Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is finally in theaters, marking the end of the Marvel road for James Gunn and — heartbreakingly — the majority of the original Guardians. And I just popped open a bottle (or six) of champagne to celebrate the fact that they will never return to the MCU.
Yes, yes, Gunn is one reputed Marvel director, and his Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 just revived the drowning MCU. But it does little to downplay the fact that Peter and team never really got to enjoy a solid place in the overarching universe — an anomaly even the new DC Films’ co-head couldn’t help observing, and I couldn’t help agreeing with.
Oh, I have a lot to back up my thought train here, of which one point alone packs a punch. But because I run the risk of sounding like a broken record, let’s first start with…
How the Guardians didn’t get to join the core fights and rest of the MCU heroes until Thanos went ‘Snap’-ping
All the Avengers had been buddy-buddy since the beginning as they looped in and out of each other’s films with significant roles. Even Ant-Man — who remains my least favorite (even more sparingly so after Quantumania) MCU hero — got to dip his toes in the mini-adventures when he joined Steve Rogers’ side in Captain America: Civil War.
But the Guardians only got the chance when Thanos went bonkers. For those who would like to throw Captain Marvel in my face and explain how she also has had a similar fate, I would like to remind them that she is one of the “new” MCU additions and is all set to get a more integrated experience with the upcoming The Marvels, even though, just like Quill and his friends, she has been on intergalactic missions for years.
Where there is a will, there is a way, people and it is obvious Marvel didn’t really bother to conjure either for the Guardians of the Galaxy. And most importantly, when they did get a chance to join the big fight….
Star-Lord got the “honor” of committing deadly double goofs in Avengers: Infinity War — something that even James Gunn openly criticized
No one has been more wronged by MCU than Peter Quill aka Star-Lord. And the best example of the same is Infinity War, where the complete blame for pushing the universe to the brink of half-extinction was put on his shoulders when he first, hesitated to kill Gamora when Thanos arrived to whisk away his “daughter,” thus inadvertently allowing the Mad Titan to get the Soul Stone.
Then, he lost his marbles later in the film upon learning that Gamora died at the hands of her father and started punching Thanos, breaking Mantis’ hypnotic hold on him in the process and allowing the villain to beat everyone, get the Time Stone, then the Mind Stone, and eventually turn half the living species to dust.
Now that’s one tainted reputation Star-Lord won’t be able to redeem ever. Yes, Quill is endearing for his dumb choices but this exceeded the limit of how long stupidity can be found adorable. Even Gunn has aired his displeasure with the decision in a chat with The Hollywood Reporter where he revealed how directors Joe and Anthony Russo “did some things that I wouldn’t have wanted” in Infinity War, adding that Star-Lord would have killed Gamora as per her request and wouldn’t have “punched Thanos and doomed the universe.”
I know, right? Quill is goofy but the first two Guardians films established that he is definitely not someone who just has a single brain cell bumping like a loony screensaver in the narrow corridors of his brain.
Apart from committing blunders, their only legacy is… being majorly MIA during both Thanos battles
The Guardians were the ones who harnessed the power of the Power stone, protected an entire planet, killed Ronan, and saved multiple universes from Ego. But apart from Star-Lord stupidly setting Thanos free, the only contribution they make to the fight in Infinity War (apart from Rocket) is biting the dust. Literally.
Then came Endgame and even when the Guardians came back to life, they had little to nothing to do in the second and final fight. While the likes of Cap, Thor, Iron Man, Wasp, Wanda, Valkyrie, Spidey, Black Panther, and even Ant-Man are busy fighting Thanos, the Guardians just get fleeting seconds of engaging with the Mad Titan’s army (or in Quill’s case, getting kicked in the nuts twice by alternate Gamora).
Heck even in that pretentious, give-the-complaining-fans-something moment — before MCU actually sat down to end its favoritism for male heroes — where the female heroes gather around to proclaim they will clear a way for Captain Marvel, everyone is seen aiding in the task, everyone except Mantis who was just there to join the montage for a second.
Marvel unashamedly shunned Drax and Mantix’s storyline
Even Gunn had admitted that both characters have been “incredibly sidelined” in movies that weren’t Guardians of the Galaxy films — yes, I know, Drax’s “Why is Gamora?” will forever retain its iconic status, but not giving him the chance to engage with Thanos directly after knowing that he is the reason his family is dead is just plain wrong. Though The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 repaired the blunders to an extent, the damage is too huge to fix.
Guardians underwhelming inclusion in Thor: Love and Thunder
As if Infinity War and Endgame weren’t enough, Guardians’ meager involvement in Love and Thunder was adding insult to injury. Though, I am not that miffed about this one — the heroes dodged one deadly landmine by not being a part of the film’s bonkers plotline. Because of Marvel’s prejudice, one of MCU’s best parts remains protected from the drowning mess that was Love and Thunder.
After all the blatant disrespect, they got stuck with picking Kang, Ant-Man, and Quantumania’s slack
MCU was all gung-ho about Quantumania kickstarting Phase Five and ushering in the next big bad opposite Ant-Man of all heroes. I don’t know about you folks, but after I exited the theater, I was feeling a lot like Central Perk’s disgruntled owner in Friends whose sanity had been destroyed by Phoebe’s bad singing. So, in his rather apt words — tweaked to convey my inner Hurricane Katrina — “it’s not that Quantumania is bad, it’s … it’s that it’s so bad, it makes me want to put my finger through my eye, into my brain, and swirl it around!”
And Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, the MCU’s underdog, was expected to wipe up this mess. The pressure on its shoulders was evident — from the specific date chosen for Quantumania’s Disney Plus release to the existing expectations of being so good that it erases not just Ant-Man 3’s mistakes but the disaster that Marvel has been since Phase Four ended.
Who else thinks MCU is just like that snotty professor in high school who likes to play favorites and then swoops in to claim the credit the second someone else exceeds expectations without their help? I might be projecting a bit (read: a LOT) here, but you get the picture.
Yes, a few Guardians of the Galaxy characters will be back, but expecting another sequel would be one far-fetched hope. At best, we will see Star-Lord popping up here and there in other Marvel projects and the remaining Guardians getting another special down the line (something that Rocket teased on The Holiday Special, while inadvertently spoiling Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’s ending).
While this is one disheartening future, as an unofficial MCU ambassador extraordinary — who plans on turning her kids into Marvel fanatics — I would say it is rather fitting that everyone’s beloved intergalactic mercenaries have bid farewell to a franchise that never really understood their value.