Guardians of the Galaxy is Marvel's most out-there adventure yet

By now, most people know to stick around at the end of a Marvel film. The hugely successful series of movies, based on the Marvel Comics universe, has been built on teasing us like the old television serials of the past, with post-credits sequences designed to lure you into the cinemas for the next outing.

It began with 2008's Iron Man, with Samuel L. Jackson's eye-patch-wearing Nick Fury turning up at Tony Stark's apartment to name-drop the Avengers, laying the groundwork for many Marvel films to come. Concluding what was dubbed Marvel's Phase 1, Joss Whedon's 2012 superhero ensemble The Avengers then titillated fans with an end-of-movie appearance by Marvel mega-villain Thanos.

However, none has got fans quite as intrigued as the conclusion to last year's Thor: The Dark World. Benicio Del Toro, with a bleached-blonde quiff, a soul-patch and a sheepskin cape, appears as Taneleer Tivan. Also known as The Collector, he's on the hunt for the Infinity Stones, six mysterious artefacts that hold great power. For non-fans it was baffling, but it actually was the perfect introduction to the latest Marvel offering to hit cinemas - Guardians of the Galaxy.

They may not be as instantly recognisable as The Hulk or Iron Man, but this ragtag team of misfit superheroes that patrol the outer reaches of the Marvel universe are just as colourful. A bickering bunch of cosmic space freaks, they headline what is undoubtedly the weirdest-looking Marvel film yet.

It certainly confused some of its stars. "I was like, 'Guardians? There's a person, that's a tree and there's a raccoon'," says Zoe Saldana. She's referring to Rocket Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) - two computer-animated characters that make up two-fifths of the Guardians, alongside Saldana's green-skinned humanoid Gamora, a monosyllabic, tattoo-clad brute named Drax The Destroyer (Dave Bautista) and Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), a human-born pilot also known as Star Lord.

Orbiting this quintet is a wealth of characters set to expand Marvel's dramatis personae - from Del Toro's The Collector to Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace), a villain said to be in league with Thanos (voiced by Josh Brolin), to members of the Nova Corps, the intergalactic police force that patrols the galaxy, led by John C. Reilly's Rhomann Dey.