Marvel cuts the Guardians of the Galaxy ongoing comic book series short

Guardians of the Galaxy #18 excerpt
Guardians of the Galaxy #18 excerpt (Image credit: Juan Frigeri/Federico Blee/Cory Petit (Marvel Comics))

Say goodbye to the Guardians of the Galaxy. Marvel Comics' ongoing Guardians of the Galaxy comic book series is ending, according to a surprise announcement in September 22's Guardians of the Galaxy #18.

"The end! Thanks for everything -- and see you at Gosnell's!" reads text overlaying the last page of Guardians of the Galaxy #18.

Guardians of the Galaxy #18 cover (Image credit: Brett Booth/Adelso Corona/Guru-eFX (Marvel Comics))

Guardians of the Galaxy #18 was the finale of 'The Last Annihilation' cosmic crossover event. Without giving too much away in terms of spoilers, we can say everything and everyone wasn't annihilated as Dormammu wished.

For those looking to the horizon for what's next, Marvel Comics' next planned Guardians of the Galaxy-related comic is December 22's Wastelanders: Star-Lord #1 one-shot, starring an elderly version of Peter Quill and Rocket from an alt-reality future. Given James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is scheduled for a 2023 release date, expect the full team to get its own book again in advance of that somehow - but at least not until 2022.

September 22's Guardians of the Galaxy #18 is the end of an 18-issue run on the title by writer Al Ewing, joined by artists Juann Cabal, Marcio Takara, Juan Frigeri, and others. This run, the sixth volume of the Guardians of the Galaxy series, recast the Guardians away from being a group of outcasts and into being the Avengers of the cosmos, acting as true superheroes protecting the galaxy for the first time in a major way since the original version of the team 20+ years ago.

Guardians of the Galaxy #1 - #12 has been collected in Then It's Us and Here We Make Our Stand, with a collection of #13 - #18 titled We're Super Heroes planned for November 18.

Celebrate the glory days of this team with the best Guardians of the Galaxy comics out there. 

Chris Arrant

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)