The Guardians of the Galaxy became one of the most popular super-teams in the world thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What made this even more impressive was the fact that they were never really a big deal in comics before that. Marvel Comics introduced the team in 1969, and it looked nothing like the movie version.

However, thanks to the MCU, the Guardians are now more popular than ever, even in the comics. The team from the movies formed in the comics in 2007, seven years before their debut in the MCU. Since that time, some of the most powerful cosmic Marvel heroes joined forces on the team, many capable of matching up to even Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

UPDATE: 2022/11/25 16:44 EST BY SHAWN S. LEALOS

The Guardians of the Galaxy roared back into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in November 2022 with the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. This is a special shorter presentation, with James Gunn bringing his cosmic team back to Earth to help Peter Quill celebrate Christmas there for the first time since he was a child. However, this is really a small pit stop before the third and final movie in the franchise hits in 2023 with an installment that will introduce some new powerful characters, and possibly even see the end of some of the beloved members of the space-faring team.

20 Gamora

Gamora might seem like one of the most powerful members of the Guardians of the Galaxy, but there is one thing holding her back. She actually has no powers of any sort. Gamora doesn’t possess superstrength or durability. She doesn’t even have the technical know-how of someone like Rocket Raccoon.

However, what keeps Gamora in every fight is her training and will to survive. Trained by Thanos and raised to be a master assassin, she is as powerful and deadly as someone like Black Widow and might even have an edge over Natasha. However, when compared with gods and monsters, she is not as powerful, but could still win a fight with just about anyone.

19 Rocket Raccoon

On his own, Rocket Raccoon doesn’t look like that powerful of a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy. While he doesn’t have the strength of Drax or the powers of Groot, he is just as powerful as other members, thanks to his brain.

While Rocket is often loudmouthed and seems a little street-savvy, he is also a highly intelligent being. He can create just about any weapon imaginable, making him invaluable to the Guardians of the Galaxy. He is also a master detective in the comics and can solve problems and crimes no one around him can. What he lacks in physical and supernatural powers, Rocket makes up for in his tactical brilliance.

18 The Thing

It might come as a surprise to people who don’t regularly read Guardians of the Galaxy comics, but Ben Grimm of The Fantastic Four was once a member of the cosmic team. Ben is The Thing, a giant, muscular, rock-covered superhuman who was one of Marvel’s first heroes.

In the comics, The Thing joined the team after Secret Wars, after The Fantastic Four broke up. However, he didn’t last long, and he left during Civil War II. As for his powers, many consider him an equal to Hulk, making him stronger than just about anyone on Earth, although there are Guardians who are more powerful than him.

17 Beta Ray Bill

Beta Ray Bill has similar powers to Thor, and that makes him a very powerful Marvel hero no matter who he teams with. Bill took over as Thor for a time, but when he battled Thor Odinson for worthiness, he lost his right to Mjolnir, but gained Odin’s respect and received a new weapon to continue as a hero.

He joined the Guardians after Thanos’s funeral when Eros announced someone would become the new Thanos. Bill joined on to stop them but ended up at odds with the original Guardians. As for his powers, he has close power levels to Thor, with incalculable strength and near invulnerability, but is a step below the Thunder God.

16 Angela

While the MCU made Hela the oldest daughter of Odin and one of the most powerful villains in the MCU, that was not comic book accurate. Instead, Hela was Loki’s daughter in the comics. Odin had a daughter however, and her name was Angela.

She made her debut with the Guardians of the Galaxy, and she proved to be a very powerful ally and member, although her goals were often at odds with her teammates. She has the powers of most Asgardians, making her very strong, but she also wears armor worn by the Angels of Heaven and uses ribbons on her costume that she has a psychic link to that can strangle or cut her enemies.

15 Noh-Varr

Noh-Varr is also known as Marvel Boy, and he was one of the early members of the Young Avengers in the comics, even dating the new Hawkeye, Kate Bishop. His parents were heroes from another universe - Captain Glory and Star Splendor. This made him a legacy with a boost of their powers.

As a Kree, he has similar powers to them, but enhanced with cockroach DNA and nanobiology. This makes him, at times, more powerful than most normal Kree warriors. He also has control over his body and can grow hair at will, move at superhuman speeds by ignoring distractions, redirect pain with just his brainpower, and even emit poison from his fingernails.

14 Super-Skrull

Super Skrull was once one of the most dangerous villains that faced The Fantastic Four. He served the Skrull Queen loyally, and unlike many Skrulls who choose one person or thing to mimic, Super Skrull was able to take on the powers of all four members of The Fantastic Four and use them at the same time.

The best way to describe this is the Skrulls version of the Super Soldier Serum, but using it to enhance the mimicking powers of their race. He has become a good guy since Hulkling took over the throne, swearing his allegiance to whoever rules the Skrull nation.

13 Drax The Destroyer

Drax the Destroyer first appeared in Iron Man #55 in 1973. The hero was a tragic Guardians of the Galaxy character, with his family seemingly dying as victims of Thanos. A human in the comics, Arthur Douglas returned in the body of the Drax the Destroyer, a cosmic powerhouse feared across the galaxy as an unstoppable force of nature.

Drax is immensely powerful, dying and returning more than once thanks to him being an Avatar of Life. The Eternal Kronos created his body and strengthened it to battle Thanos on even ground. Drax also has an aura around his body, and when it surrounds him, he has more power. He's even killed Thanos more than once.

12 Groot

Groot is an alien from Planet X, exiled from his homeworld for his sense of empathy and kindness for others. However, while Groot is a being that seeks peace, he is also a powerful warrior that is strong enough to fight countless enemies at once and tear through them with ease.

Groot can grow in size at will to take a giant form in battle. He can also stretch his limbs and attack from all angles at once, from great distances. In battle, he has superhuman strength and durability and has both regenerative abilities to instantly heal himself as well as the power to heal his allies. Add on the ability to control other plant life, and he is a very powerful ally for the Guardians of the Galaxy.

11 Agent Venom

Flash Thompson's Agent Venom also joined up with the Guardians of the Galaxy at one point. One of the most heroic symbiote hosts from Marvel Comics, Agent Venom joined the Guardians as a liaison for The Avengers and became close friends and allies with the cosmic team. This is also where readers learned more about Knull and the symbiotes' origin.

Flash had the same Venom symbiote that Eddie Brock had, and that made him an incredibly powerful character. He had all the powers of Brock's Venom but also used his skills as a military strategist to use the symbiote to form various weapons and guns to use.

10 Doctor Doom

Doctor Doom might not be an official member of the Guardians of the Galaxy, but many people who worked with the team were members without proclaiming their undying allegiance. For Doom, he joined up with the Guardians during the King in Black storyline where Knull was attempting to destroy the universe.

Doom believed he was the only person smart enough to stop whatever was coming, which was Knull, and he stole Hulkling's Sword of Space to do this. However, what he didn't expect was the battle would end up having him and Rocket Raccoon switching bodies. By the end, Doom left and was ready to be finished with the Guardians, but the legendary Marvel villain was, for a time, one of the most powerful members of the team.

9 Hercules

The Guardians of the Galaxy have dealt with gods more than once, and in recent issues of the comics, they even had to battle Zeus and the Greek gods. They also had a member of that pantheon on their team, as Hercules had joined the Guardians long before these battles began.

The former Avenger has godlike strength, speed, reflexes, and stamina. He is also invulnerable thanks to Hela and can withstand more damage than any god outside of Zeus. Additionally, Hercules is immortal, and he can never truly die by conventional means, putting him a step above someone like Agent Venom.

8 Phyla-Vell

Phyla-Vell was the second artificially created offspring of Captain Mar-Vell, the original Kree warrior that became an ally to Earth. She proved her power when the Guardians and Nova fought in the Annihilation War, one of the most devastating cosmic wars in Marvel history. She was responsible for helping end the war when she attacked Annihilus and stole his Quantum Bands.

According to the Nova Corps, Phyla-Vell's powers are "Continental Threat" level. On top of her strength, she can also absorb energy from the reality around her and use it as a weapon or as a healing force. She also gained more powers as the Avatar of Oblivion, but those are still unknown, although they hint to be even greater than her previous powers.

7 Quasar

Quasar has always been one of cosmic Marvel's most powerful heroes, although he isn't as prominent as others. The original Quasar, Wendell Vaughn, also recently went through changes that altered everything about the hero, as he and former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Avril Kincaid can now switch places at any time with the Quantum Bands.

Quasar is pure quantum energy. This means he/she can turn their body into any shape imaginable and then disperse the energy from the body as a weapon. What holds them down is the fact they need the Quantum Bands to reach full power and can tire out after large excursions of power.

6 Gladiator

Gladiator is a Marvel hero that is often compared to Superman when it comes to his DC equivalent. For most of his existence in Marvel Comics, he was the most powerful member of the Shi'ar Empire and the Imperial Guard. He has very similar powers to Superman, from super strength and invulnerability to flight and accelerated healing.

While he fought the Guardians of the Galaxy several times in the past, he ended up joining the Dark Guardians and later the Guardians of the Galaxy to battle and stop the resurrection of Thanos through the Titan's brother Eros.

5 Nova

Richard Ryder was a teenager on Earth when he became Nova. However, in the years since, he has become one of the most powerful cosmic warriors, battling on the front lines to save the galaxy from all sorts of threats, from Thanos to Annihilus. He was the lead general in Annihilation and helped win that war.

At one time, Nova was a powerful warrior, but he now serves as the host for the entire Nova Force, which is pure energy that gives him several powers. This used to power up the Nova Corps, and now he uses it by himself. His power is so strong that he battled Silver Surfer on even ground. He also hosts the Xandarian Worldmind, which both protects and advises him in all battles.

4 Moondragon

Moondragon is Heather Douglas. In the comics, she was Drax the Destroyer's daughter, but she did not die in Thanos' attack, as the Mad Titan's father saved her and took her back to his home to train her. She ended up as a hero, a villain, an Avenger, and a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Moondragon is considered one of the most powerful telepaths ever born on Earth. While Professor X and Jean Grey are considered two of Marvel's most powerful telepaths, Moondragon has proven at times to possess stronger psionic energy. Her power is so great that she pierced the mind of Galactus at one point.

3 Captain Marvel

When Carol Danvers got her start, it was by the side of the original Captain Mar-Vell, and she inherited his basic powers, becoming Ms. Marvel. She ended up as a member of the Avengers and was there to stop several attacks that endangered the planet. The one time it didn't work out well was in The Enemy Within when an attack by Yon-Rogg left her with brain damage and memory loss.

Carol ended up leaving Earth and joined the Guardians of the Galaxy to rediscover herself. She slowly recovered, and Captain Marvel proved why she was one of the most powerful members ever of the Guardians of the Galaxy with her energy powers and a touch of her binary powers still intact.

2 Adam Warlock

The big difference between the Infinity Gauntlet storyline in comics and Avengers: Infinity War was that it wasn't the Avengers who beat Thanos in the comics. It was the combined efforts of cosmic heroes like Silver Surfer and Adam Warlock. It was actually Warlock that took the Infinity Gauntlet for himself after the war.

However, it was also Warlock that ended up losing control and almost destroying the universe itself when he became Magus. He has more powers than almost anyone in the Guardians of the Galaxy and was the most powerful member until recently. He has cosmic powers, can use quantum magic, and manipulates energy and matter, meaning he is overpowered and can do almost anything.

1 Star-Lord

At one point, Star-Lord was one of the weakest, yet most determined members of the Guardians of the Galaxy. He was their leader and was a great field general, but from a powers point of view, he offered little outside his ability to lead a team into battle.

But Peter Quill is now literally the Star-Lord, a godlike figure in Marvel Comics. Quill traveled through time after stopping the Greek Gods in 2020's Guardians of the Galaxy series and when he returned, he possessed the powers of the sun. He destroyed a symbiote dragon just by lighting up his own body. He can also turn his body into any weapon of his choice with unlimited power, can heal himself from any injury, and has full cosmic awareness.

NEXT: Every Set-Up For Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3