"The End" Week: Guardians of the Galaxy #62!

So, we've been doing this bit for 15 years now, and while I accumulate last issues all year long, theoretically I could write more of these posts over the course of the year. Usually, I get like three done early; but I know I just got this issue this month! From 1995, Guardians of the Galaxy #62, featuring "Endgame" Written by Michael Gallagher, pencils by Kevin West, inks by Steve Montano; and "Time to Go" Written by Michael Gallagher, art by Sandu Florea.

This issue was edited by the great Mark Gruenwald, and I bet he was pleased it tied into a bit of his continuity: the White Room, as seen in Quasar #42. "Endgame" follows Starhawk, who had been set on a quest by the Hawk God, to find his real parents: retcon spoiler alert after the break!

OK, still here? Starhawk's real folks were Quasar and Kismet! Good for them, I love Her. Starhawk had been on this quest since at least GOTG #54, and while Quasar was dead, Kismet had last been seen on the planet Vesper, where we now find Starhawk getting trounced by a robotic "Pathbreaker." For about three seconds, before turning on the juice. Starhawk finds Kismet, living like a nun, mourning the child that was taken from her, by Eon? They put the pieces together, and have a reunion hug at Quasar's space-grave, before they are attacked by Eon's son, Era; who orchestrated everything for the last thousand years. The Hawk God moved Starhawk around to counter Era, to maintain some kind of cosmic balance; and while he feels manipulated, both Starhawk and Kismet are determined to stop Era.

Meanwhile, the other Guardians were re-gathering; as Nikki and Charlie-27 pick up Yondu, who had been trying to get a sign from his god Anthos. Vance Astro was completing a lengthy examination of his new black containment suit: he had received it from the Beyonder, but it had "groped" Aleta and she was creeped out by it. Martinex returns to help with the science, even though he and Vance weren't getting along: Aleta lays down the law, forcing them to bury the hatchet. The team was missing Talon and Yellowjacket: Talon was back studying under the current Sorcerer Supreme Krugarr, while Rita had returned to the 20th century...to immediately get murdered in a terrible crossover like a DC character.

Vance's suit had been augmented by a transfusion he had received from Simon "Hollywood" Williams: it had been acting maybe like a symbiote, but was maybe just Vance's hormones acting up. Reunited, the Guardians listen to Mainframe (formerly the Vision) and his plan to travel back in time, and stop "the War of the Worlds," the Martian attack of earth. The Martians had received aid from a force from outside the galaxy, but the Guardians travel back to June 29, 2001 and interrupt it. With a thousand years of technology on them and a furious Simon, the Guardians destroy about two-thirds of the Martian force. But, as the Guardians return to their own time, they are sabotaged by a stowaway: their old foe, Wormhole!...yeah, nobody remembers him. He was an Inhuman, and had been working under Loki around GOTG #40. The Guardians survive a flaming crash, but where they landed...no one can say. (Mildly curious that the whole team wasn't lost together, but Starhawk was the one to go off himself the most.) 

It would be twelve years until the "modern" Guardians era began with Annihilation: Conquest--Star-Lord #1, with Star-Lord, Rocket, and Groot. But the classic Guardians would return a few times, here and there. I know I read some of Guardians 3000, which also included Alex Ross covers and a more classic Star-Lord--good grief, the last two issues aren't on the GCD? That feels like a crime. Maybe one I can do something about...