Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 might be one of the worst MCU movies according to Metacritic, but there were a lot of exciting moments, many of which were related to Ego The Living Planet, played fantastically by Kurt Russell.
The movie took a lot of liberties with the character, with one specific reveal towards the end not remotely being based on any comic book. And very few of Ego’s abilities were used or mentioned, meaning that any knowledge gained about the strange character from Guardians 2 is fairly basic, so there’s so much more to learn about this comic legend.
His Wasn’t Originally A Guardians Villain
With Ego now known in the MCU pantheon as the villain of Guardians 2 and as Quill’s father, it wasn’t the Guardians of the Galaxy comic that he first appeared in, as the planet was first seen in the Thor comic, Where Gods May Fear To Tread, in 1966.
In the comic, Ego was threatening to devour Rigel, but the God of thunder convinced him against it. And it isn’t just the one time that Ego and Thor have crossed paths, as they have even joined forces too, but more often than not, they are locking horns.
He Has Many Different Origin Stories
It may come as a surprise that Ego was never Quill’s father, which is one of the most interesting bits of trivia from the Guardians comics.
The first origin story that was written about Ego was that a scientist inadvertently created him when trying to protect his planet from a supernova. But the most common origin story is that the planet, like every other planet, formed naturally, but became sentient after it was granted to him by Super-Ego.
He Can Control His Own Weather
As Ego is a living sentient planet, it isn’t surprising that he is able to control his own geology and ultimately shape shift, but what wasn’t explained in Guardians 2 is that he can also control his own weather.
Though anyone else would set the weather to feel like a Caribbean paradise, Ego can create earthquakes, volcanoes, storms, and thunder and lightning. This is how Thor has been able to beat him on countless occasions, as the God of Thunder is able to use Ego’s weather abilities against him.
A Rock Band Have A Song About Him
Being one of the strangest characters in Marvel, Ego hasn’t exactly been rewarded with many accolades. However, the character saw some recognition when the song “Ego The Living Planet” was released by the rock group Monster Magnet.
The instrumental track was released in 1995, but there is one line that seems to be from Ego’s perspective, “I talk to planets, baby,” which sounds even better if you imagine Kurt Russell saying it.
He Was Once Combed For Lice By Rocket
Rocket is full of great quotes in the movies, but it was translated from the comic books well, as the raccoon had some great gags before he ever appeared on the big screen.
In Rocket’s own comic book series, which followed him picking up odd jobs across the universe in his ship, one of the strangest of those jobs was helping Ego with his space lice problem. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen in Guardians 2, even though it’s clearly something the live-action adventure fans would like to see.
He Isn’t Limited To Any Orbits
As every planet stays within it’s orbit, e.g. planets in our solar system orbit the sun, Ego isn’t a part of that rule.
As Ego, the planet has a mind of its own, it is free to move around as it pleases, and though it was hard for Ego to control at first, the living planet can now hurtle through space at his own leisure. Ego can also travel wherever he pleases through hyper travel, which is faster than the speed of light.
He Can Read People’s Minds
Ego has loads of powers, so many that most of them weren’t even mentioned in Guardians 2, including blasting laser beams from his eyes, giving consciousness to other planets, and he can even create humanoid antibodies to protect his surface.
One of the most interesting of his powers that wasn’t shown in the movie is his ability to read minds. But it makes sense as to why it wasn’t used in Guardians 2, because if he could read minds, there’d be no need for Mantis and we’d never have seen all those funny moments.
He Was An Avengers Villain
Though the final battle between him and the Guardians was one of the best action sequences in the movie, Ego has had much bigger battles in the past, and at one point that was with none other than The Avengers.
His rivals with groups of heroes don’t end there either, as he’s also been an enemy of the Fantastic Four. However, Ego was never proved to be a worthy foe, as he was pretty easily bested by the heroes every time.
Galactus Is His Arch Enemy
There are a lot of strange facts about Galactus, including the fact that he at one point ate the infinity stones, but one of the best things about him is that he and Ego are arch enemies.
This makes prefect sense considering that Galactus is a planet eater (he even goes by the name The Devourer of Worlds) and that Ego is a planet. A battle between these two Goliath villains would be one of the most cinematic space battles in history.
He Has An Alter Ego
With Ego having a ton of enemies across the universe, being both heroes and villains including the Avengers and Galactus, it’s hard to believe that the planet has yet another significant foe.
Literally named Alter-Ego, the character is a planet with a conscience just like Ego, and it was created by the Stranger with the intention of having the two living things battle to find out who is the superior planet.