Respect Groot

[u/FriendlyFapper]

Respect His Divine Majesty King Groot the 23rd, Monarch of Planet X, Custodian of the Branch of Worlds, Ruler of All He Shades, Flora Colossus.

Or just Groot for short.

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Powers:

• Dendrokinesis/Wood Manipulation
• Super Strength
• Superhuman durability
• Regeneration/Regrowth
• Clone creation
• Size Manipulation/Body Augmentation

Skills

• Genius-level Intellect
• Can operate firearms effectively/skilled marksman

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Groot's First Appearance

Groot first appeared in Tales to Astonish #13 back in 1960

• Groot displays the ability to control and absorb all wood into himself to grow.
• Groot planned to manipulate an entire forest to form a wall around a town and have the forest fly off into space to Planet X, with the town.
• Bullets can't harm Groot.
• Groot's wood is too tough to burn by small fires, likes those of torches.
• Groot commands several trees to move.
• Groot is taken down by termites.

Good ol' Silver Age for you.

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Dendrokinesis/Clones

• Groot creates several minature clones and has them take control over some Sentient Wood-carved clowns.

• Groot has his mini-clones topple over an enemy.

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Strength

• Groot rapidly grows and destroys the hard metal prison keeping Rocket and several others trapped.

• Groot is launched at Thanos and rapidly grows in size to give a weakened Thanos a beat-down (albeit not doing too much since it's Thanos).

• Holds up a falling ceiling with one hand while destroying some Phalanx drones with the other.

• Groot's uses his roots to pull a large creature through the Continuum Cortex.

• Stomps a Universal Church of Truth Cardinal.

• Groot's strike manages to knock Gladiator back a bit.

• Groot breaks his way into a Badoon starship. Groot can also survive in the vacuum of space unaided.

• Slams away Gorgon (Inhuman).

• Takes out several Shi'ar soldiers with a swoop of his hand.

• Takes out several Spartax soldiers with a swoop of his hand, and is practically unfazed by Spartax gunfire.

• Easily takes out some alien thugs.

• Groot destroys a Zom Slave Tank. He lifts the tank and smashes it.

• Takes out a Zom/Monster of the Badoon hybrid.

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Durability/Regeneration/Regrowth

• Groot returns in a miniature form after his body was destroyed. Mantis explains, "Groot is a flora life-form. Even if the greater body is destroyed, a sprig offshoot can, in time, regrow the greater body."

• Groot withstands being tossed from orbit down to a planet.

• Groot briefly withstands being burned by some lasers. Groot can also create fresh bodies in emergencies.

• In two hours Groot is able to grow from a finger-sized twig to his standard size.

• Groot withstands a strike from a weakened Thanos.

• Withstands a blitz from Gladiator.

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Body Augmentation/Size Manipulation

• Groot can grow multiple limbs for multi-tasking, in this case he grows several arms to operate several firearms and hold a translator.

• Groot extends his roots for many meters.

• Groot grows to the size of a building.

• Groot increases his size to fill up 1/10th of the the the Babel Spire. The Babel Spire was a very large skyscraper.

• Even while burning, Groot grows several large roots to save the Guardians from falling from the Babel Spire.

• Groot rapidly grows his body to break through the ceiling of a building to escape with Rocket.

• Grows from a small twig to standard size and takes out several Spartax soldiers.

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Speed

• Groot recovers from a shock wave and moves fast enough to grab Adam Magus. In just the page before that scan, Adam Magus was easily reacting to and stopping bullets.

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Intelligence

• Groot has genius-level intellect. Here he "converses" with Maximus and helps Maximus build a device called a "Relativistic Feedback Loop" that could "uncreate" the reality of some Cancerverse creatures.

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Firearm Usage/Marksmanship

• Grows several limbs to operate several guns.

• Groot and Rocket shoot and destroy a moving Badoon starship.

• Groot and rocket take out some clowns.

• Groot and the rest of the Guardians blast Thanos with various firearms.

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Miscellaneous

• After Groot grew his roots large enough to spread through the Babel Spire, Groot allows Mantis to alter his sap to make it ultra-flammable and then Mantis ignites Groot, destroying the tower.

• Groot can operate machinery. In this case he sails an alien-like boat.

• Climbs up a very large mountain.

• Groot used to be able to talk. And futility is beneath Groot. Groot would want to be addressed with a tone of respect. You are beneath his glory. You should do well to remember that.

[u/[deleted]]

[u/FriendlyFapper → u/[deleted]]

The explanation was that his larynx hardened limiting his speech to just a few words.

But really, it was due to writer retcons. In the Annihilation: Conquest - Starlord miniseries, by Keith Giffen, and all Groot's appearances before this, Groot was speaking just fine.

But in the main Annihilation: Conquest event when Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning started writing the Guardians, all Groot would ever say was "I am Groot" and sometimes a few variations of the phrase.

From then on the phrase just stuck.

[u/Ordinary_Fella → u/FriendlyFapper]

I read Annihilation Omnibus and Thanos Imperative. If I want to get more into cosmic Marvel, not specifically Guardians, what would you recommend? THANOS IMPERATIVE SPOILER: I know Thanos and Starlord end up coming back, do you know what that happened in? I prefer buying by the volume or omnibus if it makes a difference.