Guardians of the Galaxy: Comic Primer
Cosmic Marvel got a serious kick in the ass with Annihilation and the subsequent Annihilation: Conquest. Back at Earth, you had the underwhelming Civil War where heroes were pitted against each other over secret identities. Up in space, you had seemingly forgotten and b-list characters rise up, become total badasses, and end up stopping huge armies with scarily powerful enemies. Needless to say that Cosmic Marvel was doing the right thing by comic fans.