Guardians of the Galaxy

Forming the Ultimate Supergroup
When Annihilus unleashed his Negative Zone-born wave of death and destruction on the Cosmic Universe, dozens of characters stood up to stop him including Drax, Gamora, Star-Lord, Nova, and many others. After that conflict came to an end, Ultron deployed his own plan on the cosmos. Not willing to let a third major conflict tear the galaxies apart, Star-Lord put together a team of those space heroes to prevent threats from getting out of hand, officially forming the Guardians of the Galaxy. These days, they spend more time pulling jobs for cash but still find themselves at the center of plenty of intergalactic shenanigans.

Intergalactic Threats
Whether they're actually guarding the galaxy or trying to get all they can out of it, this squad tends to make enemies easily. Their first real mission brings them into the crosshairs of the Universe Church of Truth, which leads to the return of Adam Magus, an evil version of Adam Warlock.

Thanos shows up on their radar, and not just because Drax was designed to kill him or Gamora has been wanting to do the same thing for most of her life. The rest of the team firmly opposes his views on killing every living thing in the universe.

The Guardians also run afoul of Emperor J’Son of Spartax, otherwise known as Peter Quill’s biological father. After being dethroned because of his son’s actions, J’Son turned himself into Mister Knife and threatened all of existence by trying to steal the Black Vortex.

Cosmic Comrades
Before launching the Guardians of the Galaxy, Peter Quill became a brother-in-arms to Nova during the Annihilation Wave. That relationship carried over to both the Guardians and the Nova Corps.

On Knowhere, the team works closely with Cosmo. They also have dealings with Ronan the Accuser, the Kree, and other races, including the Inhumans. After the team visits Earth for the first time as a group, they work well with the Avengers and were even welcomed by other Earth heroes like Iron Man, Captain Marvel, Venom, Kitty Pryde, and the Thing into their ranks.

Guardians Go on Tour
The group had its roots during the second Annihilation conflict when Ultron used the Phalanx to infect the Space Knights, sending the already-weakened Kree Empire into a downward spiral.

Peter Quill, otherwise known as Star-Lord, had worked to put a stop to the initial Annihilation Wave, but inadvertently allowed Ultron's virus to take control of Hala. The Kree then tasked him with a veritable suicide mission backed by Mantis, Captain Universe, Bug, Deathcry, Rocket Raccoon, and Groot. Though they ultimately succeeded in their mission, not everyone survived.

After stopping Ultron’s efforts to wipe out all life in space, Star-Lord banded together with Groot, Rocket, and Mantis as well as fellow Conquest survivors Drax, Quasar (Phyla-Vell), Adam Warlock, and Gamora to proactively take out threats before they became as dangerous as the Annihilation Wave and Ultron.

Their first mission took them into direct conflict with the Universal Church of Truth, as it hurtled towards a fissure in reality. Though the team succeeded, they also caught the attention of the Church’s leader, Matriarch, who had nefarious intentions of her own.

During this time, the team made their home on the decapitated Celestial head called Knowhere, which acted as a “space way station” run by Cosmo, a telepathic Russian dog.

While continuing to examine and close the fissures in space, the team encountered original Guardians of the Galaxy members like Major Victory and Starhawk. However, the team barely survived learning an important but devastating fact: Quill used Mantis to “push” some of the Guardians into joining the team.

However, they all came back together, now with Bug as a member of the team, to stop Blastaar’s plans to use the Negative Zone Prison—dubbed 42—to get to Earth. In addition to walking away a team again with their victory against Blastaar, the Guardians also gained a new teammate in Jack Flag, who helped stop the 42 invasion as an inmate.

After welcoming Moondragon back to the land of the living, the team found themselves embroiled in another epic conflict: the War of Kings, which erupted when Shi’Ar leader Vulcan attacked the wedding between Crystal of the Inhumans and Ronan. The Guardians unsuccessfully attempted to end this conflict before it began and worked to free Lilandra from her prison. Black Bolt wound up taking out Vulcan along with his T-Bomb, ripping a hole in space in the process.

Adam Warlock’s attempt to save reality and time led to a connection with an alternate reality that held his evil alter-ego Adam Magus, which nearly drove the Guardians insane. Luckily for existence, Quill shot Adam to end his rampage, but not before seemingly losing Phyla, Cosmo, Gamora, Mantis, and Major Victory.

This all turned out to be a ploy by Magus to get the Guardians off his back so he could continue with his plans. During the Realm of Kings, various interstellar factions did their best to investigate the Fault created by the T-Bomb which created a gateway to the Cancerverse.

Just as the threat of the Cancerverse came to light, another deadly enemy made his return: Thanos. Upon making his presence known, he murdered Phyla-Vell, but was soon captured by Quill thanks to his possession of a Cosmic Cube. The Mad Titan didn't stay captive for long and the Guardians used him to go into the Cancerverse to figure out how to close it off from the rest of the universe.

After Thanos killed Drax, Quill only saw one way to end the conflict. He sent his surviving teammates back to the regular universe and then sealed himself in the Cancerverse along with Nova and Thanos in an effort to keep the Mad Titan from ever escaping. With their leader gone, the Guardians split up and embarked on their own adventures.

Thanos, Drax, and Quill all mysteriously returned not long after when the Avengers fought a group called the Zodiac, which had connections to Thanos. Star-Lord, Groot, Rocket, Gamora, and Bug worked with the Avengers to stop Thanos and the Badoon. Upon heading back to space, the team gained a temporary new member: Iron Man!

The Badoon Sisterhood decided to ignore a decree from an intergalactic imperial council to leave Earth alone and attacked, which quickly brought the Guardians to one of Quill’s home planets. In what would become a fairly common occurrence, the Guardians showed up on Earth just in time to save it from an invasion.

Around this same time, Quill's dad, J’Son of Spartax entered the picture. A villain in his own right, J’Son could not keep his son prisoner and wound up losing his position as king, creating an enmity thicker than water.

The Guardians later found themselves first fighting, and then befriending, Angela. They helped Earth’s Super Heroes stop Thanos, leaving the Titan frozen like a statue.

The team returned to Earth once again in an attempt to stop the Shi’Ar from kidnapping the alternate reality Jean Grey of the All-New X-Men to try her for this reality's Phoenix-related crimes. The Guardians did wind up helping Jean, after joining forces with her teammates. Along the way, they met future member, Kitty Pryde, who would fall for team leader Quill. In the wake of this mission, Agent Venom also joined the team and was almost left behind on Knowhere.

Wanting to know how Peter and Drax got back to Earth, Gamora knocked Star-Lord out, tied him up, and forced him to tell the truth. He revealed that after Drax returned to life, they realized that anyone from the regular universe was immune to death in the Cancerverse. Nova ultimately used the power of the Cosmic Cube and the Nova Force to create a doorway to send his friends back.

The team also found Flash Thompson and took him to Klyntar where the locals healed the Venom symbiote of its insanity and set him up as a Space Knight.

The Guardians traveled to Earth and teamed up with the All-New X-Men squad as well as Storm and Beast to stop J’Son—now going by the name Mister Knife—from using the Black Vortex, a Celestial-created object that evolved an individual to their fullest potential. Kitty and Gamora both looked into the mirror and decided to keep their upgrades after the Vortex was secured.

While celebrating another victory as well as Quill's engagement to Pryde, the Guardians heard unusual news: Peter had been appointed the leader of Spartax! He quickly named the Guardians cabinet members and flew off to his second home planet. Star-Lord struggled with whether he should stick with the role of planetary leader or stick to his roots as a maverick enforcer of justice.