Guardians of the galaxy Tomorrow's Avengers

The current Guardians of the Galaxy, stars of a planned film, are a motley assemblage of spacefaring Marvel characters bearing no resemblance to the first team to use the name. This volume features the original group's earliest appearances, from 1969 to 1977, previously collected in two separate books, Earth Shall Overcome and The Power of Starhawk. In the 31st century, the lizardlike Badoon invade Earth's Federation, killing most of humanity. Opposing them are Charlie-27 and Martinex, genetically engineered last survivors of Earth's colonies on Jupiter and Pluto; Yondu, the only remaining native of Centauri IV; and tragic spaceman Vance Astro, who left Earth for Centauri in 1988 and who spent 1,000 years in suspended animation, only to find upon arrival that humanity had developed faster-than-light travel and was already there. They battle the Badoon, aided by various time-traveling 20th-century superheroes, including Captain America and the Hulk, and then embark on new cosmos-spanning exploits. VERDICT Most episodes here are written by Gerber, creator of Howard the Duck, who injects some of his trademark psychological focus, satire, and left-field sensibility into these otherwise standard period tales of heroic sf action-adventure.-S.R. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.