Gamora

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Background

Powers and Abilities

The most dangerous woman in the galaxy has gained further experience. She comes across as smarter, deadlier and more scheming than before, as well as more emotionally mature. Her tactics are markedly better, and unexpected events are less likely to mess up her game.

Her previously undefined healing factor  is now clearly seen in action, though it’s not a Wolverine-level one.

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Graceful augmentations

As the leader of the Graces on Godthab Omega, Gamora received a number of enhancements, both scientific and mystical in nature. These greatly amped her power level. The deal was that to join the Graces, one had to offer knowledge that Gamora could use to enhance her prowess.

This enhanced level was only seen briefly, and with Gamora in an altered state of mind. Furthermore these powers seem to have faded away, perhaps because they required some sort of maintenance.

Gamora once demonstrates what Nova calls a “precog tracking instinct”. She apparently could predict where Nova would be, and how he would get there. Nova seemed to consider it normal on her part, though she did not use that ability before or since.

It may have been a new power she gained from one of her Graces, and could still use under certain circumstances.

Hack and slash

Gamora usually carries three weapons :

• The Godslayer dagger is apparently sheathed across the small of Gamora’s back. Given her minimalist “costume” there are relatively few places she could carry it – though a upper back sheath covered by her hair is also possible.
  This heavy, jagged dagger is described in the previous Gamora entries. She uses it solely as an assassination weapon, not to fight, and it is still generally assumed that it can kill pretty much anything.
• Godblade. This is a light, fast, full-length sword. Its provenance is unclear. It might even be that Godslayer can morph  between dagger and sword sizes, since they are described in similar terms and have similar names.
• An energy pistol in a tigh holster. When fighting multiple opponents she will often dual-wield the pistol and the sword.

History

(This section starts where the one in the previous writeup ended.)

Gamora using Godslayer.

What happened after leaving the Heart of Darkness is unrevealed. All we know is that Gamora was reportedly once again used and discarded by the great powers of the universe.

She ended up on the obscure world Godthab Omega to hide and lick her wounds. But this was probably as the result of yet another manipulation, as Glorian the Dreamshaper lured a number of powerful fighters there.

Embrace the suck

After discovering an abandoned mountain fortress, Gamora founded a guild of female killers, Gamora’s Graces. Members included Stellaris, Spirit, Nebula, Cerise and Tana Nile, who seemed to be her lieutenants.

Subconsciously influenced by Glorian, the Graces claimed as their turf all they could survey from their foreboding peak. This led to conflict with a small force of Kree soldiers.

Ronan the Accuser, fleeing the new regime in Hala, joined his fellows Kree exiles. Due to Glorian’s influence he led the fight against the Graces, and took Stellaris and Nebula down.

Gamora, her power magnified as the Graces’s leader, fought him toe to toe. Their titanic clash provided the energy that Glorian needed. As the Dreamshaper focused on reshaping Godthab, his mental influence waned and Ronan and Gamora realised that their behaviour made no sense.

Hours later, the Annihilation Wave hit Godthab. The otherdimensional army crushed everything in its path, killing or wounding several Graces. Gamora and Ronan allied and fought their way off-planet.

The Annihilation War

At this point — day 95 of the Annihilation — the situation was dire. Much of the Skrull empire had been razed, and within the next 2 months most remnants were exterminated. The Kree empire was hit by about day 100. Ronan naturally joined the Kree war effort, and Gamora tagged along.

The Kree empire was clearly outmatched. However, the remnants of lesser fighting forces ravaged by the Annihilation came to join the Kree. Nova (Richard Rider) came to lead this United Front, which Gamora and Ronan joined. After a long series of bloody defeats, by day 170, the United Front became the first force that could stall the Annhilation Wave.

Gamora became the United Front’s head of special operations. Her goal was to bring the fight to the Wave rather than just resist. Aside from personally assassinating key enemy officers, she coordinated a number of stealthy strategic strikes, usually by teams of suicide runners. The core of her special forces apparently remained the Graces.

Gamora became Nova’s lover, though she told him never to trust her. She also became something of a friend of Rider’s strategic analyst and forces coordinator — Peter Quill, the former Star-Lord.

On Daedalus Five, Annihilation forces used Thanos-provided tech to teleport the Negative Zone Centurions right among the United Front troops. This destroyed the Front, who could barely evacuate a battalion’s worth of wounded soldiers.

During the battle, Gamora defeated an enslaved Terrax, then managed to join the evacuation. She kater left to wage a guerilla warfare against the Annihilation Wave, accompanied by at least two of her Graces — Cerise and Nebula.

Postbellum split

The Annihilation War was won by Galactus. The surviving United Front senior officers regrouped to fight the remains of the Annihilation forces. Ronan retook Kree-Lar, and the focus shifted to securing the Kree empire, where most Annihilation leftovers were.

During that time, Nova and Gamora ceased being together. Nova had handed over treasonous Kree officials to Gamora for interrogation, but she just executed them. Appaled but not wanting to actually break up with her, Nova concentrated on missions taking place far from Kree-Lar.

On her end Gamora was also avoiding Rider. Her old demons were returning. She resented him for being a better person than her — as she felt that she was empty, worthless and a bad person. Gamora remained on Kree-Lar, she and Peter Quill being the two United Front generals working for Ronan’s diminished Kree Empire.

Entire star systems were still under the control fo the Annihilation survivors, but the situation was now a cold war.

The Conquest War

Mere months after the Annihilation, the techno-organic Phalanx conquered the Kree Empire. They had infiltrated the infrastructure and took control of most technology on Kree-Lar. Millions more were killed, and many survivors were infected with the techno-virus to become “Selects”.

Gamora was among the Selects. Though generally unchanged (except for her robotic voice and eyes filled with static), she was now a loyal servant of the Phalanx. When Nova returned, she was detailed to turning him, and made him unto a Select.

Now reunited albeit without free will, the couple was sent to hunt down Drax the Destroyer. Drax had so far eluded or destroyed all Phalanx agents. They succeeded, in large part thanks to some sort of precognitive tracking ability Gamora now possessed.

However, Nova then shook free from Select conditioning and rocketed away. Select Gamora and Select Drax were sent after him, chasing him over billions of light years.

Time for some rocket surgery

At the edge of the universe, Nova reached Knowhere. He used the teleporters there to go to the homeworld of the progenitors of the Phalanx – the Technarchy. His pursuers caught up with him at the teleporter, but in-transit Nova and Gamora were swallowed by a Vore – an interdimensional , mountain-sized predator.

They had to fight their way free from its organism together. Whilst thus allied, they confessed to each other what their feelings had been before their not-a-breakup. As they got out Gamora obeyed her Select programming, but Nova expected the literal dagger in the back and escaped.

Gamora and Drax thus reached the Technarchy’s world well after Rider, and he had already made allies there. These purged the techno-virus from Gamora and Drax. Bereft of the Phalanx’s reassuring presence Gamora nearly broke down as she felt alone, aimless and worthless.

Nova helped her pull together, and the trio and their new allies rushed to Kree-Lar. Gamora and Drax were unleashed against the Phalanx troops, the ensuing carnage allowing their cosmic-powered allies to take on the secret master of the Phalanx.

One of the cosmic fighters was Adam Warlock, once again reborn as a saviour. Gamora was wary around him, as he seemed even more different than usual after a rebirth.

The Guardians of the Galaxy

Warlock explained that the mass death during the two recent cosmic crises had unraveled parts of space-time. This reinforced Peter Quill’s decision to form an elite team to prevent a third crisis, which the universe was too exhausted to endure.

They wanted Gamora on the team, and Nova convinced her to say ‘yes’. The team was made of United Front vets and irregular soldiers who once fought under Quill’s command for the Kree Empire, and was eventually called the Guardians of the Galaxy.

During an early mission to close a tear in space-time, Gamora suffered massive burns and radiation damage to save the team before they would fry. Gamora had correctly reasoned that her healing factor would allow her to survive, but the Guardians were amazed by her sudden demonstration of altruism. Even with her regenerative abilities, Gamora took weeks to recover.

The Guardians then realised that Quill had cheated. On his order, the team mentat  Mantis had given everyone a mental push so they would join and work well with others despite the difficult personalities involved.

The team blew up, and Gamora left with Adam Warlock. Together, they convinced the Church of Universal Truth that he was their long-predicted messiah.

Gamora and Adam Warlock then had to rejoin the Guardians of the Galaxy, though, as a war brewed between the Shi’ar and the newly-Inhuman-dominated Kree empire.

Description

The colour of the circles around her eyes is still usually yellow, and matched by the piping on her clothes (if “clothes” is the proper term). However she occasionally uses red makeup instead, when she wears clothes with red piping.

As can be surmised by her minimalist choice of “clothing”, Gamora enjoys flaunting her looks and her spectacular body. She felt awful and became extra-aggressive when the major burns she suffered during an early mission forced her to cover herself in hooded robes and cost her long, lush hair for several weeks.

She thinks her green skin tone is very elegant, and is disappointed when she does not look green for some reason.

After she was severely burned Gamora’s eyes burned with a orange fire. I would imagine that her organic eyes had been burned away and that the glow was actually backup cybernetic sensors in the back of her eye sockets. She’s a cyborg, after all.

Personality

When she was on Godthab, Gamora was both traumatised and mentally influenced. She was power-hungry, bloodthirsty, and craved control and glory. She did realise that something was wrong, though. She knew that somebody was influencing her somehow and using her pain and grief against her.

The horrors of the Annihilation were a rebirth for her. During the War she had a clear role, stout friends and simple loyalties. She was kicking arses and taking names. Her relationship with Richard Rider helped put previous catastrophes behind her and she gained a smooth, prowler-like confidence.

Gamora now behaves less like a teenager more like a young adult. The bulk of her issues is less apparent than it once was. She comes across as an hardened warrior, experienced assassin and competent space adventurer with cosmic experience.

Gamora seems to have copied some of her tough attitude from Drax, and most of her sense of humour from Peter Quill. Like Quill she indulges in sarcasm, biting wit and catty repartee.

Her two main drives remain basic — sex and violence. She gets agitated when denied an opportunity to fight, kill or enjoy “recreational relaxation” (as she puts it) with her current boyfriend.

Though she was better during her time in the Heart of Darkness, Gamora’s old issues have regained some ground. She still does not relate to anything, is not part of anything, and does not belong to, or aspire toward, anything.

Sex and violence

To compensate for this, Gamora’s first tactic is romance – with Warlock, with Nova and, in a sense, with the Phalanx. However, the guys she’s attracted to are highly driven cosmic heroes. Thus she will inevitably come to feel empty, worthless and base compared to such larger-than-life saviours.

Her second tactic is to cling to the only thing she ever built – her reputation as “The Most Dangerous Woman In The Galaxy”. It is the one thing she can be. She works to project the impression that she is hard, heartless, utterly unreliable (she actually tells people close to her never, ever to trust her) and super-independent.

As she developed a sense of humour, she doubled down with the snippy remarks. These attack anything that resemble goody-two-shoes behaviour, nobility, generosity, friendship, belonging to a close-knit group, etc. – everything she wants and is afraid of.

The more she jokes about not believing that a hardarse such as herself ended up joining a bunch of Care Bears, the more obvious it gets that she’s just defending her rep.

Fellow guardians

Gamora was openly jealous of Phyla-Vell for spending time with Adam Warlock… while simultaneously loudly affirming that she had no interest in Warlock *and* knowing that Phyla didn’t have any romantic interest in her ex.

When Mantis gave the Guardians a mental nudge to form the team, Gamora was very receptive. She longed to join a good group. She still had plenty of attitude, but was an actual team player to the point of enduring severe pain and weeks-long disfigurement for the sake of the team’s survival.

Gamora often calls Nova “Richard-human”. He is the only person for whom she appends a species name as a suffix. Why she does this is unrevealed.

Quotes

“She so much as twitches suspicious and I’m on her.”

“ ’Team‘ ? Ugh. All we need now is a secret handshake and a clubhouse.”

(Later, sarcastically) “Now clearly, I was joking. I’m *completely* committed to the team.” (in a flat tone with no enthusiasm whatsoever) “Yaaaay. Go, team.” (weakly pumps a limp fist into the air) “You see ?”

“It’s funny. Warlock and I used to have a thing. And I used to find his pretentious philosophical comments extremely aggravating. But now I find them weirdly hot.”

Quasar: “Holy Pama ! They’re cutting us to ribbons !”
Gamora: “Some of us, Quasar. I have a healing factor. Sucks to be you.”

“Oh, I hate it when they talk in riddles. Permission to hack the truth out of her ?”

By Sébastien Andrivet.

Source of Character: Marvel Universe.

Helper(s): Pufnstuff and Peter Piispanen (for the ’combat monster‘ discussion for the Metabaron writeup), Darci.