The Guardians of the Galaxy have always been a pretty obscure team in the Marvel comics
until the breakout success of the first movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and since
then, they have become a worldwide phenomenon.
However, none of their characters are more merchandisable than the walking tree man himself,
Groot.
Despite being a tree of very few words, Groot actually has a pretty long and complex history
in the Marvel comics so today, I want to present all of his history in a comprehensive, but
still easy to understand format for both new readers and comic book veterans.
But before we get too far into things, let’s talk about charity.
This video is a part of #TeamTrees and I’m sure you’ve heard all about it, but the
long and short of it is that this group is being led by mega YouTube Star Mr. Beast and
the Arbor Day Foundation to plant twenty million trees.
For every dollar you donate, they’ll plant a tree.
One dollar, one tree.
Easy math.
I’ve already thrown in some money and I would love to urge you to do the same by following
the link in the description.
Do for Earth.
Do it for Groot.
Groot made his first appearance in Tales to Astonish #13 in 1960 and he was created by
Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Larry Lieber.
However, that Groot has since been established as a totally separate character from the gentle
giant that we know today.
The modern version Groot is a re-imagining of that classic character by Keith Giffen
and Timothy Green II for Annihilation: Conquest: Star-Lord #1 in 2007, but let’s hop into
his comic history!
Groot is a Flora Colossus from Planet X and while he might be tall by human standards,
he’s actually pretty puny for his race.
Groot was an outcast among his fellow saplings, but he got along quite well with the planet’s
“Maintenance Mammals” who served the Flora Colossi.
While most of the other Colossi treated the mammals as lesser beings, Groot did what he
could to stand up for them and this love of animals would never fade, carrying well into
his adult life.
The Flora Colossi are a scary race and are known to kidnap other species for experimentation.
This made Groot very uncomfortable and he was exiled for saving the life of a human
girl that was taken prisoner.
Without a home, Groot traveled the galaxy, but for some reason, he pretended to be the
monarch of Planet X.
Now if you’ve seen the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, then you know that Goot can
only repeat one phrase over and over again, “I am Groot.”
So how could he lie to people and claim that he’s royalty or even anything at all.
Well, the answer is a little bit complicated so let me break it down.
When he was first introduced, Groot could actually talk in complete sentences, but it
devolved into the “I am Groot.”
that we know today around issue eight of Guardians of the Galaxy in 2009.
This change in speech pattern was never addressed in continuity and…
I guess we’re just supposed to just pretend like Groot was always talking like this.
As for WHY Groot’s speech sounds this way, the in-universe explanation is that Groot’s
vocal cords are stiff and inflexible.
So you see, while all that most people hear is “I am Groot.”, he’s actually speaking
a complex language.
In fact, Groot is a pretty eloquent dude, with it being visualized during this time
that a young Jean Grey had a telepathic conversation with him.
It’s worth noting that we do get the occasional deviation like “You are Groot.” or “Yo
soy Groot!”.
While it’s cute, it doesn’t jive with the in-universe explanation of Groot’s language
that we discussed earlier, but hey, these are one off, inconsequential, bits so I guess
they’re really not worth getting mad about.
Anyway, back to the history.
While in exile, Groot got himself into a bit of trouble which landed him in prison.
It’s here that he became roommates with the infamous Rocket Raccoon.
Despite Groot’s friendly demeanor, the two were not friends at first which was made more
difficult due to the fact that Rocket couldn’t even understand Groot’s speech.
Although he was a model prisoner, the guards constantly injured Groot, hitting him over
and over again and laughing about how he could only repeat “I am Groot.”.
Although Rocket stood up for his new roommate, he was still reluctant to become friends.
Later that night though, some of the guards cut the power to avoid being recorded while
they got their revenge on Rocket and Groot.
In response, the duo put up one hell of a fight, during which, Rocket discovered that
he can actually understand his partner!
For some reason though, they decided to stay in prison.
They DID eventually break out of jail, buuuut they landed in another one almost instantly
after.
This time however, Rocket and Goot were drafted by the Kree Empire to be a part of a special
ops group against an invading techno-organic species called the Phalanx.
Led by a man named Peter Quill A.K.A.
Star-Lord, this task force was technology free and as such, they were invisible to the
Phalanx.
Star-Lord’s team was invaluable in fighting off this invasion and afterwards, he took
many of those members to form a brand new team that would defend the galaxy from large
threats, the Guardians of the Galaxy.
This group was an independent organization, but Groot was able to use his fake status
as royalty to get them a seat on the Galactic Council which is basically the United Nations
IN SPACE!
As the inside man, Groot helped get the Guardians a more official foothold which sort of legitimized
the team.
Outside of that, Groot really wasn’t a major player in a lot of Guardians stories.
He was mostly just there to be the team’s muscle and to be comedic relief with his I
am Grootisms.
That being said, Groot is definitely the most consistent member of the Guardians of the
Galaxy and when it was later revealed that Star-Lord had his fellow Guardian, Mantis,
psychically manipulate the other members into joining up in the first place, there was major
dissent within the ranks with almost half of the team leaving.
Since Rocket was one of the few Guardians to stick around, this of course meant that
Groot was right there with him.
The Guardians officially disbanded at the end of the Thanos Imperative crossover event
when Star-Lord was seemingly killed off so Groot used this as an opportunity to return
to Planet X.
Upon returning to his home planet, Goot was immediately arrested and tried for impersonating
the king also, not to mention that he was already exiled.
As his punishment, Groot was to be chained up and pecked at by robotic birds for eternity
kind of like a tree Prometheus.
Thankfully, Rocket was able to save Groot and get him a full pardon for his crimes when
the two of them helped save Planet X from being destroyed by killer clowns… because
comics.
Yeah… the time between the Guardians disbanding and inevitably reforming was super weird for
Rocket and Groot, but thankfully this only lasted for a couple of quick mini-series before
Star-Lord came back from the not really dead and reformed the Guardians off panel.
The reformation of the Guardians of the Galaxy was super rushed because the movie was right
around the corner and Marvel wanted to relaunch the book so that the team would be relevant
in the comics again, but even though Groot was a prime candidate for merchandising, he
still didn’t really do much in the relaunch and was still mostly acting as a background
character outside of participating in a few fights and being comic relief with his I am
Grootisms… again.
But there was that one time when Groot was temporarily the host of his fellow Guardian,
Agent Venom’s, symbiote.
Meaning that yes, Groot was once Venom and I think that’s pretty neat!
On occasion, Rocket and Groot would break away from the rest of the team to have their
own adventures like the time that Groot gave Rocket a treasure map for his birthday, which
ultimately led to a party.
It’s a cute gesture, but Rocket was not a fan of there not being a monetary reward
for the struggle that the treasure map put him through and while this might seem like
a cute one off story, it actually had repercussions into ANOTHER book where Rocket went missing,
but somehow managed to carve a map into Groot before vanishing in the form of a Jared Leto
Joker parody.
The only problem is that Groot’s body grows back super quick which means that in order
to keep the information fresh, he had to carve into himself over and over again.
This wild goose chase went on FOR MONTHS and it turns out that in the meantime, Rocket
had been actually imprisoned a dictator and took over his empire.
Oh, and at the end of it, Rocket chained up and tortured Groot.
So why all the torment?
It’s literally just because Rocket wanted to get back at Groot for the aforementioned
birthday treasure hunt.
Let me reiterate that.
Groot spent months looking for his best friend who he thought was lost and maybe dead with
the only lead being a map that he had to continuously carve into himself over and over again JUST
because he threw a birthday adventure for said best friend.
I have no idea how they made peace after that, but they somehow did and are continuing to
travel with the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Groot got a more prominent role during the Black Vortex event when he submitted to a
powerful relic called well…
The Black Vortex.
As a result, Groot obtained breathtaking cosmic power, but could still only say “I am Groot.”.
Now you'd think this power would end up making Groot more of a major character, but not really.
I mean some other characters also got powered up and they outshined the tree man.
In the end, it really didn’t matter much because Groot relinquished this power back
to the Vortex, but it did permanently change his appearance, with him now sporting a star
shaped emblem on his chest along with these vine-like muscles and hair.
This design would stick around for a pretty decent while, but when Rocket and Groot were
hitting up a black market trading outpost, they were attacked by The Gardener.
Don’t let the lame name deceive you.
This dude is one of the Elders of the Universe and he is a REALLY powerful opponent.
Well The Gardener went a bit off the deep end after being poisoned by Loki and he absolutely
destroyed Groot who had just gotten Rocket to safety.
Now, Groot has been able to grow back from a splinter several times before so Rocket
planted one in his paw ASAP, but this time, Groot was only able to grow back to the size
of a sapling.
You see, The Gardener had taken Groot’s remains and planted them in his garden.
As a result, he was able to sap Groot’s energy and combine it with his own power to
grow an army of grotesque Groot creatures.
But we all know that the real reason for stunting Groot’s growth was because he was a baby
in the then recently released Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 and the comics desperately
wanted to try to emulate it in hopes of capturing some of those trickle down sales.
ANYWAY, after the Guardians were able to kill off some of those tree creatures, Groot gained
back some of his lost energy and grew bigger.
But here’s where one of my favorite aspects of this character comes into play.
While the Guardians mowed down The Gardener’s minions, the kind hearted Groot used his healing
powers to filter out some of the toxins that were clouding The Gardener’s mind.
As a thank you, The Gardener healed and upgraded Groot and now, he can talk in complete sentences…
again.
After a brief appearance in the Infinity Wars event where Gamora became a villain and killed
Thanos, we cut to Star-Lord and Groot by themselves without a team.
It turns out that Rocket discovered that he was dying and left without saying a word since
he didn’t want his friends to see him in this, what he says to be pathetic state, but
this sent the newly regrown Groot into an angsty teenage phase, complete with a liberty
spike mohawk.
Despite being able to talk now, Groot still really wasn’t much of a major player in
the comics since Marvel seemed to be a lot more interested in playing with the new roster
of Guardians like Beta Ray Bill, Moondragon, and Martyr.
The only real plotpoint that Groot got was when he and the rest of the Guardians wanted
to protect Gamora, but Star-Lord wanted nothing to do with her after Infinity Wars since she
kind of killed him then.
It’s a long story.
We’ll talk about it in a different video.
Anway, since Groot and the other Guardians wanted to protect Gamora, Groot led a mutiny
and overthrew Quill’s leadership, but that barely lasted.
At the time of this recording, Rocket has sort of rejoined the team, but he’s unable
to live outside of his life support machine / mech suit, but the overarching plot really
hasn’t given us much time to see how his return affects both him and Groot’s relationship
or really anything about Groot at all.
I’m hoping that we’ll get to see more later on down the line.
Groot and frankly the Guardians of the Galaxy as a whole are a really good example of how
sometimes, comic book characters need a little bit more time (and frankly outside media)
to steer them in a better direction and honestly, I really do think that the Groot that we have
today is a very good character and definitely deserves his place as a Marvel Comics great.
But if you liked this video then why not consider subscribing or even watching another one?
And if you enjoyed this deep dive into Groot’s history then I’ve got some pretty good news
for you because I have a dedicated playlist for all of my Guardians of the Galaxy videos
so if you liked this, then chances are that you’re probably going to like those as well,
but anyway, I hope you learned at least a little something new and hopefully, I’ll
see you next time!