managed to hold onto the heart and the thrill audiences had come to expect from the teambuy amazon8 rocket the blue river scorerocket the blue river score image credit marvel comicsrocket raccoon is more than the irascible mascot and mechanic for the guardians of the galaxy and hes more than a spacebound superhero he also happened to be a wanted criminal across many of the vast galaxies of the marvel universeand try as he might rocket rarely leaves that life behind completely even when hes saving the universe alongside the guardians caseinpoint rocket the blue river score writer al ewing and artist adam gorhams story of rocket being sucked back into a life of crime when he crosses paths with an old flameewing manages to craft a stylish witty crime yarn in the tenor of a guy ritchie movie filtered through the lens of a love letter to the oddball cosmic stories that grew out of early marvel uk comics right down to bringing in technet of captain britainexcalibur famethough its technically all about rocket and not the team the story exemplifies how much the rest of the guardians dont know what rocket has going on behind their backs as he fights alongside thembuy amazon7 annihilation conquestannihilation conquest image credit marvel comicsthe 2006 annihilation saga did something so ridiculously simple that it was brilliant bringing together previous disparate entities like thanos drax the destroyer nova and ronan the accuser marvel built a bona fide cosmic universe with a status quo and setting all its own the followup crossover annihilation conquest mirrored the formula taking the idea one step further as a way to introduce a new modern guardians of the galaxy teamkeith giffen to whom the marvel cosmic universe owes a massive debt crafts a dirty dozenstyle story in which reluctant starlord peter quill brings together incarcerated inmates and rapscallions alike including bug captain universe deathcry mantis groot and rocket raccoon to try to find a weakness in the invading phalanx sphere and destroy it if possibletimothy greens energetic art shows the prototeam at their most weirdly beautiful while it may not be exactly like the current guardians we know and adore groot carries on entire conversations here all the elements are beginning to form from quills laconic humor to a rocket who transcends his jokebased name via an obsession with large weaponrybuy amazon6 earth shall overcomeguardians of the galaxy earth shall overcome image credit marvel comicsin the earliest years after their late 60s introduction the 31stcentury guardians of the galaxy the original comic version of the team mostly just jumped around various marvel titles popping in whenever a writer wanted to use them as guest stars true to form in this defenders arc series writer steve gerber had his nonteam meet the guardians to aid in their everpresent struggle against the hordes of the badoon a fight that would eventually turn the guardians into a franchise all their own albeit in a different formcollected as