Groot (Earth-199999)

Groot
Name	Groot
Aliases	Nicknames: Giving Tree
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	Guardians of the Galaxy
Relatives	Children: Groot II (offspring)
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Male
Eyes	Irises: Black
Hair	No Hair At All
Unusual Features	Bark skin
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Flora colossus
Living Status	Deceased
Reality	Earth-199999
Place of Birth	Planet X
Personal Information
Identity	No Dual
Occupation	Mercenary, adventurer; former bounty hunter
Base of Operations	Milano (mobile)
Creators and Appearances
Creators	James Gunn, Nicole Perlman
First	Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Prelude #2 (May, 2014)
First	Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Prelude #2 (May, 2014)
Death	Guardians of the Galaxy (July 31, 2014)
Death	Guardians of the Galaxy (July 31, 2014)

 We... are... Groot. 

—Groot

History

Early life

Rocket and Groot

Groot was a compassionate but slow-witted flora colossus who at some point became the closest friend and bounty hunting partner of the jaded and sarcastic intelligent raccoon Rocket. They had many run-ins with the law, and became wanted fugitives by the Nova Corps, but despite Rocket's cold exterior, and Groot's limited vocabulary of simply saying "I am Groot" over and over again, the two became very close and almost viewed each other as family.

Conflict with Ronan

In 2014, Rocket and Groot located the boisterous and oversensitive human bounty hunter Peter Quill on Xandar, wanted by the Ravagers for betraying them. They attempted to capture him, but the warrior Gamora fought them for possession of Quill's latest bounty, an orb for her employer, Ronan the Accuser. All four were arrested and taken to prison, where they got to know each other better, and Groot started to warm up to Quill's offbeat persona.

Aiding in escape

Rocket wanted to escape with Quill and deliver him to the Ravagers for their bounty, but when Gamora revealed she betrayed Ronan and intended to sell the orb to a third party for billions, Rocket agreed to take her with them if she split the profit with them. Now a reluctant team, they escaped with the powerful but simple-minded Drax the Destroyer, a mercenary with a grudge against Ronan for killing his family, in Quill's ship, the Milano.

The group traveled to the mining colony Knowhere where Groot bonded with Drax and Rocket before they went to meet the buyer of the orb, the Collector, who revealed it was the destructive Power Stone, one of the powerful Infinity Stones, with the explosive force to level a planet when touched. When the Collector's assistant grabbed the stone and destroyed his entire museum, the group barely made it out, with Gamora insisting they give the orb over to the Nova Corps to keep it out of Ronan's hands.

They then discovered Drax had called Ronan to Knowhere to confront him for killing his family. While fighting off Ronan's forces, Quill and Gamora were captured by the Ravagers while the Power Stone was stolen by Ronan, who planned to use it to decimate Xandar. When Ronan's forces left, Rocket wanted him and Groot as far from the conflict as possible, but Groot insisted Gamora and Quill were the only friends they'd ever had, and so the remaining trio took the Milano to the Eclector, the Ravager ship holding Quill and Gamora. When they realized they had reached an agreement with the Ravagers, Groot helped convince them to work together as a team, and they then formed a plan to stop Ronan from decimating Xandar: with the aide of the Ravagers and the Nova Corps, the team would break through Ronan's ship and kill him in his quarters.

Sacrificing himself to save the Guardians

The plan seemed to go well at first, and the team broke into the ship without much issue. Groot fended off many of their attackers, and when they finally reached Ronan, the blast Quill shot him with, combined with Rocket crashing his ship into Ronan's quarters in desperation, caused the ship to begin plummeting to Xandar's ground. With no time to lose, Groot used the wooden tendrils of his body to grow into a protective orb around the group to shield them from the impact, despite Rocket's pleas. The cocoon protected the team as expected, but Groot was destroyed by the impact of the crash, leaving only burnt twigs behind.

Legacy

Groot's selfless sacrifice protected the team from death, allowing them to take the Power Stone from Ronan and destroy him with it. Handing the Stone off to the Nova Corps, Quill officially declared them a proper team, known as the Guardians of the Galaxy. Groot's time with the them helped them all learn to be better people and inspired them to be heroes, especially Rocket, whom Groot's compassion and kindness helped him open his heart to others.

The new Groot

A piece of Groot's body was found by Rocket in the wreckage of Ronan's ship, and it was planted in a flower pot. As the team acted as mercenaries from the Milano, the piece grew into a new Groot, a much more outgoing and enthusiastic creature with none of the memories of his father. He grew to be a great asset to the team, helping them fight threats such as Ego, Thanos, and the High Evolutionary, and honors the legacy of the original Groot as a proud member of the Guardians.

Personality

Groot was sweet and friendly, but also reserved and quiet. He viewed Rocket as his only friend for many years, but eventually found a new family in the Guardians of the Galaxy. He was very protective of those he loved, physically lashing out at anyone who threatened him or his friends, rescuing Rocket from an explosion, and even sacrificing his life to save the Guardians.

Attributes

Powers

Flora colossus physiology: Groot had abilities native to his species:

• Superhuman Strength: Groot's tree like form provided him great strength. He was the strongest member of the group, being able lift many heavy objects including several men on just one arm.
• Superhuman Durability: Groot's hide was composed of wood dense enough and durable enough to make him immune to most conventional weapons, including gunfire and fire which would consume most woods. He could endure the loss of entire limbs apparently without experiencing pain.
• Cellular Regeneration: Groot had an amazing regeneration factor and had been shown to be able regrow missing limbs.
• Spores: Groot had the ability to produce tiny phosphorescent spores that float through the air and offer enough ambient light to illuminate a small area.
• Plasticity: Groot had the ability to stretch his limbs for long distances and reshape them for a variety of tasks. He normally took the shape of a large tree-like humanoid, but could also weave his limbs into a dense tangle of vines. Individual pseudopods could be grown at will, to act as fingers, rudimentary tools, or even bud a small flower.

Weaknesses

• Impaired Communication: Although Groot was able to understand common speech, his own speech was limited to the phrase "I am Groot", with the exception of his final words, "We are Groot". Through his time with the creature, Rocket became able to understand the subtle nuances of Groot's speech, which themselves convey a far more complex language than most can detect.
• Vulnerability to Fire: Although strong and durable, Groot was still vulnerable to particularly intense fires, and was destroyed by the crash of Ronan's ship, with barely anything surviving to form a new Groot.

Trivia

• Vin Diesel voiced and provided motion capture for Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy, while Krystian Godlewsk was the on-set stand-in.
  • Diesel also voiced the second Groot in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, beginning with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

See Also

• 7 appearance(s) of Groot (Earth-199999)
• 4 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Groot (Earth-199999)
• 9 minor appearance(s) of Groot (Earth-199999)
• 46 image(s) of Groot (Earth-199999)
• 1 quotation(s) by or about Groot (Earth-199999)

Links and References

• Groot on Marvel.com
• Groot on Wikipedia.org
• Groot (Earth-199999) on

• Groot (Earth-199999) on the