"We arrested these five on Xandar..."
So in the comics Xandar is often used as the Nova Corps' (I'll get to them in a second depending on your reading speed) home world. World-base-of-operations? I dunno. Anyway, it unfortunately has a habit of getting... wrecked. [caption id="attachment_48668" align="aligncenter" width="426"]
Or Annihilated if you're into clever references[/caption]
The question is, why are the Guardians -- a bunch of outlaws -- doing on Xandar? Maybe it's different in the movie? Maybe it's just ruins (again).
Why is it weird that they're there? Don't worry if you're confused, I'll explain:
The Nova Corps is an intergalactic police force. Kind of like Green Lanterns but instead of magic thing-making rings they have superhuman physicality and the ability to project highly destructive bursts of energy. Like if the police were flying, nigh-unstoppable living bombs.
In the comics their ranks range from Corpsman to Centurion, denoted by the number of circles on their chests. Three meant Centurion. Oh and there are also Nova Primes who are even more powerful living superweapons.
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The Nova Prime is in the good costume[/caption]
Everyone here seems to either be all Centurions or they kinda scrapped the ranking system. Keep in mind it's just a trailer, so it's entirely possible they'll stop the movie to go into detail about the space cop's political system.
I don't know if the movie will get so far into the history of Rocket that they'll talk about Halfworld. This is probably the only mention of it. I don't think Marvel/Disney has the baaallllls.
What is Halfworld? Why a world divided into two halves: one side an uninhabitable robot-filled wasteland, and the other side a weird "paradise" full of insane humans-but-aliens and talking animals. Really. Read about it. It's like the scrawling leavings of a madman who only had access to... Disney movies... waitaminute...
[caption id="attachment_48672" align="aligncenter" width="542"]
Really[/caption]
Barring some humorous flashback to a baffling scene like above, I think we're not getting that big of an explanation.
HOWEVER, that's missing the big picture, isn't it? A Halfworld does exist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Somewhere. We don't know its exact form, but it's out there. Crazies and robots and otter businessmen and toy wars and everything. Lets take comfort in that.
Origin: X[/caption]
The Silver Age was a weird time for everyone. Everybody delved into B-movie sci-fi territory, but none more so than Marvel. They relished in the genre of weird space stuff (see also: Halfworld and talking animals and junk).
Marvel also liked to create weird monsters, for instance an island brought to life by nukes that liked to eat mutants. Their sure-fire creation method was a thinking of nonsense words for names like Croom, Shagarr, Killgorp, Shlurp, and Jizxhllp.
So what do you get when someone does this while looking at a tree?
[caption id="attachment_48677" align="aligncenter" width="342"]
"HULK WANT TO KNOW: WHAT IS LIFE IF NOT DREAM?"[/caption]
Groot's original tag line was the Monster from Planet X and it appears his home world is pretty much the same in the Cinematic Universe. Which is awesome! Although is he a truly a monster? Are we?
I don't know how much of a reference this is as the character has a speaking role in the movie. In fact Michael Rooker has been cast as him. In fact, here he is:
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Sans mohawk[/caption]
Yondu was was from a primitive race of hunter gatherers and a member of the original Guardians of the Galaxy. He spent most of his run fighting Badoon and all manner of 30th century alien monsters. I'm not very familiar with the early Guardians, but he's about the most recognizable next to Diamond Guy and Black and Blue Guy.
Plus Yondu has a mohawk for days.
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="396"]
FOR WEEEEEKS[/caption]
AW MAN, two one one screenshot? Nice.
Gramosians are aliens from the planet Gramos, a planet dying from massive energy loss. Their leader, the complimentary colored Mercurio, is obsessed with getting energy back to the planet. This often times -- somehow -- involves trying to end Earth. Which usually puts him at odds with Thor. Yes, he's a Thor villain. That's two Thor foes with multicolored faces.
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'Cept this one looks like this[/caption]
I don't think the people of Gramos will play any part in the movie. I think it's just a quick reference in a passing joke that only nerds with surplus free time like myself will notice. But now you nerds notice too.
SO WHAT DO YOU THINK? Pretty cool that they hid all these references in just the trailer, or kinda lame? Do you think they shouldn't have had Yondu? How do you illegally manipulate someone in a sex way? Like boner blackmail?
If I missed any other references please let me know in the comments below. 
