The Evolution of Mantis(Brandt): The Mistress of The Martial Arts

[brerrabbit]

From Avengers #114







Avengers: Celestial Quest explains about her origins and grand destiny.


And now she is working with The Guardians of The Galaxy(2023) as a... Saloon Girl?

Comments

[blues32]

Hey, blame Guardians of the Galaxy Part II for this bizarre change. Seriously, from Celestial Madonna to...what appears to be a shape/personality changer...with antennae.

[beyondthefringe]

Yeah, she’s been through some stuff. For a while, she was green. Now she’s pink.
If you told me that the real Mantis was in a cocoon somewhere while this imposter stole her life, I’d believe it.

[scorntx]

It's a particularly lazy Space Phantom who couldn't be bothered reading Immortus's brief.
Because it's always a Space Phantom.

[cainofdreaming]

The antennae she already had before the first movie, though.

[coldfury]

To be fair, Pre-Movie GotG Mantis was already a pretty big leap away from Avengers era Mantis.

In my opinion, the bigger subsummation here is Nebula, who has completely transformed into her movie counterpart.

[cainofdreaming]

Drax is another one. Weirdly, though, he didn't transform into his movie counterpart, or even a MCU character, rather than Riddick.

[mastermahan]

If anyone was going to be Riddick, I would have expected Groot.

[blues32]

Okay, now I want to see Pitch Black, but with all of Riddick's lines made into "I am Groot."

[super_fly]

The Guardians Of The Galaxy game version of Mantis is the best adaptation of her imo. Mind powers, martial arts, extendable wrist blades, constantly talking about different timelines of whatever's happening at that moment, gets to have mind-control piggy-back rides.

[zylly]

I just played that recently and she was definitely one of the best parts of the game.

[super_fly]

I really want to know which martial arts grace you with mystic knowledge because I did Tae Kwon Do for a few years and not once did we learn to summon a giant armoured warrior god.

[beyondthefringe]

Pretty sure it's Miyagi-do karate.

[cainofdreaming]

Or Sinanju.

[bravest_spinja]

Yeah the movies have really put their own spin on the Guardians, but I can't say it's bothered me too much with Mantis.

Even if she wasn't kind of a collection of not very PC attributes, even if "characters who's "powers" are something like "hand to hand combat on overdrive" weren't something the Avengers could kind of use less, even if she wasn't a pet character of Steve Englehart, possibly the least self-aware writer in comic, (Yes, more than John Byrne. Yes, more than Chuck Austen.) there's no way a "Celestial Madonna" can be used as a recurring character in a long-running superhero universe. Pom Klementieff's oddball charm is a good trade, IMO.

[bradygirl_12]

That would be a clever ploy to get the Avengers to trust them.