A team of adventurers from Earth and other planets that operated during an alternate future in the 31st century. The team's adventures were published by Marvel Comics.
In this alternate future, an alien race called the Badoon attacked and destroyed nearly all of the inhabitants on the Earth colonies on Pluto, Mercury, and Jupiter. The Badoon enslaved nearly all of the inhabitants of the Earth as well. The last survivors of all of these worlds banded together with others to overthrown the Badoon and to protect the innocent of the galaxy from other evils.
The members of the Guardians of the Galaxy have twice traveled to the 20th century. The first time they enlisted the aid of the Defenders in helping to overthrow the Badoon. The second time, they followed the cosmic-powered entity Korvac into the past, coming into contact with the super-hero team the Avengers.
The members of the original Guardians of the Galaxy from 1969 are:
A new team was introduced in 2008:
Additionally, a mix of the two separate teams is depicted in the film Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), produced by Disney/Marvel.