Truth be told I originally wanted to write this in Groot language but decided not to. Okay. Fine. “I am Groot”. Introduced in Annihilation: Conquest – Starlord #1 by Keith Giffen and Timothy Green II, Groot was exiles from his planet when he killed a cruel sapling who was about to kill a small creature and human. He was eventually jailed by the Kree, where he met his best friend Rocket, with him being the only person who could understand what Groot was saying. They were assigned to join Starlord’s strike team to stop the Phalanx but Groot’s body was nearly fully destroy wave for a twig. This twig was planet and grown in a pot by Rocket. They would join the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Rocket and a fully grown Groot would be kidnapped by Mojo and force to take part in one of his reality shows before they escaped and rejoined the Guardians. They would travel to Earth and help the Avengers battle Thanos. In a team up with the time-displaced X-men, Groot gained an upgrade when he encountered the Black Vortex. He would eventually get destroyed again and was grown by Rocket into a baby form. (This of course was due to the popularity of MCU’s Baby Groot.) He would battle and heal the crazed Gardener, who rewarded Groot by not only restoring his body but also allowed him to talk in proper langauge albeit in the third person.

Groot was never really a popular or even known character, up until the GOTG was relaunched in the Prime universe. Even then it was only when he made the jump to the MCU that he became extremely popular. He has had only one figure though that being a Entertainment Earth exclusive, which was just a new head on the MCU body.