This same story introduced me to many cosmic characters from Marvel’s pantheon, the Living Tribunal, the Gardener, Lord Chaos and Master Order, but the main thing it left with me was this love for the original Guardians of the Galaxy team, introduced in the late 60s. Around about the same time I read that issue, I would have been about 12, I got a second-hand copy of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Vol. 3, Galactus – Kang. In it there was a breakdown of the Guardians of the Galaxy and from there I sought any and every story involving these crazy characters.
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Now, none of the movie Guardians were part of the original Guardians comic line-up, save for Yondu. The “New Guardians” were formed in 2008 when British comic book writer Dan Abnett rebooted the team, bringing together a cadre of odd-bod space characters such as Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax the Destroyer and, of course, Rocket Raccoon and Groot. It was this version Marvel Studios announced at the San Diego Comic-Con 2012 would become a movie, only four years after this version had debuted in the comics. Studio head Kevin Fiege had even referred to them as obscure when he did and through the concept art below, the world was introduced to the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Write and director James Gunn was the first big piece of the puzzle falling into place for the GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY movie, and perhaps not enough can be said about how pivotal his hiring is to the franchise becoming the phenomenon it has become. Joss Whedon, who had been signed on to consult on all the Phase 2 movies leading up to AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON spoke with MTV on the decision to hire Gunn saying, “He is so off the wall, and so crazy, but so smart, such a craftsman and he builds from his heart. He loves the raccoon. Needs the raccoon… I know he's going to come from left field and I'm going to go, 'What?' And then, 'Of course, why didn't I think of that?’”
Nicole Perlman, current engaged with co-writing the CAPTAIN MARVEL movie, who had been part of the Marvel Studios' screenwriter program, was also pivotal in getting GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY made. She had been offered the opportunity, as part of the program, to write a screenplay based on a then lesser known Marvel property. She chose Guardians, to somewhat of a surprise to those at Marvel and spent two years writing a draft which eventually convinced Marvel they had to make it into a movie. When Gunn was brought on he, according to his own words, practically re-wrote the script from scratch, adding the main plot and may of the elements so many love in the film, including the Awesome Mix soundtrack and its importance to the story, but it can’t be stressed how important Perlman was to getting it made.
With Gunn locked in, casting began in late 2012 and slowly but surely the Guardians we know came into shape. In some case, literally. When actor Chris Pratt was cast in the role of Star-Lord, I, like many people, probably thought, “That chubby guy from PARKS AND REC?” That worked out very well for everyone involved.
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The film released in the U.S. August 1, 2014 (31 July for me in the U.K.) and I think it’s fair to say it was a smash hit. With a 91-percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes after 288 reviews from across the net (for what that’s worth) GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY would go on be the third highest grossing film of 2014, bringing in over $773 million worldwide on a $170 million budget, being beaten only by the third HOBBIT film and the fourth TRANSFORMERS movie. It was a gamble, but one that ended up paying off huge for Marvel.
THE IMPACT
On top of its box office receipts, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY hit big in a lot of other ways, namely through spin-off media and merchandise. Marvel debuted a Guardians of the Galaxy cartoon series in 2015 on Disney XD, and don’t even get me started on all the dancing Groot merch, which were the most sought after geek toy / accessory in the 12 months following the film’s release with everyone asking “Why isn’t Marvel making these? Why don’t they want my money?” (Editor Fun-Fact: The Funko POP! Vinyl Dancing Groot bobblehead figure is their biggest selling single figure in the company's history.)
Oddly enough, even though I expected it to, the release of the film didn’t seem to have much of an impact on sales of the actual Guardians of the Galaxy comic book. Now, admittedly, a new Rocket Raccoon comic was the biggest selling comic in July 2014, selling nearly 300,000 copies — beating out the regular top sellers Batman and Amazing Spider-Man, who were the only comics to regular break 100,000 — but it seems that was more fueled by the fact the new Rocket Raccoon was a brand new issue No. 1, with comic prospectors going nuts for what potentially could one day be worth money. After its release, Rocket Raccoon settled down to a respectable 60,000 copies, which is where the Guardians comic seem to hover around, both well before and after the movie came out.
One area though, one piece of merchandise that sold well and cemented GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY as a classic for all-time, was the Awesome Mix Vol. 1 soundtrack. The soundtrack of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, apart from being important to the themes of the story, catapulted the songs handpicked by Gunn — all songs released before 1988 — up the charts. Across the world people were “Ooga Chakking” — a friend of mine even played and dedicated the song to me when she hosted a local radio show. Everyone wanted Awesome Mix Vol. 1, and they didn’t have to look far as, unlike dancing Groot, the soundtrack was released concurrently with the film. It was released not only digitally, on CD and vinyl but also, in keeping with the film, on cassette tape in a limited number, then re-released.
I can’t be the only one that noticed a lot of the tracks from the Awesome Mix Vol. 1 made it on the track list of a lot of stores through late 2014 and into 2015. You couldn’t go to the supermarket for a pint of milk without hearing Moonage Day dream. By early 2015 Awesome Mix Vol. 1 had gone platinum, selling over one million copies in the U.S., with a reported 2.5 million copies sold worldwide. So amongst the various sci-fi awards such as the Saturn and Hugo awards, Gunn received a Platinum record for putting together the first soundtrack not to feature an original track to go platinum, but also, a platinum cassette as well. I personally have the deluxe edition on vinyl. And with the revelation of the Awesome Mix Vol. 2 at the end of the first film, I can’t wait to hear the new soundtrack, due out day and date of the film’s release (in the UK, 28 April ).
Another very visible way the film hit big was at conventions, especially with cosplayers. In July 2015, about a year after GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY had been out, it seemed everyone had become a fan and had had enough time to make their costumes. That year I took my camera to London Film and Comic Con and for the first time, started snapping pictures of cosplayers. One cosplayer in particular, going by the handle DarkArtsCosplay, still sticks in my mind today, partly due to the fact her cosplay was so amazing, partly because she was kind enough to chat with me, albeit briefly, about her costume and the awesome Orb/Power stone prop she had. I reached out to her ask her what kind of an impact Guardians had had on her and the cosplay community.
“I don’t think the term ‘cosplay’ was around when I first started.” She said on getting into cosplaying, “At the time when I was playing the first Tomb Raider, you had official ‘look-alikes’ for Lara Croft such as; Rhona Mitra, Lara Weller and Nell McAndrew. Some friends said that I looked like Lara, which as a fan of the franchise inspired me to create my own Lara costumes. Not much later I became one the unofficial Lara Croft ‘look-alikes’ as they were known in the TR community.”
Despite considering herself a geeky person, she wasn’t a fan of Guardians of the Galaxy before the film came out as none of the comics she read were Marvel. Though she’s playing catch up now with a Doctor Strange cosplay in the works. So the question was, Why Gamora?
“My cosplay choices are really random, I don’t tend to stick with a fandom. I purely go for aesthetics and how impactful that character is to me. With Gamora, it was both, she has a brilliant sassy attitude combined with an amazing costume! Zoe Saldana really brought her to life and gave her an extra dimension. I remember thinking ‘I want to make that costume!’ while watching the movie.
“I started with the research for Gamora in February 2015. Costume and prop production kicked off in April that year, which almost turned out to be too tight of a deadline with a full-time job and a costume like this.
“After lots of deliberation, I decided there was no way I could paint myself as a poorly executed ‘paint job’ would ruin the overall look and quality of the costume for me.
“I felt that investing in the skills of a professional body painter was the right choice for me. After many emails to various body paint artists, it was London Bodypainting who delivered the amazing green results!
“The orb was such an iconic piece and I wanted to add it as a prop to the costume…. considering various options I purchased a raw 3D printed orb as I don’t have a 3D printer… yet."
She only “wore” Gamora twice that year, due to the cost of the professional body painting, but says she recommended trying being green for a day.
I questioned her on meeting other Gamoras as well as the other Guardians of the Galaxy coplayers. “I met a lot of Star Lords and Gamoras at cons and it has always been so friendly! Whenever I see another Gamora I always try to say ‘hi’ and chat a bit about how they created the costume. It is great to hear other people’s craft stories and love for the GotG fandom.” The sudden surge of similar cosplayer tackling the latest/new/cool characters is obviously something that happens a lot. “I visited this year’s Dutch Comic Con as female Negan and it was interesting to see what the Dutch con-favourites are. I’m pleased to say that there were more Negans than you can shake a Lucille at.”
Written by Nick Whitney, MCU Correspondent -- Click to read Nick's posts
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