4. How Come That Guy's Green?
Marvel ComicsLike his teammates, Drax the Destroyer's history goes back a fair ways in Marvel Comics. Back to the seventies once again, in fact, but thankfully this time in no way tied to the songwriting of Paul McCartney. Co-created by Jim Starlin, Drax first turned up in an issue of Iron Man (who recently hung out with the Guardians again, if you want to read those issues and get an idea of how the Avengers will crossover with these lot in the Cinematic Universe), where he teamed up with Tony Stark to try and take down Thanos. We'll get to Thanos in a bit, but right now all you need to know is he's a universal jerk who killed Arthur Douglas's family. With vengeance on his mind, Arthur volunteered to become his planet's champion against said universally-reviled jerk, and had his consciousness transplanted into the powerful body of Drax the Destroyer. He retained his intelligence, but gained enhanced strength and resilience, flight, and the ability to project energy blasts from his hands. Which is a pretty good deal, even if it meant he had jaundiced skin and no body hair. With those powers he joined Iron Man and future Guardians Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock in trying to defeat Thanos, with mixed results. After being freed from the control of the Phalanx, the nasty robot alien people, by Star-Lord and friends he joins the Guardians Of The Galaxy, having ditched the fabulous purple robes and big golden championship belt he'd previously dressed in, appearing more like the topless beefcake we recognise being played by wrestler Batista in the film's trailers. He also ditched the energy blasts and flight, but he's still pretty tough. Just saying, don't mess.