Mantis

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Mantis is the half-Vietnamese, half-German daughter of Gustav Brandt (Libra) and was born in Huế, Vietnam. In her childhood, her father left her at the Temple of the alien Priests of Pama, a sect of the Kree. The Kree believed Mantis might become the Celestial Madonna and mate with the eldest Cotati on Earth to become the mother of the Celestial Messiah Sequoia, 'the most important being in the universe.' She excelled in martial arts, but upon reaching adulthood, she was mind-wiped and sent into the world to gain life experience. She became a sex worker and barmaid in a Vietnamese tavern, where she met Swordsman. She helped him regain his self-respect and followed him when he attempted to rejoin the Avengers. She became an ally of the Avengers when Swordsman rejoined the group. With the Avengers, she battled the original Zodiac and learned that Libra was her father. She was abducted by Kang alongside the Scarlet Witch and Agatha Harkness, was revealed as the Celestial Madonna, and witnessed the death of Swordsman at Kang's hands. She then formally joined the Avengers, married a Cotati inhabiting Swordsman's reanimated body, and left Earth to mate with him. After bearing her child Sequoia, she took the name 'Mandy Celestine' and lived with him for a year in Willimantic, Connecticut before leaving him to the Cotati and departing for space with the Silver Surfer. The Silver Surfer fell in love with her. She developed green skin and increased durability during her pregnancy, and grew bitter about being forced to abandon her child. She was caught in an explosion and presumed dead, but survived, splitting into multiple versions of herself representing conflicting aspects of her psyche. She later returned as the villainous bride of Kang in 'The Crossing,' but this was retconned as a Space Phantom imposter. She reappeared in the Steve Englehart-written Avengers: Celestial Quest limited series, merging with her fragmented portions after four were killed by a clone of Thanos. She and a group of Avengers went into space to stop 'Thanos' from killing her son Quoi, a rebellious teenager. After the defeat of Ultron and the Phalanx, she took up residence on Knowhere with the Guardians of the Galaxy and became their counselor. During Secret Invasion, it was discovered that Star-Lord had Mantis use her mental powers to manipulate the Guardians to join the team against their will. Overhearing this, Drax shared the knowledge, causing most to leave. Mantis was promoted to field status by Rocket Raccoon. She rescued Peter Quill from Spartax soldiers and helped him track down 'time quakes' plaguing him. During 'Empyre,' she returned to Earth upon being contacted by Black Panther about the Cotati invasion and planned to reason with her son.

In Their Own Story

Mantis almost always refers to herself in the third person as 'this one,' 'she,' and occasionally 'Mantis,' due to her upbringing at the Temple of the Priests of Pama. In her first appearances, she represented the 'Dragon Lady' archetype—a mysterious Eastern seductress whose sexuality caused tension among the male Avengers. She was assertive and confident in her powers, appearing somewhat arrogant at first, as illustrated by her breakup with Swordsman when she chose Vision over him. She renounced her pride after Swordsman's tragic death. Mantis is highly intelligent, with deductive skills rivaling those of Vision; in Vision's own words, she has a 'remarkable mind.' She has attained a mastery of meditational disciplines, giving her unusual control over her body, including autonomic functions like heartbeat, bleeding, and breathing, as well as awareness of pain, allowing her to more quickly heal injuries through sheer force of will and affording almost superhuman reflexes and reactions. She also had psychic empathy, a telepathic power that allowed her to sense the emotions of others. She gained additional abilities as a result of communion with the Prime Cotati: empathic ability to communicate with plant-like Cotati and plant life, astral projection, the ability to separate her physical and astral forms to travel interplanetary distances, and the ability to transfer her astral form to any place where plant life exists. She could form and inhabit a plant-like simulacrum of her human body out of local vegetation. During confrontations with a powerful Thanos clone, she displayed superhuman strength, a talent to simultaneously inhabit multiple simulacra, and the ability to project strong blasts of energy. As of her appearance in Annihilation Conquest: Star-Lord, she also appears to have gained telepathic and precognitive abilities, and labors under a constant awareness of future events. She displayed pyrokinesis and can remain invisible to the Phalanx and extend her power to cloak others. Additionally, she was trained by the Priests of Pama to become a grandmistress of the martial arts, demonstrated as capable of defeating opponents as skilled as Captain America (though he was distracted while fighting a dragon). She could instinctively sense weak points in an opponent and, with her skills in pressure points, knock out beings as powerful as the thunder god, Thor.

Reader's Guide

Mantis is a character of deep emotional complexity and formidable combat skill. In battle, she relies on her mastery of meditational disciplines to control her body, allowing her to heal injuries through sheer force of will and react with almost superhuman reflexes. Her psychic empathy lets her sense the emotions of others, which she can use to her advantage. She is a grandmistress of the martial arts, trained by the Priests of Pama, capable of defeating opponents as skilled as Captain America and knocking out beings as powerful as Thor using pressure points. Her empathic abilities extend to plant life, allowing her to communicate with the Cotati and control vegetation in her vicinity. She can also project her astral form across interplanetary distances and form a plant-like simulacrum of her body. In later appearances, she gained telepathic and precognitive abilities, giving her a constant awareness of future events, as well as pyrokinesis and the ability to cloak herself and others from the Phalanx. Key turning points in her story include her transformation from a femme fatale to the Celestial Madonna, the death of Swordsman, the birth of her son Sequoia, her time with the Silver Surfer, her fragmentation and later re-merging, and her role as counselor to the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Did You Know?

• Mantis first appeared in The Avengers #112 (June 1973), created by writer Steve Englehart and artist Don Heck.
• She is the half-Vietnamese, half-German daughter of Gustav Brandt (Libra) and was born in Huế, Vietnam.
• Mantis almost always refers to herself in the third person as 'this one' or 'she' due to her upbringing at the Temple of the Priests of Pama.
• She was revealed as the Celestial Madonna and became the mother of Sequoia, 'the most important being in the universe.'
• Pom Klementieff portrayed Mantis in six Marvel Cinematic Universe films, from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023).