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Vance Astro

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Vance Astro

Vance Astro, born Vance Astrovik and going by the code name Major Victory, is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is usually depicted as being from the Earth-691 timeline of the Marvel Universe.

Astro first appeared in January 1969 as a founding member of the Guardians of the Galaxy in the partial reprint title Marvel Super-Heroes with issue #18.

Vance Astro is a mutant who possesses a psychokinetic ability, limited to projecting concussive blasts.

Vance Astro first appeared as a founding member of the Guardians of the Galaxy. According to Roy Thomas, all of the Guardians of the Galaxy were created in a conference between Arnold Drake and Stan Lee, but it remains uncertain whether each individual character was created by Drake, Lee, or both. The Guardians of the Galaxy debuted in the partial reprint title Marvel Super-Heroes with issue #18 (Jan. 1969), written by Drake and penciled by Gene Colan. After five years' absence, he was revived in several Marvel titles: Marvel Two-In-One #4-5 (July-Sept. 1974), Giant Size Defenders #5, and The Defenders #26-29 (July-Nov. 1975), all written by Steve Gerber. In each case, other heroes such as Captain America, the Thing, and the Defenders aid Astro and the Guardians against the alien Badoon. The first story established that if Vance Astro's containment suit were breached, he would age 1,000 years in a second. This drew numerous queries from readers, and the letters page in Marvel Two-in-One #7 responded by stating that Vance feeds and defecates intravenously. The Guardians were also featured in Marvel Presents #3-12 (Feb. 1976-Aug. 1977), mostly by Gerber but concluded by Roger Stern.

This was followed by a series of appearances in Thor Annual #6 (1977), The Avengers #167-177 (Jan.-Nov. 1978) and #181 (March 1979), Marvel Team-Up #86 (Oct. 1979), and Marvel Two-in-One #69 (Nov. 1980). Marvel Two-in-One #69 effectively split Vance Astro into two characters, from alternate timelines: Vance Astro/Major Victory and Vance Astrovik/Marvel Boy.

In the 1990s, Astro starred in Guardians of the Galaxy, which ran for 62 issues. It was initially written and illustrated by Jim Valentino. Valentino still found Vance's containment suit a problem:

The containment suit made absolutely no sense any way you turned it. So I knew I wanted to get him out of it from the start, but I also knew it had to be a process. His relationship with Aleta, which was started very early on, was part of the process Vance had to go through. The suit, the romance, losing her, getting out of the suit, becoming the ersatz Captain America - all of it was Vance's arc on his way to becoming a hero and a leader. He had to become Major Victory before he could become Major Astro, but that's where he was heading.

Michael Gallagher commenced writing the title from issue #29 (Oct. 1992) until cancellation in July 1995.

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