Mantis

"She just told everyone your deepest, darkest secret!"

- Drax the Destroyer

Mantis is a young empathic woman raised by Ego and recruited as a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Since she was a kid, Mantis helped Ego with her powers until the Guardians of the Galaxy came on Ego's planet. She allied with them and helped to prevent Ego from conquering the Galaxy, joining the Guardians.

Early Years
Mantis lived alone with Ego since she was a larvae, and as such is naive, and does not know much about how to interact with people.

Meeting the Guardians of the Galaxy
Mantis first saw the Guardians in planet Berhert, where Ego introduced himself to them. Even though she was insecure, she managed to bond with the Guardians, and even betrayed her "master", Ego, by telling Drax what the latter did with his own children.

Battle on Ego's Planet
After being encouraged by Drax, Mantis was able to use her powers to make Ego sleep, keeping him from fighting for a few minutes, almost until Baby Groot managed to put a bomb on Ego's core. She was knocked unconscious by Ego's power, and Drax carried her to the surface so they could be rescued. She remained with the Guardians after this.

Powers and Abilities
"When I touch someone, I can feel their feelings."

- Mantis to Guardians of the Galaxy


 * Empathy: Mantis can sense a person's emotions and feelings through mere touch making her antennas light-up. She was able to feel that Star-Lord was attracted to Gamora just by touching his hand.
 * Emotion Manipulation: Mantis is also able to manipulate emotions to some degree. For example, she can make a sad person happy, or calm down an angry one.
 * Inducing Sleep: Mantis can, also through touch, cause a person to fall asleep almost instantly. This technique can even incapacitate an enraged Celestial, but doing so requires a lot of willpower.

Allies

 * Guardians of the Galaxy - Teammates
 * Peter Quill/Star-Lord
 * Gamora
 * Drax the Destroyer
 * Rocket Raccoon
 * Groot
 * Yondu Udonta †
 * Nebula - Former Teammate
 * Ravagers
 * Kraglin Obfonteri

Enemies

 * Sovereign
 * Ayesha
 * Ego † - Master turned Enemy

Trivia

 * In the comics, Mantis was a human of Vietnamese and German descent whose father left her in the care of a sect of the Kree Empire called the Priests of Pama, who raised her with the intent of eventually mating her with the Cotati to produce a Celestial Messiah, as part of their religious prophecies. She later had her memory wiped and was sent to live alongside mankind to gain life experience, and has been a member of the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Fantastic Four and the Inhumans on various occasions.

Behind the Scenes

 * In an interview, executive producer Jonathan Schwartz said “She has never really experienced social interaction, everything she learns about dealing with people, she learns from the Guardians of the Galaxy, which is a very weird group to learn your social intricacies from.”