Groot River, Eastern Cape

Groot () is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in ''Tales to Astonish'' #13 (November 1960). An extraterrestrial, sentient tree-like creature, the original Groot first appeared as an invader that intended to capture humans for experimentation. The character can only say the repeated line "I am Groot", but this can have different meanings depending on context. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) franchise, Star-Lord, Thor, Rocket Raccoon, Gamora, Drax the Destroyer and, eventually, Nebula, daughter of Thanos are able to understand him.

The character was reintroduced as a heroic, noble being in 2006, and appeared in the crossover comic book storyline '' Annihilation: Conquest''. Groot went on to star in its spin-off series, ''Guardians of the Galaxy'', joining the team of the same name.

Groot has been featured in a variety of associated Marvel media, including animated television series, toys and trading cards. Vin Diesel voices Groot in the MCU, starting in the 2014 film ''Guardians of the Galaxy'', with Krystian Godlewski playing the initial incarnation of the character via performance capture and James Gunn doing so for his reborn offspring, colloquially known as "Baby Groot".

Publication history

Groot first appeared in ''Tales to Astonish'' #13 (Nov. 1960), and was created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby. He appeared again in '' The Incredible Hulk vol. 2 Annual'' #5 (Oct. 1976), alongside five other monsters from Marvel's anthology horror comics of the late 1950s and early 1960s. In ''The Sensational Spider-Man'' #−1 (July 1997), Groot was featured in a nightmare of the young Peter Parker.

Groot reappeared in 2006 in the six-issue limited series ''Nick Fury's Howling Commandos'' and appeared in the '' Annihilation: Conquest'' and ''Annihilation: Conquest – Star-Lord'' limited series. Groot went on to join the Guardians of the Galaxy in the series of the same name and remained a fixture of the title until its cancellation with issue #25 in 2010. Groot appeared in its follow-up, the limited series ''The Thanos Imperative'', and, alongside fellow Guardian Rocket Raccoon, Groot starred in backup features in '' Annihilators'' #1–4 (March–June 2011) and ''Annihilators: Earthfall'' #1–4 (Sept.–Dec. 2011).

Groot appeared in issues #6–8 of '' Avengers Assemble'' as a member of the Guardians. Groot is one of the stars of ''Guardians of the Galaxy'' vol. 3, a part of the Marvel NOW! relaunch.

In March 2015, it was announced that Groot would be getting a solo series by writer Jeff Loveness and artist Brian Kesinger.

The Groot who appeared in ''Tales to Astonish'' and the one introduced in ''Annihilation: Conquest'' were retroactively established as being separate members of the same species in the sixth and final issue of the ''Groot'' ongoing series that launched in June 2015. In ''Infinity Wars'', however, Groot specifically references the fact that during his first visit to the planet Earth, he had promised to "march across the surface of the planet and doom all who dared to oppose Groot." This seemingly reverted the character's origins to having both eras of Groot referencing the same persona, therefore invalidating the retroactive change from issue six of the ''Groot'' series.

Origins

Groot is a '' Flora colossus'' from Planet X, the capital of the branch worlds. The ''Flora colossi'' are tree-like beings whose language is almost impossible to understand due to their stiff larynxes, causing their speech to sound like they are repeating the phrase "I am Groot". Other beings try to be friendly but become angry with the ''Flora colossi'' for their apparent inability to speak, though Groot was shown to have been actually speaking not just understandably but eloquently in his language throughout ''Annihilation: Conquest''. The ''Flora colossi'' are ruled over by the "Arbor Masters" and teach the children of the species with "Photonic Knowledge", which is the collected knowledge of the Arbor Masters of the generations and is absorbed through photosynthesis; this is a highly advanced education method, making the ''Flora colossi'' geniuses.

Groot originated from an "Ennobled Sap-line" and was gifted with a tremendous grasp of quasi-dimensional super-positional engineering. Groot did not get along with fellow saplings but instead preferred the company of the "Maintenance Mammals", against which the other saplings discriminated. Groot was exiled by the "Arbor Masters" in ''Guardians of the Galaxy'' #14 after killing another sapling to defend a maintenance mammal it was brutalizing.

An alternate origin was presented in the ''Groot'' ongoing series. In the story, it is revealed that the other ''Flora colossi'' had been abducting organisms from other planets, including a young human girl named Hannah. After seeing Hannah, Groot realized that what his people were doing was wrong and managed to save the child and send her back to Earth. However, for his disobedience, Groot was exiled from Planet X and forced to wander the universe until he met Rocket Raccoon many decades later, where this version of Groot later became a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Fictional character biography

Original Groot

Groot is an extraterrestrial tree monster who initially came to Earth seeking humans to capture and study. Groot was seemingly destroyed by termites used by Leslie Evans.

Xemnu made a duplicate of Groot by making a human and tree hybrid that was used to fight the Hulk, but it was destroyed in the battle.

Groot was later revealed to have survived, but was a captive of the Collector and held in his zoo in Canada until Groot and the other captive creatures were freed by the Mole Man. Groot and the other creatures rampaged in New York City until they were stopped by a band of superheroes, and were then dumped through a portal to the Negative Zone.

Groot was later tracked down and captured by S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Paranormal Containment Unit, nicknamed the Howling Commandos, when his tree scent was detected by Sasquatch and Abominable Snowman

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