WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Guardians of the Galaxy #1 by Al Ewing, Juann Cabal and Federico Blee, on sale Wednesday, Jan. 22.
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy were recently victorious in stopping the Universal Church of Truth from killing Death. Almost all of Marvel's cosmic heroes were called in to lend their support. The story wrapped up many of the galactic threads Donny Cates has woven between his non-Guardians of the Galaxy comics, including Thanos, Cosmic Ghost Rider, Death of the Inhumans and Silver Surfer Black.
Now, a new era for the Guardians of the Galaxy begins under the helm of Al Ewing and Juann Cabal. The creative team assembles a new roster with Star-Lord, Rocket, Moondragon and Phyla-Vell staying on the team, joined by the additions of Nova (Richard Rider) and Marvel Boy. Together their goal is to keep the galaxy a peaceful place, but as they are all too aware, it is much easier said than done.
For example, Nova just took part in a Marvel miniseries titled Annihilation: Scourge, which saw the return of the Cancerverse. Annihilus pulled Nova into the conflict and begged him for help, so Nova did everything he could to offer aide by recruiting every hero he could find. Unfortunately, it also cost Nova his life, though Annihilus was able to bring him back to life.
The entire ordeal has impacted Nova to the point where he is on the verge of having a nervous breakdown. As a preview of Guardians of the Galaxy #1 reveals, the weight of all the stress and constant crises leaves Nova questioning whether there is anything they can do to stop the cosmic madness.
After filling his new teammates in on Annihilation: Scourge, Nova begins to document one of the major developments from the Incoming one-shot. The issue's big murder mystery involved the death of Bel-Dann, a pink-skinned Kree warrior. Though readers never discovered who killed Bel-Dann, we did learn he was secretly working with his former nemesis, Raksor, who was a member of the Skrulls before he was also mysteriously killed in Incoming.
The Kree and Skrull are longtime rivals and even waged war against each other, but now the two factions have put aside their differences and united under the leadership of Dorrek VIII. If that name doesn't ring a bell, then you probably know him as the Young Avenger, Hulkling. The offspring of a Skrull princess and the Kree's Mar-Vell, Hulkling is prophecized to lead both factions. He finally accepts his fate in Incoming, and immediately leads the Kree and Skrulls towards Earth.
Nova's recap to the Guardians of the Galaxy includes this information, but he also tosses in that there are rumors the Shi'ar royals are trying to replace Gladiator with a kid. Of course, that kid happens to be Xandra, the daughter of Charles Xavier and Lilandra Neramani introduced in Mr. and Mrs. X.
All of these behind-the-scenes machinations are taking a toll on Nova. He is doing his best to keep the peace as the last member of the Nova Corps, but even he can see that things are getting out of hand. Luckily, that's why the Guardians of the Galaxy are around; to literally guard the galaxy against itself and those who would look to terrorize it. But with all cosmic domino chips starting to tumble, will they be enough to keep the galaxy from crumbling?