guardians of the galaxy earth shall overcome the collection includes the first appearance of the original guardians along with their first major adventure and for classic marvel fans it doesnt hurt that sal buscema and vince colletta handle art duties eitherbuy amazon5 the final gauntletthe final gauntlet image credit marvel comicswhen he took over as writer of guardians of the galaxy alongside artist geoff shaw donny cates capitalized on his burgeoning reputation as an architect of longsimmering worldshaking stories for the final gauntletfocusing on a galaxywide search for an inheritor to the role and power of thanos the final gauntlet ropes in nearly everyone who has ever been a guardian for a story that also incorporates hela death numerous cosmic empires and of course thanos himselfthe last gauntlet draws on threads cates had previously laid in his thanos and cosmic ghost rider series though the fact that the story forms its own epic while also paying off some of those plots and setting up ideas for catess later work shows just how effective the writer can be at plotting and planningand of course the story does what many of the best guardians stories do and introduces a whole host of new ideas while holding onto a core unbreakable conceptbuy amazon4 quest for the shieldquest for the shield image credit marvel comicsthe original guardians of the galaxys first ongoing title starts here written and drawn by jim valentino who would later leave marvel during the image exodus to create shadowhawk the quest for the shield recaps the guardians previous adventure fighting korvac alongside the avengers and sets them on a 31stcentury search to find captain americas shield guardians member vance astro eventually does find the shield introducing a plot point that would be picked up again by the modern version of the team 25 years laterthis is very much a story in the mighty marvel tradition down to idiosyncratic villains such as taserface force and firelord not exactly the most formidable lineup but thats part of the tales charm buy amazon3 rocket raccoon a chasing talerocket raccoon a chasing tale image credit marvel comicsrocket raccoon and groot were the breakout stars of 2014s guardians of the galaxy movie and marvel rewarded rocket with his own solo title kicking off with the story a chasing taleskottie youngs take on the foulmouthed furball is as fun as the characters ever been proof that rocket doesnt need the other guardians to go on an adventure of his own although a guardian or two does show up now and again herethe first four issues follow rocket as he tries to figure out why hes suddenly a wanted space rodent while also dodging a posse of angry exes that are out for blood not only are skottie youngs scripts on point but his art is jampacked with tons of references and inventive layouts jake parker takes over pencils for 5 and 6 both oneanddones the first story is told by groot