Mantis (Earth-17628)

Mantis was a female psychic being who was modified to have psychic powers. She was a fanatic and a member of an extremist group called the Universal Believers. Mantis believed that Star-Lord would overthrow the tyrant king of Spartax J'son. She as well as the other members of the Universal Believers believed that with the power of faith anything could be accomplished and that out of a cocoon would come a being that would bring universal peace.^{[citation needed]}

Mantis fought several times against the Guardians of the Galaxy as the Guardians opposed the actions of the Universal Believers. When the cosmic being Adam Warlock was born, Mantis and the other Believers knelt before Warlock and wanted the newborn Warlock to be handed to their group but the Guardians prevented this and took Warlock away.^{[citation needed]}

After Sam Alexander found and got hold of the Nova helmet, he met Mantis and she convinced him that she knew someone who would help him find his missing father, who he was looking for. The Guardians of the Galaxy appeared and tried to convince Sam not to trust her, but Mantis gave him coordinates and Sam left the place. Mantis fought the Guardians and revealed that the place they were at had batteries that worked for anyone who has faith. Rocket Raccon had faith and he along with the other Guardians, except Star-Lord, used faith as a weapon to fight Mantis and her faith energy duplicates. Star-Lord couldn't bring himself to believe and angrily destroyed the faith batteries, and they managed to defeat Mantis.^{[citation needed]}

The Guardians managed to track down Nova thanks to the tracking chip that Rocket put in the helmet and found him talking to J'son. Through trickery, J'son convinced Nova he also wished to help him find his father, and Nova along with J'son and Mantis fled the scene.^{[citation needed]}

Later, Rocket modified Star-Lord's Element Gun to track J'son's Element Gun. The Guardians were swallowed by a space whale and inside the whale they found a ship where Nova along with J'son and Mantis set a trap, and Nova buried the Guardians. J'son, Nova and Mantis arrived to a room where there were many supernova helmets. The Guardians arrived at the place and Nova immobilized them. Mantis grabbed one of the helmets, gave it to J'son and he put it on her. Mantis claimed to feel power surging through her body yet unfortunately the helmet she chose was the wrong one, so instead Mantis perished as the helmet petrified her and turned her to ash.^{[citation needed]}

• Psychic Powers

• Combatant