The Avengers versus the Guardians of the Galaxy!
One team a group of superheroes committed to protecting earth and the foes no single
superhero can withstand, the other, concerned with the safety of the galaxy.
But which team would win in a battle?
Let us know your pick with either hashtag Avengers or hashtag Guardians.
In celebration of the soon to be released Avengers: Infinity War film, we’ll be looking
at members of both teams from the MCU rather than the comics as we usually do.
For clarity’s sake (and since this video can’t be a whole hour long) we’ll be looking
at the original members from the first Avengers film, and from the first Guardians film in
this battle.
Even with that, we’re looking at a 6 on 5, so let’s add Yondu to the Guardians side
to even it out.
Origins Even though we’ll be looking at the films,
let’s chat briefly about the history of these two teams, and how they came to be in
the comics.
The first incarnation of the Guardians came to be in 1969, created by Stan Lee, Arnold
Drake and Roy Thomas, first appearing in Annihilation: Conquest issue 6.
Thomas has stated that “Guardians of the Galaxy started out as an idea of mine: about
super-guerillas fighting against Russians and Red Chinese who had taken over and divided
the USA.
I got a sort of general approval out of Stan, I think, and gave the idea to Arnold Duke,
since I had not time to write and research it.
Arnold went in for a conference with Stan, and Stan decided to change it to an interplanetary
situation.
All the characters and situations in Guardians were created by Arnold and/or Stan.”
These Guardians were active in the 31st century, and part of an alternative timeline that would
be later known as Earth 691.
The Earth 616 version of the Guardians, known as the modern team, appeared in the aftermath
of the Phalanx invasion of the Kree Star-Lord aka Peter Quill decided to form a team of
interstellar heroes that would be proactive when it came to protecting the galaxy instead
of just having groups that reacted to a crisis as it arose.
This initial group was made up of himself, Adam Warlock, Gamora, Drax the Destroyer,
Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Phyla-Vell and Mantis as support staff, along with Cosmo the Spacedog
who worked as the chief of security at their space station.
WHO ALSO MADE A CAMEO IN THE MCU.
Onto the Avengers!
The team first hit the scene in 1963, with the self-titled debut The Avengers #1, created
by none other than Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, as a revamped version of their previous all-star
superhero team, the All-Winners Squad.
With a name like that, you can see why it needed a makeover.
The Avengers initially consisted of Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk, Ant-Man, and Wasp.
Amt-Man would become Giant Man in issue 2, and Captain America wouldn’t make an appearance
until issue #4 when he was discovered in ice.
The roster of heroes would continue to rotate and became a trademark of the series; something
that we’ve definitely seen reflected on the big screen.
Now let’s look at everyone’s abilities in the MCU, starting off with the heroes of
the Avengers.
First up, we’ve got Iron Man.
Without his suit, Tony Stark has a genius level intellect, with knowledge ranging from
artificial intelligence to quantum mechanics, and is well respected in the world of business.
With his Iron Man suit, he has superhuman strength and durability, supersonic flight,
energy repulsor and missile projection, and regenerative life support.
While there’s some pretty credible suspicions that he’ll be using his Bleeding Edge Armor
in Infinity War, which would mean he’d be capable of storing the suit within the hollow
portions of his bones.
Regardless, he’s come a long way since his days in Tales of Suspense where he looked
like a giant tin can.
Next up is Captain America.
He’s got peak human strength, speed, durability, agility, reflexes, senses, and mental processing.
He’s a master martial artist, skilled hand to hand combatant, has accelerated healing
and an advanced longevity, and is an expert tactician, strategist and field commander.
Plus he wields a vibranium steel alloy shield.
Then there’s Thor.
He’s got superhuman strength, speed, durability and longevity.
And the character has a whole lot of abilities thanks to his hammer, Mjolnir – dimensional
transportation, electric manipulation, flight and weather manipulation.
Currently in the MCU he wields the mystical axe known as Stormbreaker after his hammer
was destroyed in Thor Ragnarok.
But for the sake of this fight, we’ll let him have his hammer – we’re still uncertain
what Stormbreaker’s abilities in the MCU will entail, as it seems unlikely that its
origins in the comics – being the weapon of Beta Ray Bill imbued with the powers of
Odin – will carry over.
Black Widow’s turn.
She’s a highly trained spy, an expert tactician, martial artist, marksman and expert with various
weaponry.
She also has a slowed down aging process and advanced immune system.
On to Hulk!
Now if we were looking at the Hulk of the comics, this battle would be no competition.
He’s practically invulnerable.
But when it comes to the Hulk of the MCU, Bruce Banner may be a little less of a threat,
but is still pretty dangerous.
For starters, he also has a genius level intellect, is a master scientist, engineer, physician
and tactician.
As the Hulk, he has an immense amount of strength, and has proven to be a skilled combatant,
almost defeating Thor in Ragnarok if it weren’t for the Grandmaster’s interference.
And lastly, Hawkeye, who is a master archer and marksman, expert tactician and martial
artist, and has a few trick arrows in his quiver.
Now on to the members of the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Starting with Star-Lord, Peter Quill!
First and foremost, he’s got a hybrid physiology due to his heritage – he’s part celestial
and part human, which made him durable enough to hold the likes of the power stone without
dying and harness its powers to share the burden with the other guardians.
This may have ended though when his father Ego died, making him a regular human.
That being said, celestial abilities aside, he’s still an expert combatant, an expert
thief and marksman, a skilled acrobat and an expert pilot.
He wields some weapons that pack a punch, including the Hadron Enforcer, crafted by
teammate Rocket Raccoon that shoot concentrated bolts of nuclear explosive force, along with
dual quad blasters that shoot both lethal and non-lethal blasts.
Gamora is up next.
She’s a former assassin, and the adopted daughter of Thanos who betrayed him.
She’s got superhuman strength, agility, and stamina, and enhanced durability and vision.
She also has a regenerative healing factor from bio-augmentations that lets her recover
quickly from most injuries or infections.
She’s an expert when it comes to being a pilot, marksman and knowing her way around
a sword.
Next up is Groot, everyone’s favourite tree-like humanoid.
He’s got superhuman strength and durability, enhanced speed, elasticity, flower generation,
and light generation.
Plus two incredibly handy abilities that have really helped the Guardians so far - body
manipulation, which allows him to use his body to form organic constructs as a tool,
weapon or shield, and a regenerative healing factor, that allows for him to regenerate
after almost any kind of attack.
His species are also known for their longevity, with his species being known for living for
centuries.
Let’s move on to Rocket Racoon.
Rocket is a genetically engineered raccoon bounty hunter and merc, and is a master of
weapons and battle tactics.
He’s got a genius level intellect, enhanced strength, durability and agility due to his
augmentations, and acute senses far beyond what a regular raccoon would be capable of.
Plus he’s tough, which translates very well in battle, along with being an expert combatant,
marksman and pilot.
He’s also one hell of an engineer and tactician.
Then we’ve got Drax the Destroyer, the former intergalactic criminal who, in the MCU, sought
revenge on Ronan the Accuser for killing his wife and daughter.
He’s got superhuman strength, durability and agility, and has a regenerative healing
factor.
He’s also very skilled in using knives and his combat style has proved to be not only
skilled, but incredibly brutal.
And lastly, Yondu, a master thief and pilot.
Yondu has control over an arrow made of Yaka that he controls by whistling.
And it’s fast as hell.
Depending on the tone and intensity of the whistle, his arrow has been known to kill
an multiple individuals before they even had time to react.
It’s capable of moving of a speed at least of mach 5, and can penetrate anything.
Alright!
On to the fight!
Just like we did for our some of our other group lists on versus, we’re going to pair
off team members and go from there.
It only seems right that the two ‘team captains’ face off – Star Lord and Captain America.
Rocket Raccoon, with his own technological support and engineering superiority, would
be the ideal candidate to face off against Iron Man, and Drax would be paired up with
the Hulk for a battle of brawn, leaving Gamora with Black Widow, and Yondu to take on Hawkeye,
arrow for arrows, and the odd couple of Thor with Groot.
And where would that hypothetically leave us?
Well, arguably, Captain America would have an upper hand on Quill based off of his superhuman
abilities, although Peter would likely be able to outwit the patriotic superhero, being
able to think on his feet as quickly as he does.
Plus that Hadron Enforcer definitely would leave Cap more than sore.
Iron Man would have a run for his money with Rocket, but the anthropomorphic creature doesn’t
have the kind of longevity that Stark does in his suit.
Moving on to the Hulk and Drax, that pair up would likely result in another loss for
the Guardians, with Hulk’s strength definitely surpass that of Drax.
On the other hand, Gamora could easily overpower Black Widow, likely having more diverse experience
than the former spy, and Yondu could easily end Hawkeye with his arrow – being able
to control it at will definitely surpasses the expert marksman’s innate abilities.
Then there’s Thor and Groot – now if this were the comics, we’d easily say that Thor
would win, but the MCU Thor seems to lack some of the power he has in his predeceasing
panels.
That being said, Thor could definitely take down Groot, but he likely wouldn’t be able
to kill him for good.
And the winner?
The Avengers.
Their team is just too overpowered compared to the Guardians.
While the MCU Guardians have more of an unpredictable fighting style than the Avengers, and arguable
are better at collaborative combat, the combined threat of Iron Man, Thor and the Hulk is a
lot to handle.
Even if Star Lord managed to defeat Cap, the strength of those three alone versus Quill,
Gamora, and Yondu would be tough, with the only wild card being if Quill had retained
some of his celestial abilities, or if Yondu managed to shoot them all down with his arrow
while the other two acted as a distraction.
Not entirely impossible, but definitely more on the unprobable side.
And there we have it friends.
Would you rather the Guardians have won?
I kinda do.
Let us know who you think is the deserved winner in those comments below with either
hashtag Avengers or hashtag Guardians.
In the meantime, if you dug this video, why not hit that like button, subscribe if you
haven’t already, and definitely be sure to check out the videos in our playlist that’s
currently flashing on your screen for some more Infinity War goodness.
In the meantime, thanks for watching everyone!
Catch you all in the next one.