Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Characters Case File #436: Gamora

OK, look, if you’re a regular reader of this series, you know what’s going on here.  I’ve been going through the various MCU Guardians of the Galaxy and pointing out what the characters were like in their comic book incarnations as those were often very different characters in so many ways, and as near as I can make out, Gamora is the only one I hadn’t covered before.

Actually, her MCU counterpart might be the most faithful.

Gamora first appeared in Strange Tales #180 in June of 1975.  Like a lot of the Marvel cosmic stuff of that era, her initial adventures were written and drawn by Jim Starlin.  Gamora was the last surviving member of the Zen-Whoberis, an alien race obliterated by the Badoon because that’s pretty much all the Badoon do.  Seriously, those guys suck.  However, young Gamora Zen Whoberi Ben Titan, and yes that is her full name, survived.  She was actually found by Thanos who, for some reason, decided to raise the child as his own, giving her various physical enhancements to greatly increase her strength, agility, and healing.  Thanos was preparing her for a mission, making her the character Adam Warlock would sometimes call the “Deadliest Woman in the Universe.”

That’s no lie.  In the Infinity Watch era, Starlin’s Infinity War had a team of about 30 or so heroes attack the Infinity Watch plus Thanos, and Gamora for one did not go down easy, dodging around and smacking around both Rogue and the She-Hulk at the same time before being run through by Wolverine, only she was fine within an issue or two.

Regardless, Gamora soon was part of the mission, along with Adam Warlock, Thanos, and Pip the Troll to defeat the Magus and his Universal Church of Truth.  Starlin’s stated reasoning behind putting Gamora into the series was a basic one:  he wanted there to be a more serious character next to the more comedic figures like Pip and Drax the Destroyer, though Drax’s more comedic elements came much later.  Gamora is supposed to be the adult in the room during the cosmic stuff because Warlock would be above it all, Pip is a slob, Drax is barely smarter than some Hulk incarnations, and someone had to do it.  That was Gamora.

Now, when the Magus was finally defeated, Gamora was still thinking her “father” Thanos was not a nihilistic madmen bent on pleasing the livjng embodiment of Death, but she wasn’t dumb and eventually sided with Warlock against Thanos, a move that would get her killed because it turns out Thanos is a terrible father.  Warlock would place her soul into his Soul Gem, along with Pip’s, and he’d retire there himself for a couple decades real world time before returning for the Infinity Gauntlet storyline with Pip and Gamora in tow (though Gamora was initially part of the half of the universe that got wiped out by Thanos’s fingersnap).

From there, Gamora would become one of the founding members of Warlock Infinity Watch team, being given the Time Gem, probably because she could protect it very well without having the slightest idea of how to use it.  She’d stick around for a while before quitting over the team’s addition of mysterious newcomer Maxam.  She would eventually come back, and some time much later, would be part of Star-Lord’s modern-day set Guardians of the Galaxy alongside fellow former Infinity Watch members Drax, Warlock, and eventually Moondragon.

Do I need to do a Moondragon entry?  Eh, maybe.

Anyway, I think one of the more interesting moments involving the comic book Gamora was when, during a period when Thanos was dead (he always gets better), she decided to do his “destroy half the universe” thing, but her own take was a bit different as instead of killing half the people in the universe, she just merged them, pushing two souls together into one and creating a series of hybrid characters like Soldier Supreme (Captain America and Dr. Strange), Iron Hammer (Iron Man and Thor), and Ms. Kang (Kang and Ms. Marvel).  She was ultimately defeated by Loki who had somehow figured out which beings could handle an Infinity Stone long enough to stop her.  Not long after that, Thanos’s will was read, revealing he’d hidden his psyche inside someone close to him to enable him to return from the dead.  Naturally, everyone except Star-Lord’s newest version of the Guardians of the Galaxy assumed it was Gamora, but it turned out to Starfox, who was at the time also leading an anti-Gamora squad.

So, she’s the serious character in a group of goofs and oddballs according to her own creator.  Looking at Zoe Saldana’s take on the character, that fits.  Think about it:  when the first Guardians of the Galaxy came out, her superhero teammates that were performing with her on-set was Chris Pratt, third or fourth lead on a sitcom; Dave Bautista, a pro-wrestler, and the director’s brother standing in for a talking raccoon.  Saldana was easily the most established actor there, and even with Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel’s voices coming out of a pair of special effects, Gamora is probably the most easily overlooked member of the team.

I mean, you put the serious character onto a team with those guys, with Pratt and Bautista both having star-making performances, and then toss in the likes of Karen Gillen’s Nebula and Pom Klementieff’s Mantis, and it isn’t hard to see why Gamora might be the least interesting of the Guardians.  I think, in a weird sort of way, she was kind of designed that way.

By the by, I haven’t decided who I am covering in this slot for next week, but I can safely say it probably won’t be one of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

You know, unless I opt to do Moondragon.  I haven’t decided yet.