Guardians Of The Galaxy Spoilers: 10 Ways It Sets Up Future Marvel Films

9. Earth On The Universe's Radar

Along with fulfilling some long-held geeky wishes that certain audience members have had since they were kids, the Avengers film did a good job of throwing together the disparate and phenomenally powerful superheroes who had headlined all the previous Marvel movies. When you have all these powerhouses - Cap, Iron Man, Black Widow, The Hulk, Thor, Hawkeye - together, though, you have to make sure it's for a good reason. Joss Whedon elected to go for a threat that none of the team could face solo, necessitating their teaming up to save the world. In the Avengers the adversaries were trickster god Loki and, more specifically, the Chitauri alien invaders he suckered into attacking the planet as a way to get back at his Odinson brother. We've all had sibling rivalries, but this seems like a bit of an overreaction to us. Anyway, after a series of films that mostly involved Earth's Mightiest Heroes facing up against pretty grounded villains: relatively human, or at least human-looking. And most of them either of this world or Asgardian, which is of this world but hairier and taller. The Chitauri expanded the view a little, opening up the possibility of further alien incursions in the future. Guardians Of The Galaxy takes that a step further, as we learn that Earth is most definitely on the radar of the varied alien races seen throughout the film, even though they're spread out all across the universe. Like the Asgardians the extraterrestrials prefer to call our home planet "Terran" and, usually, they're rather dismissive of us. Which could be good, since it means they'll leave us alone. Or it could mean that future Marvel films will feature less Ivan Vankos in the role of antagonist, and more terrors from beyond space...