Mantis

Orphan

Raised alone on Ego’s planet and away from her native insectoid people, Mantis never really learned how to interact with others. Ego found Mantis in a larva state, orphaned on her home world. He raised her by hand and kept her as his own to quell his neurotic behaviors. Ego uses her empathic abilities to ease his mind and help him sleep in his journey to finding his progeny, including his son Peter Quill, AKA Star-Lord.

She meets the Guardians of the Galaxy after Ego saved them from Sovereign soldiers who were attacking them and proceeds to introduce them to her abilities on their way to Ego’s planet.

Empathic Abilities

Mantis is an empath who can sense others’ feelings and emotions with a touch, to which her antennae respond by lighting up. She can induce sleep and manipulate emotions to a degree, able to make Ego sleep when he is in planet form or debilitate the Mad Titan Thanos for a time. She can also alter emotions, helping a sad person feel contentment or a stubborn person compliant. Mantis has enhanced durability, as she has proven to be resilient to injury.

Enemies of the Galaxy

Ego, the Celestial and biological father of Peter Quill, rescues Mantis at a young age. At first, Ego is her savior and master; however, upon meeting the Guardians of the Galaxy, Mantis can no longer accept Ego’s Expansion plans, nor the deaths of his progeny who could not help him fulfill his destiny. The ruthless egomaniac who believes himself to be a god attempts to conquer the universe with Quill by his side. Mantis opposes him together with the Guardians, and they slay him for the good of the Universe.

The Mad Titan Thanos is the adoptive father of Gamora, Mantis’ teammate. As a being of immense strength and cruelty, he will stop at nothing to get ahold of each Infinity Stone to destroy half the universe in a deluded effort to save it. Mantis attempts to disable Thanos on Titan alongside fellow Guardians Drax and Quill, Nebula, Avengers Iron Man and Spider-Man, and Doctor Strange.

Smiling to Make Friends of the Galaxy

Upon meeting the Guardians of the Galaxy—Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket, and Groot—Mantis learns complex emotions such as love and humor, as well as the nature of friendship. Mantis and Drax develop a bond with each other, as he’s drawn to her innocence, reminding him of his daughter. After defeating Ego, Mantis is recruited as a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

In the fight against Thanos, Mantis meets the Asgardian Avenger Thor reading his painful emotions and waking him from slumber. She also assists Terran heroes Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Doctor Strange, along with the Guardians and Nebula, in the group’s attempt to wrest the Infinity Gauntlet from Thanos on his home planet, Titan.

From Orphan to Guardian

When Mantis was an abandoned larva on her insectoid planet, Ego saved her and raised her as his own. She grew up on Ego’s planet, serving Ego in his quest to find his long-lost son Peter Quill (Star-Lord). Ego used her empathic abilities to soothe him and aide in his sleeping patterns during long journeys across the galaxy. When Ego caught up with Quill and his Guardians of the Galaxy, he saved them from an impending attack from the Sovereign.

Ego shared his tales and Quill’s origins to the Guardians and Mantis. The demure and innocent Mantis learned social interactions such as smiling and practical jokes with Drax. On their journey, Mantis showed Star-Lord, Gamora, and Drax her abilities, such as easing her Master’s mind and assisting him in slumber, as well as reading both Star-Lord and Drax’s emotions.

On Ego’s home planet, Mantis and Drax continued to bond as he inquired about her relationship to Ego, believing her to be his pet. Drax also admired her innocence, as it reminded him of his daughter that he lost. Caring for her new friends, Mantis could no longer keep her knowledge of Ego’s dead children private and revealed Ego’s true plans for Quill and the Expansion to Drax, Gamora, and Nebula. She explained that Ego was an egomaniacal being who implanted his seed across numerous systems across the universe and killed his children who were not worthy of the Celestial gene and his grand Expansion plans.

Joined by Rocket, Groot, and Ravagers Yondu and Kraglin, Mantis and the Guardians were successful in saving Quill and defeating Ego, with Mantis harnessing her powers to force the Ego, the living planet, to sleep as the others attacked.

The unlikely heroes left Ego’s planet and went on to carry out their Guardians of the Galaxy moniker, Mantis alongside them. During their adventures, they received a distress call from a ship of refugee Asgardians who had been attacked by an unknown force. They arrived to its destruction to discover a semi-unconscious Thor. Mantis revived him using her abilities and Thor shared his encounter with Thanos and how he was now in possession of both the Power Stone and Space Stone.

Discussing next steps, the Guardians and Thor decided to separate into two groups: Thor, Rocket, and Groot left to find a Thanos-killing weapon on Nidavellir; while the rest of the Guardians departed for Knowhere to protect the Reality Stone from Thanos. Unfortunately, the Guardians arrived on Knowhere too late and were ambushed by the Mad Titan, now in possession of the Reality Stone, manipulating their environment and taking Gamora.

Connecting with Nebula, Star-Lord, Mantis and Drax sought out Thanos and Gamora on Thanos’ home planet of Titan. There, the Guardians encountered the arrival of Doctor Strange, Iron Man and Spider-Man. Learning they were all enemies of Thanos, the group devised a plan to separate Thanos from his Infinity Gauntlet. Our heroes were near successful, with Mantis subduing Thanos with her emphatic powers, and Spider-Man and Iron Man close to removing Thanos’ grip on the Infinity Gauntlet. However, upon learning that Thanos sacrificed Gamora for the Soul Stone, Star-Lord, overcome with pain and rage, attacked the Mad Titan. This broke Mantis’ hold on Thanos, who then fought back at full strength with his Infinity Gauntlet. With Doctor Strange’s Time Stone in hand, Thanos escaped to Earth in pursuit of the last remaining Infinity Stone.

Despite a strong stand from the Avengers and their allies on Earth, Thanos was successful in securing all Infinity Stones. With a snap of his fingers, he ended half of all life in the Universe. On Titan, Mantis sensed the coming danger and was the first of the Guardians to disappear, with Star-Lord and Drax following immediately after.

Back In Action

Mantis was un-blipped five years later thanks to the time-traveling efforts of the Infinity Stone-stealing Avengers. Along with Dr. Strange, Spider-Man, Star-Lord and Drax, she traveled through a portal from Titan to Earth where she helped fight against the past Thanos's forces. Afterwards, Mantis and the other Guardians attended the memorial service held in Tony Stark's honor after he died using the Infinity Stones to repel Thanos' forces.

A relatively new Guardian herself, Mantis welcomed Thor, Korg and Kraglin to the team as they carried on their adventures in the stars. However, the Asgardian soon left when Gorr, the God-Butcher's reign of terror became more well known. Mantis and the rest of the Guardians responded to as many calls for help as they could.

Earth Antics

Later, the Guardians purchased Knowhere and began repairing the damage done by Thanos' quest for the Infinity Stones years prior. One day, Kraglin recounted to Mantis, Drax and Nebula how much young Peter loved an Earth holiday called Christmas. Mantis was concerned that, if Peter learned they shared Ego as a father, he would think of his dead mother every time he looked at her and Mantis did not want to remind him of that pain. Wanting to give him a proper Christmas, she and Drax took the Bowie to Earth to find Peter's hero, Kevin Bacon.

The duo made some money in L.A. taking pictures with tourists and then spent much of it in a bar. Mantis enjoyed not only the libations, but also dancing with her fellow patrons. After failing to find the actor in the one place they looked, Mantis used her powers to make a clerk give her not only a star map, but also all of her money. Mantis and Drax, buzzed from their exploits, found Kevin Bacon's house and knocked, but he told them to go away. Undeterred, they broke in and started chasing him.

Outside, they encountered the police officers that Bacon had called. Mantis used her martial arts skills and her mental powers to subdue most of them. She then used those abilities on Bacon to make him excited about going along with them. Before taking back off for Knowhere, though, Mantis and Drax filled the Bowie with Christmas decorations.

Spreading Holiday Cheer

While traveling home, Mantis and Drax became enraged when they discovered that Kevin Bacon was but an actor. Mantis once more utilized her mind-altering powers to make him think he actually was a hero.

Back on Knowhere, Mantis and Drax conveyed their plans to everyone who helped sneakily decorate the neighborhood for Christmas as a surprise for Star-Lord. At first, he loves the lights, snow machines and other embellishments, but he was less-than-pleased to discover they had kidnapped Kevin Bacon. Quill asked Mantis to return Bacon to his normal mental state.

Though initially upset, Bacon decided to stick around and play some holiday music for everyone. Mantis gifted Drax an elf decoration he had fallen in love with from Kevin Bacon's yard and received one of Groot's dioramas. She later nervously revealed to Quill that they are half-siblings and instead of being upset, he called it the best possible gift he could have received.