The Guardians are a bunch of alien defenders who've recently taken to protecting Earth from alien menaces. The All New X-Men are the original X-Men who got plucked from their earliest days and now find themselves stuck in the present -- accompanied by Kitty Pryde and X-23 (AKA Wolverine's female clone -- Don't ask!) A powerful alien empire kidnapped young Jean Grey from the past because old/dead Jean Grey from the present got possessed by the Phoenix Force back in the 1980s, blew up a son, and killed several billion members of that alien empire. They planned to try young Jean Grey for her future crimes. The Guardians team up with the X-Men and then meet up with some space pirates called the Starjammers and travel across the galaxy to represent Jean at her kangaroo court!
Still confused? Don't be. Just pick up the book and run with it. You'll catch up pretty quickly.
Even though this particular issue was GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, there were several interesting developments involving the All New X-Men:
*Jean Grey's Powers: This trial opened up a whole lot of hate in Jean Grey. Supposedly she manifests a brand-new power. It used to be that she had telepathy and telekinesis. Now she somehow joins her telepathy and her telekinesis together and lashes out at others. Frankly, that's how I always thought her powers worked. The important thing now is that she turns pink when she uses her new psionic powers:
But she needs a code-name. I'm sick of all the guys getting code-names and the girls going with their real names. If Marvel Girl or Marvel Woman doesn't cut it anymore, how about Ener-Jean? On second thought...
*Cyclops in Space!: Young Cyclops learned one or two issues ago that his father wasn't killed during his youth, but instead was kidnapped by aliens and transformed into the space-pirate Corsair. He makes the decision in this issue to leave the X-Men and join the Starjammers! This would be a major spoiler except that Marvel Comics already spoiled that spoiler last month when they announced a new CYCLOPS series featuring Young Cyclops and Corsair:
*I love Rocket Raccoon!: One of the more infamous members of the Guardians of the Galaxy is Rocket Raccoon. He'll be featured in the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy movie. Nothing new really happened with him in this issue, but he's still pretty awesome. As usual:
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #13 is written by Brian Michael Bendis and penciled by Sara Pichelli & David Marquez.