Characters You Should Know: Who are Marvel’s Ravagers?

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 featured Yondu’s crew of Ravagers, but cameos in a post credits scene teased even more.

The post credits scene was 1 of 5 such scenes in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. In it we see Sylvester Stallone, who played Stakar Ogord, a Ravager leader. He met with a group of fellow Ravager captains that included a CGI Krugarr, Michelle Yeoh as Aleta Ogord, Ving Rhames as Charlie-27, Miley Cyrus as Mainframe and my personal favorite, Michael Rosenbaum as Martinex.

The “old team” had gotten together for Yondu’s funeral, but now, having reassembled, they want to stick together. “Let’s go steal some sh!†,” says Stallone.

For long-time Marvel fans, this was perhaps the gem of all the Easter eggs in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. For the more casual fan, you may not have realized who any of these characters were or, for that matter, why they might matter. 

Most of the characters in this sequence share a common ancestry: They were all members of the original Guardians of the Galaxy team in the comic books. In Marvel history, the Guardians have had various permutations – and the Peter Quill-fronted team that provides the film’s main inspiration only debuted in the 2000s.

From the ’60s through the ’90s, the Guardians were a superteam from Marvel’s far-future. And I would never say they were “boring,” because their adventures involved crazy far-out space adventures and ultimately trended into weird time travel flimflammery. But they were definitely a little more square: Each of them the last member of their race, fighting for good, and generally not stealing sh!†, unlike the Stallone counterparts.

It’s a nifty way to honor the Guardians’ history but also reboot it. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, these characters are old rogues – Ravagers – a crew of expendables contrasted with fast and furious youngsters like Star-Lord and Gamora.

James Gunn told BuzzFeed that Miley Cyrus could factor into the 3rd Guardians film. Presumably, if Miley’s in, Sly’s in. Now the Ravagers have been rumored for a Disney+ spinoff show – as covered in Nerds on Earth’s PUNCHLIST – so this group just got real interesting.

The OG GoTGs are Today’s Ravagers

So for all you expecting 800 words on Taserface, you will need to look elsewhere. We’re going to go deeper into the original Guardians of the Galaxy team.

These post-credit Ravagers represent that iteration of the original Guardians of the Galaxy team, with some major changes. First of all, did you know that Yondu was originally a member of this Guardians of the Galaxy team? 

That’s right. 

However, Yondu was already occupying a spot in the MCU so he was taken off of this team. Gunn did a good job of bridging the gap with the interaction between Stallone’s Stakar and Yondu on Contraxia while leaving the Iron Lotus. In many ways it gave significance to Yondu’s funeral as well as this group of Ravagers. While Yondu is gone, Gunn might have a contingency plan with the character portrayed by his very own real life brother. If you recall, Kraglin—played by Sean Gunn—received Yondu’s Yaka arrow at the end of Guardians Vol. 2. So perhaps he could join this other group of Ravagers. Only time will tell. 

Of course they couldn’t spend a lot of time fleshing out the entire group in Vol. 2, but rest assured there is plenty to work with for another appearance in Vol. 3 and their own show rumored show on Disney+.

Among this set of Ravager captains we have:

• Ving Rhames’s Charlie-27, the muscle. Born on Jupiter, Charlie-27 is part of a race of genetically modified miners. He is also a military and tactical genius.
• Michael Rosenbaum’s Martinex T’naga, a Plutonian who’s skin is covered in crystal shards to protect against harsh environments.
• Then we have Mainframe, who was voiced by the uncredited Miley Cyrus. Mainframe is a bit of an outsider who, in comic lore, is an alternate time line replacement of Vision, who was also tasked with protecting Captain America’s shield. (Mainframe seems to be replacing the absent Vance Astro, another original Guardians character who has also wielded Cap’s shield in future timelines.)

There was also a magic-using, non-speaking character in the group: Kruggar, who is far more connected to Dr. Strange in the comics. Interestingly, with Mainframe and Kruggar, Gunn has a lot of ways to tie in other source material much like Taika Waititi did with Thor: Ragnorok and the Planet Hulk run of comics.  

A key mystery of the teased Ravager team will be Gunn’s usage of Stallone’s Stakar Ogord and Michelle Yeoh’s Aleta Ogord. The Ogords are step-siblings in the comics who have a bit extra going on. These two eventually combine to form a super entity, Starhawk. In this form they take turns as the figure Starhawk, each bringing their own set of powers to the table when in the driver’s seat.

If Gunn chooses, he could also tie in the golden skinned Ayesha to their story, who is their mother in the comics, but that might be a stretch. Likewise a stretch might be Starhawk’s association with Kang, a villain who could be the eventual big bad of the MCU’s Phase 4.

Either way, Gunn has plenty of source material to work with, which gives him plenty of directions to take this rag tag group of obscure characters. Regardless, more Ravagers in the MCU would be great, particularly the rumored Disney+ plot that will apparently focus on the Ravagers attempting to save an as-yet-unnamed planet from being taken over by a Kree invasion.