Rounding up the deep-dive into the Guardians of the Galaxy is none other than the Deadliest Woman in the Galaxy. Asking the question, Where is Gamora? Or doing you one better, Who is Gamora? Or doing YOU one better, Why is Gamora?
If you don’t understand that reference then you might as well not even read any further, we can’t be friends.
Backstory
Created by writer/artist Jim Starlin, Gamora first appeared in Strange Tales #180 (1975). She is the adopted daughter of Thanos, and is the last of her species, the Zen-Whoberis. With a power set including superhuman strength, agility and an accelerated healing factor, its no wonder she is considered an elite combatant, being able to take on most of the opponents in the galaxy. She has earned the title of Deadliest Woman in the Galaxy.
She would return in issue #181, and would make appearances in the following stories, Warlock #9-#11 and again in #15 (1975-1976), the annuals for The Avengers and Marvel Two-in-One (1977), in Silver Surfer vol. 3 #46-#47 (1990). She would have a minor role in The Infinity Gauntlet #1-#6 (1991) and had a prominent role in the superhero group in Warlock and the Infinity Watch #1-#42 (1992-1995). She popped into the Infinity War (1992) and Infinity Crusade (1993) crossovers. Later appearing in Infinity Abyss #1-#6 (2002), Annihilation: Ronan #1-#4 (2006), Annihilation #1-#6 (2006), Annihilation: Conquest #6 (2008) and Nova vol. 4 #4-#12 (2007-2008). She would find her place when she costarred in Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 #1-#25 (2008-2010). When the Guardians title was cancelled she would (much like the rest of her team) play a minor role in The Thanos Imperative #1-#6 (2010).
Gamora and the other Guardians, then go on to appear in Avengers Assemble #4-#8 (2012) before they are brought back with a regular series in Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3, followed by Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 4. She would have parts of her origin story told in Gamora #1-#5 (2017). However, while it is set on Earth-616, it does manage to retcon some story elements of the established continuity to match the movie version. All of this eventually leads to her becoming the supervillain Requiem in the 2018 crossover storylines Infinity Countdown and Infinity Wars, instead of wiping out half of all life in the universe, she folds the universe in half and merges the two halves together.
Origin
She was the sole survivor of the peace loving, Zen-Whoberis. Her people were wiped out by the Universal Church of Truth, the zealous religious order seeking to establish a galaxy-wide empire. She was found as a child by Thanos, who sought to use her as a deadly weapon. She was trained to kill the evil, future version of Adam Warlock, known as the Magus. This dude was the leader of the Universal Church of Truth. She would have some nice bonding moments with dear old dad, but the rest of her childhood was just one long training montage. During this montage is when she gains the title “The deadliest woman in the galaxy”.
While on a trip to Tartoonla 7 with Thanos, the teenage Gamora disobeyed his orders and ventured out and toured the planet. She would then fall into an ambush by a group of thugs. The thugs outnumbered her and despite her skills, she was defeated and sexually assaulted by the assailants. She would later be found half dead by Thanos who in turn, murdered all of her attackers and restored her to health. He would bring her back to Sanctuary, his base of operations at the time, and cybernetically enhance her to superhuman levels, with abilities including resistance to reality distortion along with an accelerated healing factor. All of these would make her an equal to Adam Warlock.
When she was an adult, Gamora was sent to fulfil her role as Thanos’ assassin and take out the Magus. She got her revenge for the genocide of her people by killing every member of the Church that was involved before the event actually occurred. Her assassination attempt against Magus was prevented when he was able to sense her presence but she would later have a team-up with Adam Warlock in his final battle with his future, evil self. She was then assigned as Adam Warlock’s unofficial bodyguard by her dad, but along the way she was jumped by Drax the Destroyer, whose whole shtick is you know, killing Thanos. After escaping Drax, she ran home to let her dad know what was going down but was horrified when she discovered his plan to destroy the universe as a sacrifice to Death. During the team-up with Captain Marvel, Drax, Pip the Troll and the Avengers to defeat Thanos, she tried to kill him with a dagger but he used the “Uno Reverse” and killed her instead and destroyed Pip’s mind.
When the pair were found by Adam Warlock, he stored the last remaining spark of life left in their bodies inside the Soul Gem. When Adam died, his spirit was then reunited with his friends in “Soul World” within the Soul Gem. They had a grand old time in Soul World and found peace. They remained there until The Infinity Gauntlet situation, when Adam Warlock decided to stop Thanos before he wrecked the gaff. He projected his soul along with Gamora and Pip’s into three recently deceased bodies.
Adam used his powers to reshape these broken bodies into new and more powerful versions of the heroes’ old ones. She didn’t stick around for long though because Thanos erased her and half the population in the universe, but was was brought back when Nebula robbed the Gauntlet and Adam stepped in to defeated her too. He kept the Gauntlet for himself and after a little bit of a power trip, Adam was persuaded to divide the Gems up among several guardians. These guardians were known as The Infinity Watch and consisted of Adam Warlock(Soul), Gamora(Time), Drax(Power), Pip(Space) and Moondragon(Mind).
During their time together, the team would have to ally themselves with Thanos to defeat and old enemy, the Magus. Now this version of Magus was created when Adam tried to expel both the good and bad from his body in order to become a logical being. Gamora even reconciled with her dad during a friendly sparring session. Dude tried to kill her but OK, a beautiful moment of training was all they needed to clear the air. The gang managed to save the day and banish Magus to Soul World. While she couldn’t use the Time Gem properly, Gamora was able to have sporadic precognitive dreams or visions. The team would have their share of “ups and downs”, battling each other and other heroes, Gamora would develop feelings for Adam, there would be some distrust among the team and new members and eventually Gamora would leave the team and the Time Gem behind.
She went back to work as a mercenary, even having a big team-up with Thanos again to destroy a bunch of his clones (Thanosi) and protect a human girl named Atleza, who was destined to become an anchor of their reality. The pair worked alongside Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, Moondragon, Pip and Adam Warlock to defeat the Omega Thanosi (a combination of Thanos and Galactus). When the day was won, Adam would start to feel for Gamora and they would set off into the sunset (in an alternate pocket dimension) to raise and protect Atleza.
Gamora returned in the pages of Ronan, after leaving Adam Warlock and settling on Godthab Omega. She was seen leading a group of female warriors known as The Graces, and now wields the badass blade known as Godslayer. She then joins the United Front with Nova, and assists in launching quick counterattacks against the Annihilation Wave. During this time, she develops a relationship with Nova.
Following the Annihilation War, when the Phalanx invade the Kree home-world, Gamora is assimilated as a “select” of the hive mind. She is sent to apprehend Nova and infect him with the transmode virus. He would later gain control of himself and flee and Gamora would be given the task of killing him. They play cat and mouse for a bit and try kill each other a few times. She would later be freed by Nova and the Technarchy mutant Warlock and Tyro. These events would leave Gamora in severe distress, feeling scared and worthless without the transmode virus and the sense of companionship brought by the Phalanx.
Now a free agent and trying to find purpose while trying to serve the greater good, she joined the Guardians of the Galaxy. Initially the team didn’t trust her, but after risking her life and suffering severe injuries (she was basically flame grilled) she won them over. Her regenerative abilities took a while to get her back on the mend. When it was revealed that Star-Lord had Mantis mildly brainwash the members into joining the team, they disbanded. Some members would come together again under the leadership of Rocket Racoon and continue with their mission of guarding the galaxy. However Gamora would head off with Adam Warlock on a side mission against the Universal Church of Truth before the pair would return to the team.
There’s no reason to look for references from past employers to see that with all this experience, Gamora is perfectly suited for guarding the galaxy and keeping all manner of threats and menaces at bay, be it armies hell bent on planetary domination, or just keeping her genocidal adoptive father in check, the deadliest woman in the galaxy has it covered.
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