Guardians of the Galaxy Get New Member, Learn New Fact About Infinity Stones

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for All-New Guardians of the Galaxy #12 by Gerry Duggan, Rod Reis and VC's Cory Petit, on sale now.

The Guardians of the Galaxy have a fairly fluid line-up, even for superhero comics. Whether it’s Iron Man, Venom or even Jack Flag, the Guardians’ role as a safe-haven for superheroes without a place for them on Earth has become a defining factor for the team. However, since the beginning of Gerry Duggan and Aaron Kuder’s All-New Guardians of the Galaxy, the team has been smaller and more focused.

It’s no coincidence that the book launched around the time of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and features the same core line-up that fans of the films will recognize. However, now the series is well established and has released a year’s worth of comics in half that time, so the creative team has the chance to get a bit weirder and esoteric with the franchise, as it should be. The most recent issue features the Guardians taking a pit-stop on Earth to press the flesh and hit up some less than expected denizens of the Marvel Universe for their help, with one former Avenger coming along for the ride with them back into space.

Guardians of Earth

The Guardians of the Galaxy know the Infinity Stones have re-formed, but they don’t know where they are. For some reason, they always seem to turn up on Earth, so it’s a good first place to start 9regardless of Rocket’s personal distaste for the planet). Although we don’t see it, we learn Star-Lord visited with Victor Von Doom — who just laughed in his face — while Rocket’s crass nature clashed with the regality of the Black Panther. The other Guardians aren’t doing too well either, as Gamora takes Doctor Strange on a journey into the Soul World and introduces him to her blind elder counterpart residing in the other dimension, leading Strange to warn her to tread with caution going forward.

Drax has even less success than he may realize; while his meeting with Cable is ultimately fruitless, it does end with the time-traveling X-Men promising to keep an eye out for the Infinity Stones. Unfortunately, we learn that Cable was actually Loki in disguise, interfering in order to keep Drax from actually meeting Cable and learning some pertinent information. As we learned in the Marvel Legacy one-shot, Loki has been on his own quest to find the Infinity Stones and to keep the Guardians from finding them. He even manipulated The Gardner into creating the evil Groots, forcing Groot Prime to remain at his miniature stature. With the upcoming “Infinity Quest” storyline on the horizon, there’s definitely big things planned for the Stones. This week’s issue of The Mighty Thor featured a flash of the future that included Loki wielding the Infinity Gauntlet, plus the fact that Avengers: Infinity War is out in a matter of months — it seems this is the storyline to be paying attention to right now.

Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='The%20Newest%20Guardian%20Of%20The%20Galaxy%20Is...']

Repent-ANT

Unsuccessful in their quest, the Guardians return to their ship where they find none other than the Merc With A Mouth, Deadpool, stowing away in an attempt to escape Earth. Deadpool — whose solo title is also written by Gerry Duggan — is feeling the effects of Hydra’s rise to power more than most in the wake of the organization's defeat. Deadpool bet it all on Steve Rogers, only for Rogers to reveal himself as a fascist dictator, leaving Deadpool guilty by association. Phil Coulson is dead by his hand, his closest ally Emily Preston is in literal pieces after he disassembled her Life Model Decoy body, and his daughter Eleanor wants nothing to do with him. It’s no surprise that he wants to get off-world, but the Guardians don’t want anything to do with him either, and subsequently kick him off the Milano.

Deadpool wasn’t the only stowaway, however -- not long after departing Earth, Rocket discovers that Ant-Man was hiding in his fur. In terms of Secret Empire-related regrets, Scott Lang certainly has some of his own. Hydra leveraged Scott’s love of his daughter Cassie — the superhero Stinger, formerly Stature of the Young Avengers — and manipulated him into betraying The Underground and revealing the location of The Mount. In the end, the heroes would not have been able to defeat Hydra if it wasn’t for Ant-Man helping Bucky enter the Cosmic Cube to rescue the true Steve Rogers, but Scott still (understandably) blames himself for betraying his friends in the first place and wants to get away. Luckily, the Guardians don’t have a problem with Ant-Man, and don’t really care what he’s running from — they’ve all been there, even if Gamora won’t admit it — and so Ant-Man officially joins the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Guardians of Infinity

It’s a good thing Ant-Man did join the Guardians when he did, because he was the only person to notice that they left Groot behind on Earth, where he was visiting an old friend in the Florida everglades. While the rest of the team were following their own leads, Groot spent some quality time with none other than Man-Thing, who informs the Guardians that while he doesn’t know where the Infinity Stones are, he does know that they aren’t the only ones looking for them. The Guardians assume that Man-Thing means they aren’t the only people in their universe looking for the Infinity Stones, but what he actually means is that they aren’t the only Guardians of the Galaxy looking for the Infinity Stones.

Man-Thing’s role in the Marvel Universe is to serve as the protector of the Nexus of All Realities, and as such he shows the Guardians a vision of four other teams of Guardians from throughout the Marvel Multiverse that are also questing for the Infinity Stones. The line-ups of the alternate Guardians include former members such as Phyla-Vell as Quasar, Cosmo, Major Victory, Kitty Pryde, Bug, Nova, Yondu Udonta, Jack Flag and Moondragon. Even the members of the Guardians themselves are different through the looking glass, including several incarnations of Star-Lord and an incredibly well spoken adult Groot.

Before the Guardians have time to wrap their heads around what they just saw, they’re drafted into the newly rebuilt Nova Corps, but this moment right here will be one to look back on next year when the Infinity Stones start to play a huge role in the Marvel Universe. It seems that there is only one set of Infinity Stones across the entire Multiverse, so the Guardians don’t just have Loki, Thanos and whomever else to worry about -- they’ve got infinite versions of themselves and their enemies to contend with too. We already know that the resurrected Logan has one Infinity Stone, but the hunt for the remaining five is going to be the driving force of multiple Marvel comics throughout 2018.