Review by C.J. Bunce
A little more than a decade ago, James Gunn stepped into the Marvel Cinematic Universe to deliver his best creation: Guardians of the Galaxy, a space adventure unlike any movie audiences had seen yet. Stepping away from the well-known superheroes of Marvel Comics, this lesser known team–created from a re-assemblage of the Guardians from decades past from comic stories then only a few years old–showed the potential of the MCU to look outside the box for good characters. Are there any more beloved characters in all the MCU than Rocket the cybernetically enhanced raccoon, and Groot the vocabulary-challenged talking tree? The art books of the Infinity Saga continue in The Art of Guardians of the Galaxy, coming your way in two weeks and available for pre-order now here at Amazon.
The biggest collection of painted concept artwork in the library of Marvel art books, this book, by Marie Javins and Jeff Powell, with contributions by James Gunn and Charlie Wen, studies the visual developments of every major and many minor characters as they were transformed from the comics page–or just the script–to the big screen.
Not only was this movie audiences’ first look in live-action at the members of the Guardians of the Galaxy–Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Nebula, Rocket, and Groot–it’s where we met what would be the franchise’s key villain, Thanos, as well as the secondary villain Ronan the Accuser. Both went through several iterations before arriving at the version fans would see in the final cut of the film.
On the inside Star-lord’s spaceship, the Milano, looked much like Star Wars’ Millennium Falcon before arriving at its final appearance. But concept artists Josh Herman, Charles Wen, Anthony Francisco, Andy Park, and Jackson Sze, plus a model team led by David White, quickly found the look that would stick for Groot, derived from studying historical wooden masks.
Even more artwork styles were needed to arrive at a final vision for Gamora and her very different sister Nebula. The Nova Corps, key to the space fantasy of the story, looked much like Judge Dredd in the journey to finding the more brightly colored futurism of the movie.
More than a dozen pages are devoted to storyboards by artist David Krentz, including the movie’s key sequence where Rocket takes charge. A fold-out section features The Collector and key objects in the collection, including certain Infinity Stones. Along with the extensive painted journey from Missouri to Knowhere with stops in prison and a reunion with Yondu and the Ravagers, key to the value of this book are the descriptions from the production crew, including property master Barry Gibbs, costume designer Alexandra Byrne, and members of the visual effects team.
With this ninth of 24 volumes in the re-sized, re-issued MCU library coming from Titan Books, we’re tracking a behind the scenes look-back a decade in the making of each film in the Infinity Saga (check out our review of Captain America: The First Avenger–The Art of the Movie, earlier here at borg, our review of The Art of Marvel Studios’ The Avengers here, The Art of Marvel Studios’ Iron Man 3 here, our review of The Art of Marvel Studios’ Thor: The Dark World here), and our review of The Art of Captain America and the Winter Soldier here. A great feature of the series is how each book doesn’t just re-hash the same information for each film, instead digging into what makes the movie unique in the Marvel catalogue, and this book does that through its focus on the concept artwork for the characters, ships, props, and locations.
For every fan of the Marvel Infinity Saga, don’t miss The Art of Guardians of the Galaxy, available for pre-order now here at Amazon, expected in stores January 28, 2025. Guardians of the Galaxy is streaming on Disney+.
