- “Kick names, take ass!”
- ―Mantis
Mantis is a character in Marvel who appears in Guardians of the Galaxy and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Avengers: Infinity War.
She is the daughter of Ego the Living Planet, the half-sister of Star-Lord, and a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Mantis is portrayed by Pom Klementieff and voiced by Jennifer Hale in other media.
Background
When Mantis was a child, she was 'adopted" and raised by Ego the Living Plant. She became aware of Ego's plan in taking over the universe and lacked the understanding of social interaction.
Personality
Due to being raised on Ego's Planet, Mantis hardly had any social interactions with people from the outside world. However, after getting to know Drax and the other Guardians of the Galaxy, she came to know how to interact with other people. Mantis is known for having empathetic abilities, and understands many people For one, she knew immediately that Peter had feelings for Gamora, and when touching Gamora, was aware that she was only acting violence towards Mantis because of her protectiveness and worriness for Quill's safety.
According to Drax, Mantis, in a way was like his daughter, and noticed she had so much innocence within her. , and it further causes their friendship to resemble something of a brother/sister and father/daughter bond.. She holds a passive demeanour, always bowing her head in Ego's presence and being hesitant to attack anyone and due to the lack of social interactions, she does not understand metaphors or "jokes," especially shown when she gives off an improv laugh when Drax joked with her that Rocket liked to be pet.
However, after years of possible abuse, and her friendship with Drax, Mantis manaaged to stand up against Ego by telling Drax of Ego's Expansion and how he and his friends were in danger. She even managed to overpower Ego, causing him to fall asleep whle Quill and Rocket tried finding a way around Ego's brain.
Abilities
- Empathy: Mantis has the ability to tell what's in a person's heart and feeling just by touching them on the wrist. She could tell that Peter Quill had an attraction to Gamora , feeling "sexual love" towards her. Also, when Gamora grabbed onto Mantis' neck, the girl put her hands around Gamora's wrist and realized that she was scared for her own family. She used the ability again when she sees into Drax's mind and sees his own wife and daughter being killed and cries, feeling his pain.
- Pathokinesis:Mantis has the ability to change the emotion of an individual just by touching them. She did this by touching Drax when he was reminscing about his daughter and instead of him crying, Drax instead remained relax and peaceful.
- Sleep Inducement: Mantis can put people to sleep, such as powerful beings such as Ego and Thanos.
Marvel Cinematic Universe
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Mantis was raised by the living planet Ego from when she was young. As a result of being raised in isolation with Ego, she has little to no additional social interactions, and tends to be naive, shy, and insecure.
After the Guardians crash landed on the planet of Berhert, following their escape from the Sovereign, Mantis was introduced to the team alongside Ego. During this time, she trys to befriend Drax, who finds her ugly, though she doesn't get and take offence in his insults. When the team travels to Ego's planet, the two finally bond when Drax recall how he met his wife, and lament at her and their daughter's demise.
Later, Mantis would betray Ego when she warns Drax what the former did to his own children, which Gamora and Nebula would eventually found out for themselves. Then during a three-way battle between the Guardians, the Sovereign, and Ego, Mantis uses her empathetic power to have Ego "sleep", buying the team plenty of time for Baby Groot to carry Rocket's makeshift bomb to Ego's brain. During the conflict, however, Mantis is knocked out by a destroyed Sovereign drone, and Ego wakes up to resume his attack. Drax later carries her to the surface so she can be rescued. After Ego and his planet are destroyed, Mantis would stay with the Guardians, and becomes a member of their team, as they and the other Ravagers held a funeral for Yondu.
Avengers: Infinity War
When the Guardians pick up Thor, Mantis wakes him up with her powers on Quill's order. The team decides to separate. While Groot and Rocket accompany Thor to create a new weapon, Mantis goes to Knowhere to retrieve the Reality Stone with her remaining teammates. However, Thanos kidnaps Gamora after using the Reality Stone. Mantis goes to Titan, where she and her teammates meet Doctor Strange, Iron Man, and Spider-Man and decide to ambush Thanos and take the Infinity Gauntlet and the Infinity Stones. However, Thanos manages to take the Time Stone and goes to Earth.
Mantis is one of those individuals who are turned to dust by Thanos' snap.
Avengers: Endgame
Due to Bruce Banner's snap with the use of Infinity Stones, Mantis is brought back to life, along with all half of life in the universe. She appears with the other Guardians, the Avengers, and the Masters of the Mystic Arts to fight Thanos and his forces on Earth.
After Tony Stark snaps his fingers with use of the Infinity Stones to destroy all of Thanos' forces, Mantis and th other Guardians appear at Stark's funeral. She and the other Guardians return to space with Nebula and Thor as new members of their team.
Relationships
Ego
(Former Master and Adoptive Father turned Enemy)
He found her in the Larvae estate on her home world and kept her as his own. However, she later misinterpreted this to being his pet by Drax. She notably helped him sleep at night, but Mantis knew that behind Ego's true colors is a man who has killed his own family. Mantis grew terrified of her master, but still remained in his services because she had no where else to go.
Drax
Mantis formed a friendly bond with Drax after meeting him on Berhert. However, Drax was scared of her at first, as he thought her attempts to smile at him were disturbing. The two bonded on Ego's planet, where she learned of his family's death and shared his sorrow when she touched him. It was her friendship with Drax that caused Mantis to turn against her "adoptive father" and tell Drax of Ego's plans to expand the universe in his image.
Peter Quill
Peter is Mantis' half-brother, but she kept this knowledge from him after the way Ego treated him badly
Allies
- Guardians of the Galaxy - Teammates and Friends
- Ravagers
- Avengers
- Steve Rogers/Captain America
- Tony Stark/Iron Man † - Temporary Enemy
- Peter Parker/Spider-Man - Temporary Enemy and Savior
- Bruce Banner/Hulk - Resurrector
- Clint Barton/Hawkeye
- Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch
- Sam Wilson/Falcon
- James Rhodes/War Machine
- Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel
- Scott Lang/Ant-Man
- Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier
- Masters of the Mystic Arts
- Stephen Strange/Doctor Strange - Temporary Enemy
- Wong
- Brunnhilde/Valkyrie
- Aragorn
- Pepper Potts
- Hope Van Dyne/Wasp
- Golden Tribe
- Dora Milaje
- Wakandan Royal Guard
- Jabari Tribe
- Border Tribe
- Korg
- Miek
- Einherjar
- Gamora (time-traveled version from 2014)
- Howard the Duck
Enemies
- Ego † - Former Master and Attempted Killer
- Sovereign
- Thanos † - Killer
- Thanos † (time-traveled version from )
- Black Order (time-traveled version from )
- Ebony Maw † (time-traveled version from )
- Cull Obsidian † (time-traveled version from )
- Proxima Midnight † (time-traveled version from )
- Corvus Glaive † (time-traveled version from )
- Chitauri (time-traveled version from )
- Leviathans (time-traveled version from )
- Chitauri Gorillas (time-traveled version from )
- Outriders (time-traveled version from )
- Sakaarans (time-traveled version from )
Gallery
Trivia
- In an interview, Jonathan Schwartz said “She has never really experienced social interaction, everything she learns about dealing with people, she learns from the Guardians of the Galaxy, which is a very weird group to learn your social intricacies from.”[9]
- Boni Yanagisawa, Kelly Bellini, Tamiko Brownlee and Corrina Roshea were stunt doubles for Pom Klementieff in the role of Mantis.
- Grace Marie Williams was a stand-in for Pom Klementieff in the role of Mantis.
- She was originally going to have green skin but James Gunn changed her skin color to a natural skin tone to avoid confusion between Gamora, another green-skinned female who was a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy.
- Mantis is similar to Captain Victoria, given that they are both Peter Quill's paternal half-sister and the youngest child of their father's children
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