Mantis (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

Further information: —after the Guardians traveled to a nearby planet to escape the Sovereign, from whom Rocket had stolen Harbulary batteries during a battle. Ego's projection reveals that Ego is Quill's father, and they travel to the planet, Ego. Along the way, Mantis demonstrates her ability to detect people's emotions and feelings by touch. When Quill, Gamora, and Drax reach Ego, Mantis struggles with whether to tell Drax about Ego's evil plans, and ultimately joins the Guardians in their fight against Ego.

Infinity War and resurrection

In 2018, Mantis and the Guardians respond to a distress call and rescue

In 2023, Mantis is restored to life and is brought via portal to Earth in America, where she participates in a battle against an alternative universe version of Thanos. Later, Mantis and her reunited teammates attend Stark's funeral, who had sacrificed his life to stop Thanos. They then pick Thor up from Norway and return to space.^[3]

New adventures

In 2024, Mantis and the Guardians, joined by Kraglin, embark on space adventures. They respond to a call in Indigarr and try to help the natives against the Booskans. She and Quill seek out Thor's help, who defeats the army quickly and is gifted two goats, who annoy her. After learning of several killings of gods by a god butcher, they split up from Thor to help out.

In 2025, the Guardians buy Knowhere from the Collector and gain a new member to the team,

and capture him and steal Christmas decorations from a holiday store. Back on Knowhere, they hold a Christmas celebration and present Bacon to Quill. Later, Mantis reveals to Quill that Ego was also her father, making them half-siblings, which Quill says is the greatest Christmas gift ever.

Final mission

After the Guardians rebuild Knowhere, they are attacked by

, and Rocket is seriously injured, leaving the Guardians unable to tend to his wounds due to a kill switch embedded in him. The team, including Mantis, resolve to travel to the Orgoscope, headquarters of the High Evolutionary's company Orgocorp, in the hopes of finding an override code. Mantis, Drax, and Nebula end up on the High Evolutionary's ship, where they discover hordes of imprisoned children being placed in a chamber with Abilisks. Mantis is able to persuade the Abilisks to side with them, and the three escape the chamber before reuniting with the Guardians and overpowering the High Evolutionary's army. After defeating the High Evolutionary, the Guardians, in their current form, decide to disband upon returning to Knowhere, and Mantis embarks on a journey of self-discovery with the Abilisks.

Alternative versions

In an alternative 2011, Mantis was among the numerous alien attendees of Thor's parties on Earth, until she and the attendees panicked when they were informed that Frigga was coming, and worked to clean up the mess on Earth.^[4]

Creation and characterization

In May 2014, director James Gunn said that he had planned to introduce two major new characters in the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel, Mantis and Adam Warlock.^[5][6] Talks had begun with an actor Gunn had in mind to portray Mantis,^[7] while he had decided to remove Warlock due to the film "getting too busy".^[6] Gunn added that Warlock was "one character too many and I didn't want to lose Mantis and Mantis was more organically part of the movie anyway."^[5] Klementieff was cast in October 2015.^[8]

In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Mantis is portrayed as a new member of the Guardians with empathic powers who lives with Ego.^[9][10] Executive producer Jonathan Schwartz said the character "has never really experienced social interaction", and learns about "social intricacies" from the other Guardians.^[11] Klementieff added, "She was really lonely and by herself, so it's a completely new thing to meet these people and to discover new things", comparing this to a child making awkward mistakes in social situations. Mantis and Drax have an "interesting" relationship in the film due to both being "complete odd balls".^[9] Steve Englehart, Mantis' co-creator, was disappointed with the character's portrayal, saying, "That character has nothing to do with Mantis ... I really don't know why you would take a character who is as distinctive as Mantis is and do a completely different character and still call her Mantis."^[12]

Dave Bautista indicated that at one point Gunn wanted to do "a Drax and Mantis film" as a spinoff, but that the concept was not pursued by Marvel.^[13] In September 2021, Gunn noted that for both Klementieff's Mantis and Karen Gillan's Nebula "their roles are both pretty huge" in the script for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.^[14] Mantis and Drax also play a major role in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, of which Klementieff said, "I get to be the weirdest I've ever been as Mantis".^[15] Mantis also had a fight scene in the special,^[16] which revealed that she had superhuman strength and fighting abilities not previously portrayed in the MCU.

Powers and abilities

Mantis has the power to sense the feelings and emotions of others whom she touches, and to influence their thoughts or cause them to fall asleep, essentially mind controlling them. In

forget what he saw.

Mantis is also shown to have superhuman physical abilities, such as superhuman strength, durability, agility, and stamina, as she withstood damage that would otherwise be fatal to regular humans, such as being hit in the head by a meteor, surviving a huge fall effortlessly, and receiving a headbutt from Thanos. Her physical skills were later expanded upon in the Holiday Special, as she fights and defeats multiple police officers at once, armed with only a giant holiday candy cane decoration, using a combination of martial arts and her ability to put people to sleep.

See also

• Characters of the Marvel Cinematic Universe

References

External links

• Mantis on Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki, an external wiki
• Mantis on Marvel Database, a Marvel Comics wiki
• Mantis on
  Marvel.com