Lower Decks

My apologies for the delay in posting this. I’m sure it will be worth the wait. In my first column I stated that the Fantastic Four are my favorite superhero group, Captain America is my favorite superhero and Guardians of the Galaxy is my favorite title. I also explained that I was introduced to Guardians of the Galaxy (hereafter referred to as GotG) randomly after purchasing one of those cheap packs of comics at a drug store.

It was issue #28, in which the guardians battle a slew of super villains at the Avengers mansion in the past. At the time, not knowing a thing about GotG, I was a bit confused after looking at the cover. It depicted the guardians (Major Victory, Charlie-27, Nikki, Talon and Starhawk) fighting Doc Ock and the Absorbing Man. Yellowjacket was there as well but at the moment I can’t remember if issue #28 was her first appearance or whether she was already a member of the guardians at the time.

Anyway, Major Victory was wearing a costume similar to Captain America’s and had Captain America’s shield. When I finally got around to reading the issue, I didn’t learn all that much about GotG or why Major Victory had Captain America’s shield. I eventually started buying issues of the title at my local comic shop, pulling them out of the fifty cent bin. It was relatively easy — and cheap — to accumulate the first twenty or thirty issues, aside from #1. I had to shell out $10 for that one. It introduced the characters and Vance Astro’s (Major Victory’s real name) quest for Captain America’s shield. Oh, and it was the 31st century.

Once I started reading Guardians of the Galaxy I fell in love with the title, the characters, the setting, everything. Learning about this alternate time line in which Earth was invaded by Martians and the Badoon was a lot of fun. And the various tidbits peppered throughout the series about more mainstream characters like Doctor Doom, Wolverine and the Punisher were fascinating. It took me eight years to collect all 62 issues and the four annuals. Admittedly, I didn’t spend all eight years desperately trying to find the last books I needed.

At any time I could have gone online and purchased the books I needed. But I wanted to find them in back issue bins. That was more fun. For some reason (lower print runs, perhaps) finding issues 50-60 was the hardest. But I finally did. I also purchased the four-issue Galactic Guardians miniseries, the trade paperback collecting the first six issues, and some of the earlier appearances of GotG from Marvel Presents. I still need quite a few to have the complete collection, however, and that is the only thing that has kept me from rereading the entire series from start to finish.

I’m aware that a new version of GotG began last year. Although a friend had good things to say about the series, I’m not interested. Maybe one day I’ll buy the TPBs and find that the new version is actually really enjoyable. For now, though, I’m content to ignore the new version.