Fans of Marvel’s current Guardians of the Galaxy series will most definitely be familiar with the simplistic yet memorable dialogue of Groot, the cosmic tree king who seemingly bellows the sole statement “I am Groot.”
However, in the recent conclusion to War of Kings it was revealed that Groot is actually quite brilliant, even though to human ears it appears he is only ever asserting his identity. Based on Groot’s first appearance in Tales to Astonish #13 (1960), which I read in the Annihilation Classic hardcover collection, it seems there was some precedence for the tree being’s talkative nature. Written by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber with art by the incomparable Jack Kirby, Groot’s first appearance in a Marvel comic features one the most hilarious villain speeches I’ve ever read.
(Sorry for the fuzziness on the left side of the image. It’s tough to smoosh down a hardcover enough to scan it properly.)
Truly hilarious and glorious! Definitely a classic!
And if you enjoyed that Grooty goodness, check out some of the other Great Comic Quotes I’ve scanned in on EoP.
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Holy freakin’ wow. It always strikes me how through-line can be lost or dramatically altered over the years. I also had no idea Groot was that old. I was really loving Guardians of the Galaxy during the Annihilation stories and Groot is probably the best character. I love how he died and came back tiny.
“I am Groot, overlord of all the timber in the galaxy!”
Hilarious.
I love that line! If I had to choose the most excellent portion of this amazing speech, that’d be it.
I can just see Stan Lee going, “Ok…I have a master of magnetism…I’ve got Doctor Doom…what about a king of all the trees in the universe?! Brilliant! I’ll let Kirby draw it and it’ll be awesome no matter how ridiculous a Universal Tree King sounds! I mean, sheeeeeeit, Tolkien did it. In Kirby’s hands, we’re set!”
geez, i think i dated groot my sophmore year… Btw, in north korea groot is a communist delicacy. And of course groot’s arch enemy would be paul bunyan…. Jack kirby sounds more like a 3rd baseman than a comic artist (i know who jack kirby is…)