Phyla is one of the Star Children, a former fish that was genetically engineered by High Evolutionary. During their captivity, Phyla and the other children befriended Drax, who, along with the Guardians of the Galaxy, saved all the captured children and brought them to Knowhere. To learn how to use her powers, Phyla joined a new lineup of the Guardians, led by Rocket Raccoon.
As a fish, Phyla was abducted from Earth[2] and experimented on by High Evolutionary, turning her into one of the Star Children as his latest attempt to create the perfect society. Unfortunately, like the rest of the Children, Phyla's intelligence was not up to par with High Evolutionary's liking, as she had the intelligence of a child along with a language she spoke with the rest of the Star Children.
By 2026, High Evolutionary destroyed all of Counter-Earth and the Humanimals to clean the slate for the Star Children. While on their way to a new colony aboard Arête Laboratories, High Evolutionary had Phyla run in a gravity wheel to see how long she could last, even praising the feat to his other scientists. Eventually, he sent Phyla back to the Star Children's cell, where they stumbled upon Drax the Destroyer, Mantis, and Nebula, who had broken into the ship.[1]
Meeting the Guardians of the Galaxy[]
"Hello, dumb idiots. I had a little girl like you. You know what she used to like? She liked when I made monkey noises."
Drax soon freed Phyla and the other children, and they ended up playing with him and attempted to also play with Mantis and Nebula, much to the latter's displeasure. However, they were interrupted by High Evolutionary, who knocked out and imprisoned Drax, Nebula and Mantis while also reimprisoning Phyla and the other children. Despite this, Phyla and the kids were still able to go down to the cell where Drax, Nebula and Mantis were kept and attempted to communicate with them. However, due to the language barrier and Nebula and Mantis being inexperienced with handling children, the children were unable to effectively communicate with them.
Nebula angrily shouted at them to stay away from the Starboard wall when Star-Lord planned to destroy that side of the ship and Mantis argued back when she attempted to communicate with the children through sign language. This scared Phyla and the other children, reducing them to tears, and Phyla, despite being upset, stood up to Nebula and Mantis, who both regretted scaring them. Due to his past experience as a father to his late daughter, Drax managed to calm and cheer up Phyla and the other children by pretending to be, what he thought was, a monkey before telling them in their language to stay away from the Starboard wall, being the only Guardian able to speak it, which Phyla and the other children happily agreed to do.[1]
Drax, Nebula and Mantis later escaped from their cell after High Evolutionary attempted to have them fed to Abilisks, which Mantis foiled using her empathic powers to calm the Abilisks. As Phyla helped warn the other children to stay away from the Starboard wall, Drax rejoined the children, to their happiness, and helped free them alongside the other Guardians. Phyla and the other children were then taken by the Guardians to Knowhere, where they were finally free from their lifelong imprisonment and experimentation by High Evolutionary. After her rescue, Phyla helped the Guardians rescue the other children and later the other imprisoned animals from Arête Laboratories, bringing them to Knowhere before the ship exploded. During this, the Guardians also defeated High Evolutionary and had him imprisoned on Knowhere for his crimes.[4]
In the aftermath of the battle, Phyla and the other children settled down on Knowhere where they bonded with Drax, the other Guardians and the Knowhere inhabitants. After Star-Lord, Mantis and Gamora chose to leave the Guardians, Nebula and Drax also decided to leave the Guardians to remain on Knowhere to raise the children before making Rocket Raccoon the new leader of the Guardians. While celebrating their victory, Rocket played a song from his Zune for them to dance to and Phyla danced with Nebula alongside the other children before they brought Drax to dance with them, who soon relented and danced with them despite his previous dislike of dancing, proudly accepting his new role as a father to them.[1]
Upon arriving, the team had a brief chat on the songs they liked, before seeing a race of creatures arriving to attack the Krylorians. As Rocket played the song “Come and Get Your Love” on his Zune, under his command, the Guardians, including Phyla who used her cosmic energy powers, charged towards battle, protecting the Krylorians from harm.[5]
Personality[]
Phyla was a brave individual, as she stood up to Nebula and Mantis when they accidentally scared them, despite being upset herself, and was also protective of the other children during their imprisonment by High Evolutionary. She was quite hedonistic according to High Evolutionary, who stated that she was always happy. She instantly bonded and played with Drax after he freed them and later danced with him, Nebula and the others after their rescue. Phyla had a great sense of compassion and empathy, helping the Guardians of the Galaxy rescue the other children and the other imprisoned animals from the ship after her own rescue before it exploded. Once she joined the new incarnation of the Guardians, she also felt a bit sad about having to kill the race of creatures which attacked the Krylorians, which Rocket Raccoon agreed with but stated that there was no one else to protect the Krylorians before they all charged into battle.
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
"This one has been running for two hours without breaking a sweat. They can survive on 30 calories a day, an hour of sleep a week, they're always happy, and they can rewire a carbonetrix core in under two minutes. But will she be ready for the new colony?"
Star Child Physiology: Phyla is part of the Star Children, a group of former fish genetically engineered by the High Evolutionary. Due to this, Phyla possesses physical abilities that are greatly enhanced. Most notably, she possesses the ability to manipulate cosmic energy. Additionally, High Evolutionary was very fond of her stamina.
Superhuman Stamina: Phyla's stamina is incredibly increased being due to the High Evolutionary's experiments. She was able to run in a hamster wheel machine for two hours without getting tired at all. She also can survive on thirty calories a day and sleeps an hour a week.
Enhanced Intelligence: Due to the experiments, Phyla is able to rewire a carbonetrix core in under two minutes. In addition, she is able to talk, walk, and do many basic functions that her former fish self was not able to do.
Cosmic Energy Manipulation: Phyla can manipulate cosmic energy to create spheres of purple energy around her fists. She used this in a battle on Krylor.
Wallcrawling:
Phyla running upside down
Phyla is able to walk in vertical surfaces. She practiced this feat in front of High Evolutionary, who watched her run in a hamster wheel.
Abilities[]
Bilingualism: In addition to her native language of Orbose, Phyla was outfitted with a Translator Implant upon joining the new Guardians of the Galaxy.
In the comics, Phyla-Vell is the daughter of the KreeMar-Vell, sister of Genis-Vell, and a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy. She was known as Captain Marvel and Quasar before taking the name Martyr.
