Gunn's "Guardians" came together in the second phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, following Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk and the others with solo films that foreshadowed and then coalesced with 2012's "The Avengers."
With "Guardians' immediately preceded by "Iron Man 3," "Thor: The Dark World," and "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," writers Nicole Perlman and James Gunn were given permission to play with just about every available piece of the expansive Marvel space characters and ideas. The cosmic comic crew has history going all the way back to the universe-shaping initial run of "Fantastic Four" by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, but was greatly expanded throughout the following decades. After a bit of a fallow period in the late '90s/early '00s, they were rejuvenated once more with the 2006 limited series "Annihilation," which is rumored to be in consideration itself to become a major storyline in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Gunn and Perlman went in a variety of different directions with some of the characters. Groot, Rocket, and Gamora are pretty close to the comics, Drax's story has been greatly streamlined, and Quill was made to be a more roguish character. As the story progresses, you can see and hear all sorts of love for the sequential forefathers, though. Alien races like the Badoon get mentioned, but Rocket can also be heard using Marvel space swear words like "d'ast." The best part is that, even after all these years, new references seem to pop out with each rewatch.
