Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy was released in late October 2021, and it brings Marvel fans to some familiar places: outer space, the planet Knowhere, and, unsurprisingly if you've been following the Guardians for a while, prison. To some, Guardians of the Galaxy is better than Marvel's Avengers, and it's understandable why. Whereas Square Enix's other Marvel game focused on repetitive live-service elements, Guardians of the Galaxy was single-player only. Players play the game as Star-Lord but control the other Guardians as well, allowing them to create cool combination attacks in the story's well-written story. Still, the game relies on the Guardians' most overused plot: they end up in jail and have to break free.
In the Guardians video game, players will find themselves locked away in Cosmo's jail on the planet Knowhere. However, as always, they need to break free to continue their mission (and their group bonding). Like in other media, the only way to escape the jail is through teamwork. Playing as Star-Lord, the only playable character, players must locate the pseudo-camouflaged camera in their holding area before they can interact with Cosmo and attempt an escape.
The idea that the Guardians of the Galaxy have been imprisoned and must break free to forge onward has been overused in popular media, including in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning comic series, and now the 2021 Guardians video game. This storyline makes more sense for this team than any other Marvel characters - it would be more unbelievable if Captain Marvel, an Eternal, or even Tony Stark landed in prison - so it's understandable why all of these film, comic, and video game writers have used this plotline. It illustrates how different the Guardians are and shows in the tiny details the GotG's dysfunctional group dynamic. Still, it has become overused.
Abnett And Lanning's Guardians Of The Galaxy Started It All
The original members of the Guardians of the Galaxy members created in part by Stan Lee date back to the 1960s, but the team popularized by James Gunn's Marvel Cinematic Universe movies comes from Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. These two comic writers brought together established Marvel characters to create a team of misfits that would be endearing yet funny and moving. In the beginning, their team consisted of Star-Lord, Groot, Rocket Raccoon, Gamora, Phyla-Vell, Adam Warlock, and Drax the Destroyer, though the Marvel heroes in Guardians of the Galaxy game differ. Only Phyla-Vell and Adam Warlock have not yet appeared in the MCU, though the latter will debut in 2023's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
Abnett and Lanning's 2008 Guardians of the Galaxy series saw the rag-tag team of heroes search for Skrulls, find themselves, and, as always, land in prison. They have to make a prison break in their first volume, just like in their first movie and in their first video game. Still, the dynamics are different between the mediums. The comics version is inherently different because of Adam Warlock and Phyla-Vell and their unique abilities, and the film's prison break is much more of a cinematic spectacle that shows the beginnings of true relationships. The video game prison break is much simpler, but each serves its own purpose.
Ultimately, Marvel's GotG embraces the MCU without copying it. In the MCU, Star-Lord has to team up with Rocket Raccoon, Gamora, Groot, and Drax the Destroyer to escape from the Kyln prison facility. The main difference between the GotG comic books and the MCU's Star-Lords is that the comic book version had known his teammates longer before being imprisoned with them. The MCU's Star-Lord, portrayed by Chris Pratt, gets imprisoned early in the film in the Nova Corps-owned Kyln. To escape, everyone worked together, which included Groot impeding the prison's power source and Gamora securing a guard's armband. Once they gathered their items, cut the power, and freed themselves, they simply had to fight their way out. The video game version is much easier, with players only needing to locate a camera before Cosmo returns to talk to them.
GotG's Video Game Prison Break Provides A Big Easter Egg
Exploring a prison plot is a rite of passage for the Guardians of the Galaxy that hadn't been done in a video game format yet, and it lends itself well to Easter eggs that may be harder to spot in films or comic books. In fact, a prison holds one of the biggest Marvel Easter eggs in Guardians of the Galaxy. The Nova Corps prison in the Guardians game is where players can meet Jack Flag, a character who previously worked for Captain America. It's revealed that he was imprisoned once before on Earth his time in the Nova Corps prison because he violated Civil War's Superhuman Registration Act.
While this backstory is seemingly inconsequential, moments of continuity like this make the Marvel world feel bigger and fleshed out. Finally, Flag becomes an official member of the Guardians in the Abnett-Lanning comics after aiding Star-Lord in battle at the prison, so his inclusion is the perfect Easter egg here and one of the most impactful choices Marvel's GotG's story makes. Star-Lord's assistance for Flag in the comics is further a moment of unification for the Guardians. Star-Lord shows that he can be selfless, and, after he calls the other Guardians for backup, Rocket Raccoon shows up to help save the day.
The prison rescue of Flag is a separate fight from the time the Guardians themselves were thrown in prison, but they're both proof that the prison is a natural setting for any Guardians of the Galaxy-centered video game, even if the concept is becoming overdone. They're a band of misfits and criminals, so it appears that a prison had to appear in some form no matter what. In this case, the prison received a small role in the video game - it's just one of Guardians of the Galaxy's many story chapters - which is all it needed to give a nod to the pre-existing legacy of the Guardians. From there, it could build on that legacy and create its own fleshed-out story.
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy features a well-worn Guardians trope, but it's only one section of a game that contains many memorable and unique set-pieces. The trip to jail is short in comparison to the 2014 Guardians of the Galaxy film and may even feel more like an homage than anything significant due to how quickly it's resolved in the game. Whether players are disgruntled by its inclusion or appreciate the nod to the characters' origins is completely up to them, but no matter the answer, hopefully the Guardians will avoid prison time in future installments.