Fans of the Annihilation era Marvel cosmic universe rejoice! Dan Abnett, one half of the writing team that brought us the beloved 2008 Guardians of the Galaxy series is returning to the property... sort of... by joining artist Gerardo Sandoval on Guardians 3000, a new ongoing series debuting in October. Set in the far future, the series will star the original Guardians team of Vance Astro, Starhawk, Martinex, Captain Charlie-27, and Yondu, and will focus on the team fighting the Badoon and investigating the broken timestream caused by Wolverine's time travel stab-nanigans in Age of Ultron.
"I'm really looking forward to developing these long-forgotten characters for a new generation of readers, building a loyal and dedicated fanbase, and then seeing the book canceled and handed off to a more high profile writer like Brian Bendis a few years later," said Abnett in an article on Newsarama. "There's nothing I enjoy more than seeing my hard work pay off for someone else. Bonus points if the popularity of my series could result in a major motion picture for Marvel that the new writer gets all the credit for, since he's the one writing the series when the movie comes out."
Abnett admitted that it might not be "The Great One" specifically that takes over the series and reaps the rewards of years of world building by writing page after page of characters eating cereal and talking like Seinfeld characters. "I could see Rick Remender taking over my painstakingly crafted story of underdogs fighting against insurmountable odds to save the universe and making it all about expressing his sophomoric political viewpoints in ham-fisted metaphors, all the while telling fans who question him to drown in hobo piss," Abnett confessed. "That would be neat."
So why bring back the original Guardians of the Galaxy now?
"Readers have been begging for the return of the original Guardians team," lied Executive Editor Mike Marts, "and we're pleased to be able to slap the title 'Guardians of the Galaxy' on as many books as possible to capitalize on the publicity from the movie."
"We like money," Marts added.
Newsarama promised an EXCLUSIVE interview later today with Abnett, in which they will reveal an additional cast member, so check back here later when we capitalize on their hard work and run it as a short news article.