In "When We First Met", we spotlight the various characters, phrases, objects or events that eventually became notable parts of comic lore, like the first time someone said, "Avengers Assemble!" or the first appearance of Batman's giant penny or the first appearance of Alfred Pennyworth or the first time Spider-Man's face was shown half-Spidey/half-Peter. Stuff like that.

Today, inspired by my recent article about Groot, reader Ken B. wrote in to ask just when, exactly, we first saw Baby Groot like he is appearing in the new "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2" movie?

When you boil it down, it REALLY wasn't until this week's "All-New Guardians of the Galaxy" #1 (by Gerry Duggan, Aaron Kuder and Ive Svorcina) that it happened, with Gamora even asking why Groot was different now...

However, I think that there is a case to be made for an earlier appearance.

First off, obviously the whole concept of Groot re-growing period came from "Annihilation Conquest: Starlord" #3 (by Keith Giffen, Timothy Green II and Victor Olazaba), where we saw that Groot survived his seeming death in the previous issue...

However, at the time, miniature "growing back" Groot had the same proportions as the grown Groot, as shown in "Guardians of the Galaxy" #3 from 2008 (by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Paul Pelletier and Rick Magyar)...

So it would not be until Groot's ongoing series from 2015 that we actually first saw the first "Baby Groot," when he re-formed himself at the end of "Groot" #4 (by Jeff Loveness, Brian Kesinger and Vero Gandini), where he rocks an awesome homage to "X-Men" #132...

And then again in the next issue...

So I personally think that that counts as the first appearance of "Baby Groot," but if you want to argue "All-New Guardians of the Galaxy" #1, I could certainly see your point.

Thanks for the suggestion, Ken! If anyone else has an idea for a future edition of When We First Met, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!