Hank McCoy (Before the Fur)

I was a little taken aback by this whole Guardians of the Galaxy movie thing. Skeptical, actually.

My first thought was: REALLY? Not a Dr. Strange movie? Not a reboot of Daredevil? I’ve been mulling it over though. And here are my thoughts.

This is a very smart business move, actually. Here’s why.

1. The movie market is FLOODED with superhero movies.

I admit, they just seem to be getting better and better, but part of me just keeps waiting for the floor to fall out. How long will it go on like this? Can Marvel and DC really keep the public’s interest EVERY summer for years to come?

Marvel needs something that can mix it up a little bit. Put something out there that’s a superhero movie, but also has something a little different. Guardians should be just that. It’s superhero science fiction.

It’ll probably be a little more Buck Rogers than Superman and I suspect that this will give this movie a certain edge that makes it stand out from the crowd. It’ll give us something more than meet character X, see character X’s origin story, see character X fight villain Y, etc.

2. We’ve seen that comic books can sell movies, but maybe the Marvel execs are starting to wonder if movies sell comic books.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the current incarnation of the Guardians of the Galaxy is cool, Rocket Raccoon and all. But it remains a fairly obscure little corner of the Marvel universe.

The thing is, Marvel has earned the public’s trust over the last five years, beginning with Iron Man and culminating with The Avengers. They’ve got enough street cred in the movie business right now that they could make a Guardians movie and people would go watch it just because Marvel made it.

And if it’s a hit? I have no doubt that that comic could launch in a big way because of it. Ten years from now, the Guardians may end taking up a much bigger piece of the spotlight than they do now in the comics.

3. I think that there is an outside chance that this movie is going to be linked to Avengers.

I know, this is all hearsay, but here me out for a minute. Since the moment we saw Thanos’ big blue face in the credits, we’ve all been thinking the same thing: Infinity Gauntlet or an Infinity Gauntlet-like movie. I’m sure that the sequel could feature some scene where Thanos ruthlessly and decisively KILLS every Avenger in his way (only to have them resurrected later).

If Marvel is going to get all cosmic in their cinematic universe they may need to set the stage for the Avengers traveling into the far depths of space. The planets and characters featured in Guardians of the Galaxy could actually end up being a good backdrop for this sort of thing.

Maybe I’m way off base. But I think it might be worth considering…