3,” which fires the starter’s pistol for the summer 2023 blockbuster season. Gunn gets perilously close to violating his own edict with “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. “I think there is such a thing as superhero fatigue … if (a movie) becomes just a bunch of nonsense on screen, it gets really boring,” he recently told Rolling Stone. Witness the lacklustre box office for Marvel’s recent “Ant-Man” sequel and DC’s “Shazam!” followup and “Black Adam” launch. Gunn, who recently left Marvel to become co-head of rival DC Studios, knows audiences are growing weary of the superhero assembly line and predictable planet-saving plots. Gunn and Marvel achieved synergistic success in the grand tradition of other famous reclamation projects: David Lynch recycled a rejected TV series pilot into his critically hailed film 'Mulholland Drive” Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David turned New York misanthropes (“No hugging, no learning”) into sitcom gold for the small-screen sensation “Seinfeld” and the Rolling Stones transformed shelved songs (including “Start Me Up”) into their hit album “Tattoo You.”

“Guardians of the Galaxy” has always thumbed its nose at convention, cannily corralling leftover comic book characters. Instead the writer/director has turned the most mirthful of MCU properties into the most meaningful of bonding experiences - “Let’s go save our friend!” is the battle cry - where even supposed villains can join in a group hug. He could have made this trilogy capper another comic romp like the first two volumes. James Gunn, the anarchistic creator of the smart-ass “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise, wouldn’t have it any other way.

It says something about the current state of superhero movies that the fate of a small frightened raccoon makes a stronger tug on the heart than any imperilled person or planet in the relentless Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Relentless by karen lynch series