The first decade of the new millennium has brought a sudden rise in the number of the Superhero film (and television) being made by Marvel, DC etc, with most having enormous box office success (Gray, 2011. p. 1). Marvel’s The Avengers made over $1.5 billion, making it the 5th highest grossing film of all time (Box Office Mojo). Marvel had already taken gambles before by using lesser known characters (Iron Man) which proved to be successful, but when James Gunn’s 2014 film Guardians of the Galaxy came out; it was presumed to be “the MCU’s first formal flop” (Dixon, 2016. p. 29-41) because of the irrelevance to the main Marvel Universe and the ‘out-there’ plot. However, the film was very successful with audiences, and became Marvel’s 3rd highest grossing film at the time.

     Guardians of the Galaxy provides a new style of superhero film for audiences, with unique characters, and rich with references to pop culture and the wider universe, where active audiences can engage and participate with the text on different platforms. Using Kristeva’s (1986) concept of intertextuality, and Jenkin’s (1992) concept of participatory culture, as well as other related theorists, it can be argued that 70’s/80’s pop culture heavily influenced the genre, narrative and character of Guardians, as well as attracting a wider audience because of the varied interests within the film (music, comics, TV and film).

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     Guardians of the Galaxy is influenced heavily by 1970/80’s culture and makes reference to a number of texts surrounding 80’s pop culture, this is mainly because of the main characters, Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord, childhood, and the small amount of belongs he had on him before he was taken from Earth. Having items such as the Sony Walkman can provide a sense of nostalgia for the audience, especially an older audience, creating a deeper connection with the film narrative and the characters.

     A key part of creating 1980’s nostalgia within the film is the use of the soundtrack. Awesome Mix Vol. 1 is used as a narrative device, the classic 70/80’s songs provide the soundtrack to Star-Lord’s life as he’s constantly playing it on his Walkman, they also tell a story of the character’s childhood. As well as the music being diegetic, the soundtrack is also non-diegetic, and used in montage and action scenes to create the mood the directed intended.

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     The coming blog posts will explore the use of intertextuality within Guardians of the Galaxy, how the film is influenced by 1970/80’s culture with direct references and subtle nods to other texts; and how active audiences react, respond and participate with it, using social media sites such as twitter and events such as comic con.