James Gunn Shares A Batch of 'Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2' Easter Eggs
When Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 headed to Earth, fans got a chance to see director James [...]
Healing Hand
The Healing Hand New Age shop gives the Guardians movies their first big tie into one of the things that has almost completely defined the world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Hydra.
The organization, which essentially took down SHIELD in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, operated Healing Hand as a front in the comics.
It had a one-off appearance in Avengers: The Initiative Annual #1 by Dan Slott, Christos Gage, and Salvador Larocca.
Bill Mantlo
Best known for creating Rocket Raccoon, Mantlo also had acclaimed runs on comics like ROM, Spaceknight and Invasion!, the story that would inspire last year's big Arrowverse crossover.
Mantlo worked as a writer and editor in comics for much of his adult life, before being injured in a hit-and-run accident in the '90s. Since comic book folk typically are work-for-hire and have no benefits to speak of, his decades spent under constant medical care have been a subject of a lot of conversation since the first Guardians movie came out and James Gunn helped him call attention to family fundraising efforts and showed Mantlo an advance screening of the movie.
If you'd like to help or learn more, Mike encourages people to visit billmantlo.com, or the Bill Mantlo Support Fund Facebook page.
Dan Abnett
Current Aquaman and Titans writer Dan Abnett, along with his longtime writing partner Andy Lanning (more on him in a minute), created the run on Guardians of the Galaxy from the comics that most closely resembled what James Gunn would create in the first movie.
Obviously in the time since the movie became a phenomenon, Marvel has tried to hew ever closer to the movie Guardians' makeup, tone, and look, but for years when fans heard "Guardians of the Galaxy," they thought of an entirely different team, tone, and approach. It was Abnett and Lanning whose take on the property shaped what would become the future of the Guardians.
Andy Lanning
Lanning, along with his longtime writing partner Dan Abnett (see above), created the run on Guardians of the Galaxy from the comics that most closely resembled what James Gunn would create in the first movie.
The pair have since stopped writing together. They would ultimately reunite around the time of the first Guardians for one final writing gig together, for a movie tie-in prequel.
Obviously in the time since the movie became a phenomenon, Marvel has tried to hew ever closer to the movie Guardians' makeup, tone, and look, but for years when fans heard "Guardians of the Galaxy," they thought of an entirely different team, tone, and approach. It was Abnett and Lanning whose take on the property shaped what would become the future of the Guardians.
Jim Starlin
Jim Starlin is the creator most closely associated with Marvel's cosmic universe, the creator of Thanos, and the mind behind numerous stories that would inspire the Guardians and populate their universe.
His take on Adam Warlock, who served as a sort of foil to Darkseid and varied from villain to antihero to hero, will likely inform how the character is depicted in Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3, where he is expected to be a major player.
Keith Giffen
Keith Giffen helped Abnett and Lanning reinvigorate the Guardians as a concept and many of the characters who appear in the Guardians movies as part of the Annihilation event.
Giffen, best known for his work at DC, has a long history creating some of the most memorable cosmic stories and characters of the last 30 years, from the Legion of Super-Heroes to Lobo.
Steve Englehart
Steve Englehart, who has a long history writing cosmic-themed comics for Marvel and DC that include the Millennium crossover and a long, beloved run on Green Lantern Corps, has written for Guardians of the Galaxy and Mantis before, but is likely recognized here for his most important contribution: the creation of Peter Quill, Star-Lord, along with artist Steve Gan.
Here's how Englehart puts it on his website:
"When I was tapped to write a series of 60-page stories that could kick off in Marvel Preview...I conceived something very large. My hero would go from being a jerk to the most cosmic being in the universe, and I would tie it into my then-new interest in astrology. After his earthbound beginning, his mind would be opened step by step, with a fast-action story on Mercury, a love story on Venus, a war story on Mars, and so on out to the edge of the solar system, and then beyond.
"But - after I established him as a jerk, I left Marvel, so no one ever saw what he was to become. The guys who followed me were clear that they couldn't follow through on the astrology, so they settled for smoothing off his rough edges - a very useful approach as time has shown....So there sat Star-Lord, mostly ignored for many years, until Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning made him the leader of a small band of misfits called the Guardians of the Galaxy, and the rest is history. Thank God he never got past his initial state."
