WARNING: The following contains spoilers for King in Black: Symbiote Spider-Man #5, by Peter David, Greg Land, Jay Leisten, Frank D'Armata and VC's Joe Sabino, on sale now.
While the battle to stop Knull from taking over the Earth rages on in the present, the efforts to defeat the god of the symbiotes stretch into the past. In the King in Black: Symbiote Spider-Man series, Knull's history of uncreation began to affect the past of the Marvel Universe. In a time shortly after 1984-1985's Secret Wars event, the obscure villain Mister E was revealed as another one of Knull's creations, and he went on a mission to destroy the Black Knight's Ebony Blade.
To stop this, the time-travelling Avengers villain Kang the Conqueror joined forces with Rocket Raccoon, and he assembled a team to take on Mister E -- a team that is revealed to be the first Guardians of the Galaxy Rocket Raccoon joined.
In King in Black: Symbiote Spider-Man, Kang the Conqueror became aware of Knull's attack thanks to his travels across time. Because of this, he attempted to stop the villain in the past. As the comic series has progressed, Kang has recruited more and more members to his team. He was first joined by Rocket Raccoon, and the duo rescued the Black Knight. Then, Spider-Man and Monica Rambeau's Captain Marvel were also recruited, and the full team traveled to the Knowhere space station, where Mister E hoped to destroy the Ebony Blade.
Aboard the space station, Mister E sought out Ulicia the Troll, whom he believed could successfully destroy the magical blade. Ulicia's brother Ulik then got involved, and a big battle took place once Kang's team arrived in Knowhere. Now, in King in Black: Symbiote Spider-Man #5, Mister E is believed to be defeated, but he actually returns more powerful than ever after Knull unlocks his full abilities.
Mister E returns to face Kang's team once more, and they now stand united and ready to fight the villain. Kang, Rocket Raccoon, Captain Marvel, Spider-Man and Ulik and Ulicia all stand together against Mister E, just as the villain exclaims that he will destroy the galaxy. And, in answer, Spider-Man says: "Then consider us the Guardians of the Galaxy!"
Monica Rambeau corrects Spider-Man by saying that the name is already taken by another team, but Rocket cuts her off, saying "Shaddup! I like it!" And, together, the team is eventually able to defeat Mister E once and for all.
The Guardians of the Galaxy are a team of cosmic heroes that first appeared in 1969. However, at the time, their roster was much different than the modern iteration of the team. Thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Rocket Raccoon is known as a member of the team -- but in the Marvel comics, the talking raccoon first joined the Guardians of the Galaxy in 2007. Before that time, he was off in space, doing his own thing.
But thanks to King in Black: Symbiote Spider-Man, we have learned that Rocket joined Kang's "Guardians of the Galaxy," as dubbed by Spider-Man, to fight Mister E years before he would become an official member of the real Guardians.
However, Rocket and the rest of his teammates actually don't remember their team-up against Mister E because, at the end of the issue, Uatu the Watcher erases everyone's memories in order to preserve the integrity of the timeline. It might not have been the real Guardians of the Galaxy, but they still count as a team of cosmic heroes Rocket joined decades before he fought besides Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax and Groot.
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