Origin
The Zen Whoberi was a population who were wiped out by Badoon. (However in the original storyline they were killed by the Universal Church of Truth.) Gamora was the only one of the Zen Whoberi that survived. Thanos discovered Gamora alive and decided to save and train her as a weapon to use against and kill the Magus. Thanos made sure Gamora was raised with discipline, though he did on occasion show her affection as a father would show his child: such as celebrating the pagan Yule with elements of Christmas. Through rigorous training she would become a highly skilled master of various martial arts from throughout the universe.
Even though Gamora was learning and becoming a master martial artist, she still had more to learn. While still a young girl, she went on a trip with Thanos. Though explicitly against Thanos' orders and warning, out of curiosity she decided to venture planet-side, where she fell into an ambush set up by a group of thugs. The attackers used their numerical advantage and were able to defeat her in spite of her great skill. She was severely injured in the fight and gang raped.
Near death, her proverbial knight in shining armor arrived in the form of Thanos, who quickly dispatching the assailants. Thanos recovered the apologetic and near death Gamora. After returning to Sanctuary Thanos restored and augmented Gamora. This was achieved via bionic implants and replacement parts of Thanos' own design. These physical and power upgrades made her an equal to Adam Warlock's own physical abilities. She also received specialized training and abilities including resistance to reality distortion as well as an accelerated healing factor, that rivals even Wolverine's. Her purpose was to kill Magus, Adam's evil godlike counterpart.
Creation
Gamora was created by Jim Starlin and first appeared in Strange Tales #180 (1975).
Major Story Arcs
Meeting Warlock
When Gamora grew to adulthood it was time for her to begin the mission she had trained for all her life, to go after Magus and the Universal Church of the Truth. Her abilities and skill made her a dreaded assassin. She was able to get close to Magus but failed in her assassination attempt. This failure forced Thanos to take a more direct role in the affair. Thus he teleported to her location and joined forces with Warlock and Pip.
The Magus however had other plans and ordered 25,000 of his Black Knights to attack Warlock and any companions. This forced the allies to fight through the attack and ultimately escape the churchs home-world via Thanos teleporting them all aboard sanctuary. Even though this assassination attempt failed in due course the Magus was defeated. Soon after Thanos sent Gamora on a new mission, to befriend and keep tabs on Adam, in an attempt to prevent her from learning of his true nature and ambitions. However before she could truly start her mission the space craft she was piloting came under attack from Drax the Destroyer, whose sole purpose in life was to destroy Thanos. Drax had targeted Gamora's ship due to her relationship to Thanos and destroyed the ship.
As Gamora lay dying, her ally Adam Warlock was able to take her soul into his Soul Gem. It was after this that Gamora eventually discovered that Thanos was obsessed with Death and planned to commit stellar genocide and quit serving her master and adopted father.
Soulworld existed inside the Soul Gem. This was where Gamora, Pip and (eventually) Adam Warlock existed in peace. Years later, when Thanos returns from the dead, Soul World is visited by the Silver Surfer and Drax the Destroyer, who are there seeking aide from Adam Warlock, who with the aid of Master Order and Lord Chaos was able to defeat Thanos before. Finally Adam Warlock determined that Thanos must not be permitted to continue to grow in power. Warlock guided his allies Gamora and Pip the Troll out of their peaceful Soulworld to the real world. When they entered the real world they needed bodies to exist in so their souls took over the bodies of three people that had died in a car accident, leading into the events of The Infinity Gauntlet.
Infinity Gauntlets
At the end of the Infinity Gauntlet ordeal, Adam Warlock was in possession of all six infinity gems but by order of the Living Tribunal was unable to use them together, so Warlock gave all but the soul gem away to guardians he trusted and called this group the Infinity Watch. Gamora was brought on board as guardian of the Time Gem; a power that Gamora didn't really want and had no idea what to do with; though almost as soon as the gem was on her brow she experienced a premonition of Warlock being killed by an unfamiliar figure who would later be revealed to be future Infinity Watch member Maxam.
Gamora's strength and skill would start to be truly recognized during her time with the Watch. Most notably after her decimating a UN assault battalion in 8 minutes. The UN in turn upgraded her strength threat level in their database from Spider-Man to Iron Man level. During her time with the Infinity Watch, Gamora also began to have romantic feelings for Adam, though she still could not seem to find the courage or the time to reveal them to Adam, largely stemming from the daily adventures and shenanigans affiliated with being a member of the Watch.
The Infinity War saw the return of Magus, this time in possession of even greater power in the form of five cosmic containment units, communally called Cosmic Cubes. Gamora with Warlock and the rest of the Watch found themselves once again in an alliance, formed from necessity, with the villainous Thanos. The allies soon were investigating an energy beacon. However unbeknownst to them, the Magus had placed it to distract and force a confrontation between the various forces that sought to thwart his goals. Forces such as the Avengers, Hulk, Quasar, the X-Men and Alpha Flight united.
Soon a full blown confrontation broke out among the two factions. Gamora faced off against multiple Earth heroes, even incapacitating several, utilizing her superior fighting skills and training. Heroes such as the Invisible Woman, She Hulk, Rogue, Cyclops, Vindicator, Strong Guy and Wolverine. She was eventually overcome by stealth and numbers that resulted in her being knocked out. Ultimately the battle was halted by the arrival and intervention of Galactus. He would later take control of Gamora in order to assist him in reviving a catatonic Eternity. That would be her last significant act in the Arc. After the Infinity War, Warlock was left in a catatonic state and Gamora's true feelings emerged. She stayed by his side the entire time, often taking charge of the team that could evaporate at any moment without a leader. At first Adam did not feel the same way but after some time Adam began to feel the same.
Infinity Crusade
During "The Infinity Crusade," Gamora was chosen as one of the Goddess' highest ranking servants as a member of the Holy Guard. Goddess used her own personal beliefs and telepathy to control Gamora to help her create a group consciousness across the universe and rid it of evil. When the battle with Earth's heroes on Paradise Omega, Gamora proved that she was more than enough for some of Earth's mightiest heroes able to take out Rage, Night Thrasher as well as the Thing. She was stabbed in the stomach by Wolverine during a pause in the battle, but her healing factor eventually revived and healed her. The control over Gamora was eventually released and the Goddess was defeated.
The Infinity Watch also found themselves at odds with an insane Thor in the Blood and Thunder arc. After Thor gained the Power Gem the Watch and their allies, Dr Strangeand the Silver Surfer, confronted Thor and the now materialized Valkyrie. Being backed by the limitless power of the gem Thor defeated Maxam, Strange, Warlock, Drax, and the Surfer with ease, leaving Moondragon to face Valkryie and Gamora to face the bloodlusted Thor.
Despite Thor's overwhelming power advantage Gamora's skill prevented him from even landing a blow. It looked as though they might actually beat the odds, until Valkryie gained the advantage over Moondragon and threw her at the unsuspecting Gamora, who was still battling the Thunder God. With both opponents temporarily downed, Thor wasted no time using Mjolnir to bring down a structure burying the collective allies under the rubble. Pip arrived and in a panic driven whim, teleported Thor, Valkyrie and himself to the one person he could think of that might be able to stop the insane raging god of thunder - a risky gamble that payed off. After a violent confrontation between Thor and Thanos, Thanos grew weary of the ordeal and immobilized Thor via a rifle of his own design, that encased Thor within a block of pure force. After being joined by the other allies they collectively failed to cure Thor of his malady, though they did succeed in ending Valkyrie's physical manifestation.
The allies soon decided the best course of action was to bring Thor to his father to cure. However Lord Odin misinterpreted their intent. Odin called for every able bodied warrior to stop the trespassers, thus Gamora found herself in battle against the Asgardians on Bifrost. Once again her formidable skills were put to the test. She was fighting very effectively until she knocked out Volstagg who fell on top of Moondragon, incapacitating her. Gamora now distracted and distraught, Hogun was able to deliver a blow from his mace to the back of her head knocking her out. Once Odin became involved in the fight, Gamora and the others retreated at least one kilometer while Thanos and Surfer engaged Odin in direct combat.
Count Abyss
Her true feelings for Adam began to show further when Maya came to the island and her and Adam fell in love because of Count Abyss' love potion. She believed the best answer was to simply kill Maya. Eventually she accepted it for what it was and went to help rescue her from Abyss in his dimension. Things would quickly get out of hand for Gamora again. This time due to Maxam making what he thought was a harmless tease about Gamora's feelings towards Adam and referring to it as puppy love. Due to her still being unable to express herself to Adam and her unease and concerns about Maxam, due to the visions from her gem, Gamora attacked Maxam. The two had fought before but this time Gamora was aware of her opponent.
The fight favored Gamora to triumph until it was broken up when Moondragon, who was currently in a coma, used Drax and his power gem to communicate. Adam was displeased with Gamora's actions and told her so. This in turn angered and caused Gamora to verbally lash out, as it was not her mistrust of Maxam directly concerning Adams own well-being. Unable to accept Adam siding with Maxam over her, she quit the team and threw her gem at Adam when he asked for it back, which Warlock in turn gave to Maxam. She then had Pip teleport her away from Monster Island and Earth. She would come back to the team in the end just before the gems all vanished and the team dissolved.
After the Watch
Enter the Infinity Abyss saga. Gamora stopped on Baligeist, your typical space port, for a little well deserved rest relaxation. While deciding where to begin she overhears, thanks to her enhanced senses, what appears to be two locals having a conversation. She finds the subject matter quite concerning. For one of the locals who, unbeknownst to Gamora, interestingly enough resembles Thanos in a cheap disguise, mentions that Thanos himself would be giving a speech later at the local Nietzsche Arena. Gamora having long heard rumors of Thanos' death and thought it to be true, goes to investigate. Gamora was attempting to discern if the being on the stage claiming to be Thanos was in fact he when he, Armour, spots her in the crowd.
He orders the crowd, filled with several thousand nihilists from the real Thanos' long abandoned cult, to attack and destroy her. Unconcerned and with ease Gamora dodges blasts from Armour from the stage and defeats waves of the cultists on the ground. Her concern mounts and she is forced to flee when Armour taps the stadiums power grid and launches the amplified blast directly in to the horde of attackers aimed directly at her. While the cultists embrace their deaths Gamora uses the chaos to make her way to a spacecraft and get away from the now hostile space port. Still uncertain on what to make of the events on Baligeist, Gamora set course for an unnamed planet she knew where Thanos' had a base of operations. Upon arrival she discovered a Skrull spacecraft and the base's defenses expertly downed. She soon found herself face to face with the real Thanos, who was still recovering from being attacked by an artificially created singularity (black hole).
Thanos explained the threat of his clones and the danger they presented towards reality, convincing Gamora to ally herself with him once again to end the threat. Her first task was to lure Armour to his death at the hands of Thanos. Her last significant act in the arc would be stabbing the unsuspecting Thanosi known as X in the back, providing the window needed to ensure his defeat. Later, during the "Infinity Abyss" story, Gamora and Adam would raise a cosmic being that was known as Atleza.
Champions of the Universe
Some time after this, Gamora was present with Adam Warlock and Pip the Troll on a planet that has been taken over by the Champion of the Universe. Warlock was gathering the universe's strongest heroes to combat Champion in the ring with the stipulation if anybody can beat him he will relinquish his rule over this world. Warlock's initial recruits: Beta Ray Bill, Drax the Destroyer, Gladiator, the Silver Surfer and Warlock himself all fail. Next, Warlock sends Pip out to retrieve She-Hulk. Gamora served as personal trainer for the She-Hulk in preparation for her bout with Tyco Slatterus, the Elder of the Universe known as the Champion.
She-Hulk lost to the Champion in the fight with him, but was awarded a rematch when she pointed out that Champion, who has regained the Power Gem, was possibly using it as an illegal weapon to boost his strength. While waiting for the rematch, Gamora convinced She-Hulk to train for the fight in her human form rather than as She-Hulk. She had She-Hulk train like this because her human strength is exponentially multiplied when she transforms into the She-Hulk, so she reasoned if she can become stronger in her human form then when she becomes the She-Hulk she have greater strength still. Gamora's insight paid off, as now stronger Jennifer Walters makes She-Hulk stronger than ever before, allowing her to defeat the Champion with relative ease.
Nova
At some as-of-now undisclosed time, Gamora left Adam and Atleza to go off on her own to try to reclaim her title as Deadliest Woman in the Universe. She sets herself up with a new costume and a new weapon, the dagger known as Godslayer, upon a fringe Kreecolony as head of "The Graces", a group of super powered female characters, mostly villains, consisting of Nebula, Cerise of the Sh'iar, Tana Nile, Spirit and Stellaris the Celestial Slayer.
This is at the start of the first Annihilation war, and Gamora is drawn into conflict with Ronan the Accuser who is trying to track down one of her graces, Tana Nile, who had testified against him in court on false charges that had left him disgraced. Gamora and Ronan battled to a standstill and eventually joined forces against the Annihilation Wave, and both joined Nova's United Front. During her time fighting alongside the United Front, Gamora strikes up a romantic relationship with Nova. When/why/how she fell out with Warlock before that remains to be shown.
Between Annihilation Wars, Nova apparently broke off his relationship with Gamora, but this is also "off panel". During the second Annihilation War, Gamora is taken over by the Phalanx and is turned into one of their Select. As a select, Gamora is critical in apprehending and infecting Nova and Drax the Destroyer. Nova manages to free himself from Phalanx control, only to immediately be pursued by select Gamora and Drax. They follow Nova to the current home world of the Phalanx' parent species the Technarx, where Warlock (former New Mutants member Warlock, not Adam Warlock) manages to free Gamora and Drax from phalanx control. After the second Annihilation war, Gamora joins Peter Quill/ Starlord's new incarnation of the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Guardians of the Galaxy
Having no purpose and wanting to do things for the greater good, Gamora joins the team. At first she is not trusted because of her past, but after risking her life to save the others, she is seen in a different light. While trying to close a fissure located inside a Dyson Sphere (an artificial device that encloses a star and uses it for power), the team decides to stop threats to them by turning off the shield that protects them from the star's immense heat. They plan to teleport out, but are unable to do so. Gamora braves the intense heat in order to turn the shields back on, charring her entire body from head to toe.
It took some time for Gamora to heal from this. After the Skrulls are found on Knowhere, the team's base, accusations run high, especially towards Gamora. After they find the Skrulls, it is revealed to all that Starlord had Mantis mildly brainwash them into joining the team. Disgusted, Gamora quits the team and heads off with Adam Warlock.
After a short run in with the Universal Church of Truth, Gamora and Adam return to the Guardians in order to help them continue to save the universe. During the War of Kings, the InhumanKing Black Bolt unleashes the Terrigen Bomb, which creates a massive rip in space-time known as the Fault. Warlock is able to stop the tear from expanding, but in doing so he had to overlap the timestream, causing himself to turn into the Magus.
Gamora, along with many other Guardians, is killed by the Magus before finally being stopped by Starlord and a Cosmic Cube. But this was a trick and the Magus only faked her death, taking Gamora's soul and remaking her with the Church of Truth's belief energy. As a captive of the Magus, she as subject to the torture of their 'interrogators' in an effort to convert her to the Church's beliefs. For a time, it is believed she was turned to their faith but when the other team members broke free of their captors, she fought alongside them. Needless to say, she was not pleased with her time as a prisoner.
Marvel NOW
Gamora and the Guardians of the Galaxy successfully attack a Badoon battle ship and find out the Badoon have invaded the Earth. With the help of Tony Stark, the group successfully defends the planet, but they are soon interrupted by Spartax soldiers where the Spartax end up arresting the group for coming to the Earth, as the planet is supposed to be off limits. With the Guardians now prisoners of war, they are taken to Planet Spartax where they are held in stasis, awaiting their trial. Groot saves them and Gamora and the group successful defeat the guards, allowing them to leave the planet. Gamora and the Guardians head to a space bar, and Gamora hooks up with Tony Stark, but it ends up being a flop. While off on her own to head back to the bar, Gamora is attacked.
The assailant is revealed to be Maxilin the Accuser, a bounty hunter. Gamora and Maxilin trade blows and weaponry. Gamora ends up at the mercy of the bounty hunter, but Rocket Raccoon blasts a hole in his chest from behind, saving Gamora. With Gamora recovered, the team leaves. Gamora is one of the few remaining Guardians on the ship due to Peter and Drax heading out on their own. With it only being her, Tony, Rocket, and Groot, they find out Angela is detected to be heading towards the Earth and the Guardians pursue her, and discover that no info on Angela exists. Despite not knowing who or what Angela is, Gamora engages her in battle, but she ends up at the angel's mercy as Angela prepares the final strike.
Gamora is saved by Rocket, Groot, and Stark from Angela. Angela fights the entire team by herself, including the now returned Drax, and it looks as if she is winning until Peter joins in and takes Angela out with an attack from behind. The Watcher appears after the fight to tell the Guardians that the woman's name is Angela, and that her presence is a major concern. Gamora and the rest of the Guardians talk with Angela to learn more about the mysterious woman.
Original Sin
Following the death of the Watcher, Gamora is later selected alongside Black Panther, the Winter Soldier, the Punisher, Doctor Strange, Ant-Man, and Emma Frost by a mysterious benefactor, who turns out to be Nick Fury. Fury reveals that he is dying, and wishes to have one of the heroes take his place as the "man on the wall" who secretly defends Earth from extraterrestrial threats. Gamora and the others battle Fury's LMDs and later leave.
Around this time, Gamora learns the fate of Nova who is revealed to have sacrificed his life to save Star-Lord and the others from the Cancerverse. He had asked Star-Lord not to tell Gamora, as he was in love with her and didn't want to burden her with this knowledge.
Powers and Abilities
Gamora’s martial artist skills are considered to be among the highest in the Marvel Universe as she has mastered 83.4% of most known armed and unarmed techniques from various warfaring cultures. Her fighting skills are so advanced she can defeat opponents who are physically far superior to her. Her skill gives her the ability to outfight others who would be considered more powerful and/or stronger than her.
She has engaged and fought to a stand-still the likes of the Thing, She-Hulk, Rage and even Thanos - all of whom are vastly stronger and more durable than she is. She also defeated a whole platoon of highly trained military personal in a short time. She has the ability to paralyze or kill opponents by striking vital nerve cluster points on their bodies. Her preferred weapons are swords and knives. Her favorite being Godslayer.
Thanos augmented her to be the physical equal of Adam Warlock. Gamora has highly enhanced speed, reflexes, agility, senses, stamina/endurance, durability and healing factor. She possesses super strength comparable to Ironman. As well as a precognitive tracking instinct. She has demonstrated the ability to survive in the vacuum of space un aided. Though if she can do this indefinitely is undetermined.
Through specialized training also provided by Thanos she has resistance to an unknown extent against reality distortion and telepathic assaults.
Most of Gamora's skeleton has been replaced with an unnamed, nearly unbreakable substance by Thanos.
Physical Characteristics
Height: 6'
Weight: 170 lbs
Hair: Black
Eyes: Yellow
Alternate realities
Possible Future
In Nova Annual #1, Nova is shown visions of both his past and possible future by the Transmode Virus as an attempt to weaken his resolve. In his possible future, Nova has rebuilt the Nova Corps to combat the Phalanx invasion, and one of the Centurions is Gamora.
No comments:
Post a Comment