As far as funny book characters go, Gamora has had a tough run as the adopted daughter of Thanos and the last of her species. Despite the hardships, Gamora has routinely been well intentioned, even if her actions weren’t always on the side of good.

Gamora is a powerful figure with superhuman strength, agility, speed, and durability, plus accelerated healing, and she’s a skilled assassin and hand to hand fighter. She debuted 45 years ago in Strange Tales #180 (June 1975), created by writer-artist Jim Starlin. Her species, the Zen-Whoberis, were exterminated by the Universal Church of Truth, so when Thanos found her as a child, he turned her into a weapon, earning her the nickname “the deadliest woman in the whole galaxy.”

Though Thanos showed her little affection when she was a child, Gamora was loyal to him because he promised to give her the chance to avenge the deaths of her family. When she was a teenager, Gamora fought a group of thugs who beat and raped her, then when Thanos found her beaten form, he killed the assailants and restored her to health by cybernetically enhancing her.

As an adult, Gamora began killing members of the Universal Church of Truth, taking revenge on them for the genocide of her people. She teamed up with Adam Warlock to stop his future evil self, Magus, but failed in the mission. Thanos then assigned her to protect Adam Warlock and she was attacked by Drax the Destroyer.

Finally realizing that Thanos was a threat, Gamora sided with Captain Mar-Vell, Drax, and the Avengers against him. They tried to stop Thanos from destroying half of all life in the universe and when Gamora attempted to kill him, she was mortally wounded. While Gamora was injured, Adam Warlock found her, and she warned him of Thanos’ plan. He absorbed her and Pip’s souls and when Adam Warlock, died their souls entered the Soulworld in the Soul Gem.

For a time, they existed peacefully in the Soulworld, but when Thanos obtained the Infinity Gems and formed the Infinity Gauntlet, Adam Warlock led Gamora and Pip out into the real world. Unfortunately, when Thanos was successful, Gamora was erased from existence until Nebula claimed the Gauntlet and returned her.

Once Warlock got the Gauntlet he was overcome by the power, so Gamora and Pip sought Doctor Strange and the Living Tribunal to convince him to divide the Gems. Gamora temporarily became steward of the Time Gem which gave her sporadic precognitive dreams and visions. When she left the Infinity Watch and the Time Gem, she returned to being a mercenary for a time then had a romantic relationship with Adam.

After that relationship ends, Gamora becomes the leader of a group of female warriors called the Graces. Committed to reasserting herself as the deadliest woman in the universe, she wields a blade known as Godslayer. She joins United Front to launch a counterattack against the Annihilation Wave and has a relationship with Nova. Gamora went on to join the Guardians of the Galaxy and appeared on Earth to help the Avengers against Thanos.

During Infinity Wars, Gamora started having dreams about an older version of herself which revealed that a portion of her soul was trapped in the Soul World. Determined to free it, she made a deal with the Grandmaster to carry out missions in exchange for information. Complicating things, she made a deal with the Collector who agreed to help steal the Soul Gem if his brother had it.

The ensuing game between the Collector and the Grandmaster results in a partnership between the brothers to find the Infinity Stones and Gamora convinces the Guardians to join them. The Guardians got the Power Stone after helping Nova Corps. Learning that Adam Warlock and Kang the Conqueror had the Soul Gem, Gamora tried to force Adam to give it to her and a fight broke out. During the battle, Drax held the stone and when he was exposed to the Soulworld’s corruption, he sided with Adam and Kang, stopping Gamora and leaving with them. When the Guardians refused to pursue them, Gamora continued on her quest alone.

She forced a master forge-smith from Nidavellir to create armor for her, then stole the Power Stone from the Guardians, putting it into the hilt of her Infinity Blade. Gamora’s next move was to attack Thanos before he could gather the Infinity Stones. Before she killed him, he called her his requiem, which she took as her new alias. Attacking the new Infinity Watch to steal the Stones, Gamora revealed her identity to former allies and teammates. She tried to kill Star-Lord, who was saved by Doctor Strange, then got ahold of the Reality Stone, followed by the others. Since killing Thanos, Gamora had been seeing apparitions of him in which he encouraged her to open a portal to the Soul Gem where she reunited with the fragment of herself to become whole. Her next move was to rebalance the Soul Gem.

Gamora took drastic action to continue her quest by using the Infinity Stones to fold the universe in half and then merged the halves and put them in a pocket universe called Warp World inside the Soul Gem. There, Devondra, the one responsible for the Soul Gem’s hunger for souls, could consume the souls and ensure that suffering would not exist in the new universe.

When Loki asked to be Gamora’s council, she sealed him in the Soul Gem then traveled to the God Quarry to find out what was beyond it. Always the trickster, Loki and the newly assembled Cosmic Avengers subdued Gamora using alternate versions of the Infinity Stones that Gamora unintentionally made when she created Warp World. Taking the real Infinity Stones, Loki sent her to Warp World where she was nearly consumed by Devondra before being saved by Peet, the fusion of Star-Lord and Groot. With Adam Warlock’s help, the Cosmic Avengers used the Infinity Stones to restore the universe and kept Warp World in existence then fled the Soul World. Adam Warlock sent Gamora to a random location on an unknown planet.

It’s discovered that Thanos planned to resurrect himself by uploading his consciousness into another being and many assume Gamora is the target. The Dark Guardians, a group that forms to prevent it from happening, follow Gamora’s ex-lover Nova believing that he’ll warn her of their plan. She gets picked up by the Guardians and with Nova, they are attacked by the Dark Guardians who win the fight and take her prisoner.

The Dark Guardians, led by Gamora’s uncle Starfox, are about to kill her when Hela and the Black Order attack. Hela reveals that Thanos planned to take Starfox’s body and he assumes control of it. The Guardians rescue Gamora and with the Dark Guardians, attack Hela’s hideout to stop Thanos’ resurrection. As Thanos was transferring his consciousness to Starfox’s body, Gamora stabbed it, which instead of stopping the process brings Thanos back with a dysfunctional mind. Thanos gets hit by a missile that generates a black hole into which he and Hela are sucked in while Gamora, the Guardians, and Dark Guardians escape.

Outside of comics, Gamora has appeared on film, TV, and as a playable character in video games. Zoe Saldana portrays her in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers franchises. She has appeared in several animated shows, including Ultimate Spider-Man and Avengers Assemble, among others, voiced by Nika Futterman, Vanessa Marshall, and others.