A month ago, Marvel revealed that the Guardians of the Galaxy will be rebooted top to bottom following the fallout of the Infinity Wars event. Writer Donny Cates and artist Geoff Shaw were announced to be relaunching the team’s comic book series and Cates teased that it would feature an entirely new line-up of characters on their roster.
Now, the first member of the new Guardians has been announced. In the promo image below, the line-up is all in silhouette apart from one – yes, Cosmic Ghost Rider will return for the Guardians of the Galaxy reboot, kicking off this January. The artwork, by cover artist David Marquez, bears the question: “who will stand when the last Guardian falls?”
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Cosmic Ghost Rider is joining the Guardians. After all, Cates and Shaw recently created him for their acclaimed Thanos solo series. If you’re not familiar with the character, buckle in as he’s already got a complicated history.
Essentially, he’s a future version of Frank Castle AKA the Punisher with the powers of Ghost Rider. What’s more, he’s also a Herald of Galactus and one of the last heroes fighting against the Mad Titan at the end of the universe, once the villain had finally achieved total domination.
But who else could be joining Frank on the revised Guardians team? Well, though they’re blacked out, we can make out a couple of other familiar shapes in the image above. The big guy in the center has to be Groot – what would the Guardians be without him? – and the one to his left with the point in his helmet could be either Nova or Darkhawk.
Cates previously revealed what the premise of his opening arc of the comic, titled “Endgame,” would be as well, saying: “It begins with the reading of Thanos’ last will and testament. An artifact that Thanos’ brother Eros dug out of his late brother’s heart, which very well may spell doom for the entire universe.”
We’ll keep you posted as more on Marvel’s relaunch of Guardians of the Galaxy emerges, but feel free to share your early impressions down below.