15 Most Powerful Guardians Of The Galaxy Members In The Comics, Ranked

15 Most Powerful Guardians Of The Galaxy Members In The Comics, Ranked

The Guardians of the Galaxy became one of the most popular superteams in the world thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What made this even more impressive was the fact that they were never a really big deal in comics before that. Marvel Comics introduced the team in 1969, and it looked nothing like the movie version.

However, thanks to the MCU, the Guardians are now more popular than ever, even in the comics. The team from the movies formed in the comics in 2007, seven years before their debut in the MCU. Since that time, some of the most powerful cosmic Marvel heroes joined forces on the team, many capable of matching up to even Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

Updated on June 30th, 2022, by Shawn S. Lealos: It appeared that fans would only get one more chance to see Guardians of the Galaxy in the MCU, but there have been some surprises surrounding the cosmic super team. Instead of waiting until the James Gunn-directed third movie in the series, they will first appear in the 2022 movie Thor: Love and Thunder and then they will get their own Christmas special this winter. The one thing fans don’t know yet is whether the team will get any new members before their end of the road in the MCU. If they do acquire some new heroes, the comics version of the team has plenty of powerful ones to choose from.

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15 Noh-Varr

Noh Varr in Marvel Comics

Noh-Varr is also known as Marvel Boy and he was one of the early members of the Young Avengers in the comics, even dating the new Hawkeye, Kate Bishop. His parents were heroes from another universe – Captain Glory and Star Splendor. This made him a legacy with a boost of their powers.

RELATED: 10 Most Powerful Members Of The Young Avengers, Ranked

As a Kree, he has similar powers to them but enhanced with cockroach DNA and nanobiology. This makes him, at times, more powerful than most normal Kree warriors. He also has control over his body and can grow hair at will, move at superhuman speeds by ignoring distractions, redirect pain with just his brainpower, and even exert poison from his fingernails.

14 Super-Skrull

Marvel's Kl'rt the Super Skrull, his head aflame and with a fist made of rock striking someone

Super Skrull was once one of the most dangerous villains that faced the Fantastic Four. He served the Skrull Queen loyally, and unlike many Skrulls who choose one person or thing to mimic, Super Skrull was able to take on the powers of all four members of the Fantastic Four and use them at the same time.

The best way to describe this is the Skrulls version of the Super Soldier Serum, but using it to enhance the mimicking powers of their race. He has become a good guy since Hulkling took over the throne, swearing his allegiance to whoever rules the Skrull nation.

13 Drax The Destroyer

Drax busting through a wall in Guardians of the Galaxy.

Drax the Destroyer first appeared in Iron Man #55 in 1973. The hero was a tragic Guardians of the Galaxy character, with his family seemingly dying as victims of Thanos. A human in the comics, Arthur Douglas returned in the body of the Drax the Destroyer, a cosmic powerhouse feared across the galaxy as an unstoppable force of nature.

Drax is immensely powerful, dying and returning more than once thanks to him being an Avatar of Life. The Eternal Kronos created his body and strengthened it to battle Thanos on even ground. Drax also has an aura around his body, and when it surrounds him, he has even more power and has even killed Thanos more than once.

12 Groot

Groot fighting alongside Rocket in Guardians of the Galaxy.

Groot is an alien from Planet X, exiled from his homeworld for his sense of empathy and kindness for others. However, while Groot is a being that seeks peace, he is also a powerful warrior that is strong enough to fight countless enemies at once, and tear through them with ease.

Groot can grow in size at will to take a giant form in battle. He can also stretch his limbs and attack from all angles at once, from great distances. In battle, he has superhuman strength and durability and has both regenerative abilities to instantly heal himself as well as the power to heal his allies. Add on the ability to control other plant life, and he is a very powerful ally for the Guardians of the Galaxy.

11 Agent Venom

Agent Venom shooting his guns in battle alongside Guardians of the Galaxy.

Flash Thompson’s Agent Venom also joined up with the Guardians of the Galaxy at one point. One of the most heroic symbiote hosts from Marvel Comics, Agent Venom joined the Guardians as a liaison for The Avengers and became close friends and allies with the cosmic team. This is also where readers learned more about Knull and the symbiotes’ origin.

Flash had the same Venom symbiote that Eddie Brock had, and that made him an incredibly powerful character. He had all the powers of Brock’s Venom but also used his skills as a military strategist to use the symbiote to form various weapons and guns to use.

10 Doctor Doom

doctor doom

Doctor Doom might not be an official member of the Guardians of the Galaxy, but many people who worked with the team were members without proclaiming their undying allegiance. For Doom, he joined up with the Guardians during the King in Black storyline where Knull was attempting to destroy the universe.

RELATED: 10 Actors Who Should Play Doctor Doom In The MCU, According To Reddit

Doom believed he was the only person smart enough to stop whatever was coming, which was Knull, and he stole Hulkling’s Sword of Space to do this. However, what he didn’t expect was the battle would end up having him and Rocket Raccoon switching bodies. By the end, Doom left and was ready to be finished with the Guardians, but the legendary Marvel villain was, for a time, one of the most powerful members of the team.

9 Hercules

Hercules shows up to help the Guardians of the Galaxy.

The Guardians of the Galaxy have dealt with goods more than once, and in recent issues of the comics, they even had to battle Zeus and the Greek gods. They also had a member of that pantheon on their team, as Hercules had joined the Guardians long before these battles began.

The former Avenger has godlike strength, speed, reflexes, and stamina. He is also invulnerable thanks to Hela and can withstand more damage than any god outside of Zeus. Additionally, Hercules is immortal, and he can never truly die by conventional means, putting him a step above someone like Agent Venom.

8 Phyla-Vell

Phyla-Vell holding her sword in Guardians of the Galaxy.

Phyla-Vell was the second artificially created offspring of Captain Mar-Vell, the original Kree warrior that became an ally to Earth. She proved her power when the Guardians and Nova fought in the Annihilation War, one of the most devastating cosmic wars in Marvel history. She was responsible for helping end the war when she attacked Annihilus and stole his Quantum Bands.

According to the Nova Corps, Phyla-Vell’s powers are “Continental Threat” level. On top of her strength, she can also absorb energy from the reality around her and use it as a weapon or as a healing force. She also gained more powers as the Avatar of Oblivion, but those are still unknown, although they hint to be even greater than her previous powers.

7 Quasar

Quasar with a sword leading the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Quasar has always been one of cosmic Marvel’s most powerful heroes, although he isn’t as prominent as others. The original Quasar, Wendell Vaughn, also recently went through changes that altered everything about the hero, as he and former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Avril Kincaid can now switch places at any time with the Quantum Bands.

Quasar is pure quantum energy. This means he/she can turn their body into any shape imaginable and then disperse the energy from the body as a weapon. What holds them down is the fact they need the Quantum Bands to reach full power and can tire out after large excursions of power.

6 Gladiator

Gladiator in Marvel Comics

Gladiator is a Marvel hero that is often compared to Superman when it comes to his DC equivalent. For most of his existence in Marvel Comics, he was the most powerful member of the Shi’ar Empire and the Imperial Guard. He has very similar powers to Superman, from super strength and invulnerability to flight and accelerated healing.

While he fought the Guardians of the Galaxy several times in the past, he ended up joining the Dark Guardians and later the Guardians of the Galaxy to battle and stop the resurrection of Thanos through the Titan’s brother Eros.

5 Nova

Nova powers up to fight with the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Richard Ryder was a teenager on Earth when he became Nova. However, in the years since, he has become one of the most powerful cosmic warriors, battling on the front lines to save the galaxy from all sorts of threats, from Thanos to Annihilus. He was the lead general in Annihilation and helped win that war.

RELATED: 10 Places Nova Can First Appear In The MCU (Other Than A Solo Project)

At one time, Nova was a powerful warrior, but he now serves as the host for the entire Nova Force, which is pure energy that gives him several powers. This used to power up the Nova Corps and now he uses it by himself. His power is so strong that he battled Silver Surfer on even ground. He also hosts the Xandarian Worldmind, which both protects and advises him in all battles.

4 Moondragon

Moondragon uses her telepathic powers to help the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Moondragon is Heather Douglas. In the comics, she was Drax the Destroyer’s daughter, but she did not die in Thanos’ attack, as the Mad Titan’s father saved her and took her back to his home to train her. She ended up as a hero, a villain, an Avenger, and a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy member.

Moondragon is considered one of the most powerful telepaths ever born on Earth. While Professor X and Jean Grey are considered two of Marvel’s most powerful telepaths, Moondragon has proven at times to possess stronger psionic energy. Her power is so great that she pierced the mind of Galactus at one point.

3 Captain Marvel

Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel.

When Carol Danvers got her start, it was by the side of the original Captain Mar-Vell and she inherited his basic powers, becoming Ms. Marvel. She ended up as a member of the Avengers and was there to stop several attacks that endangered the planet. The one time it didn’t work out well was in The Enemy Within when an attack by Yon-Rogg left her with brain damage and memory loss.

Carol ended up leaving Earth and joined the Guardians of the Galaxy to rediscover herself. She slowly recovered and Captain Marvel proved why she was one of the most powerful members ever of the Guardians of the Galaxy with her energy powers and a touch of her binary powers still intact.

2 Adam Warlock

Adam Warlock wields the Infinity Gauntlet.

The big difference between the Infinity Gauntlet storyline in comics and Avengers: Infinity War was that it wasn’t the Avengers who beat Thanos in the comics. It was the combined efforts of cosmic heroes like Silver Surfer and Adam Warlock. It was actually Warlock that took the Infinity Gauntlet for himself after the war.

However, it was also Warlock that ended up losing control and almost destroying the universe itself when he became Magus. He has more powers than almost anyone in the Guardians of the Galaxy and was the most powerful member until recently. He has cosmic powers, can use quantum magic, and manipulates energy and matter, meaning he is overpowered and can do almost anything.

1 Star-Lord

Star-Lord points a gun at the reader in the Marvel comic Guardians of the Galaxy..

At one point, Star-Lord was one of the weakest, yet most determined members of the Guardians of the Galaxy. He was their leader and was a great field general, but from a powers point of view, he offered little outside of his ability to lead a team into battle.

Peter Quill is now literally the Star-Lord, a godlike figure in Marvel Comics. Quill traveled through time after stopping the Greek Gods in 2020’s Guardians of the Galaxy series and when he returned, he possessed the powers of the sun. He destroyed a symbiote dragon just by lighting up his own body. He can also turn his body into any weapon of his choice with unlimited power, can heal himself from any injury, and has full cosmic awareness.

NEXT: Guardians Of The Galaxy’s 10 Best Characters, Ranked By Power

Edited image with scenes from Galaxy Quest and Cabin in the Woods, with Giselle from Enchanted edited over them

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About The Author

Shawn S. Lealos
(884 Articles Published)

Shawn S. Lealos is a senior writer on ScreenRant who fell in love with movies in 1989 after going to the theater to see Tim Burton’s Batman as his first big screen experience.

Shawn received his Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma with a minor in Film Studies. He has worked as a journalist for over 25 years, first in the world of print journalism before moving to online media as the world changed. Shawn is a former member of the Society of Professional Journalists and current member of the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle. He has work published in newspapers such as Daily Oklahoman and Oklahoma Gazette and magazines such as Vox Magazine, Loud Magazine, and Inside Sports Magazine. His work on the Internet has been featured on websites like The Huffington Post, Yahoo Movies, Chud, Renegade Cinema, 411mania, and Sporting News.

Shawn is also a published author, with a non-fiction book about the Stephen King Dollar Baby Filmmakers and has begun work on a new fiction series as well. Visit Shawn Lealos’ website to learn more about his novel writing and follow him on Twitter at sslealos.

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