During Avengers: Infinity War, a few questions popped up when Star-Lord’s team first met up with Iron Man, Dr. Strange, and Spider-Man. The first was “Where is Gamora?” which prompted both “Who is Gamora?” from Iron Man and “Why is Gamora?” from Drax. And while the exchange was primarily written for laughs, they are by all means valid questions. Who is Gamora and why is Gamora? What do we actually know about the Most Dangerous Woman in Universe? If we look at the MCU, Gamora is the now deceased/trapped in the Soul Stone “daughter” of Thanos. She’s a skilled mercenary, a survivor of great tragedy, a Guardian of the Galaxy, and the person Star-Lord cares for most in the universe. And if we look at the comics, she’s quite a bit more. Gamora made her first appearance in Jim Starlin’s Strange Tales #180 and she steadily grew from an assistant with one purpose to one of the most complex and intriguing characters in Marvel.
Throughout the years, Gamora has been a mercenary, a trainer, a conqueror, a hero, a guardian, and even a cosmic being. She has set out to conquer worlds, and yet she was later counted among those who held the strongest or most upright convictions. And on top of all her exploits, she has had numerous entanglements with the Infinity Stones. So who is Gamora? Why is Gamora? We can answer some of that. Here are 20 facts about the Most Dangerous Woman in the Galaxy that only diehard fans know.
20 HER SWORD HAS AN INFINITY STONE IN IT
On her quest to retrieve the Soul Gem, Gamora took another Infinity Gem to further help her -- the Power Gem. In Infinity Wars #1 Gamora met with Star-Lord, who had the Power Gem, and she swapped it out with a decoy copy of it. She placed the Infinity Stone on her sword, which augmented her weapon's power and allowed her to shoot powerful blasts from it.
With her newly enhanced weapon, Gamora continued her quest for the Soul Gem and also tracked down and took out Thanos in Infinity Was Prime. Before he faded, Thanos asked if she would conduct his requiem, and Gamora took the name Requiem after he passed.
19 SHE ONCE HAD COSMIC POWERS
As if Gamora wasn’t badass enough, she’s also had her turn with cosmic powers. In part, she owes her powers to Star-Lord. In Legendary Star-Lord #5, Star-Lord stole the Black Vortex, a device that unlocks a being’s cosmic potential, from his father Mr. Knife. Star-Lord called several superhero groups together to decide what to do with it.
While the Guardians of the Galaxy, Cosmic Avengers, and the X-Men discussed options, Mr. Knife’s Slaughter Lords attacked. While overwhelmed in the fight, Gamora submitted to the Black Vortex and gained cosmic power. She and then set off on a quest to unlock everyone’s cosmic potential. Her mission didn’t end well, but she did have cosmic powers for a while.
18 SHE'S FROM A FUTURE TIMELINE
As if seeing the destruction of her people wasn't bad enough, Gamora was actually displaced from her natural timeline. Thanos found Gamora while scanning the timeline and after he saved her, he brought her back to his ship.
Of course, Thanos' timeline was also 20 years prior to the Universal Church's invasion of the Zen Whobris homeworld. So while Gamora had to witness the devastation of her entire planet, she also grew up in a timeline where the Zen Whobris were still alive and well, and she hadn't even been born yet. Not exactly the easiest situation to grow up in.
17 SHE HAD PRECOGNITIVE POWERS
Even though she guarded the Time Gem, Gamora didn’t use it for quite some time. Several members of the Infinity Watch were chosen because they would not be able to use their stones, and while this wasn’t case for Gamora, she didn’t have any idea on how she was supposed to operate her Infinity Gem.
While she didn’t know how to tap into the Time Gem’s powers directly, she could eventually activate her Gem without realizing it. Starting in Warlock and the Infinity Watch #12, Gamora unknowingly tapped into the Time Gem’s powers while she slept. As a result, she saw glimpses of the future in her dreams.
16 SHES BEEN TRAPPED IN THE SOUL STONE BEFORE
Following Gamora's “end” in Infinity War, fans speculated that she wasn’t actually gone and was instead trapped inside the Soul Stone. This was later confirmed, which made sense, but it wouldn’t be the first time that Gamora cheated the end with the Soul Stone.
Avengers Annual #7 recounts how Gamora received critical wounds during a battle with Thanos. While she was fading, Adam Warlock managed to draw her soul into the Soul Gem. Adam And Pip later joined her there and the three of them remained in the Soul Gem up until the events for The Infinity Gauntlet were set in motion.
15 SHE FOUGHT ON BOTH SIDES OF CIVIL WAR II
Like many off-world heroes, Gamora received a request to fight during "Civil War II". She joined Captain Marvel's side and initially fought against Iron Man's forces. However, this event coincided with one of Gamora's hunts for Thanos, and she learned that Captain Marvel had withheld information about the Mad Titan.
Not only was Thanos being held on earth, but Captain Marvel had also discussed the situation with Star-Lord before the Guardians of the Galaxy arrived to fight. Gamora quickly switched sides and continued to look for Thanos. And to no one's surprise, she quit left Guardians of the Galaxy as well.
14 SHE WAS PART OF THE HOLY GUARD
For being a bit of a loner, Gamora has joined plenty of teams in her day -- not always by choice, though. In addition to teams like the Infinity Watch or the Guardians of the Galaxy, Gamora also had a brief run with the Holy Guard.
During Infinity Crusade, Adam Warlock's personification of good, the Goddess, set off to save the universe -- by destroying it. She found the superheroes with the most zealous beliefs and moral convictions and hypnotized them to further her cause. In addition to Gamora, Goddess' Holy Guard comprised some of the most upstanding characters in the Marvel Universe, including Daredevil, Spider-Man, and even Captain America.
13 HER UPGRADED STATUS
While not many people heard about Star-Lord before he formed the Guardians of the Galaxy, Gamora has always had an impressive reputation. In her second appearance in comics (Strange Tales #181), Gamora’s sheer presence is enough to extract information from one of the Magus’ Black Knights.
And rightly so. Gamora isn’t your average hunter -- she was trained by Thanos and grew up with a thirst for revenge, so it’s no surprise that Gamora is known as “The Most Dangerous Woman in the Galaxy.” By the time she appeared in Annihilation: Ronan, the title had been bumped up to "The Most Dangerous Woman in the Universe."
12 STAR-LORD ISN’T HER ORIGINAL LOVE INTEREST
Gamora and Star-Lord are an amazing couple in the MCU, although Gamora’s original love interest was far from a half-Terran vigilante. Gamora’s attentions usually belong to Adam Warlock, and if she isn’t trying to save the world with the Guardians of the Galaxy or hunt down Thanos, she’s probably off somewhere with Warlock.
In fact, Gamora cares for him so much that when she learned Maya had feelings for him, Gamora tried to end her. Of course, that’s not to say our green-skinned Guardian hasn’t ever fallen for an attractive human. The Most Dangerous Woman in the Galaxy also had a quite the fling with Tony Stark.
11 SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO END THE MAGUS
Gamora had one very specific purpose when she first appeared in the comics: take out the Magus (Adam Warlock’s evil future self). According to Warlock #10, Thanos scanned the timeline to find the perfect individual to defeat the Magus, and picked Gamora when he saw Mangus’ forces destroy her people.
Thanos took Gamora back to Sanctuary and trained her to be a mercenary for the sole purpose of defeating Magus. Thanos even gave her powers so that she had might on par with Adam Warlock. She didn’t actually stop Magus, but she did learn some useful skills while she prepared for the confrontation.
10 SHE WAS PART OF THE INFINITY WATCH
After the events of The Infinity Gauntlet miniseries, Adam Warlock had a brief run as the supreme being in Marvel’s prime reality. Despite his good intentions, Warlock wasn’t particularly suited for omnipotence, and at The Living Tribunal’s request, he separated the six Infinity Gems from the gauntlet.
Warlock founded the Infinity Watch to keep the gems safe and entrusted each gem to a different guardian. Warlock kept the Soul Gem and he gave the Power Gem to Drax, the Mind Gem to Moondragon, the Space Gem to Pip the Troll, the Reality Gem to Thanos and the Time Gem to Gamora.
9 SHE TRAINED SHE-HULK TO FIGHT THE CHAMPION
In addition to being superb at what she does, Gamora is also an expert trainer. During She-Hulk #7-8, Jennifer Walters asked Gamora to help her train for a fight with the Champion of the Universe. The Champion had beaten a score of heroes including Adam Warlock, Drax the Destroyer, and the Silver Surfer.
She-Hulk lost as well, but asked for a rematch since the Champion used the Power Gem during their match. Gamora put together a rigorous training regime for She-Hulk with included training while she was in her human form. When the time for the rematch came, She-Hulk was significantly stronger and easily won the fight.
8 SHE RAISED A CHILD IN ANOTHER DIMENSION
Raising kids is hard, especially when they have a destiny of cosmic significance. During the events of Infinity Abyss, the Anchor of Reality is fatally wounded by the Thanosi, evil clones of Thanos (which is saying a lot, since we're talking about Thanos). Thanos enlists the help of several heroes to destroy the Thanosi and find the Anchor of Reality's successor, a human girl named Atleza.
After Thanos and the heroes defeat the Thanosi, Atleza becomes the new Anchor of Reality. To help her adjust to her new role, Gamora and Adam Warlock travel with her to another dimension and oversee her upbringing together.
7 SHE LED THE GRACES
Before she joined the Guardians of the Galaxy, Gamora led a team of her own. However, her band of warriors had far less noble intentions than some of her other team-ups. Gamora formed The Graces on the planet Godthub, with the sole mission of capturing the planet.
She enlisted female warriors who all contained some level of cosmic awareness and set herself up as their goddess-like leader. The group included Nebula, Nebula's niece Xira, the mysterious Celestial-hunter Stellaris, the Shi'ar soldier Cerise, and the Rigellian Tana Nile. By the time they appeared in Annihilation: Ronan #1, they had already conquered the majority of the planet.
6 SHE'S FRIENDS WITH THOR'S SISTER
It can’t be easy to be friends with someone called the Most Dangerous Woman in the Galaxy, but anyone who sticks around is probably awesome in some way. Gamora met Thor's younger sister Angela when the Asgardian was traveling to earth. Unaware of the girl's history, Gamora fought her on the moon and barely overpowered her.
After the Guardians of the Galaxy captured Angela, she told them her story and Star-Lord agreed to release her. Angela teamed up with the Guardians for a number of different adventures and even joined their team for a time. She and Gamora were frequent sparring partners and became great friends.
5 MANTIS BRAINWASHED HER
When the Guardians of the Galaxy officially came together, not everyone was so gung-ho about teaming up. The group had only just come together in the aftermath of Annihilation: Conquest and Star-Lord wasn’t sure the team would be ready for a long-term commitment after the battles they had just faced.
To ensure everyone cooperated, Star-Lord asked Mantis to use a minor form of brainwashing to force the other members to join. The ploy didn’t last long, and the Guardians were none too happy when they found out. Gamora, in particular, was livid. As soon as she learned what had happened, she quit the team altogether.
4 SHE HAD TO PROVE HERSELF AS A GUARDIAN
We’d like to think that after proving oneself in a violent war would be enough to earn trust, but that wasn’t the case for Gamora. Even after her help during Annihilation Conquest (and even after they literally brainwashed her), Gamora's past made several of the Guardians of the Galaxy suspicious of her.
Despite her constant quests to stop Thanos or her history as part of the Infinity Watch, she constantly had to prove herself while on Star-Lord's team. It’s not surprising that Gamora never stayed long with the Guardians if the Galaxy, and frequently went off with Adam Warlock or struck out in her own.
3 A DWARF FROM NIDAVELLIR MADE HER ARMOR
In All-New Guardians of the Galaxy #3, Gamora realized a piece of her soul was still trapped in the Soul Gem. Desperate to find the Soul Gem, she started trading favors with the Collector and enlisted the Guardians of the Galaxy to help her find it.
When Kang the Conqueror came into the mix though, the Guardians were unwilling to help anymore. Gamora continued her search for the Soul Gem alone, but not before she upgraded her equipment. She took a dwarf from Nidavellir, threatened him until he made her a suit of armor and sword, and then offed him.
2 SOLE SURVIVOR
During Infinity War, we saw a heart-wrenching flashback of when Gamora's mother and half of her people were gone for Thanos' cause. Her original storyline went one step further and eliminated her race altogether. In the comics, the peaceful Zen Whoberis perished during the Universal Church's conquest for an empire that spanned a galaxy.
The Zen Whoberis resisted the invasion and were wiped out for their insubordination. Thanks to Thanos, Gamora managed escaped the tragedy, but only as the last of her kind. So while Thanos was responsible for her mother's end in the movies, he legitimately saved her life in the comics.
1 SHE CELEBRATES YULE
Some characters are more forthcoming about the traditions they celebrate than others. Gamora wasn’t very vocal about celebrating Yule, but Thanos was certainly quick to explain that it was very much a part of his daughter’s upbringing. As Thanos explains in Marvel Holiday Special (1992), he tried his best to give Gamora a “normal” life. Alongside training to be an assassin, this meant celebrating a few holidays. In particular, Thanos mentioned that they celebrated Yule.
Whether this was similar to something the Zen Whobris celebrated or just Thanos’ attempt at making family memories is unclear, but either way, Gamora is more than familiar with Christmas-style festivities.