I Am Groot: A Short History Of The Iconic Character

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Among the enormous cast of the MCU, some characters are positioned as central figures, others play key supporting roles, and others disappear into the scenery. However, the occasional hero makes their way from the sidelines or the comic relief cast into the upper echelon through sheer force of personality, even with extremely limited dialogue.

James Gunn created one of the best-loved corners of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with his Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy that is set to conclude next summer. With his brilliant oddball sensibilities and love of lesser-known characters, he elevated his unheard-of characters to the highest halls of popularity with only a few scenes.

Disney Spent Years Working On A Robot Baby Groot And It's The Cutest Thing Ever

Groot was technically created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Larry Lieber in 1960, but that iteration of the character bears little resemblance to the modern one. In Tales to Astonish #13, Groot was billed as «The Monster From Planet X». He was still depicted as a bipedal tree, but his role was as a horror antagonist. This Groot was an invasive alien who landed on Earth with little explanation to capture human beings for experimentation. In his first appearance, a human named Leslie Evans used an aggressive breed of termites to defeat Groot. This stopped his deadly invasion and seemingly killed off the character. However, like his more modern iteration, he had a way of sticking around.

Groot reappeared 16 years later, along with several other one-off Marvel monsters. He and his new allies were set against The Incredible Hulk. This iteration of the character remains a sickly monster but is revealed to have been a scientifically crafted human-tree hybrid. Hulk does what he's best