have historically done. He is right on every count, with the O5, Kitty, X-23 and [[Comicbook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy the Guardians of the Galaxy]] promptly taking on the entire Imperial Guard to get her back.

* GroundhogDayLoop: [[spoiler:The classic Guardians in Volume 3 #14, who find themselves replaying their fight against the Badoon over and over thanks to something in the past, and decide to travel back and put a stop to it. A similar phenomenon motivates Starhawk's journeys back in time in Volume 2; in that case, it turns out to be the events of ''Comicbook/WarOfKings'' opening the way to the Cancerverse.]]

* SpotlightStealingSquad: IGN summed up Bendis's handling of the team as "the Comicbook/IronMan and Rocket Raccoon show."

* ClingyCostume: In order to survive a thousand-year space journey, Vance Astro had to be vacuum sealed for his freshness. If his suit is breached, he'd age and die in seconds.

* ExposedExtraterrestrials: Martinex is a crystalline transhuman from the planet Pluto. His body is composed entirely of crystal, and he never wears clothes.

* HumanPopsicle: Major Victory spent one thousand years, on-and-off, as one, on his way to the Centauri system.

* EarthIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse: Played much straighter by Vol 3.

* AllForNothing:
** Vance Astro spent a thousand years travelling to Centauri IV, giving up everything and everyone, and going a teeny bit mad on the way there... only to find mankind beat him to it by several hundred years.

* CatGirl: Talon is a Cat Boy.

!!This Version Contains Examples of:

** ''Guardians 3000'' in a nutshell. The team do what they can to find out what's wrong with time, only for it all to come to nothing when the [[ComicBook/SecretWars2015 Final Incursion]] destroys all reality.

* AsYouKnow: The first issue has Martinex and Yondu reminisicisng over their past adventures. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] when Martinex points out he was there, and he can remember what happened.

** ''3000'' reintroduces Nikki in this fashion, blowing up a number of Stark units that were... [[NiceJobBreakingItHero talking with the team about potential solutions]].

* BoomHeadshot: In the final issue of ''3000'', Yondu plugs Korvac mid-monologue, telling Geena he could only do it because she'd got him going. Of course, since this is [[PhysicalGod Korvac]], he doesn't stay dead.

* CallBack:
** In ''3000'', due to a spot of time-travel, the original team meets the modern day Guardians, and they bicker about the shared name, along with the fact that the modern team had their own version of Major Victory.
** In issue 7, the two Guardian teams trace the temporal disturbances to [[ComicBook/TheKorvacSaga Forest Hills, Queens]].

** Defied in ''3000'', where the Badoon have found ways to prevent that. The team have to find a work-around using Galactus.

* TheChosenOne: The 31st century Star-Lord, like his distant progenitor, was chosen for the role.

* CoolOldLady: Rael Rider is over two-hundred years old, and she's a Nova Centurion (the last, actually). She's also incredibly snarky.
* CoolSpaceship:
** The Guardians get around in ''The Captain America''. Except when it's being shot out of the sky. Then it was replaced with the ''Freedom's Lady''. Which also got shot out of the sky. Then they replaced it with a stolen Stark ship, ''The Captain America II''.
** In ''3000'', the Star-Lord of the 31st has inherited his predecessor's living ship, Ship.

** The ''Guardians 3000'' version manages to be worse. The Badoon are killing off (or have already killed off) almost every empire out there, and no-one seems to be able to stop them.

* DownerEnding: ''3000''. Hoo-boy. [[spoiler:The Guardians don't save their reality, and never could. Korvac's attempts to fix everything are scuppered by Doctor Doom's actions over in ''New Avengers'', and all reality goes down the tubes.]] Yay?

* FutureSlang: ''3000'' is filled with it. A lot of it makes the transition through to the team's appearance in ''Guardians of Infinity''.

* GenderBender: Starhawk, in ''3000'', changes gender depending on the iteration, while still being fully-aware of being a different gender. He/she mentions that as confusing as it may be for everyone else, it's even weirder for him/her.

* GroundhogDayLoop:
** Starhawk has a Groundhog Day Life.
** The first issue of ''Guardians 3000'' deals with a small one, where the team dies at the hands of the Badoon, implied to have been going on for some time.
* HandCannon: Geena gets one from Yondu in ''Guardians 3000'', one that's several degrees more powerful than the larger gun she already had, and won't knock her on her behind to boot.
* HalfHumanHybrid: Starhawk is the son of ComicBook/{{Quasar}} and [[[[ComicBook/Warlock1967 Adam Warlock]] Her]], making him half human, half orange-skinned [[ArtificialHuman Artificial Being]].

* HistoryRepeats: In ''3000'', there's a human named Rider, who's a Nova centurion, the last even, stuck with the Worldmind for company, once more.

* LaserGuidedAmnesia: In ''3000'', the team have forgotten all about Nikki thanks to time falling apart at the seams.
* LastOfHisKind:
** The premise starts here; the [[LizardFolk Badoon]] have attacked, and the four originals are survivors of their worlds. [[spoiler:Yondu, from Centauri IV in the Alpha Centauri system, eventually discovers that a large number of his people survived and saves them from Galactus.]]
** Rael Rider, in ''3000'', is the last Nova Corps member alive.
* LegacyCharacter: Major Victory for Captain America, amongst others.

** The first issue of Guardians 3000 introduces the 31st century Star-Lord, Peter Quill's descendant.
** Issue 3 introduces a descendant of [[ComicBook/{{Nova}} Richard Rider]]. She is also a Nova.

** Just narrowly averted by the team when they run into the Bendis-era modern day team in ''3000''. Afterwards, they talk about how this is what ''usually'' happens when superhero teams meet.

* TheManBehindTheMan: The Badoon in ''Guardians 3000'' are being controlled by someone. It turns out to be the Stark.

* MyOwnGrampa: A throwaway line in ''3000'' has the Star Lord of the 31st century discover that he's Peter Quill's ''ancestor'', not his descendant.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
** Centuries back, Tony Stark launched all his Iron Man technology into space in an attempt to stop the Martians getting it. It crashed landed on an alien planet, and was found by the locals, who eventually figured out how to use it, and became galactic conquerors.
** In ''3000'', rather than launching his tech into space, Stark creating A-Sentience, designed to become active when the Avengers died. After a thousand years, their programming's gone a bit wrong, and their solution tends to involve murdering the Guardians.
** The Guardians manage to talk the A-Sentience down momentarily, and are just about to suggest working together when Nikki bursts in shooting. A-Sentience resets to their default plan: KillEmAll.

* OhCrap: In the first issue of ''Guardians 3000'', the fact that Starhawk ''doesn't'' know what's going on serves as a big one for all concerned.

* PlanetEater: Galactus is still around. Averted in ''3000'', where he's "sleeping" [[spoiler:as he waits for reality to collapse completely and the next version to begin]].

* PutOnABus:
** ''Guardians 3000'' just has Vance, Charlie, Marty and Starhawk around, with no sign of the other Guardians. Nikki reappears in issue 4, but that's about it for the rest of them.
** Aleta gets a mention by Nikki in issue 4, when she mistakes Starhawk for her (Justifiable, since they have been known to dress similarly, and Stakar at that point was female, though Stakar's hair is brown, while Aleta is blond).
* {{Rewrite}}: Despite apparently being set in the same universe as the original series, with the same characters, there are a few differences in ''Guardians 3000'', like the Stark not being a matriarchal warrior society, and instead Tony Stark's tech gone wrong, or the team-members missing for whatever reason, or Galactus "sleeping" when previous depictions of the 30th century showed he was still very much around. Justified, since a recurring theme of the series is that time is falling apart.

* TheSingularity: A-Sentience, in 3000, is a hive-mind of Stark Tech.

* TimeCrash: ''3000'' centers around one. Reality keeps shifting, usually in ways that make the Guardians' lives worse, making allies vanish or forget they ever existed. As Galactus reveals, [[spoiler:there's no saving the Guardian's home time because there's no time to ''save''. Reality's dead and gone, and the Guardians are just clinging to the fragments.]]

** ''Guardians 3000'' has another one, where Gladiator mentions having met Vance several hundred years ago, before figuring out it must be a Vance from the future.

* WhatOtherGalaxies: The Guardians of the ''Galaxy'' do this just by name alone, both original and modern since their remit is protecting the entire universe (whenever they can). {{Enforced}} because "Guardians of the Universe" was already taken by ''Franchise/GreenLantern''.

The new version first appeared in ''Guardians of the Galaxy'' vol. 2 #1 (July, 2008). Their book lasted for 25 issues (July, 2008-June, 2010), followed by ComicBook/TheThanosImperative, which closed out the series. This was later succeeded by a vol. 3 in early 2013 as part of the Comicbook/MarvelNOW relaunch, with Creator/BrianMichaelBendis writing and Steven [=McNiven=] on art.

!!Tropes used in Volumes 2 and 3 include:
* AbortedArc: In vol 2, Drax starts looking for [[ComicBook/{{Annihilation}} Cammi]], but when the possibility of reviving his daughter comes up, he forgets all about her.
* AmicableExes: Adam and Gamora have shades of this. [[spoiler: It gets creepy when he becomes Magus.]]
* AMindIsATerribleThingToRead: It is when you're fighting a cyborg-zombie that still has [[AndIMustScream some of its mind left]].
* AndIMustScream:
** Rocket Raccoon manages to stop a rampaging Thanos by threatening to paralyze him in his weakened state and trap him in an environment where he will never be able to attack anyone or even try to kill himself and reunite with Death.
** This is pretty much how the Fraternity of Raptors tortured [[spoiler:Robert Rider]]. After years of torture and sensory deprivation, they finally gave him a choice, join them and inflict his rage and suffering on others, or finally experience the sweet release of death. By that point, both choices were equally likely possibilities.
* AnyoneCanDie: [[spoiler:Issue 19 of Vol. 2 has half the main characters KIA by the time the issue is over. 22/23 reveals it was an illusion the whole time, with only Phyla dying in between issues 24 and 25.]]
* ApocalypseHow: Several occur throughout Vol 2.
** A Dyson Sphere has suffered a Class 2, with every living thing in it dead and the surface destroyed by the local sun.
** The Kree-Shi'ar War results in several Class [=Xs=], one of which the team have to deal with.
** One potential future we're shown results in a Class X-2, with the only living things left being a version of the original Guardians, and the Badoon. The end of the issue results in that universe being destroyed completely.
** As Kang reveals, the mere ''existence'' of [[spoiler:the Magus]] causes a Class X-5, with every potential timeline being destroyed and replaced with one ruled by [[spoiler:the Magus]] and the Church.
** [[spoiler: The Kree homeworld of Hala experiences one during the events of ''ComicBook/TheBlackVortex'']].
* ArbitrarySkepticism: Adam Warlock, a genetically engineered "quantum wizard", asks Major Victory, a time-travelling telekinetic, if he believes in werewolves, while they're on a burning planet falling into a fissure in space-and-time. Never mind that werewolves have long been proven to exist in the Marvel universe. The major just shoots back that at that point, he's willing to believe in anything.
* ArcWords: In Vol. 2, 'The death of the future tense'.
* ArchnemesisDad:
** Gamora and Thanos
** [[spoiler:Star-Lord and his father]]
* AssInAmbassador: Delegate Gorani of the Uuchan delegation to Knowhere skirts this. He's not the Guardians' enemy, but he's not their friend either. For example, when being pursued by the Shi'ar Imperial guard, who plan to kill the Guardians and take over Knowhere, Gorani refuses to do anything to help, and outright suggests Quill ''let the Shi'ar kill them''.
* AxCrazy: [[spoiler:The Magus]] gleefully admits to being a psychopath.
* BackForTheFinale:
** In the last issue of vol 2, every member of the original Guardians appears... except Aleeta.
** The final issue of Vol 5 has every member from the 2008 team make a reappearance to help fight the Universal Church of Truth, except for Jack Flag (who was dead).
* BackFromTheDead:
** Star-Lord and Drax the Destroyer reappear in ''Avengers Assemble'' Volume 2 with absolutely no explanation as to how they came back to life since the ComicBook/TheThanosImperative. It wasn't until the ''Original Sin'' tie-in we got an explanation.
** Moondragon is revived by Drax and Phyla in the series.
** [[spoiler:Thanos, after Drax killed him in ComicBook/{{Annihilation}}. This turns out to be Adam Warlock's fault, having found him immediately thereafter and placed him in a cocoon.]]
*** [[spoiler:It's later revealed that Peter made a deal with Thanos for a truce for both of them to get out of the Cancerverse, though Drax's reappearance still remains unexplained. Although Drax's existence being restored by his creator when Thanos returned to life does have precedence.]].
* BadassAdorable: Rocket Raccoon, Cosmos.

* BadassNormal: Starlord; while he used to have all kinds of nifty cosmic powers, these days he's just a guy with a gun and a rad helmet taking on cosmic level threats.
* BadFuture:
** Adam Warlock may have contained the Fault in time but his actions resulted in every possible future becoming [[spoiler:the 'Magus future', where the universe is under the control of the Universal Church of Truth, lead by Magus. It got so bad that ''Kang the Conqueror'' is the only one left standing, giving Starlord a Cosmic Cube that ''might'' give him the edge over the Magus.]]
** At one point in vol 2, some of the team go through multiple bad futures.
** In the final issue of Cates run [[spoiler:the remaining leaders of the Universal Church of Truth return to their future where Thanos is heralding in the end of the universe. Wether or not this is Thanos' actions or simply the church trying to stop the natural entropic end of the universe is left unclear, but the imagery is terrifying regardless.]]
* BeliefMakesYouStupid: Crops up at one point with several members of the Universal Church of Truth, who want to worship an EldritchAbomination... even after it bites off someone's head. They consider it a [[WhatAnIdiot 'blessing']].
* BerserkButton:
** Insulting Phyla's dad, Captain Mar-Vell, is not a sensible move.
** Peter Quill: "That's it. NOBODY calls the Guardians of the Galaxy krutakers!"

* BewareTheNiceOnes:
** Rocket is usually genial, cheerful and pleasant. That doesn't stop him from trying to claw out Mentor of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard's throat during a fight.
** In issue 12, when Phyla is told by Maelstrom that he tricked them into coming to Oblivion and that Moondragon wasn't there she goes berserk, and starts trying to smash his head in with a stick.
* BigDamnHeroes: Issue 12, when Wendell Vaughn, the previous Quasar, appears just in time to save Drax from being fed to the Dragon of The Moon by Maelstrom. Subverted quickly when Maelstrom uses Wendell's quantum energy form against him.
* BodyHorror: Happens to the population of a Dyson Sphere, when one of the space-time fissures messes with their DNA. The result is a giant writhing green mass with some bones visible in it. And according to Adam, the people inside of it are still cognizant.
* BreakingTheFellowship: The team breaks up in Vol 2 issue 6 when they learn [[spoiler:Peter had Mantis brainwash most of them into joining up]], with even Peter leaving. Rocket forms a new team out of whoever he could find, but the originals don't regather until the beginning of the War of Kings.
* BrickJoke: When Star-Lord and half of his team are thrown through time and encounter the classic Guardians of the Galaxy, he decides to come up with another name for his team to avoid any unnecessary problems with the other Guardians. The name he chose: The Ass-Kickers of the Fantastic, a name that Rocket Raccoon suggested for their team name in the beginning of the first issue.
-->'''Star-Lord''': All the good names were taken.
* CassandraTruth:
** No matter how hard Quill tries, absolutely no-one (save [[OnlySaneMan Crystal of the Inhumans]]) will believe him when he says the universe is falling apart, even when there's solid proof in the things coming out the space-wedgies.
** Major Victory keeps trying to tell everyone about the threat of the Badoon. He's only believed once the team encounter some of their handiwork.
* CatchPhrase:
** "''I am Groot!''" (It actually means something different every time. We just can't understand the subtle nuances.)
** Come vol 3, Rocket has the tendency to shout variants on "Blam! I murdered you!" in the midst of battle, which some of his teammates find disturbing.
** Starhawk is still "The one who knows."
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In the Star-Lord series for ''Annihilation: Conquest'', Groot was capable of speaking complete sentences, and had a regal sense of dignity and pride about him. Starting around issue 10 of vol. 2 he mainly just declares "I am Groot!" with nobody commenting on the change.
** The first person in volume 2 to be able to understand Groot's language is Maximus the Mad during ''ComicBook/WarOfKings'' (and no one's even sure that he's not faking it). Come volume 3, everyone on the team seems to have no trouble at all understanding the big guy.
* ChekhovsGun:
** The depleted Cosmic Cube
** The cocoon the Universal Church of Truth found.
* TheChosenOne:
** Jack Flag is called this at one point. [[AbortedArc And then it never comes up again]].
** Mantis as well, being she is the Celestial Madonna, though no-one ever focuses on it, and Mantis never brings it up herself.
* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: The Universal Church of Truth runs on their abiding faith in life itself, from trillions of beings all over the universe. Their [[EliteMooks cardinals]] focus their belief into all sorts of handy super-powers. It's even their battle-cry.
-->'''[[ChurchMilitant Cardinal Raker]]''': I believe! Let the pain begin!
* CListFodder:
** Most of the inhabitants of the Negative Zone prison are incredibly obscure villains. [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg And Jack Flag.]]
** The team itself counted when the title started. What with that highly successful movie, they've moved up slightly.
* ComeWithMeIfYouWantToLive: Said by ''Kang the Conqueror'' in v2 #19.
* ConfessionCam: Used throughout Volume 2
* ConservationOfNinjitsu: An entire planet's worth of the Church's best soldiers versus Mantis, Major Victory, Cosmo, Gamora and Martyr quickly turns into this. And then [[spoiler:[[FromBadToWorse Thanos shows up]].]]
* ContinuityNod:
** In the first issue, as the team fights Church thugs, Gamora and Adam discuss the Church's [[TimeyWimeyBall complicated origins]], which Adam would rather not talk about (since it was founded by his evil future self).
** In issue 2, Phyla brings up Moondragon's time with ComicBook/TheAvengers while talking about the floating chunk of Avengers Mansion the team found.
** The Skrulls hiding in Knowhere during ComicBook/SecretInvasion are followers of the long-deceased Princess Anelle, from the Kree-Skrull War storyline.
** During his fight with Vulcan, Adam ([[spoiler:Or more accurately, the Magus]]) brings up his previous deaths in response to one of Vulcan's rants.
** Mantis and Kang [[ComicBook/TheCrossing have a history]].
** When facing [[spoiler:Thanos]] with a broken cosmic cube, Peter Quill notes he's wielded one before.
* CoolStarship: The Captain America briefly returns in issue 16. And then gets shot down by the Badoon.
* CorruptChurch: The Universal Church of Truth definitely. They use the faith of their followers to empower themselves but are unafraid of bugging out and leaving them to their doom when things get hot. [[spoiler:Become even more so under the leadership of Adam Magus in the future.]]
* CurbStompBattle: Quill versus Ronan the Accuser. Quill is a completely ordinary human with some fancy guns. Ronan is a Kree, and a Kree Super-soldier. Quill doesn't even phase him, though he takes it in stride before Ronan deals with him.
* DealWithTheDevil: [[spoiler:Phyla makes one of these with [[AnthropomorphicPersonification Oblivion]] to get Moondragon back.]]
* DescriptionCut: In the very first page of the first issue, Peter claims their first mission didn't go too badly. Then we get this;
-->'''Alien''': BURN THE UNBELIEVERS!
* DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife:
** Phyla suggests in issue 1 that Drax is doing this, given he was made to kill Thanos, and having [[ComicBook/{{Annihilation}} having done that]] is not sure what to do next.
** Likewise with Gamora, as pointed out to her by Richard Rider.
* DiscardAndDraw: The post-Now! series typically does this with its SixthRanger swapping Iron Man for Angela, her for Captain Marvel, again for Venom, and him for Ant Man. As of the conclusion of ''All-New Guardians'' Nova joins to fill in the empty slot after [[spoiler:Drax quits the team]].
* DontCreateAMartyr: The reason Ronan gives for just banishing Star-Lord in issue 8, rather than killing him, since Peter is still popular with the Kree, even if Ronan hates his guts.
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:One version of the original Guardians launch an attack on the Badoon stronghold, and once they're accomplished their goal they immediately stop fighting and wait for death, because the Badoon have already killed everything else in existence.]]
* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler: Phyla-Vell, killed off screen after fulfilling her obligation to Maelstrom and Oblivion by reviving Thanos. ]]
* DrowningMySorrows: Quill begins vol 2 doing this, due to the recent mess with the Phalanx and Ultron taking over the Kree empire being sort of his fault.
* DyingAsYourself: Happens to Adam Warlock. [[spoiler: Or not, since the Magus was just faking.]]
* EarthIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse:
** Near-completely averted throughout Vol 2, which keeps the narrative away from Earth the entire time. The only time it gets visited at all is for one page at the end of one issue, where Quill tells Reed Richards and the Initiative not to let the portal to the 42 Prison open, and again during issue 16, and even then during a bad future.
** Played much straighter by Vol 3.
* EldritchAbomination: They're trying to get through the negative space wedgies. From Adam's wording, the ones doing this by accident are the nicer ones.
** The Dragon of the Moon is one. It just happens to come in the form of a giant dragon.
* FateWorseThanDeath: Drax the '''Destroyer''' is one the receiving end of one.
--> '''Matriarch Benzia''': ...And I believe you will now feel all the pain you have ''ever'' inflicted.
** Subverted when it turns out [[spoiler: that said "FateWorseThanDeath" actually helps him reconnect with his humanity. Accidental WarriorTherapist anyone?]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** A rather straightforward example can be found in the very first issue of volume 2, where Mantis (who can see the future) states that within nine months a member of the team will betray the others. In the following issues, there are hints pointing towards several of the protagonists as the traitor, until we finally find out it's [[spoiler:Warlock. Though technically he didn't betray anyone, he was simply forced to let Magus, his evil side, take over him.]]
** Also from issue 1, Drax mentions he sees himself as a liability. Sure enough, Drax's presence does bring trouble on the team, first during ''Secret Invasion'', and again during ''ComicBook/TheThanosImperative''.
** From issue 7, while on a planet of soothsayers, Drax and Phyla are approached by one who asks them if they want to know about the "[[ComicBook/WarOfKings War between kings]]", or the [[ArcWords death of the future tense]]. Having not been present for Starhawk's arrival, and therefore not knowing what that means, they ignore it.
* ForgotICouldFly: Hollywood, an elderly version of ComicBook/WonderMan in a BadFuture, is so old he's done this. Seeing the Guardians in action jolts his memory.
* ForWantOfANail: According to Mantis, the team splitting up early in vol 2 wasn't meant to happen at all, and something (implied to be Starhawk) caused everything to change dramatically.
* FromBadToWorse: The situation with the blob monstrosity in vol 2, issue 3. That would be bad enough, if some [[EliteMooks Cardinals]] didn't get involved and take out Adam, become getting absorbed by the thing themselves. Unfortunately, this just makes the blob stronger, so the team resort to KillItWithFire. Except doing so will also kill ''them''. No problem, until they realize they can't just bug out, thanks to Starhawk and Major Victory's brawl damaging Knowhere's teleportation systems.
%%* FunnyAnimal: Cosmo and Rocket Raccoon
%%* GatlingGood: Rocket Raccoon
* GenderBender: In Vol 2, Starhawk re-reappears (after his first attack on Major Victory) as a "she". Later on, she explains it's because time is falling apart at the seams. Just winding up with a different gender is the least of Stakar's problems. The final issue has gender-bent versions of Charlie, Nikki and Firelord appearing among the other versions of the Guardians.
* GeniusBruiser: Groot, apparently. Though the person who claims this is [[MeaningfulName Maximus the Mad]], so take with a grain of salt.
* GoodThingYouCanHeal: Stuck in a Dyson Sphere with no protection from the sunlight, and the teleportation systems down, with the means to restore the shielding a good distance from their location, Gamora points out she has a healing factor. She succeeds, but gets badly burnt in the process. It takes several issues for her skin to heal, with a few issues more for her hair.
* GreatOffscreenWar: The final issue of vol 2 mentions that the Guardians of All Galaxies, every potential version of the original Guardians of the Galaxy, fought in a war to prevent the multiverse falling apart because of The Error.
* GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe: Gamora and Mantis. Bug would be the male version of this trope, being VERY handsome under the helmet.

* GunsAkimbo: [[MemeticMutation "Hi. I'm Star-Lord. I'm with the Guardians of the Galaxy. I'd flash you my business card, but my hands are too full of guns."]]
* HeroOfAnotherStory: The Luminals, Xarth's Mightiest Heroes. They don't get on with the Guardians, which isn't helped by the fact that their boss Cynosure is a JerkAss.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Rocket Raccoon and Groot.
* HeWhoMustNotBeSeen: The Badoon refuse to show their faces to the Guardians. Apparently no-one is 'fit to look upon the beauty of the Badoon'.
* HistoryRepeats: Discussed when the team finds Major Victory frozen in a block of ice, noting that this sounds uncannily like the Avengers finding Captain America. According to Adam Warlock, it doesn't, but it has been known to rhyme.
* HumanPopsicle: Again, Major Victory, only this time to travel backwards in time. And through dimensions.
* ImHavingSoulPains:
** Moondragon says her soul 'aches' after her latest resurrection.
** Gamora experiences something similar in the 2017 series, attributing it to when her soul was briefly contained inside the Soul Gem. This kicks off her personal hunt for the Infinity Gems.
* InformedAbility: Rocket Raccoon is supposedly a tactical genius. Most of his plans seem to revolve on plastering the enemy with [[MoreDakka bullets.]]
* JekyllAndHyde: [[spoiler:The Magus]] for Adam Warlock.
* JoinOrDie: Operational credo of the Universal Church of Truth. And with several planet's worth of armies, they will follow through on the latter, as [[LastOfHerKind Gamora]] can attest.
* LethalJokeCharacter: Cosmo may look like a golden retriever in a Russian space suit (for a dog), but he has incredibly powerful telepathic and telekinetic powers. Examples of his powers include taking on Adam Warlock one-on-one, disabling all the rioting denizens of Knowhere single-handedly, and taking out the Cancer-verse [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk Hulk]] with a single stroke. [[IncrediblyLamePun As in he gave the Hulk]] [[DontExplaintheJoke a stroke/brain aneurysm.]] He's also very intelligent, wise, and decisive. There's a reason why he's Knowhere's [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority Chief of Security]].
** Many folks might crack a joke or two about the genetically enhanced Raccoon standing under them issuing threats, but that all changes when he pulls out his infeasibly huge guns.

* LetsYouAndHimFight: When some of the "Modern" Guardians are thrown forward in time and meet the "Original" Guardians.

* MookHorrorShow: A group of Shi'ar goons, having been tricked into shooting the Imperial Guardsman that was with them, are left in a dark, cramped corridor with [[spoiler:the Magus]]. Violent dismemberment ensues.
* MoreDakka: Rocket Raccoon's real superpower.
%%* MoreThanMindControl
* MurderIsTheBestSolution: Facing a collapse in space-time, with all the evidence pointing straight to the modern-day Guardians, Starhawk decides that their best option is to kill the team. She does eventually admit this might not have been the greatest idea ever, but only after she learns what's happening isn't their fault.
* MyRulesAreNotYourRules: The Quantum Bands leave Phyla because she's slightly dead, yet Maelstrom has no problem using them, despite being much less alive than her. Possible FridgeBrilliance when you realize that the entire encounter occurred [[spoiler: in Oblivion's realm]]. Considering what [[spoiler: Oblivion]] was trying to get Phyla to do, it makes a lot more sense to separate her from the Quantum Bands first.
* MythologyGag: In the second issue of volume 2, the team find Vance Astro [[ComicBook/TheAvengers frozen in a block of ice]]. They even remark on the similarity, leading to Rocket Racoon's quote at the top of this section.
** While going through dozens of [[BadFuture bad futures]], there is a brief glimpse of a version of the Guardians fighting an army based on the Avengers, as happened in ComicBook/AvengersForever, and another fighting Korvac.
* NakedPeopleAreFunny: Peter, after being thrown into the Negative Zone by Ronan, is found by the forces of Blastaar, who remove his uniform on sending him into the 42 prison. He eventually gets it back, but not before his helmet's been "[[ToiletHumour used]]".
* NavelDeepNeckline: Gamora in Vol. 2, who pairs it with {{Sideboob}}, VaporWear, and likely a few other related tropes. Frankly, it's probably a miracle of space-age future science that her clothing manages to stay on her as reliably as it does. Dropped in Vol. 3.
* NearDeathExperience: Happens to Drax when their first mission together goes wrong.
-->'''Drax''': We almost died. I saw a bright light. There was nobody in it I wanted to see.
** And again to Drax and Phyla in issues 12/13. They're OnlyMostlyDead, but it's close enough as makes no difference.
* NegativeSpaceWedgie: The rips in the fabric of the universe that keep showing up. There's a really, ''really'' big one (which they manage to actually stabilize) by the time the War of Kings story is over.
** ''Age of Ultron'' spawns a few more, including the one that brings Angela over from her dimension.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
** Major Victory's fight with Starhawk in issue 2 breaks the Cortex Continuum, stranding the team on a Dyson Sphere for several hours, with no way to leave.
** Attempts to stop the ComicBook/WarOfKings weren't going well anyway, but Martyr taking Crystal hostage made things so much worse for everyone.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain:
** Ultron [[{{ComicBook/Annihilation}} killing Moondragon]] turns out to be this, since her turning into a dragon was the work of the Dragon of the Moon, which was [[DemonicPossession taking possession]] of her again. A few more weeks and it would've been able to manifest fully.
** [[spoiler:Maelstrom luring Phyla and Drax to Oblivion's realm turns into a twin case of this. He needed Moondragon to actually be there in order for the trap to work, allowing Phyla to free her. And then, Phyla's relinquishing her [[GreenLanternRing Quantum Bands]] means Quasar is free to give them to [[{{ComicBook/Nova}} Richard Rider]], allowing him to save the Nova Corps.]]
* NoKillLikeOverkill: Cardinal Raker of the Universal Church of Truth reckons that it would taken one hundred Cardinals to "purify" the Guardians quickly. Bear in mind, just a handful were enough to overwhelm them the first time around.
* NoSell:
** Nothing the team has slows [[spoiler:the Magus]] down for very long, on account of [[spoiler:him being a NighInvulnerable magical psychopath, and none of the team being cosmic heavy-hitters. Not even Drax tearing his heart out gets more than a flippant remark out of him.]]
** It gets worse with [[spoiler: Thanos, who manages to kill an entire planet before they can stop him]].
** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] when the two Guardian teams meet. Charlie-27 claims he doesn't feel Jack Flag's punch, but later on it turns out to have broken several of his ribs.
* OhCrap:
** A PlayedForLaughs version. "Can someone help? Drax has gone existential on me."
** When Cosmos tries reading Starhawk's mind in issue 7, and is startled when he finds nothing. It's an OhCrap moment for Starhawk as well, as she realises that means time is catching up to her.
** Also from issue 7, Rocket's reaction on seeing the massive Badoon war factory, which from the scale is at least a mile high, and mobile.
** Issue 11, when Drax realises Phyla's Quantum Bands have left her, meaning they actually ''are'' dead.
** Phyla's reaction on seeing Maelstrom has managed to find the Quantum Bands.
** The worst possible kind, in one of the bad futures, when the team find the Badoon [[spoiler:have enslaved the Celestials.]]
* OmnicidalManiac: Maelstrom is very much this. He'd like you to believe he's a beyond good and evil force of nature. Really he's middle management for Oblivion and a loud mouthed sociopath to boot.
* OrificeInvasion: In one pair of issues, Moondragon has an EldritchAbomination stuff itself up her nose to incubate inside her.
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: The Zoms return, but they're much more dangerous and much more disturbing, looking like hideous fusions of corpses and machinery. The Monsters look even worse, and at one point the team encounter a Zom ''tank''.
* OutsideContextProblem: Everyone thinks the Badoon are just another bunch of would-be conquerors in a universe full of them. Then they see the [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Zoms]].
* PathOfInspiration: The Universal Church of Truth would like you to think they're this. Just ignore the fact that their worship tends to bring down vast quantities of horrible, blasphemous things no sane mind was ever meant to see.
* PlantAliens: Again, Groot.
* PlantPerson: Mantis, thanks to having married and mated with a [[PlantAliens Plant Alien]].
* PokemonSpeak: Groot. Apparently, some of his chants translate to extremely complex TechnoBabble.
** In a backup story in the Annihilators, we discover ''his entire species'' talk like this.
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Definitely. So much so that [[spoiler:Peter had Mantis use her [[BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood telepathy]] to get everyone to work together.]]
** It also costs them when they ask Black Bolt to call off the [[ComicBook/WarOfKings war with the Shi'ar]], because a group of self-appointed heroes, no matter how skilled they are, can't just march in and tell an empire to stop a war. It also gets them into trouble in other instances as well, because even if they weren't self-appointed, most of the team don't get along, several of them have at some point or another been imprisoned, and two of them are known mass-murderers, which makes trusting them a serious risk.
** Safe to say, this trope gets heavily [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructed]] throughout the series.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Cosmo is the head of security for Knowhere, and is pleasant and supportive toward the team. Except where [[SitcomArchnemesis Rocket Racoon is concerned]].
* ReligionOfEvil: The Universal Church of Truth, who operate by the motto "convert or die". Founded due to time-travel shenanigans, they've been steadily expanding across the universe over the last few decades. The actual practices don't seem to be evil on the whole, since the Truth they preach is just life itself, but they have conquered whole worlds, and as [[LastOfHisKind Gamora]] can attest, they're not above genocide. Played utterly straight after War Of Kings, when we meet the founder of the Church: [[spoiler:The Magus]], who uses the Church as a vehicle to [[spoiler:summon the Many-Angled Ones to this universe]].
* {{Retraux}}: A flashback in an early issue of vol 2 shows the Badoon invasion of Earth, with the Zoms and Badoon dressed like they were in the original Guardian's timeline.

* RiddleForTheAges: We never do find out why Major Victory was frozen, or what reality he comes from. Or why the block of ice had chunk of Avengers Mansion in it. [[spoiler:Or if he’s even Vance Astro.]] At the end of Vol 2, the original Guardians discuss this, and [[LampshadeHanging decide it doesn't matter where he came from]]. Incidentally, this version of the Major hasn't been seen since.
* RippleEffectProofMemory: Starhawk has a version of this, something that comes up repeatedly. They're the only one of the original Guardians aware that time is falling apart at the seams.
* RunningGag:
** Jack Flagg hates Cosmic $#*^. Rocket Raccoon comes to echo his sentiments, despite being a friggin' anthropomorphic raccoon.
** Bug's complaining about not being picked first for the team.
* SeriesContinuityError: ''All-New Guardians of the Galaxy'' gets a couple of details about ''The Thanos Imperative'' wrong, such as claiming the Nova Corps had lots of people fighting the Cancerverse. At the time, the Corps consisted of Richard Rider, his brother, an old veteran and a handful of rookies, operating out of a beaten-up old spaceship.
* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: What Groot is ''really'' saying part of the time when he says "I AM GROOT!". Also TechnoBabble.
* ShipTease: Peter and Mantis get a lot of hints, but nothing ever comes of it before ComicBook/TheThanosImperative.
* ShoutOut:
** The name of the bar on Knowhere is named Starlin's, a reference to Jim Starlin, the godfather of Marvel Cosmic.
** In the first issue of volume 2, the team infiltrate a massive ship that looks like a giant cathedral which is flying into a NegativeSpaceWedgie. These are obvious references to ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', which features creator Creator/DanAbnett's most celebrated work. The flying cathedral-ship is also named the Tancred, which was the name of a Space Marine-turned-Dreadnought in an Abnett-penned 40K comic.
** In issue 22, there's talk of having [[Series/{{Blackadder}} "a cunning plan"]] as Star-Lord and Rocket go to rescue Moondragon from the Church.
* SkewedPriorities: In the middle of a big fight which isn't going well, on a ship heading toward a NegativeSpaceWedgie, surrounded on all sides, Rocket ''insists'' the team needs a name.
* SpaceBase: They're headquartered in Knowhere, the severed head of a Celestial on the literal edge of the universe.
** Later series like Duggan's and Cates' had them headquartered in Star-Lord's ship as their job required them to be more mobile and they no longer had access to Knowwhere's teleporter.

* SpaceX: A variation:
-->'''Jack Flag:''' It's a time-door!\\
'''Bug:''' Yeah? Full of Time-Energy? and Time-Swirlies? Jack, just because you put the word "time" in it doesn't -- [[VerbalTic tik]] -- make it any clearer!

* {{Squick}}: In-Universe, when an EldritchAbomination forces itself into Moondragon's body via the face.
* StopWorshippingMe: Adam and the Universal Church of Truth. They consider him their messiah, he finds them an unpleasant reminder of [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Magus]]. That said, he's not above using them when the need arises.
* SuperDickery: Drax and Phyla go to see Mentor, Moondragons' ParentalSubstitute, about a way to revive her. Unfortunately, they need her soul, which they can't get to without dying. Mentor instantly kills both of them. It gets them where they need to go, but they're still angry about it when they're revived.

* SuperpoweredEvilSide: [[spoiler:Magus]] to Adam Warlock.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Ant Man's reasons for joining the Guardians mirrors Jack Flag's from the 2008 series. Scott even has the same role in the team's dynamic as the Earth-based hero who's completely out of his element in the series' space setting.
* TakingYouWithMe: Starhawk in issue 16, to some Badoon and their zoms, in order to buy everyone else a chance to flee. Complete with BadassBoast.
-->'''Starhawk''': Attention, Badoon! None of you will survive the next few seconds. Believe me, [[{{Catchphrase}} I am One Who Knows]]!
* TastesLikePurple: According to Cosmo, Mantis' thoughts smell like flowers.
* TemptingFate:
** When the subject of the Magus comes up, Adam Warlock is incredibly insistent he prevented that reality from happening, causing Rocket to ask if their mission is going to become 'one of those time-travel things'. Fortunately, it doesn't. But then, at the end of the issue, we see a figure frozen in a block of ice, a [[ComicBook/CaptainAmerica familiar shield]] just visible underneath the surface. Capped off by what Quill says over this.
-->'''Star-Lord''': That kind of stuff always ends in pain, heartbreak and tears before bedtime. Sure glad we dodged '''that''' bullet.
** In issue 2, as the team are standing on an iceberg made of frozen time, Quill declares he doesn't want any horrible surprises. At which point ''things'' start bursting free of the ice. And Major Victory.
** The very last line of vol 2 as well. Just after fighting an insane Thanos, Quill and Rocket share a drink, and talk about tomorrow. Quill actually asks [[ComicBook/TheThanosImperative what's the worst that would probably happen]].
* TimeCrash: Vol 2 has a running plot around one, called The Error, which is what causes Starhawk to travel back in time. Later on, she mentions that time itself is falling apart at the seams. As it turns out the cause is [[spoiler:Thanos' resurrection.]]
* TimeyWimeyBall: In particular, the Guardians Of All Galaxys (the 30th century team, and all [[AlternateUniverse alternates]] thereof) live MeanwhileInTheFuture, operate on SanDimasTime, and have RippleEffectProofMemory. So they only know about things happening in 2010 "after" they've happened.
* TookALevelInBadass: The Badoon are in the middle of this in Vol 2. When the team faces off against some [[OurZombiesAreDifferent zoms]], Rocket doesn't believe the Badoon could be capable of such things. Vance Astro claims that in just a few years, they're going to be even more dangerous.
* VerbalTic: Bug. His tic is literally 'tik'.
%%* WalkingShirtlessScene: Drax
* WhamLine: In issue 1, Mantis is talking about her role as a seer, and how it means she can't tell the team they'll decide on their name in a few hours. Without missing a beat, she adds "Just as I cannot tell them that in nine months they will be betrayed and killed by one of their own."
* WhamShot:
** During ComicBook/WarOfKings, Adam goes up against Vulcan. In the middle of the fight, his face suddenly turns [[SuperPoweredEvilSide purple]]...
** During an escape attempt from the Church of Universal Truth, [[SpiritAdvisor Maelstrom]] leads Phyla to a cocoon hidden in one of the Church's bases. She starts to open it, thinking Adam Warlock is inside. It's not. [[spoiler: It's [[OhCrap Thanos]].]]
* WhatNowEnding: [[spoiler: After ComicBook/TheThanosImperative, the group disbanded with no leader. ]]
* WhenTreesAttack: Groot's kind of like a space [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Ent]]. Who can grow back if you smash him apart.

* WorthyAdversary: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]]. [[spoiler:The Magus]] doesn't have a high opinion of the Guardians, constantly mocking their efforts, but he does at least acknowledge that they almost managed to stop him, and that he respects that.
* YouAreTooLate: After a desperate attempt to get back to the twenty-first century and stop the return of [[spoiler:the Magus, it turns out that Adam Warlock can't be saved. [[OhCrap He's been the Magus for months]].]]

* WorthyOpponent: The one who sent Captain America's shield into space? Doctor Doom, out of respect for the good captain and to stop the Badoon getting their hands on it.

* AbsoluteCleavage: Very popular in the future -- used by the women ''and'' some of the men.
* ActionMom: Rancor.

* AnIcePerson: Martinex

* AbsoluteCleavage: Gamora in Vol. 2, who pairs it with {{Sideboob}}, VaporWear, and likely a few other related tropes. Frankly, it's probably a miracle of space-age future science that her clothing manages to stay on her as reliably as it does. Dropped in Vol. 3.

* LethalJokeCharacter: Cosmo may look like a golden retriever in a Russian space suit (for a dog), but he has incredibly powerful telepathic and telekinetic powers. Examples of his powers include taking on Adam Warlock one-on-one, disabling all the rioting denizens of Knowhere single-handedly, and taking out the Cancer-verse [[ComicBook/IncredibleHulk Hulk]] with a single stroke. [[IncrediblyLamePun As in he gave the Hulk]] [[DontExplaintheJoke a stroke/brain aneurysm.]] He's also very intelligent, wise, and decisive. There's a reason why he's Knowhere's [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority Chief of Security]].

* AnimeHair: Rancor, being Wolverine's descendant, has inherited his hairstyle, albeit taken UpToEleven.

* GenderBender: In Vol 2, Starhawk re-reappears (after his first attack on Major Victory) as a "she". Later on, she explains it's because time is falling apart at the seams. Just winding up with a different gender is the least of Stakar's problems. Taken UpToEleven in the final issue, with gender-bent versions of Charlie, Nikki and Firelord appearing among the other versions of the Guardians.

* HalfHumanHybrid: Starhawk is the son of ComicBook/{{Quasar}} and [[[[ComicBook/{{Warlock}} Adam Warlock]] Her]], making him half human, half orange-skinned [[ArtificialHuman Artificial Being]].

The new version first appeared in ''Guardians of the Galaxy'' vol. 2 #1 (July, 2008). Their book lasted for 25 issues (July, 2008-June, 2010), followed by ComicBook/TheThanosImperative, which closed out the series. This was later succeeded by a vol.3 in early 2013 as part of the Comicbook/MarvelNOW relaunch, with Creator/BrianMichaelBendis writing and Steven [=McNiven=] on art.

* FunnyAnimal: Cosmo and Rocket Raccoon
* GatlingGood: Rocket Raccoon

* [[HeroOfAnotherStory Heroes of Another Story]]: The Luminals, Xarth's Mightiest Heroes. They don't get on with the Guardians, which isn't helped by the fact that their boss Cynosure is a JerkAss.

* [[HeWhoMustNotBeSeen They Who Must Not Be Seen]]: The Badoon refuse to show their faces to the Guardians. Apparently no-one is 'fit to look upon the beauty of the Badoon'.

* MoreDakka: Rocket Raccoon's real super power.
* MoreThanMindControl

* MyRulesAreNotYourRules: The Quantum Bands leave Phyla because she's slightly dead, yet Maelstrom has no problem using them, despite being much less alive than her.
** Possible FridgeBrilliance when you realize that the entire encounter occurred [[spoiler: in Oblivion's realm]]. Considering what [[spoiler: Oblivion]] was trying to get Phyla to do, it makes a lot more sense to separate her from the Quantum Bands first.

-->'''Jack Flag:''' It's a time-door!
-->'''Bug:''' Yeah? Full of Time-Energy? and Time-Swirlies? Jack, just because you put the word "time" in it doesn't -- [[VerbalTic tik]] -- make it any clearer!

* WalkingShirtlessScene: Drax

* HalfHumanHybrid: Starhawk is the son of ComicBook/{{Quasar}} and [[ComicBook/AdamWarlock Her]], making him half human, half orange-skinned [[ArtificialHuman Artificial Being]].