What Guardians of the Galaxy means for the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Guardians of the Galaxy has ended up being the success I’d been hoping it would be. However, it not just proved it was a viable project, but also that it was one of the best projects they’ve put out there. Pulling in an astounding $94 million domestically is nothing to sniff at. In fact, it is one of the best openings in the year and the only thing it had going for it was the Marvel tag as it was a relatively unknown comic property. Only sequels grossed higher this year. With Guardians of the Galaxy doing so well it may seem strange that Guardians of the Galaxy doesn’t have any immediate ties to any of the upcoming films or the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So what is it that connects Guardians of the Galaxy together? Unsurprisingly they are very interesting.

Thanos

Thanos

Let’s start with the most obvious connection. Thanos has ties to multiple characters in Guardians of the Galaxy, while also being a major factor in the alien invasion on New York. Thanos is a Titan. Not in the sense that you would likely think, but he is from the moon Titan. However, not only is he a Titan, but he’s also an Eternal. This may sound ominous and that’s because it is. As an eternal, he is practically immortal and ultimately superhuman in his abilities. Thanos is a man bent on destruction and destroys planets. His “daughters” Gamora and Nebula, are prizes from his conquests. After killing their respective worlds he took he young girls almost a prizes for him to teach and craft them into fighting machines. He took the crafting bit literally as both women have been intensively genetically modified to be far better than normally possible. Though Thanos’ presence was brief, it was largely a driving force for the film.

Infinity Stones

Thanos’ presence was largely there because of the Infinity Stones. Thanos was willing to employ Ronan to get the stone for him and Thanos would then do him the favor (which he’d love to do anyway) and destroy the world of Xandar. Things got a bit twisted when Ronan realized that the orb was in fact one of the all powerful Inifinity Stones. His confidence made him believe he could wield it on his own without destroying it. However, like Loki it’s power needed to be placed into another object, in this case the universal weapon.

Tesseract (Infinity Stone), Aether (Infinity Stone), Orb (Infinity Stone), Chitauri Sceptar

The Infinity Stones are likely an upcoming major storyline that will come up for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to face. We’ve already seen the Tesseract in the Avengers. The blue stone was brought back to Asgard for safe keeping. Then the Aether started to threaten each of the realms before Thor and his people stopped Malekith from returning the realms to darkness. The Aether was then transported to stay with The Collector, Taneleer Tivan, because keeping two Infinity Stones was a bad idea. A notion that The Collector ignored as he tried to bring the orb into his possession. The orb the latest of six infinity stones is now in possession of the Nova Corps on Xandar.

Kree

This film was the official introduction to the Kree into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While it wasn’t entirely clear if Korath was intended to be Kree, Ronan was most certainly Kree. We also learned that the Kree had attempted to take over more or space, but were stopped by Xandarians. The result was a a peace treaty that was highlighted in the film. It is clear that Ronan and likely others are not fond of the peace treaty. However, this does imply that there was fighting and thus injuries and casualties.

Kree

Which leads to the alien body that we saw in Agents of Shield. It was clear that the this was a blue humanoid alien that had been badly injured. In fact, I’m not entirely sure that the alien was alive as its body was severed in half and was not conscious. It did however have blood pumping through what was left of it’s body which was what was the compound known as GH.325. The compound which saved the lives of both Coulson and Skye. There was speculation during the season in which Lady Sif rattled off a long list of blue species, one of them being Kree. It seems highly unlikely at this point that the blue man was not a Kree warrior who was injured in this recent conflict. The real question will be, how did the people on Earth get hold of an injured Kree? Also when will the team on Agents of SHIELD learn that the man was Kree. As of the end of Guardians of the Galaxy, there is no contact between the space team and anyone else. Thus they are entirely separated from the main Marvel Cinematic Universe, yet they are directly impacting it. Not only that but the events in Guardians of the Galaxy suggest a much larger issue in the future. Will the Kree make it to Earth? More importantly, does this signal the beginning of more aliens to the main universe, namely Skrulls?

Similarly we know that Coulson and Skye did not have the same reaction to the introduction of the Kree blood into their systems. Skye took it like a champ as though nothing happened. Considering that we know now that Skye’s father is some sort of horrible person. There is a strong chance that she is not actually human or not fully human. While Couslon and Garrett started writing strange calculations and writings, an effect we haven’t seen on Skye. This would explain why people keep calling her special and her unknown lineage. Either way, Guardians of the Galaxy reignites the curiosity as to what is going on with Skye.