Abnett quotes

"Cosmic Marvel gave you the freedom to do something. No one was micro-managing you, it gave you a great freedom. When we were doing it, no one was really interested. So we had creative freedom to do whatever we wanted to do. This time around we brainstormed ideas by e-mail with editor Bill Rosemann, who edited our entire cosmic run. Andy then wrote up the basic plots and as always I wrote the scripts.”
“I think it's only fair to say that we haven't really been consulted in any way, shape or form."
"To me, that's very attractive to the types of stories we do where you strip down your heroes and give them insurmountable odds to fight against. Then you get to see what it is about them that makes them a hero. We did that in "Guardians" by taking characters that you don't know much about and don't care for and making them important. These are B, C, D and Z-list characters. If we can make you care about those characters, then it's sort of like giving you a blank slate to work with. There are also more storytelling possibilities because since they're Z-list, you don't know what's going to happen to them. They could actually die. You just don't know who could survive from one issue to the next. That has great possibilities as a writer. If you're writing Superman, Batman or Spider-Man, you know they'll be back the next month. But if you're writing Groot or Rocket Raccoon or Monstress, who knows who is going to make it to the next issue."
"My concern was that Groot would just be this sort of Chewbacca who went along with [Rocket] and didn't do too much apart from fire his gun and say a few things."
“I think the simplest way of describing it is that all cosmic superheroes wear costumes that could be explained away as uniforms or work clothes. It's clothing for special purposes rather than just putting on a costume to identify themselves as a superhero. That's a key we like to play around with.”
"The Guardians of the Galaxy, a cosmos-defending supergroup that really doesn’t get the respect it deserves. Or the publicity. Or anything. Mention the name, and most people will go, ‘Huh? Guardians of the where now?’”
"Do not [call him adorable]. Ever. If you do that, he will shoot you to death as many times as necessary."
“He has a very specific moral code (“Flark everything and everyone!”)”
“Rocket is the only recruit left who is holding onto any scrap of their original motivation.”
"Raccoonoids ... are commonplace ... in this Universe."
"Rocket Raccoon has, I’m sorry to say, experienced a twisted and unpleasant origin."
"The sci-fi-ness of cosmic really appeals to us from our British perspective. The British tradition of comic book heroes is much less modern-day costumed heroes, and they're much so more outlandish or extraordinary because of the setting they're in -- like Dan Dare or Judge Dredd. Those comics always had a much darker sci-fi component to them. Really this was a way of blending that very American superhero notion with something British in terms of the science fiction."
“They're enormous fun to write because they're funny, but one of the most interesting things about them is writing them in a way where they're also credible. There's a reason for there being a talking raccoon and a talking tree, even in a universe where anything can happen. It's giving them a context so they're not cartoon characters, but proper creations. They're creatures who live in a broader universe and may be slightly unconventional, but the questions we're interested in are what can you do with them? And what details can you seed into their personality that makes sort of sense of them? With Rocket in particular there's a danger of thinking, 'Oh well, he's just a funny, talking animal.' We want to suggest that there is more to him than that because that makes him more interesting and cooler."
“Rocket walks upright in a way that makes the human in you want to exclaim, “Lookit the little man! Lookit! Walking on his back paws! Oooooaww!’"