She’s not called the deadliest woman in the galaxy for nothing. Our next stop on the Guardians of the Galaxy train is Gamora. The green skinned assassin will hit the screens this August, played by Zoe Saldana who has done her fair share of butt kicking in her catalog of roles. Much like Drax, Gamora has a background deeply entrenched in the Marvel Universe and has a rich history that’s spread over the decades. The only woman on the team (for now anyway as there’s a slew of them to choose from within the Guardians’ roster for potential sequels), Gamora is a character who will slash first and ask questions later. Hit the jump to read on.

If you've missed any of our other character profiles, be sure to check out Star-Lord, Groot, and Drax the Destroyer.

Complicated Past

So you all remember Thanos right? You should, I’ve mentioned him about a thousand times in these articles at this point, but to reiterate, Thanos was the bloke smiling after the credits in The Avengers. He also happens to be Gamora’s adopted father. That’s right, Gamora is the last of her race (which seems to be a pretty common trait for aliens in comic book lore) and was raised by the Mad Titan in order to become the weapon he thought she could be. Thanos was almost too successful in fact, as Gamora broke free from his influence and began hunting down and killing those responsible for the murder of her family and her race. All this, of course, happened far after the scene pictured above wherein Thanos gave Gamora a doll for Christmas (showing that the purple faced grouch isn’t all bad!) during a past Marvel Christmas Special. During her travels immediately following her escape, she hooked up with a man named Adam Warlock, another Guardian of the Galaxy who did not make the cut to the silver screen, and along with Drax and others, patrolled the universe as part of the Infinity Watch.

Eventually, Gamora went on the outs with the team, even giving up the Time Gem, which was given to her by Warlock for safe keeping, though she didn’t swallow it as Drax had with the Power gem. The green skinned killer returned to her roots however, as she eventually became the de facto queen of a number of assassins on a world straight in the crossfire of the “Annihilation Wave”. The Annihilation saga, which was the platform used to reintroduce many of the Guardians back into the Marvel Universe proper, found Gamora wielding a sword called Godslayer and fighting her way through bugs and robots, to eventually find her place among the Guardians.

Master Assassin

So what makes Gamora so dangerous? Well, originally she was taught the secret art of Thanos-fu, which is a martial art style in which Thanos imparted upon Gamora during a time of...I’m just kidding. Gamora was experimented upon by Thanos in order to become a devastating weapon, with the intention of taking out the evil double of Adam Warlock, The Magus! Just a head’s up, comic books are weird. Anyway, Gamora has enhanced strength, speed, and agility, as well as an advanced healing factor that once allowed her to be burned practically to the bone and come away from it good as new in a few days time. She also knows any number of martial arts and stealth skills which allow her to get the drop on any target, along with her variety of weapons, including some very, VERY sharp swords.

Gamora is such an accomplished martial artists, that she has taken down battalions on her own with no weapons, so you could make the argument that she’s the biggest gun the Guardians have going for them. She also is able to employ “Batman-esque” skills in hitting nerve points on opponents, incapacitating and/or killing them with one minor tap.

Lights! Camera! DEATHSTRIKE!

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Saldana is no stranger to playing characters of the sci-fi variety. A veteran of both the Avatar and Star Trek films, Saldana even played an assassin similar to Gamora in the pseudo-sequel to The Professional, Colombiana. This also isn’t the first comic book movie that she’s been in, making her comic debut in the Warner Brothers’ film, The Losers, which was originally published by DC/Vertigo. It will be interesting to see if Guardians of the Galaxy retains the angle of Gamora being Thanos’ adoptive daughter, thereby being the aunt to Nebula (another villain of the film professing to be Thanos granddaughter.) as so many of the Guardians seem to have some personal connection to Thanos, but such is the way of comic book movies these days, I suppose.