Originally created by Roger Stern and John Buscema, Nebula made her first appearance in The Avengers #257 (July 1985). Despite her lack of powers, Nebula’s ruthless work as a pirate mercenary and conqueror made her greatly feared across the galaxy. Given her abilities as an advanced strategist and powerful leader, it’s no wonder she was later summoned to the side of Thanos.

At the time, Thanos had acquired all the Infinity Gems to use for the Infinity Gauntlet. Although she claimed to be his granddaughter, Thanos rejected her as such. Deciding instead to turn her into a “living sculpture” of pain and death as a gift to Death itself. It’s nice to see romance never dies.

In yet another show of her impressive intelligence, Nebula gets the Gauntlet away from Thanos and uses it to restore her body. Nebula causes much havoc with the Gauntlet before eventually losing it to Adam Warlock, and ending up imprisoned on Titan. Never one to stay down for long, Nebula escapes and resumes her lucrative piracy work.

On several occasions she finds herself battling the Avengers and their various allies. Between her skill as a mercenary as well as her high tech devices, Nebula always escapes their clutches. Later, it was while battling Nova Prime, whom she falsely believed killed her father that Nebula was driven off into deep space.

Nebula wasn’t seen again until a battle against Ronan the Accuser. While defending the base of the Graces (an army of female cosmic warriors), it was unclear whether Nebula survived the attack. However, if there’s two things I know Nebula is good at, it’s kicking butt and surviving anything.