Thursday, August 7, 2014

Secret Origins: Two-Fer! Drax the Destroyer and Gamora--the Green Guardians of the Galaxy

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! Today we're gonna catch the slightest glimpse of how Drax the Destroyer and Gamora, The Deadliest Woman in the Whole Galaxy came to be! Yep, the jade-hued (but not related--except by their creator, Jim Starlin) foes-turned-allies of the Guardians of the Galaxy* both got their starts during the Groovy Age at the hands of Judo Jim Starlin!

Drax the Destroyer made his debut in Iron Man #55 (November 1972). Mike Friedrich and Jim Starlin introduced and gave us Drax's origin in that fateful ish, but you've seen that one all over the Internet. Here's Drax's origin retold  from Captain Marvel #32 (February 1974), complete with an awesome (if one-sided) battle with the reason for Drax's existence...Thanos!




You'll note the Groovy Age origin bears little resemblance to the movie version--but 'tis 'nuff, t'will serve.

Gamora made her debut in Strange Tales #180 (March 1975). It's in that ish she meets Warlock's sidekick Pip the Troll, and we learn that she's out to assassinate Warlock...

In the next issue (ST #181, May 1975) we learn why she thinks she's up to the task of killing Warlock...

But it's not until the ish after Warlock moves back into his own mag that we get Gamora's short-but-sweet origin (Warlock #10, September 1975)...


Very much in common with the movie version--just without the Warlock stuff. Here's hoping Marvel's Movie Universe will soon include Adam Warlock and our Kree Captain Marvel! Without 'em, we'd have fewer greens in our Guardians!

(*Yeah, Ol' Groove's doing another Guardians of the Galaxy post 'cause I really dug the movie! It's tons o'fun and the sound track rules, baby!!)
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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousAugust 7, 2014 at 5:38 AM

    Starlin's been getting some well-deserved respect around this neighborhood lately!
    When I was a kid, I thought I was the only guy that knew how cool his stuff was!
    I hope Marvel at least had the decency to give him a couple free movie tickets to GUARDIANS and maybe spring for some free popcorn.

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    1. The Groovy AgentAugust 7, 2014 at 6:55 AM

      Actually, Marvel is being rather decent when it comes to the Guardians' creators. Judo Jim (according to his own post on FaceBook) got the red carpet treatment a few weeks ago; Rocket Raccoon co-creator Bill Mantlo got a private showing at his nursing home a few days ago...

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    2. AnonymousAugust 7, 2014 at 4:42 PM

      I didn't know that, about Starlin or Mantlo, but I'm glad to hear it.
      Especially about Bill Mantlo. That's good news. I'm glad Marvel is trying to do right by them.
      I'm interested in what 'ol Judo Jim has to say about all this! I'll have to check that out!

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  2. Joe G KushnerAugust 7, 2014 at 10:49 PM

    I'd like to see Drax get his cosmic level powers back. There's a little too much overlap in thematic weaponry and power set between him and Gamora right now.

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