I’m asking because (as a show-watcher only) seeing his other feats of strength makes it seem like the Guardians should not have been able to considerably hurt him in the way they did (Red Rush especially seemed to have quite an effect intially, making him vomit up a bunch of blood). Did he let them injure him more than they could have if he was at maximum force to make his story more believable?
No, in the comic he killed them effortlessly and sustained no damage, in the show my assumption is that he was diverting suspicion by being there but also visibly injured. Since he’s far and away the strongest on Earth and everyone knows it it sells that he tried to help them against a superior threat and failed.
He’s the strongest but they are all threats to him,
He tried to ambush them like he did in the book, but he failed
The power scale is just far different, it was definitely not his plan to be put in a coma.