The Guardians of the Galaxy is a team of superhuman and extraterrestrial adventurers living in an alternate future of the 31st Century who have formed a team dedicated to the safeguarding of the Milky Way Galaxy from any force that threatens the security or liberty of its various people. The Guardians was formed shortly after the alien Badoon invaded the solar system in 3007 A.D. The Badoon attacked and destroyed the Earth’s manufacturing colony on Pluto, its mining colony on Mercury, and its scientific outposts on Jupiter, ultimately killing nearly every inhabitant of the three settlements. The Badoon then invaded Earth itself, decimating the technologically inferior space fleet of the United Lands of Earth. Millions of human beings were exterminated and the remainder forced into slave labor. Space militia pilot Charlie-27, a native to the Jupiter colony, returned from a solo tour of duty to see his home world overrun by the Badoon. Managing to escape by jumping into a teleportation tube, Charlie-27 arrived on Pluto and joined forces with Martinex, the last Plutonian left on the planet, who had volunteered to stay behind when his people evacuated in order to destroy Pluto’s industrial complexes to keep them out of enemy hands. Charlie-27 and Martinex teleported to Earth, hoping to learn the extent of the Badoon invasion.

At about the same time, American astronaut Vance Astrovik, who had embarked upon the first manned space flight to another star system, arrived on the planet Centauri IV over a thousand years later to find that while he was en route in suspended animation, Earth had developed faster than light travel, traveled to Alpha Centauri centuries ahead of him, and found a settlement. Upon learning his achievement was meaningless, Astrovik left the human colony to complete the surveying mission he was assigned to anyway. He soon met Yondu, a member of the native humanoid population of the planet, and when the marauding Badoon exterminated Yondu’s tribe, Yondu accompanied Astro back to Earth. Taken captive by the Badoon upon arrival, Yondu and Astro encountered Charlie-27 and Martinex. Managing to escape the Badoon, the four decided to band together to rid the Earth and its colonies from Badoon oppression. They named themselves the Guardians of the Galaxy.

In 3015 A.D., with the aid of the Defenders of the 20th Century, the Guardians managed to liberate the system and rout the Badoon Empire. Since then, the Guardians have set forth in their starship, the Captain America (and later Freedom’s Lady’ when the America was destroyed), in search of other menaces to the galaxy and its people. They have since been joined by the Arcturan mutant Starhawk and his wife Aleta, and the Mercurian colonist Nikki.

Twice so far the Guardians traveled through time to the 20th Century. The first time they attempted to retrieve a Badoon memory tape detailing the aliens’ first Invasion attempt. Although they failed to learn what they came for, they recruited the Defenders to help them liberate Earth. The second time they journeyed into the past to search for the human-turned-cyborg-turned-god Korvac. This second stay lasted several months, during which period the Guardians were honorary membership in the Avengers. During each of the two stays in the 20th Century, Vance Astro met with his present-day temporal counterpart, a teenaged boy. The second time Astro managed to unleash his younger self’s latent psionic powers, thus ensuring that the boy would not grow up to make the same mistakes he made.The Guardians have since returned to their own time era, to embark upon new, as yet unrecorded exploits.

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