Gamora, the complex green girl at the heart of the Guardians of the Galaxy, has traveled a long road to where she is today. Her journey started with a tragic, traumatic childhood which left her in the hands of a guardian whose careful training only served to make her a more formidable enemy to him in the future. Once she escaped his orbit, her view of him moved even further from that of a father and closer to that of a foe. Gamora is possessed of tremendous versatility and strength, but her talents came at a heavy price.
Many of her powers are the result of bionic tinkering which always brings complications in its wake, but our determined heroine lets no difficulty stand in her way when a mission is on her mind. Gamora’s 40-year history in print and on film has been a diverse one as well. Her hair and outfits have evolved in subtle and glaring ways over the years, but we can always recognize this fierce warrior in all of her incarnations. Her unmistakable energy and inimitable skills shine through any costume.
There’s a lot to absorb when looking at Gamora, but there’s also much more to the “most dangerous woman in the galaxy” than what meets the eye. From trivia about her childhood to lists of her powers to meditations on her personality, we could go on for hours regaling her history and virtues.
Here are the 20 Weirdest Things About Gamora’s Anatomy.
She is the last of her race
After Thanos was done with Gamora’s people, there weren’t many left, but in the comics, she is the sole survivor of her race, which was destroyed by Adam Warlock. Her race was known as the Zehoberei, a green-skinned group which inhabited the planet Zen-Whoberi. The Zehoberei had a troubled existence, which led to their being targeted by Thanos in the first place, but they were also proud and talented people. In the MCU of course, it is depicted that Thanos took out all of her people.
Though these humanoids were very similar to humans in many ways, their skin and hair colors were the most apparent differences. So Gamora’s appearance is certainly no accident, though we may not find anyone else with the same physical traits which would help her look more at home.
She has mastered 83.4% of all types of martial arts
You may or may not know that Gamora has a martial arts resume which rivals the great Neo’s. The major difference is that Gamora received her training the old-fashioned and difficult way, and not by simply plugging her brain into the matrix. She put in the time and muscle needed to transform her body into an intimidating and lethal weapon.
In fact, she is described as having mastered 83.4% of all the kinds of martial arts. Her skills apply to both armed and unarmed techniques, at which she is almost undefeatable. Part of the training which Thanos prepared for her had her training under Ronan the Accuser, along with Nebula.
She is a master strategist
For all of her impressive physical skills, Gamora doesn’t always need them in order to defeat her enemies and save her friends. She is equally talented between the ears, possessing a keen mind and sharp wits. Her ability to think on her feet and make split-second decisions is often her greatest asset, and it has gotten her out of plenty of tight spots before.
Even as a child, her ability to adapt quickly to a fluid situation helped to save her life. When Thanos approached her to explain his beliefs about balance, he demonstrated the idea by balancing a knife on his finger and asking her to try it as well. Her successful first attempt helped her life be spared.
She has ocular implants
A key part of being able to overcome a potential enemy is being able to see them. So it stands to reason that the combatant who can spot the other one first gains a definite advantage in the fray. Few natural eyeballs can compete with Gamora’s when it comes to visual power. One of the many enhancements with which Thanos supplied Gamora were ocular implants, which give her greatly enhanced vision.
With these super peepers, she was able to see Nebula approaching Ego’s planet well in advance. This simple yet powerful ability is one that fans should never overlook, and as far as we can see, it’s one of her most important assets.
she is the best fighter in the galaxy
Making a good first impression is a huge part of establishing how others think of you, and having a strong reputation is half the battle of establishing that first impression. If your enemies are quaking in their boots before you ever appear, then the battle is at least partially won already. If your allies view you with awe and respect before meeting you, then maintaining that respect is going to be much easier.
Even though Gamora’s ability to make a dynamic first impression never let her down, her reputation also reaches to the farthest corners of the galaxy. Just ask Rocket Raccoon: “Yeah, I know who you are. Anyone who’s anyone knows who you are”. Who is Gamora? She’s the most dangerous woman in the galaxy.
She has two livers to filter toxins more quickly
In a lot of ways really, Gamora is just like you and me: she has two eyes, two ears, two lungs, two kidneys, and two livers. Wait, what? Yes, believe it or not, Gamora has two livers. However, she’s not alone, and she came by them honestly - all members of the Zehoberei race have a pair of livers per person, which provide a number of practical benefits to their owners.
The natural ability of the liver to purge the body of toxins is doubled in strength with an eager assistant’s presence. This leads to faster healing and more robust health for the Zehoberei in general, and for Gamora specifically. Plus, we’re willing to bet she can drink anyone under the table.
Her hair color has changed from green to black
Hair color is one of those defining characteristics that are within our power to change easily. With just a few dollars and hours we can almost become a new person. Gamora seems to have undergone this practice pretty often over the years, but what we don’t know is whose choice it was.
Were the comics simply chronicling her passing whims, or was she a silent protester to the drastic changes foisted upon her head? From black to green to the red highlights which now adorn her locks, Gamora’s hair color has obviously evolved over time. However, what never changed was the skill of the assassin behind the kaleidoscope of hair.
She has advanced healing powers
Most people don’t get a mulligan or a do-over when they’ve been dealt a mortal blow, but Gamora is an exception to the rule. She never gets the chance to gaze into the light at the end of the tunnel for long before her regenerative powers have her back up on her feet.
The bionic tinkering she has undergone has granted her the ability to heal both quickly and thoroughly. For instance, Gamora is able to survive after exposure to deep space, and be battle ready in no time at all. So, there’s no rest for the weary after Gamora endures a tough fight; even if she was wistful for a little restful downtime, her body isn’t likely to comply.
The colored oval tattoos around her eyes come and go
Style choices vary pretty widely from decade to decade; what is adored one year may be laughed at the next, but in time, many fashion trends eventually return to have the last laugh. Gamora is no exception to this natural law; some major fluctuations were bound to occur over 40 years - they did, and she has the picture documentation to prove it.
One of the more unlikely alterations has been to the patch-like tattoos seen around her eyes in the comics. Though mostly drawn in yellow, their shades have varied occasionally, and in the movies, they’re not even visible. Whether the difference is makeup or some kind of tattoo removal service, this couldn’t have been an easy change to make.
Thanos had to rebuild her
The drastic edits that Thanos performed on his adopted daughter seemingly had no end, but they must have had a beginning. That beginning was a terrible attack that Gamora suffered as a child, which almost eliminated her, and which might have claimed her life had not Thanos intervened. He rescued the poor kid and began the bionic implants which were intended to transform Gamora into the ultimate weapon.
No one doubts that his motives were selfish, but he definitely succeeded in his mission. His plan was to evolve a fighting machine that could consistently beat the likes of Nebula and Adam Warlock, and he periodically gave Gamora “updates” any time her skirmishes with Nebula revealed a weakness.
She was adopted by Thanos
Thanos had some real nerve adopting Gamora and expecting her to just go along with it. He seems to have thought he was doing them both a real favor, but his choice turned out to be a miscalculation. He taught and trained her so effectively that she ended up becoming one of his most mortal threats.
Gamora for her part accepted the free lessons before hitting the road, never to return. In case a reminder is needed, Thanos eliminated Gamora’s parents as well as half of her race. When he saw Gamora struggling to get away from one of his soldiers, Thanos liked her fighting spirit and called her aside. The rest is history, but who can blame Gamora for carrying her resentment all these years?
She doesn’t dance
Even the fiercest warriors need some down time now and then. After all, “music has charms to soothe the savage beast,” so why shouldn’t Gamora enjoy some tunes on occasion? In fact, when Peter loaned her the headphones from his Walkman, she seemed to enjoy hearing the melody.
However, no matter how catchy the tune that might be playing, don’t ask Gamora to do one thing: dance. She’s already given her answer to anyone who might ask that question: “I’m a warrior, an assassin. I don’t dance.” We can safely assume that this actually means she won’t dance, because Gamora has become an expert at every other physical feat. Either way, don’t expect to see her moving her feet to anything besides an elaborately choreographed fight sequence.
Zoe Saldana had specific instructions about her fight scenes
When Zoe Saldana won the coveted job of playing Gamora on the big screen, she really committed to the role and was determined to make it her own. Surely this is part of why she is so beloved by fans as the green-skinned assassin.
In an interview with Hollywood Reporter, Saldana shed some crucial light on how she approached the role and exactly what she saw that sparked her imagination about how Gamora should be portrayed: “It was this matador doing a beautiful march of death with a cape and the sword. I saw it and thought: ‘That’s Gamora. That’s what a female assassin would do.’ She’d seduce her victim.” She then worked with the fight coordinators to get this brilliant approach to the movies.
She once walked through fire to save her team
Selflessness is one of the defining marks of a true superhero, and Gamora definitely checks this box. Even if the hero knows that their exceptional healing powers will probably bring them back to health, they still get credit for the gesture and its results. In Gamora’s case, she proved her mettle during the Dyson Sphere mission, when she and her friends were feeling some extreme heat as the result of an experiment in teleportation gone wrong.
Knowing that she had the best chance of getting through the scorching temperatures to retrieve the shields of her friends, Gamora risked her body to make it happen. Her companions survived, and Gamora began a grueling recovery process which eventually left her feeling as good as new.
She was almost played by Gina Carano
Possible casting rumors swirled around Guardians of the Galaxy long before it hit the big screen, with some actors not getting the parts they wanted and others actively turning them down. The role of Gamora was a coveted one among Hollywood’s elite, but one person who was considered for the role wasn’t even originally an actress by trade.
MMA fighter Gina Carano was in the early running for the most dangerous woman in the galaxy. Her powerful physical presence and honed fighting abilities would doubtless have made her a formidable Gamora, and she wouldn’t have had to do much acting to seem intimidating and dangerous. However, we’re glad Zoe Saldana made the role her own and brought a really cool take on the character.
She has extreme endurance
Between the supreme genes of the Zehoberei and the bionic enhancements from Thanos, Gamora has the makeup of an incredibly durable warrior. Besides her advanced healing factor which gets her back to peak form, she possesses many physiological traits which keep her from getting hurt in the first place.
Gamora has respiratory implants which allow her to take in oxygen more efficiently, and therefore run great distances from danger without tiring. Her two livers filter and repurpose toxins with advanced speed, keeping her system pure. Exposure to deep-space, electrocution, searing heat, and severe physical blows all have failed at stopping the most dangerous woman in the galaxy, and with endurance like hers, we’re not surprised.
Thanos removed her tear ducts
There’s no doubt that Gamora’s reputation as a tough woman is well-earned, and anyone who might have doubted that was quickly corrected. While she has cried in the MCU, in the comics, tears are never seen trickling down her face. However, there is more to this fact than what meets the eye.
The backstory here is that in the comics Thanos had her tear ducts removed so that Gamora is literally unable to cry. While we may never know if we would ever witness this intimidating warrior weeping under other circumstances, her current stiff upper lip is less of a choice than a requirement. Perhaps an unnecessary precaution on the part of Thanos, but an effective one nevertheless.
She has superhuman speed
Extraordinary speed is a common quality when it comes to superheroes, and Gamora is certainly no exception. Besides her bionic enhancements, it’s important to remember how the rest of her training contributed to her superhuman quickness.
Gamora’s encyclopedic knowledge and experience in so many types of martial arts have given her the poise, attention, and reflexes to dodge just about anything thrown her way, including laser fire. Her skill in gymnastics can’t be excluded from the conversation either; through them, she has gained the flexibility and body control to execute the commands that her lightning-quick reflexes send out. When mind and muscle collaborate in this way, the result will be the speed of Gamora which helps make her such a deadly assassin.
Her character passes away often
Gamora’s reputation as the most dangerous woman in the galaxy has been duly earned through her own actions, but it can’t hurt her case very much that she’s been resurrected a few times. Though this might seem like a bit of an unfair advantage, we’re willing to assume that she would probably hold her elite title nonetheless.
Gamora has spotted the light at the end of the tunnel on several different occasions. The first event, which began her long process of being rebuilt by Thanos, occurred when she was still a kid. A street gang did her in on this occasion, before Thanos began his Frankenstein-like habits. See Avengers Annual #7 and Guardians of the Galaxy #19 if you still can’t get enough of seeing Gamora at her lowest points.
She can fly a spacecraft
If the place you call home is an entire galaxy, then possessing a thorough knowledge of the inner workings of complex space crafts is a major plus. Anything less is sure to put you at a serious disadvantage while traveling abroad and fighting deadly enemies.
The good news is that the most dangerous woman in the galaxy doesn’t disappoint with her extensive knowledge of flying machines and how to operate them. We’ve seen Gamora disable the shield generator of the Dark Aster in order to get her friends access, and even witnessed her flying a mining pod in order to make her escape from Knowhere. It’s pretty safe to say that Gamora’s skills as a pilot soar above the competition.
Are there any other interesting facts about Gamora’s body in Guardians of the Galaxy? Let us know in the comments!
