Plot Summary of Guardians of the Galaxy Annual
You can call the Guardians whatever you want to. But to the rest of the galaxy, all the people we've helped crawl out from under you and crap like you...the Guardians are the good guys. Not to brag, but we actually go out of our way to help people. We help people who can't help themselves.
-- Star-Lord
Origins
The Guardians of the Galaxy is a group of heroes who opposed the Phalanx conquest of the Kree system (and many who had opposed Annihilus' incursion into their universe), and banded together in an attempt to prevent any further catastrophes from ever occurring.
On the recommendation of ally Nova, the group established a base of operations at the space station Knowhere, which conveniently possessed a teleportation system with near-universal range. An intelligent, super-powered dog called Cosmo acted as Knowhere's chief of security and worked closely with the new team during their first missions.
After an initial clash with the revitalized Universal Church of Truth, the team's investigation of a mass of "Limbo ice" revealed a semi-amnesiac man who identified himself as Vance Astrovik, a.k.a. Major Victory of the Guardians of the Galaxy of Earth-691. Astro's declaration inspired the as-yet-unnamed team to adopt the "Guardians of the Galaxy" name for their own.[1]
The team then battled the Universal Church of Truth once again, while Astro was attacked aboard Knowhere by his former teammate Starhawk.[2] Matters worsened when the shape-shifting alien Skrulls seemed to infiltrate Knowhere[3][4], and the subsequent revelation that Star-Lord directed Mantis to telepathically coerce the other team members into joining.
