Issue(s): Guardians of the Galaxy #30, Guardians of the Galaxy #31, Guardians of the Galaxy #32, Guardians of the Galaxy #33, Guardians of the Galaxy #34
Cover Date: Nov 92 - Mar 93
Title: "Arguing a called strike" / "Prelude to a kill" / "We who are about to die salute you" / "Cut bait and run" / "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Guardians of the Galaxy"
Credits:
Michael Gallagher - Writer
Kevin West - Penciler
Steve Montano - Inker
Lynaire Brust - Assistant Editor
Craig Anderson - Editor

Review/plot:
The Guardians of the Galaxy didn't come back in time to participate in Infinity War. They came to kill off the Badoon in the (or their) past so that the Badoon can never perpetuate the genocide on the various human colonies that most of the Guardians come from. Major Victory objects to this pre-emptive genocide, but the rest of the Guardians are against him, and they teleport away, leaving Vance at Avengers Mansion. Also flitting around with the Guardians is a little bug that we can guess is Yellowjacket, who switched sides during the Guardians' fight with the Masters of Evil in the last arc.

It's funny. I'm so used to seeing characters like Yellowjacket and the Wasp drawn large enough that we can actually see them in the panels with other characters, but i guess it's true that they should be able to shrink down to actual insect size. That's the whole point.

Major Victory strongly disagrees with the genocide attempt, so he almost uses the Avengers' computer to send a warning to the Badoon. But he can't go through with it. However, something goes through, and the Badoon receiving it is jolted and then begins to get cosmic. He's going to become Captain Universe.

Captain America soon arrives at Avengers Mansion. And so does Dr. Druid, who casts a spell to make sure that Cap and Vance's shields never touch, or else it would cause a time paradox.

Dr. Druid is so dramatic! But his spell is basically a hack. Instead of addressing the problem, all he can do is polarize the shields so that they can't touch each other.

Meanwhile, Starhawk and Aleta continue to fight over control of their body. This effectively takes them out of play for most of this story.

Aleta ends up as the new Starhawk, and Starhawk turns into a baby.

When the remaining Guardians show up at the Badoon homeworld, the Badoon leader, Brother Royal, suggests having a gladiator battle instead of all out war. Notice that Royal is referring to Nikki and Charlie-27 as Mercurians and Jovians. And remember that we're in the present day, where such colonies don't exist yet.

The reason i spoiled the Captain Universe reveal above is because in a later lettercol they explain that it was Captain Universe who told Brother Royal what the Guardians are. We haven't seen Captain Universe providing information like that before, but i guess we have to accept that answer since there isn't a better option.

Anyway, the fact that one of his minions has turned into Captain Universe explains why Brother Royal was willing to offer a gladiator match. But of course the Guardians don't know that yet. I don't know what they know about Captain Universe, but normally it's a sign that you're on the wrong side when one of your enemies turns into Captain Universe.

Charlie-27 and Nikki waste time fighting each other to decide who gets to fight the Badoon's champion. Charlie-27 wins, but not before Nikki uses her flaming hair on him, which burns off his hair.

Meanwhile, Captain America gives Major Victory some advice about when your teammates get murderous and want to kill some alien. Basically, you have to agree to disagree.

Cap takes Vance to Dr. Strange's house so that Strange can teleport him to his friends. Strange says they have to go through the Dark Dimension to get there in time.

Vance gives Cap a disc to give to his younger, alternate history self, Marvel Boy of the New Warriors.

And then he and Strange go into the Dark Dimension. We see that they attract the attention of something as they pass through.

Major Victory and Dr. Strange arrive in time to stop Captain Badooniverse from killing Charlie-27. Note that even the Uni-Power can't destroy Captain America's shield.

But it can break out of the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak.

Charlie-27 ties up Nikki and Talon before leaving for the fight, but we see the mysterious person that is lurking around their ship (Yellowjacket) free them, and then they arrive in the arena as well.

Eventually Aleta/Starhawk returns and teams up with Dr. Strange against Captain Universe.

Strange extracts the Uni-Power from the Badoon, and uses it to teleport himself home!

I find the contention that the Badoon was abusing the Captain Universe power to be outrageously wrong. He was using the power to prevent people from exterminating his race. The Badoon may not be a nice race, and maybe this guy was a little vicious with his power, but he was using it to fight people that wanted to blow up all the eggs on his planet.

Aleta tells Brother Royal that she'll return if there's any sign of hostility from the Badoon, and he agrees. But after she and the other Guardians leave, Royal finds Charlie-27's dagger and grins in a sinister way.

Vance and Aleta have a reunion after they are clear of the Badoon.

As the Guardians time-travel back to their own time period, Dr. Strange notices time ripples, which he says are a residual effect from the Infinity War that explain why the Guardians are able to time travel to and from the real Marvel universe's timeline instead of their own divergent past.

It's not until they get back to the future that the Guardians learn that Yellowjacket is with them. She saves the life of Charlie-27, who was injured during the fight with Captain Universe.

Yellowjacket is made a Guardian of the Galaxy.

But someone besides Yellowjacket has followed the Guardians to the future.

And it turns out to be Dormammu.

But since we're now back in the future, this is where i stop. Looking at the MCP, it looks like the real, present day Dormammu is only behind the scenes from this point on, and the 31st century Dormammu appears in the remaining issues. I suppose he contacted his future self or something like that, and then went back to the past.

I'm not covering in detail the subplots that take place entirely in the future. There's something going on with X-23 (ok, not really) and some other villains that are working with Dr. Doom, using Reality TV as a weapon (which, admittedly, is both hilarious and accurate)...

...and something with the "Punisher gangs" (which seem very silly to me).

There's also another subplot with the Galactic Guardians.

There's a lot going on in these issues. Lots of characters, and lots of subplots. That's a good thing for regular readers of the book. But what's a little frustrating is that there isn't a lot of time left for looking at Yellowjacket's reasons for deciding to leap a thousand years into the future with a team that she's just met. I know that she's sort of been wanting to break away from her criminal past, but that's a far cry from giving up every aspect of your life altogether. We've never learned much about her, so i don't know if she had family, friends, etc.. I suppose there's plenty of time for all that to be explored in future issues; i'm just looking at it from the perspective of someone who picked up these issues just to see how Yellowjacket wound up in the future. And of course that is all here, in terms of the actual happenings. In terms of her character development, this book seems like a perfectly average adventure book that is light on such things. I've already noted the irony of me picking up these issues only after Jim Valentino was out the door. Nothing that i see in these post-Valentino issues says to me that i need to keep covering this series for my project, even though i do have the technicality of Yellowjacket being a present day character.

Statement of Ownership Total Paid Circulation: Average of Past 12 months = 211,008. Single issue closest to filing date = 186,300.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - Yellowjacket travels to the future, becomes a Guardian of the Galaxy

Chronological Placement Considerations: Jarvis and the Guardians have "just come out of a trance" at the start of this arc, a reference to the entrancement that everyone on Earth experienced during Infinity War. So this should begin soon after Infinity War. Note that Dr. Strange and Major Victory travel through the Dark Dimension and are followed by Dormammu. In Doctor Strange #43, an Infinity War tie-in, Clea is being accompanied by a being called Flyx that is really Dormammu in disguise, and Clea says that the Dark Dimension has gone literally dark. She leaves in Doctor Strange #43 to investigate that. Since this story pretty much has to take place before the story in Doctor Strange is resolved, i am assuming that Dormammu managed to briefly get away from Clea and restored the Dark Dimension to normal so that Strange wouldn't investigate that.

Marvel Boy will get Major Victory's message in New Warriors #36.

Technically i could cover (just about) every remaining issue of Guardians of the Galaxy up until issue #60 on the grounds that Yellowjacket appears in them, just like i would cover the time travel adventures of any modern day character. But Yellowjacket is killed in the Crossing in her first appearance after returning, and so her experiences in the Guardians' future doesn't turn out to be especially relevant. So i'm just going to list the remaining issues on the What's Missing page.

References:

• The history of the Punisher gangs was shown in Guardians of the Galaxy #17-20.
  
• Hollywood, aka Wonder Man, joined the Galactic Guardians in Guardians of the Galaxy annual #2.
  
• The Guardians' timeline diverged from the mainstream Marvel universe in Marvel Two-In-One #69.
  
• Wolverine's descendant, Rancor, fought Talon in Guardians of the Galaxy #23 and lost one of Wolverine's claws that she's been holding. Doom returns it to her in this story.
  
• Starhawk turning into a baby was prophecized in Guardians of the Galaxy #7.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

One problem with your Dormammu explanation- Dormammu is said to be "long dormant" in this story.

Royal finds Charlie-27's dagger and grins in a sinister way.

This is a set-up for a plotline that makes no sense. Long story short, the Badoon use the metal of the dagger to develop much more advanced weapons so that 1000 years in the future they are much more formidable adversaries who have conquered Yondu's homeworld. But that totally should *not* be possible. This whole present-day storyline takes place in the mainstream Earth 616 reality (or whatever you want to call it) long after the events in Marvel Two-In-One #69 when it diverged from the timeline that led to the Guardians' future. There should be no way that the Guardians accidentally leaving anything behind in this reality should affect their own.

I liked the Guardians as a concept and in their Avengers appearances, but this idea of havimg them become a virtual worship cult of the 20th century and of Captain America in particular... really rubs me the wrong way. Nothing says "not the future" quite so strongly as that star-and-stripes badge.

Dr Druid - "I've created a spell to keep the shields apart. It would be disastrous if they ever touched."

Cap and Vance - "Let's immediately test out that spell!"

@Michael, the thing that is described in issue #32 as being "long dormant" doesn't have to be Dormammu himself. It could be one of many sentry creatures that he keeps around his realm.

Since you wanted to know Rita's reasons for joining and some will no doubt be disappointed we're not charting her appearances in GOTG, don't worry, you're missing nothing but what little character she has being butchered.

In fact, there's some absolutely terrible continuity later in the series with Yellowjacket relating both her origin and Evolutionary War.

https://68.media.tumblr.com/d940e29f638d11896b7b79765b5a6be4/tumblr_oiwd7o5uBo1tms107o1_540.jpg

It's so bad and wrong that it makes me wonder if it was meant to be exaggerated to establish her as a compulsive liar. But that's it for her, her sole character trait seems to be apparently being in love with Hank Pym (despite having never even met him or it ever being mentioned before). It is awful and everything about her all just comes across as outrageously bad continuity out of laziness. And it's the same editor (Craig Anderson) whose knowledge and ability I've called into question on other entries (Silver Surfer #36 comes to mind).

I understand why not add further issues based on Yellowjacket appearancess, but surely issues with Dormmammu should be added.

We see him here transported into the alternate future, and with no explanation next time we see him in Your project is back in 616 reality. That makes little sense

I only review what i own copies of, and i don't own any more GotGs. They're listed on the What's Missing page.

Also, the nature of Dormammu's appearance here and how it relates to his appearances in other titles is discussed in both the review and the Considerations section. If you don't agree with it or have more detail to provide, that is fine, but it's weird to say that there's "no explanation".

I see what I did wrong: me saying "no explanation" didn't mean "no explanation in Your review". It meant "no explanation in comic itself"
What is happening with Dormammu is explanined 2 issues later. I just thought maybe it's better If people read it for themselves rather than hear it from You. But Maybe I am not avare how exactly Your project works.

And on the side note: despite what MCP claims (and against what Dormammu himself explained in the story) All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z 003 (Dormammu entry) says it is actual 616 Dormammu who is send in the future and than send back in time by Krugarr

That is not exactly what we see in the story itslef, but I think it is worth being mentioned. I am not sure If You rather work on info taken form the story itself or Handbook retcon

As for not owning copies of GoG - those are available on Marvel Unlimited

Thanks for the info, fragsel. I do follow retcons from the Handbooks, so if i were to cover the remaining issues, i would probably tag Dormammu as appearing.

As for what's available, it's just a question of priorities. At the moment i'm focusing on moving forward in publication times with the books i currently own.