Marvel Debuts Cable’s Guardians of the Galaxy

Thanks to some meddling with the timeline, Marvel Comics just debuted a brand-new take on the Guardians of the Galaxy as led by X-Force founder Cable.

SPOILERS for Cosmic Ghost Rider #2 by Donny Cates, Dylan Burnett, and Antonio Fabela follow.

The Cosmic Ghost Rider was once the Punisher. Then he died at Thanos’ hands and made a deal with Mephisto to become a new Ghost Rider, only to discover that Thanos had wiped out everyone on Earth and so there was no one wicked left to punish. Then Galactus came and gave the Rider the Power Cosmic, making him the world-devourer’s new herald. Then Thanos killed Galactus and the Rider became Thanos’ right-hand man. Then the Rider was killed by the Silver Surfer.

Odin, for whatever reason, took pity on Frank Castle and granted him entrance into Valhalla. Frank grew restless in paradise though, and so Odin restored his power and sent him back in time. The Rider thought to murder Thanos as a child and prevent him from becoming a monster in the future, but Castle couldn’t do it and instead took the child with him in hopes that he could raise him to be something better than he was.

With baby Thanos at his side, the Rider went to meet Galactus, hoping that together they could protect the child and change the future. Galactus disagreed and wanted to kill the child, but their argument was interrupted by an unusually puckish Uatu the Watcher.

The Watcher, or “sky baby” by baby Thanos’ description, wanted to observe a major event that would change the timeline. That was the Rider’s determination that he would raise Thanos himself. Uatu was amused by this and pointed out that the Rider had just created a timeline where the Punisher raised Thanos. A scary thought indeed.

The Rider changed the future, but apparently not for the better. That future has defenders though, or more specifically guardians. The Guardians of the Galaxy from the future of this new timeline traveled backward through time to put an end to it. If time travel sounds a bit outside the Guardians’ usual jurisdiction, this version of the Guardians is led by serial time traveler Cable.

Cable’s version of the Guardians consists of Jubilee, the Juggerduck – Howard the Duck with the power of the Juggernaut – a version of Rocket Raccoon wearing what looks like Iron Man armor made from wood (possibly Groot?), and what looks to be Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan, with Captain America’s shield.

What do you think of Cable’s Guardians of the Galaxy? Let us know in the comments!

Cosmic Ghost Rider #2 is on sale now.