Nebula is an alien character from Marvel Comics who also appears in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in which she is portrayed by Scottish actress Karen Gillan. She appears in Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
History[]
Nebula is a Luphomoid who was adopted by Thanos and trained to be a perfect assassin, though her prowess always fell short of that of her adoptive sister Gamora. Thanos would regularly pit his two daughters together in combat and Gamora won every time, thus Thanos would attempt to "improve" Nebula by modifying her with cybernetic implants. By 2014, most of Nebula's body had been replaced with machinery, though she would still never be able to best Gamora.
By 2017, Nebula had buried her rivalry with Gamora after the two helped the Guardians of the Galaxy to destroy the evil Celestial, Ego. Having come to despise Thanos, she returned to the Mad Titan's side with the intention of killing him. However, her treachery was discovered before she could carry out the assassination.
In 2018, Thanos had set about gathering the six Infinity Stones so that he could bring balance to the universe by wiping out 50% of all life. After capturing Gamora on Knowhere, he took her to see Nebula who was being held prisoner and tortured by having her cybernetics pulled from her body. By torturing Nebula, Thanos forced Gamora into giving up the location of the Soul Stone, which the Mad Titan later obtained on Vormir by sacrificing Gamora for the Stone. While this was happening, Nebula escaped from the Sanctuary II aboard a Necrocraft. She later tracked down the Guardians of the Galaxy who were on Thanos' ruined homeworld of Titan, in the midst of battling the warlord for the Infinity Stones along with the Earth heroes Iron Man, Spider-Man and Doctor Strange.
Nebula entered the battle after crashing her fighter into Thanos. Despite having three Guardians and three Avengers fighting with her, the Mad Titan was still too powerful to defeat. In the end, Thanos succeeded in claiming the Time Stone and then disappeared, travelling to Earth to acquire the last Stone. Shortly after that, Nebula and Iron Man witnessed the deaths of Dr. Strange, Star-Lord, Drax, Mantis and Spider-Man, all of whom fell victim to the Snap unleashed by Thanos after he completed the Infinity Gauntlet. The two survivors then left Titan aboard the Benatar, but soon ran out of fuel. They would have been left to drift in space and die from oxygen starvation had they not been found by Captain Marvel and brought back to Earth under her power.
Shortly after the Avengers' reunion, they refueled the Benatar and tracked down Thanos to a small planet where the former warlord was living alone. Nebula and the others ambushed Thanos in his home, demanding that he surrender the Infinity Gauntlet, but the Mad Titan explained that he had destroyed the Infinity Stones in order to prevent exactly what the Avengers wanted them for: reversing the Snap. In a fit of vengeful rage, Thor killed Thanos by decapitating him with Stormbreaker.
In the five years following the Decimation, Nebula had been working with the surviving Avengers in maintaining the peace on Earth as well as providing aid to other worlds affected by the Snap. However, after Ant-Man returned from the Quantum Realm, the Avengers learned that they could travel back in time via tunneling the Quantum Realm, entering alternate timelines to retrieve the Infinity Stones long before Thanos got a hold of them. During this "time heist", Nebula accompanied War Machine to Morag in 2014 where they acquired the Power Stone. The other heroes also succeeded in acquiring their assigned Stones and used their combined power to undo the Decimation, restoring all the lives that Thanos had erased. After a final battle against the 2014 version of Thanos, Nebula left Earth along with the Guardians of the Galaxy in order to find the 2014 incarnation of Gamora, who had left ahead of the others to parts unknown.
Alternate Incarnation[]
While Nebula survives the events of Infinity War and Endgame and turns against Thanos, her alternate self from 2014 remains loyal to the Mad Titan. When Nebula and War Machine arrived in the alternate 2014, a neural link was unwittingly established between the 2023 Nebula and her 2014 self. Through this link, the 2014 incarnation of Thanos learned that his future self had succeeded in erasing half of all life and that the Avengers were now trying to undo his victory. Thanos set course for Morag and sent Nebula to capture her future self, which she succeeded in. Nebula 2023 attempted to activate her Pym Particle device in order to return to her time, but her cybernetics malfunctioned due to the link between her and Nebula 2014, leaving her prone and vulnerable. War Machine, meanwhile, returned to 2023 with the Power Stone.
Nebula 2014 interrogated her future self and was disgusted to learn how she had betrayed Thanos. Learning of how her future self had managed to travel through time, Nebula 2014 removed some of her superficial implants and donned her future self's Quantum Suit. With this disguise, she travelled to 2023 in her counterpart's place, pretending to be her in order to get close to the Avengers' Quantum Tunnel without arousing suspicion. She then sabotaged the device and used her neural link to lock on to her future self and allow Thanos to travel to 2023, bringing his entire army with him.
As the Avengers fought against Thanos, Nebula was sent after Hawkeye who was carrying the Nano Gauntlet fitted with the Infinity Stones. She managed to corner him, but was then attacked by her 2023 self who had been freed by Gamora 2014. As Hawkeye went to join the Avengers, Nebula 2023 held her alternate self at gunpoint, urging her to leave Thanos, but Nebula 2014 could not imagine a life where she did not serve the Mad Titan. Gamora tried to get through to her too, laying down her arms as a show of good faith. Nebula 2014 tried to take advantage of this and shoot Gamora, but Nebula 2023 was quicker on the draw and shot first, striking her alternate self in the heart and killing her.