After her initial Guardians of the Galaxy appearances, Gamora played a vital role in Avengers: Infinity War: trying to thwart her adoptive father from destroying the universe. However, her close proximity to Thanos ultimately led to Gamora’s tragic end, leaving many fans to wonder if the alternate timeline version of the character introduced will somehow make a return for future installments. The character is confirmed to appear in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, but beyond that, Gamora's fate is unknown. Before Gamora was stealing the show up on the big screen, she was a comic book regular who made her debut in the Marvel universe with her 1975 appearance in Strange Tales #180. In both mediums, the character is a villain-turned-hero whose fighting skills have made her a force to be reckoned with. She is the adoptive daughter of Thanos and, much like the Mad Titan himself, her storyline has often been intertwined with the Infinity Stones. The character has also undergone considerable changes during her jump to the big screen, and just because the character has had a strong presence on both the page and the screen doesn't mean she is without her inconsistencies.
Updated on August 13th, 2022 by Amanda Bruce: Fans might have expected Gamora to pop up in Thor: Love And Thunder with the other Guardians of the Galaxy, but she wasn't there for their adventures with the god of thunder. Gamora's story has been so tied to Thanos in the MCU, not unlike her story in the comics, that fans might be wondering just where the MCU will take her next. Hopefully, as fans get to know her better, her journey will involve clearing up some of the inconsistencies with her character.
Gamora Vanishes At The End Of Avengers: Endgame
Avengers: Endgame features a lot of time traveling, and as a result, fans get to see characters like Nebula and Gamora before they actually entered the MCU storylines in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1. The Nebula at the earlier point in time is still trying to prove herself to Thanos, while the Gamora of the earlier time is intensely distrustful and trying to figure out exactly how to approach conflict with Thanos.
It makes for an interesting dynamic as the modern day Nebula tries to bring her past sister into the Guardians fold, but Gamora simply vanishes at the end of the film. The fans have to wonder just how she'll get by or what she's up to as she has no connections to anyone other than Nebula, and she really doesn't know anything that's been happening in the modern day. She can explore the entire galaxy, but completely on her own, she has no one to help her navigate.
Gamora Falls For Peter Quill
The MCU isn't hugely focused on the romantic entanglements of its heroes, but there are a few relationships used to demonstrate the growth of the characters in their MCU arcs. One of those is Tony Stark's relationship with Pepper Potts as he learns to become a better Iron Man, and a better business man alongside her. The same growth doesn't exactly occur with Peter Quill and Gamora in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies.
While Gamora does become more open to meeting new people, and a little more trusting of those around her, she doesn't ever lose her no-nonsense attitude. Gamora has a plan, she follows it, and she doesn't allow anything to get in her way. Peter, on the other hand, remains someone who needs to be the center of attention and has a hard time following the plans and advice of others, no matter how much he cares about the group he's working with. In context, Peter and Gamora seem like a very ill-fitting pair as Peter frustrates Gamora's sensible nature more than he intrigues her. Even the Gamora of the past doesn't understand Nebula telling her that Peter is the human she falls for.
Gamora Looks For Thanos At Knowhere
For a franchise as ambitious as the MCU, there are bound to be few plot lines that simply don’t add up. By and large, Avengers: Infinity War succeeded in balancing its massive cast of characters without letting too much logic fall by the wayside. However, one of the most criticized aspects of the movie did happen to revolve around Gamora's storyline.
The moment comes after Thor is picked up by the Guardians of the Galaxy and the gang decides to split up into two groups to better prevent Thanos from acquiring all six Infinity Stones. While the God of Thunder is off forging a new weapon with Rocket Raccoon, Gamora and the rest of the Guardians head to Knowhere to stop Thanos from obtaining the Reality Stone from the Collector. The problem here is that Gamora is walking straight into Thanos’s hands while she holds the knowledge of the Soul Stone's whereabouts.
On top of this, Gamora has no way of knowing exactly how many stones the Mad Titan has already collected, meaning that if they didn't beat him to Knowhere, the chances of ever defeating him were futile. Later, with Nebula's life hanging in the balance, fans can understand why Gamora hands over the information about the Soul Stone. She was simply too smart of a character to walk into Thanos's trap in the first place though.
How Did Gamora Find Vormir?
The Soul Stone was the only Infinity Stone to not be explored in the MCU prior to Infinity War. While there were plenty of theories about the stone's whereabouts before the movie hit theaters — including that it was located in Wakanda or that it was being protected by Heimdall — no one predicted it would be located on Vormir, which is a planet that has rarely appeared in the comics.
While plenty were happy for the unexpected twist (along with a reappearance of Red Skull), the fact that Gamora already knew about the Soul Stone leaves plenty of questions unanswered. For instance, how did she end up finding the location of the Soul Stone in the first place? Why didn’t she mention that Thanos was looking to collect all six stones back in Guardians of the Galaxy? These are questions that could potentially be explored in future films if the MCU wants to revisit this era at all. Otherwise, the fact that Gamora previously had all of this information which would bring her conflict with Thanos to a head was all a bit too convenient for the plot.
The Filmmakers Spoiled Gamora's Fate
As downbeat as the ending of Infinity War may have been, fans knew that at least some of the destruction that Thanos caused would be undone in the next Avengers movie. After all, who was going to star in the Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel if there’s no more Peter Parker left in the universe? Gamora, however, met her demise before Thanos snapped his fingers. She has one of the more unexpected departures of any character when Thanos throws her from a cliff's edge on Vormir to obtain the Soul Stone.
However, director Joe Russo confirmed that the character was still alive within the realm of the Soul Stone - though he later walked-back the comments. Anyone who is familiar with the comics will know that plenty of characters have made a temporary home for themselves within this particular stone, especially Adam Warlock, who has often used the realm as his own Fortress of Solitude. This would have been an interesting idea for the MCU to play with, but it appeared that the writers changed their mind and decided not to go that route. Of course, there are always alternate timeline and universe versions of this storyline that could be explored as the multiverse expands.
Gamora's Origin Story Is Retconned
In Guardians of the Galaxy, Gamora explains that Thanos is not actually her father, but that she is the sole survivor of the Zehoberei race who was spared by the Mad Titan when he laid waste to her homeworld. She claims to have watched her parents terminated right before her eyes, and that she was abused both physically and mentally by Thanos into becoming one of the universe’s greatest assassins. However, in Avengers: Infinity War, Gamora’s backstory doesn’t play out quite like that.
Instead of Thanos destroying the entire race, he only has half of them executed in the name of balance, and it doesn’t exactly happen right in front of Gamora, though fans can overlook this tiny detail considering just how horrific the moment must have been. This inconsistency is because the MCU hadn’t fully established Thanos’s master plan prior to Guardians of the Galaxy. To make the Mad Titan more of a dynamic villain, Gamora’s backstory ended up being compromised.
Her origin story is a bit spotty in the comics, as well. In this instance, it had to do with the Warlock comics being canceled as a result of poor sales. This led to some of Gamora’s backstory being seriously glossed over during her jump from one comic to the next.
Gamora Expected Peter Quill To Follow Through
It doesn’t make much sense for Gamora to travel to Knowhere when she knew that she was the only thing standing between Thanos and the Soul Stone. Being one of the Guardians' most valuable assets, she may have assumed that they would have had a better chance of stopping Thanos from acquiring the Reality Stone with her present. It’s not as if she didn’t have a backup plan, which would have involved Peter ending her life should Thanos get the better of them.
Did anyone really expect Star-Lord to do the deed without some serious hesitation?
Not only does Gamora know that Peter has a tendency to flake out when it comes to anyone else’s plan, she should also know that one of his greatest fears is losing someone close to him — just as he experienced with his mother when he was a child. At that point, the two knew each other well enough for Gamora to be aware of his fear of abandonment. It’s certainly commendable that Gamora was willing to sacrifice her life for the safety of the universe, but her plans to stop Thanos are horribly flawed. Of course, one could argue that Peter eventually does do what Gamora asked of him and pulls the trigger. But the moment comes way too late in the game, long after Thanos has gotten the better of them.
Gamora's Abusive Past Is Glossed Over
Gamora’s origins have been slightly altered during their jump from the page to the screen. In both instances, her past has been replete with tragedy and abuse. In the comics, it wasn’t actually Thanos who destroyed Gamora's homeworld, though her planet did meet its demise at the hands of the Universal Church of Truth. In fact, Thanos was originally her savior from this atrocity, but it was only because he wanted Gamora to work on his behalf. He then reigned over her as an abusive and manipulative father figure, ultimately transforming her into a ruthless assassin.
In one of the darker moments in Marvel comics history, a teenage Gamora disobeys her father's orders and travels to the planet of Tartoonla, where she is attacked and assaulted by a street gang. Thanos eventually rescues her again, but it’s implied that he let the attack take place in order to teach Gamora a lesson. It's pretty bleak stuff, and it's understandable why the MCU wouldn’t want to fully explore these origins in the movies.
Her abusive past and the elimination of her people are the main reasons she wants to destroy Thanos. Outside of a brief flashback in Infinity War and being told that she was forced to fight with Nebula as a child, fans never really feel the weight of the suffering that the character has endured, which could have made for one of the more emotionally gripping origins of any MCU hero.
Why Didn't Gamora And Nebula Partner Up Sooner?
After being at odds with each other for two movies, Gamora and Nebula finally developed a soft spot for one another. Gamora even goes so far as to reveal the location of the Soul Stone to Thanos to save Nebula’s life — which eventually cost Gamora her own life in the process.
Why didn’t the two sisters team up decades ago to rebel against their adoptive father? It's made clear that Gamora is Thanos’s favorite daughter and that the Mad Titan made the two fight each other growing up, with Nebula continuously losing, resulting in her body undergoing some serious reconfigurations. Even though they were battling each other, each sister surely would have known that Thanos was responsible for pitting them against one another. A testament to this is that in the first Guardians of the Galaxy both Nebula and Gamora already have it in for their father.
They may have been brainwashed as children, but they’ve since learned that he is the one to blame for all their pain and suffering. Why did they wait until he was on the brink of being the most powerful being in the universe before they started getting each other’s backs?
The Guardians' Inappropriate Jokes About Gamora
Guardians of the Galaxy was the first Marvel movie to have more than 40% of its audience consist of females. Despite pulling in a more diverse crowd than ever before, the superhero films still had its fair share of sexist jokes, which were often made at the expense of Gamora.
When the character arrives at the Kyln alongside Peter, Rocket, and Groot, she is immediately recognized by the other prisoners as being the adoptive daughter of Thanos. Despite many people wanting to see her life ended, they also know that she is one of the most dangerous women in the universe. However, that doesn’t stop her fellow Guardians from seeing her as nothing more than a seductress on more than a few occasions.
When they’re planning their prison break, Rocket proposes that Gamora use her body to make a trade with the male guards to aid in their escape. Later, Drax the Destroyer flat out refers to Gamora as a “green wh**e.” This makes little sense considering that Drax is a literalist, and he’s had no reason to believe Gamora has worked in this capacity in the past.
Gamora Actually Loses Most Fights
Gamora is far from one of the strongest characters in the Marvel universe. There’s a long list of Marvel cosmic entities who easily outrank most humanoid beings. However, she is often dubbed “The Most Dangerous Woman in the Galaxy” in both the comics and the MCU, which is a title Gamora did not come by frivolously. Throughout her decades in the comics, Gamora proved herself as more than a competent warrior, assassin, and tactician. Granted, most of her physical powers were gifted to her by the Mad Titan Thanos via bionic enhancement, although anyone with a weaker willpower surely would have crumbled under her level of torment and tragedy years ago.
However, the Gamora fans often get in the MCU is more bark than bite. She certainly comes across as an intimidating force thanks to Zoe Saldana’s powerful performance, but when she’s actually engaged in battle with an enemy, Gamora often ends up on the losing side. In the first Guardians movie, Peter Quill easily takes her down when the two are fighting over possession of the Orb on Xandar. When Rocket and Groot are thrown into the mix it appears as though Gamora doesn’t stand a chance. Then in Vol. 2, Gamora is bested on a number of occasions again, including by Nebula, who easily gets the drop on her adoptive sister only to spare her at the last minute.
Gamora's Outfits Are Impractical
Gamora is far from the most scantily clad superhero to grace the silver screen. After all, even her fellow Guardian Drax never feels the need to put on a shirt, and it makes sense for someone as strong and agile as Gamora to favor an outfit that’s streamlined rather than padded with protection. That being said, her character’s outfits in the comics have fluctuated everywhere from gaudy to downright salacious.
When she first made her appearance back in 1975, Gamora’s green unitard had a neckline that plunged all the way down to her bellybutton, though it at least had legs and sleeves attached to it. Her costume seemed to get smaller and smaller as the decades progressed and the comics code became increasingly lax. At certain points, her getup was reduced to something that would later resemble the mankini worn by Sacha Baron Cohen in the 2006 mockumentary Borat. At the end of the day, Gamora is a fighter above all else, and how effective of a fighter can she really be when the threat of a wardrobe malfunction is continuously lurking around the corner?
Gamora's Powers Are Barely Used
Gamora is one MCU character whose powers have been seriously nerfed compared to her comic book counterpart. Much like Nebula, Gamora has been bionically advanced by Thanos — which has given her everything from super strength to enhanced vision. Any regular human should be no match for Gamora, and with her body’s ability to regenerate at an amazingly fast rate, she should be able to survive injuries that would otherwise prove fatal.
Gamora’s powers are said to be near identical on the page and the screen. So why haven't audiences seen her powers in action?
Outside of engaging in combat, doing a bit of heavy lifting, and being able to jump really far in a pinch, Gamora powers seem diminished to nothing more than some boosted strength. What’s more is that her strength and fighting skills haven’t been all that impressive to date, with even Peter getting the better of her during a skirmish.
Gamora's Appearance Changes Often
Understandably, Gamora is a character who underwent certain physical changes during her jump from the page to the screen. Throughout her life in the comics, Gamora has inexplicably changed her appearance on more than a number of occasions as well.
The character was created by Jim Starlin and made her debut in Strange Tales #180 back in 1975. Here, she appeared in what would go on to be considered her classic comic book look, which was complete with light green skin, yellow ovals around her eyes, jet-black hair, and a dark green suit with a criss-cross pattern that gave her a scale-like appearance.
Her appearance has shifted often since. Instead of black, sometimes her hair has been colored green. Instead of yellow ovals around her eyes, sometimes they appear as a different color, or within a different shape, or have been removed entirely (as is the case in the film). Not to mention that the latest incarnation of the character has been changed yet again to match her MCU counterpart.
Gamora Wears High Heels
Even with Black Panther breaking records earlier this year and Captain Marvel slated to hit theaters early in 2019, the MCU still has a long way to go to make up for its overall lack of diversity throughout the first three phases of the franchise. While the franchise has featured its fair share of strong supporting female characters, they too have fallen prey to a number of stereotypes that make no sense within the context of the movies. Take for example Gamora’s high heeled boots.
It might seem like a trivial complaint, but does it make any sense whatsoever that her character would put fashion over practicality? She’s supposed to be an accomplished assassin and expert fighter. High heels would surely work against her. Or is the audience expected to believe that she’s so good that the heels wouldn’t even make a difference?
This is something other female characters have been subjected to in the MCU as well, including Black Widow and Nebula. Except where one could argue that the 5’3” Scarlett Johansson could use the height boost to better fit on the screen with her male counterparts, both Zoe Saldana and Karen Gillan are well above the average height of most women on screen, making their high heels seem all the more unnecessary.
Gamora Has Been Resurrected Many Times
Although her body has been built to withstand most fatal blows, Gamora has met her demise within the pages of the comics on more than a few occasions. For whatever reason, she never seems to stay deceased for long. In fact, one of the reasons that she has so many bionic enchantments is that Thanos had to rebuild her following a fatal attack she suffered as a child.
Years later in her life, she was offed by the very man that had resurrected her — though in this instance Thanos was really acting in self-defense when he terminated his adoptive daughter.
Once again, she is brought back to life. This time, Adam Warlock does the deed using the Soul Gem. However, her soul ends up being transported into a recently deceased woman on planet Earth, and Gamora ends up living within the body of Bambi Long before Thanos once again brings about her demise when he snaps his fingers inside the Infinity Gauntlet. Nebula ultimately brings her back — this time within her own body — but Gamora goes on to meet another demise courtesy of The Magus later on. Even by comic book standards, the amount of times Gamora has been brought back to life is verging on ridiculous.
Gamora Has A Love-Hate Relationship With Thanos
Like most uber villains within the pages of any comic, Thanos spends his fair share of time working both for and against the franchise heroes. While his ideology is always at odds with the Avengers and the Guardians, after Thanos is defeated in The Infinity Gauntlet limited series, he goes on to team up with the good guys more often than not to prevent the next big villain from obtaining all six stones. While it makes sense for someone like Adam Warlock to want the super-intelligent Thanos working by his side, it makes far less sense for Gamora to ever warm up to the Mad Titan.
The difference here is that Gamora’s biggest problem with her father wasn't that he once tried to destroy the universe, but that he was an abusive father figure who turned her into an assassin for his own personal gain. Once she is out from under his grasp, it seems unlikely that she would ever make amends with Thanos, even if she does stop trying to destroy him outright. Despite this, Gamora has made exceptions to work alongside Thanos on a number of occasions, including the limited series Infinite Abyss where she helps her adoptive father take down the Thanosi, a gang of genetic clones who were modeled after the Mad Titan himself.