The ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Return

The Marvel NOW! relaunch isn’t just about renumbering current Marvel comics and starting new series. It’s also about bringing back some familiar names that have literally been out of circulation for a while. Case in point, Brian Michael Bendis will be bring Guardians of the Galaxy back to the Marvel universe.

The new take on the series will launch in March of 2013, following a #0.1 issue in February that will set up the new take.

This will be the first time the Guardians have shown up in the Marvel comics universe since their previous 2008 reboot. This rendition of the team will consist of the space-faring human Star-Lord, Drax the Destroyer, sentient plant Groot, endangered alien Gamora, talking, alien raccoon Rocket Raccoon and apparently, Iron Man. According to Bendis during the New York Comic Con panel where the book was announced, the series will focus on just why Tony Stark is joining the team at all.

It’s worth noting that, other than Iron Man, this is the team roster that will be featured in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie coming in August of 2014. The film will tie into the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe, introducing new details about the film version of Thanos (seen after the credits of The Avengers) and build up to The Avengers 2. The film is being directed by James Gunn (Slither, Super) and written by Nicole Perlman, Chris McCoy as well as Gunn.

The new comic series, on the other hand, will be written by Marvel golden-boy Bendis (Ultimate Spider-Man, New Avengers) featuring art by Steve McNiven (Civil War, Wolverine).

The new series will be part of the aforementioned Marvel NOW! re-launch. The re-launch will see Marvel restructuring their entire line-up, condensing multiple books into single series (for instance, the Spider-Man books will be restructuring into The Superior Spider-Man), restarting most of the company’s monthly line-up from issue number one (Fantastic Four, for example) and introducing several new series into the continuity altogether (such as The Uncanny Avengers).

It’s likely that this is both an attempt on Marvel’s part to drum up more interest from the fan community for the Guardians of the Galaxy as the movie draws closer, and a series to be leveraged in the event that the film should be successful.

Bendis didn’t reveal many details during the Comic Con panel besides Stark’s surprise inclusion in the series, but we’ll likely learn more as we approach February.