The Guardians of the Galaxy have been around Marvel Comics since the 1970s, but the current team most people know from the Marvel Cinematic Universe never existed until 2008 when they first teamed up in Annihilation: Conquest. The new team was popular enough that they warranted their own comic, Guardians of the Galaxy (Vol. 2) in May 2008. It was Star-Lord, working with his friend Nova, who formed the original team, and while Nova was not a member, the first version of the Guardians of the Galaxy included all five of the MCU’s original members, along with some other surprising additions.
Here is a look at the first 10 members of the Guardians of the Galaxy, ranked by their overall power levels.
10) Rocket Raccoon
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
Rocket Raccoon was one of the first recruits for Star-Lord’s Guardians of the Galaxy team. Rocket had been around for a long time in Marvel Comics, surprisingly debuting in The Incredible Hulk #271 in 1982. Star-Lord brought Rocket and Groot onto the team after he got them released from prison, and his plans was to send them on a suicide mission, of which they survived. While Rocket is a master marksman and a skilled tactician and combatant, he has no powers and is, basically, a racoon who knows how to blow things up. However, as a raccoon, he is also resilient and is not easy to beat in a fight.
9) Mantis
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
Mantis is the reason the Guardians of the Galaxy formed after Annihilation: Conquest. After the war, Star-Lord thought it would be a goo idea to proactively protect the universe from future wars, bit he knew no one on the team actually got along and liked each other. As a result, he asked Mantis to use her powers to tamper with everyone’s minds and make them all get along with each other. While she doesn’t have many offensive powers, she does possess telepathy that allows her to manipulate the emotions of others. She also has limited precog skills, which makes her a great support member of the Guardians.
8) Star-Lord
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
Star-Lord is Peter quill and he formed the Guardians of the Galaxy after the events of Annihilation: Conquest. Unlike Star-Lord from the MCU, this Peter Quill is a powerful and capably military tactician and he is on the level of Richard Ryder’s Nova when it comes to his leadership abilities and strategic wartime skills. However, in recent years, Star-Lord received a power upgrade. He, for a short time, became the Master of the Sun, and he had almost godlike powers that made him the most powerful member of the Guardians of the Galaxy by far. However, he lost those powers after the destruction of the Element Gun, and is back to normal Peter Quill. Even in this stage, he has advanced longevity as part of his Human/Spartax physiology and also has regeneration, as he actually grew back an eye he lost.
7) Gamora
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
Gamora made her Marvel Comics debut way back in Strange Tales #180 (1975). She was involved in both the Annihilation storyline and the Annihilation: Conquest crossover event. Like in the MCU, she was at first an antagonist to Star-Lord, but she soon realized the gravity of the situation, that she was being used by the Phalanx, and teamed up with Nova and the rest of the heroes to save the universe. With nothing else to do after the war, she agreed to join the Guardians of the Galaxy. Like Star-Lord, she isn’t really a powerful being with superpowers, but does have enhanced strength and agility that far surpasses Peter Quill, and she is a master martial artist and assassin.
6) Groot
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
Groot was imprisoned with Rocket Raccoon when Annihilation: Conquest started. This was the first time that Rocket and Groot met, and Rocket couldn’t even understand Groot until he rescued his new friend from savage prison guards. This led Star-Lord to the two for a suicide mission that led to their pardons and their tenure in the new Guardians of the Galaxy. Unlike Rocket, Groot is incredibly powerful, with a healing factor that brings him back from the dead, and the ability to change his size via growth and stretching. He is also superhumanly strong and he can control plants.
5) Drax the Destroyer
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
Drax the Destroyer debuted in Iron Man #55 in 1972, and early on he was a warrior who had one mission, and that was to kill Thanos. Thanks had killed Arthur Douglas and his wife and Arthur’s spirit was sent into the Destroyer with the sole mission of vengeance. In Annihilation: Conquest, Drax and Gamora were assimilated by the Phalanx and started as villains before regaining their control and helping win the war. Drax then joined the team, but remained mostly off to himself. As for powers, Drax is the Avatar of Life with an artificial body that is highly resistant to injury and is extremely powerful, with a regenerative healing factor.
4) Agent Venom
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
During the Guardians of the Galaxy series during the Marvel NOW! campaign, Flash Thompson’s Agent Venom joined the team. This happened when the Avengers decided it would be a good idea to keep a connection with the Guardians of the Galaxy after working with them, and they assigned Agent Venom to serve as an envoy for the Avengers. Of course, anyone with the Venom symbiote has incredible powers, and it is no different with Flash, who used the symbiote to create actual guns he used as weapons. During this time, the symbiote escaped Flash and took over Groot and Drax before heading to the planet of symbiotes, where Venom was cured of his psychosis and became an even more powerful hero.
3) Moondragon
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
Moondragon is Arthur Douglas’s (Drax) daughter, who survived the Thanos attack as a child and was raised on Titan. While there she was trained to be a powerful psychic with extraordinary mental discipline. Moondragon fought in both Annihilation Wars, and during Annihilation: Conquest, Ultron killed Moondragon. The Guardians of the Galaxy then found a way to bring her back, so Mentor killed Drax and Phyla-Vell so they could rescue Moondragon’s soul, and they succeeded, bringing her back with them. After Phyla seemed to have died, Mondragon joined the Guardians as a field agent. Her psychic abilities are almost limitless, and are even stronger than Professor X, as she has his reach but without using Cerebro.
2) Phyla-Vell
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
Phyla-Vell has gone by the names of Captain Marvel, Quasar, and Martyr. She used her Quantum Bands for the first time during the Annihilation Wave invasion and became Quasar. She then helped awaken Adam Warlock during Annihilation: Conquest. It was Phyla-Vell who was central in the battle than finally destroyed Ultron and winning the war, which led to her becoming a founding member of the Guardians of the Galaxy. She had immense powers, including superhuman abilities, cosmic awareness, and use of the Quantum Bands. The only reason she died was because she became the Avatar of Death when she saved Moondragon from Hel, and then fell in battle with an enraged Thanos.
1) Adam Warlock
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
Adam Warlock is the most powerful member of the rebooted Guardians of the Galaxy, and no one else comes close. He was in a regenerative cocoon when the Annihilation: Conquest began, but when Moondragon and Phyla-Vell awakened him too soon, he came out much younger than usual, and a lot more volatile. It was Adam Warlock, with his powers fully unleashed, who finally beat Ultron in that event. He was a founding member of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Adam Warlock has a bond with the Soul Gem, and even Thanos has said few in the universe are more powerful than him. In the end, he is superhumanly strong, immortal, has cosmic awareness, telepathy, clairvoyance, can manipulate energy, and has access to both quantum magic nad cosmic power.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
