[TheBlueMarvel]

Personally, I believe it has everything to do with strength of story-telling and character development, as it pertains to GotG's success, despite the title's other worldly cast of characters. In my opinion, it's not about industry trends or fan temperaments as it regards how much they identify (or don't, for that matter) with 'human' subjects.

There's a history of anthropomorphized characters finding success within Marvel's stable and beyond. Howard the Duck and Rocket Raccoon found fans, and while they don't represent the traditional 'alien' (especially in the case of Howard), corollaries can be easily made. Marvel's Epic line had popular titles in the 80's with both Dreadstar and Alien Legion. While Vanth, the main character of Dreadstar, was indeed a human (as was Willow), the comic's most well regarded personalities were Oedi (of an engineered cat-person race) and Skeevo (a purple hued alien) - let's not overlook my personal favorite, the one, the only, Syzygy Darlock - who was basically a zombie wizard...the things I like make most people uncomfortable. Torie, Alien Legion's singular 'true' human character, wasn't remotely the focus of the title's narrative. Jugger Grimrod (a Wolverine-like character) and Major Sarigar (the unit's badass snake-man leader) were firmly the fan-favorites of the book.

Outside of Marvel: TMNT, Bucky O'Hare, Usagi Yojimbo, Savage Dragon, Pitt, and The Maxx are all non-traditional successes. Again not all are 'aliens,' but ostensibly, they may as well be. Not to mention, the only comic to ever win a Pulitzer was Maus - plenty of people were able to relate to yet one more well written anthropomorphized protagonist. Additionally, Crossgen's Negation remains one of the best space-epics and overall comic runs I've read in years. While Obregon Kaine (one of my all-time favorite comic leaders) was a human, the cast was a treasure trove of alien races and cultures...each equally as fascinating as the one previously introduced.

Compelling narratives are what allow readers to relate to characters. Not their aesthetic features, race, gender, or sexual orientation. Alien Legion captured the grit, peril, triumph of victory, and deep loss of war (much like Negation) all of which serving to assist readers to find the 'threads of humanity' in non-human players. As long as writers commit in earnest to their task of breathing life into a title, almost anything can garner critical acclaim and fan-celebration.