Talking in the latest issue of Total Film Magazine, Brian Michael Bendis was asked to share his thoughts on why he believes the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy movie from Super director James Gunn will have no issues in finding an audience when it's released next August. "Here's the cool thing about the Guardians," he said. "There are a lot of fantastical elements, like Rocket Raccoon and Groot. I mean, initially you go, 'hey, that's pretty funny.' But what surprises you is how much you end up caring about them. If the Guardians fail, it affects the Earth." As for how he believes the movie will fit into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he reiterated what we've previously heard; that it will ultimately be just as important as Iron Man was back in 2008. "The movie may not seem like an obvious choice on the surface, but once you see what the plan is, you'l say 'oh yeah, I totally see that.' I mean, people said the same thing with Iron Man. If you remember, you guys were worried, ('I don't know, Iron Man's not a household name like Spider-Man,') and then that all went away when the movie came out."
As for how Bendis feels about Marvel Studios' first trip into the world of science fiction, it turns out that he doesn't quite see it that way. "My argument is that almost every Marvel comic is a sci-fi comic. It all feels to me on some level like science fiction, but my favourite kind of science fiction is the character stuff. And Guardians of the Galaxy allows that - the characters are fascinating, the're broken, they're struggling, they're trying desperately to do right even though the odds are against them." Finally, talk turned to why the writer believes that Star-Lord is such a relatable character. "He's like Peter Parker and Luke Skywalker. He's an everyman with a very specific destiny in front of him. A lot of people don't know his origin story or what his deal is - literally his origin is stuffed in the back of a '70s comic. Once you find it, you go 'well that's about as good an origin story as anybody,' that's up there with Superman and Spider-Man. He gets himself into outer space and tries to figure out who he really is, tales off to do what he thinks is right for the Galaxy and meets up with all these other interesting characters."