Characters / MCU: Nebula

Main Character Index > Heroic Organizations > Guardians of the Galaxy > Peter Quill | Gamora | Drax | Rocket Raccoon | Groot | Yondu Udonta | Nebula

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Spoilers for all works set prior to the end of Avengers: Endgame are unmarked.

Nebula

"You were the one who wanted to win. And I just wanted a sister!"

Species: Enhanced Luphomoid

Affiliation(s): Children of Thanos (formerly), Ronan (formerly), Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers (formerly)

Portrayed By: Karen Gillan^{Foreign voice actors}María E. Sandoval (Latin-American Spanish dub), Cecilia Santiago (European Spanish dub), Natsuki Mori (Japanese dub), Laëtitia Lefebvre (European French dub), Kim Jalabert (Canadian French dub), Gabriela Medeiros (Brazilian Portuguese dub), Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russian dub)

Appearances: Guardians of the Galaxy | Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 | Avengers: Infinity War | Avengers: Endgame | Thor: Love and Thunder | The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special | Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

"I will hunt my father like a dog and I will tear him apart slowly, piece by piece, until he knows some semblance of the profound and unceasing pain I know every. Single. Day."

The Luphomoid daughter of Thanos, she has been cybernetically enhanced to become a savage killer. Though initially aligned with Thanos's crusade, she develops more noble qualities over time, eventually breaking free from her dark past to form a close bond with her sister Gamora before joining the Guardians of the Galaxy.

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• 11th-Hour Ranger: Nebula is the last of the heroes to arrive for the battle against Thanos on Titan.
• Achilles' Heel: Her cybernetics make her virtually immune to physical damage, as her body automatically resets itself, but injuries that alter her chemical composition such as being shot in the chest with a plasma rifle remain.
• Action Girl: Her martial skills are on par with that of her adoptive sister Gamora.
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • In the comics, Nebula is a straight-up villain. This version of Nebula ends up reforming and goes on her own quest to defeat Thanos.
  • In Endgame, she joins The Avengers for five years and officially joins the Guardians at the end of the film.
• Adaptational Ugliness: OG Nebula was a tall, beautiful woman with luscious black hair, light blue skin and Icy Blue Eyes. MCU Nebula is a Plain Jane at best due to Thanos’ “improvements”.
• Adaptational Wimp: In the original Infinity Gauntlet saga, Nebula actually steals the completed Infinity Gauntlet from Thanos and usurps Thanos as the Big Bad, becoming the True Final Boss of the miniseries. Nebula never comes close to doing anything like this in the movies.
• Affectionate Nickname: Tony Stark refers to her as Blue Meanie when recording his message to Pepper while stranded on the Benetar, although the level of affection is up for debate as he also calls her "only a little bit sadistic."
• Alas, Poor Villain: Her 2014 self is killed by her present self in Endgame after pulling a Redemption Rejection. However, considering how said Redemption Rejection seemed to be more motivated out of fear than anything else, and her present self seems genuinely conflicted before killing her, it's hard not to feel some sympathy for her.
• All There in the Manual: The first issue of the prelude comic focuses a lot on her; the first line of its synopsis is "Who is Nebula."
• Aloof Ally: Nebula becomes something of an ally to the Guardians in Vol. 2 after she's finally able to let her resentments towards Gamora go. It's not until the end of Avengers: Endgame that Nebula officially joins the crew.
• Alternate Self: Nebula has two alternate counterparts: one on Earth-21818 and another on Earth-72124. She also encounters (and kills) her past self in Endgame.
• Always Someone Better: Revealed in Vol. 2 that she got her cybernetic implants because Gamora and herself would duel for Thanos, with the loser getting a body part replaced with a cybernetic implant. The fact that she's mostly a cyborg and Gamora isn't shows who was the better fighter, which Nebula resented.
• An Arm and a Leg:
  • In the prelude comic for the first movie, it's revealed how she gained most of her cybernetics. The first time was when she and Gamora were made to fight in a training exercise and Gamora threw her off a cliff. The second time was when she rushed ahead during a mission and got caught in a trap, Thanos demanded Gamora leave her behind, but before she did, Gamora gave Nebula a knife which she used to cut her flesh out of the trap, which includes her entire left arm.
  • Vol. 2 further elaborates that Thanos made Nebula and Gamora spar against each other not just once, but many times, and Gamora always won; something that Nebula resents deeply.
• Antagonistic Offspring: By Vol. 2, she only has hatred for Thanos and is willing to team up with Gamora and the Guardians if it means his destruction.
• Anti-Villain: Nebula is a ruthless killer, but it's all but outright stated that she never wanted to become Thanos's living weapon, making her a victim of the Mad Titan. She also has some affection for Gamora despite the bad blood between them, and became Ronan's lieutenant not out of malice, but simply because Ronan was The Starscream against Thanos and shared her goals of toppling him. This is expanded upon in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, with the explanation for her hatred of Gamora.
  Nebula: You're the one who wanted to win, and I just wanted a sister!
• Arm Cannon: After receiving an upgrade some time before Vol. 3, her mechanical arm can be reconfigured into a cannon that's powerful enough to knock away Adam Warlock.
• Ascended Extra: She started out as a relatively minor antagonist for Gamora and the Guardians, by extension. However, following her character development in Vol. 2 and Infinity War, she has a large character arc in Endgame, larger than any of the other Guardians, helped by the fact that everyone else aside from Rocket is dead. Her unreformed past self is also the catalyst for the entire final battle of said film. In fact, only the main three Avengers have more screentime than Nebula◊ in Endgame.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Nebula's approach for killing Gamora and Thanos in Vol. 2 and Infinity War is to just charge at them guns screaming, then trying to park whatever ship she's flying on them. Once that's done, she leaps out of the smoldering wreckage to keep attacking. At least she's consistent...
• Badass in Distress:
  • She starts Vol. 2 as a captive of the Sovereign, with Gamora and the Guardians making a deal to at least stop the Sovereign from executing her by transferring her to imprisonment under the Nova Corps instead.
  • When she turns up in Infinity War, she's been captured and tortured by Thanos after nearly managing to kill him. She does manage to break herself out, but only after Thanos tortures her to coerce Gamora into revealing the Soul Stone's location.
  • It happens to her again in Endgame, and once again it's Gamora who saves her. One can see how she might start to acquire a complex about her sister at this point.
• Bad Liar: Thanos intentionally never taught his adopted children to lie, and much like Gamora, Nebula is terrible at it. Baby Groot is the only one she's able to successfully lie to, and even he took some convincing.
• Bald of Evil: Not a hair on this professional assassin's head.
• Bald Head of Toughness: Nebula is a bald, Cyborg, Dark Action Girl who has Super-Strength and Super-Toughness. The years of torture she suffered under Thanos as he forced more cybernetic upgrades on her to make her stronger has hardened her emotionally. She is also characterized as a Determinator, shown by her ability to establish herself as the new leader of the Ravagers even when she's down a hand in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. This continuity's bonus material states that baldness is a racial trait of Luphomoids - although there is some disagreement amongst the different creators.
• Bash Siblings: With Gamora and the other Guardians of the Galaxy.
• Bifurcated Weapon: She can combine her two Electroshock Batons into one to make a staff.
• Big Damn Heroes: In Infinity War, she arrives on Titan just in time to slow down Thanos as he's about to overpower the other heroes, though Star-Lord's Tragic Mistake ultimately undoes her efforts.
• Big Sister Instinct: Though she's ostensibly the younger sister, this trope is very much in play towards Gamora after they reconcile towards the end of Vol. 2, and carries over into Infinity War. When confronting Thanos on Titan in the latter film after he's absconded with her sister, Nebula's first words aren't a death threat like one might expect but an absolutely furious "Where is Gamora!?"
• Black Eyes of Evil: Her eyes appear to be completely black, though in bonus material it is stated as a racial trait of Luphomoids to have no pupils.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: One of the things her mechanical arm can do is morph into a blade that is sharp and durable enough to skewer Adam Warlock.
• Blue Is Heroic: Nebula has primarily blue skin and she eventually joins the Guardians of the Galaxy in Vol. 2 and the Avengers in Avengers: Endgame.
• Body Horror:
  • She is not in good shape after being struck with a missile, but her mangled body just pops all the broken bones and dislocated joints back into place. The prelude comics reveal this is unusual for her.
  • Vol. 2 reveals that her cybernetic parts came from Thanos hacking away at her body to make her a better killer. According to Nebula, this includes ripping out one of her eyes and removing and replacing part of her brain.
  • In Infinity War, we see just how extensive Nebula's cybernetics are when he places her in a prison/torture device that uses magnetic fields to literally pull her to pieces.
  • Endgame has her reach out and take the Power Stone by her mechanical hand, which still burns in a way that horrifies War Machine; her past self is also placed inside the torture device to extract information when her present self arrive in 2014.
• Broken Bird: Like Gamora, torn from her homeworld and enslaved to Thanos as his living weapon, with the added twist that Thanos's forced competition between her and Gamora would see her become progressively cybernetically augmented against her will whenever she lost. She is ruthlessly effective but with an unyielding desire to kill Thanos as slowly and brutally as possible.
• Brutal Honesty: Has a very blunt personality and makes zero effort to sugarcoat anything, especially if it's a poor opinion on something or someone. This, along with Thanos never teaching her how to lie, makes a Bad Liar.
• But Now I Must Go:
  • After succeeding in taking down Ego, Nebula leaves the Guardians to continue her crusade against Thanos.
  • After working with the Avengers for five years in Endgame, Nebula elects to reunite with the Guardians of the Galaxy and take off to parts unknown.
• Cain and Abel:
  • With Gamora, although Nebula claims that out of all their adopted siblings, she hated Gamora the least (then again, with bloodthirsty monsters like Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight also being related to her and Gamora that's not really saying much), right before blasting her ship and nearly killing her, though Nebula obviously takes no pleasure from it. Instead of continuing her later fight with Gamora, after hijacking a fighter, a heavy advantage, she just leaves.
  • Vol. 2 goes on to reveal that back when they were children, Gamora was very much the Cain in their relationship. However, they resolve their issues with each other by the end of the film.
  • Endgame heavily implies that she also had this relationship with Ebony Maw in the past. When her 2014 variant is captured and analyzed by both him and Thanos to figure out the Avengers' time travel plan, Maw is quick to suggest the idea of Nebula being a traitor, and gleefully begins choking her with a chain as she begs for mercy.
• Casting Gag: This is not the first time Karen Gillan plays a character who travels through space and time.
• Celebrity Paradox: Doctor Who has been referenced a number of times in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and The Runaways, Nebula's actress Karen Gillan plays Amy Pond in the show.
• Character Development: She goes from secondary villain in Guardians to one of the heroes who appears the most in Endgame while rediscovering her humanity and her empathy. It's very noticeable once the Avenger Nebula meets the original Nebula from 2014.
• Co-Dragons:
  • With Korath, to Ronan. Of the two, she gets more screentime, although she's not quite as loyal as Korath is.
  • Her 2014 self shares the role with Maw to Thanos.
• The Comically Serious: Even more so than her own sister. Nebula is hilariously stoic and intense, even when saying or doing things that are crazy and ridiculous. This comes with the gag that while Nebula thinks she's Surrounded by Idiots, her unrelenting intensity often makes her as silly as the rest of them. It mostly shows up in Vol 2 (as she's forced to interact with the Ravagers and then the Guardians) and Endgame (where for being paired with regular Earthlings, starting with Tony Stark, her demeanor gets even more contrasting). Endgame shows this early on when she very earnestly plays paper football with Tony.
• Contralto of Strength: She has a very low, growly voice, and speaks in an almost constantly threatening tone that matches her deadly skill in combat. It's inspired by Marilyn Monroe and Clint Eastwood.
• Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Of the two adoptive daughters of Thanos shown in GOTG, the heavily augmented Nebula is shown to be far more ruthless and bloodthirsty than the more calm and professional Gamora. Vol. 2 reveals that it wasn't the cybernetics, but the way she got them — being forced to compete with her beloved sister and then having parts of her body ripped off and replaced with cybernetics every time she lost — that ate away at Nebula.
• Cyborg: She's been heavily augmented by Thanos, with her most obvious enhancements being a cybernetic arm and eye. In fact, she's been altered so much that her entire body can put itself (painfully) back together even if she's been directly struck by a rocket or caught in the middle of an explosion.
• Daddy Issues: She is a pretty angry woman, with some daddy issues.
• Dark Action Girl: She is the daughter of an evil overlord loaned out to an Ax-Crazy terrorist, after all.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Implied. Nebula states that Thanos made her into a monster, but doesn't elaborate in the movie. The prelude comics show that its much the same as Gamora's but without the favoritism. Vol. 2 expands on this by explaining that Gamora and Nebula would fight for Thanos's favor and Gamora would always try to win. Thanos would then force a cybernetic augmentation upon Nebula for losing and then they would start the cycle over again. Gamora constantly winning meant that Nebula was forcibly turned into a cyborg because Gamora simply couldn't see that her desire for victory was robbing Nebula of her biology.
• Dark Is Not Evil: She wears a black outfit in Thor: Love and Thunder, but she's no longer a villain by this time and is now an full-time member of the Guardians of the Galaxy.
• Dead Alternate Counterpart: In Endgame, Nebula encounters her past self in the Time Heist and later kills her in the final battle to save Hawkeye and the past version of Gamora.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • She's quite glib about Thanos's very violent threat to Ronan.
    Nebula: Thanks, Dad. Sounds fair.
  • In Endgame, she tells Rhodey to be careful landing at the Avengers Compound; as Nebula puts it, "there's an idiot (Scott Lang) in the landing zone".
• Death Glare: Her default expression.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: She starts as a very cold and violent person, and this carries on after Heel–Face Turn for a while. She is frequently shown to have No Social Skills due to her upbringing, for instance reacting almost violently to a friendly pat on the shoulder and having no idea on how to respond to a hug, and for a while is The Friend Nobody Likes among the Guardians. Her stay with them does see her mellowing considerably though, in particular by striking an Odd Friendship with Rocket, and she eventually becomes capable of giving genuine smiles instead of her usual smirks, even crying Tears of Joy when she learns that Rocket was saved. Finally, she decides to take care of all the people living in Knowhere and is even able to recognise that Drax is better suited for fathering than for destroying.
• Determinator: The prelude comics reveal that no matter how hard she is hit she will get back up stronger than before because "She is Nebula."
• Dies Wide Open: Nebula's past self dies like this after being shot by her future self.
• Distaff Counterpart: Coincidentally serves as one to Loki. Both are unloved by their fatherly figures (Nebula to Thanos; Loki to Odin), all the while growing jealously and hatred towards their older adopted siblings — although, they eventually make up for it (Nebula to Gamora; Loki to Thor). Coincidentally, the inverse happens in Infinity War; Loki sacrifices himself for the Space Stone for Thor, while Gamora (unexpectedly) sacrifices herself for the Soul Stone for Nebula. In fact, Nebula's shifted much closer to Thor in general in terms of this trope by the end of the movie. After having lost basically everything to Thanos, including their beloved adopted siblings that they finally completed their reconciliations with in their previous appearances, the two end the movie even more broken than before, on the same planet as at least one character they didn't even know before Infinity War (Thor has Rocket, Nebula has Tony Stark).
• Do-Anything Robot: Downplayed; she's able to interface with a wide variety of technology without issue (including spaceships, the Organic Technology from Organocorp, and even Rocket's cybernetics) and the Swiss-Army Appendage she gained in Vol. 3 makes her very versatile. However, she doesn't have any other utility functions in the rest of her body.
• The Dragon:
  • She acts as Ronan's highest rated and toughest minion, especially after he turns on Thanos - which is her main desire, both as a villain and as a hero.
  • Her 2014 self as this to Thanos in Endgame.
• Dragon with an Agenda: Ultimately, she only cares about killing Thanos and will do anything to make sure it happens.
• The Dreaded: While not the same extent as Gamora, when around the Ravagers, they tread lightly on account of her being Thanos's daughter.
• Dual Wielding: She fights with two blades.
• Dude, Not Funny!: This is her reaction to Drax laughing at Kraglin's recounting of Yondu wrecking Christmas for Quill in The Holiday Special.
• Due to the Dead: Looks to be a firm believer of this, likely due to the sheer number of deaths she's responsible for:
  • Early in Endgame she moves a collapsed Tony Stark to a more dignified position at the helm of the Benatar, clearly believing that it's over for them both (though it wasn't). Then, of course, during Tony Stark's funeral post-Heroic Sacrifice, she is among the attendees with the most mournful demeanor.
  • After the death of present day Thanos, she closes his eyes for him.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: By the end of Endgame, Thanos and his Children are dead and her sister – the one she doesn't hate – is alive. Although the living Gamora comes from a past where their rivalry was most tense, Nebula, as a new member of the Guardians of the Galaxy, is determined to find and help her. Taken a step further in Vol. 3 after she helps saves Rocket and defeats the High Evolutionary, where she finally retires from the Guardians to help Drax raise the children. The last scene of her is clearly shown at her happiest where she is dancing among the Knowhere denizens.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: For all her viciousness, Nebula does have genuine affection for her sister Gamora, and can't bring herself to kill her in Vol. 2, even reconciling with Gamora by the film's end.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Even Nebula is horrified when she sees the remains of Ego's victims.
  • We see her express extreme alarm when she realizes Thanos is ready to begin his ultimate plan, even though this is (presumably) before turning on him and becoming something resembling an Anti-Hero in Vol. 2.
  • When Drax starts laughing at Kraglin's heartbreaking story about how "Yondu ruined Christmas" for Quill, she just shakes her head at him with a look that screams "The hell's wrong with you, man."
  • When Nebula accesses the High Evolutionary's file on Rocket in Vol. 3, she's nothing short of mortified at what she sees, and explicitly states that what he went through was far worse than anything Thanos did to her.
• Evil Counterpart: To her adopted sister, Gamora. Like Gamora, Nebula lost her family to Thanos and was subsequently "adopted" by him, being transformed into a killing machine. Unlike Gamora, however, Nebula never pulls a Heel–Face Turn during Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), despite her hatred for her adoptive father, and continues to serve Ronan's genocidal agenda. On the other hand, she and Gamora reconcile by the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and by Avengers: Endgame her Heel–Face Turn is complete.
• Evil Sounds Deep: She's a ruthless assassin with a very deep voice.
• Evil Wears Black: Well, a dark purple, though by Vol. 2 it's so battered and worn out that looks black.
• Eye Scream: Her left eye is a prosthetic like most of her body, which means that Thanos removed it and had it replaced. Vol. 3 clarifies that Thanos removed both of them.

F-N

• Fate Worse than Death: Considering she is The Unfavorite to Thanos, sparing her from the snap was an act of Cruel Mercy. She's forced to watch her new comrades die before her eyes, is now stranded on Titan with only Iron Man to keep her company.
• Feel No Pain:
  • She doesn't visibly react to being blasted into a twisted wreck, or to severing her own hand. The latter is a Justified Trope, in that it's clearly cybernetic, but the former is less so. Averted in Infinity War, she is in great pain due to Thanos's torture of him telekinetically dissembling her, stretching out her parts.
  • In Endgame, she also shows no discernable reaction to putting her left arm through the force field protecting the Power Stone on Morag, frying the outer portion and exposing the frame underneath. Makes sense, given that arm is completely mechanical.
• Foil: To Mantis. Both are socially inept alien women who are introduced under the clutches of horrid, callous adoptive father figures (Thanos and Ego respectively) who openly care (for better or worse) more about their other adopted children (Gamora and Peter Quill respectively), while leaving their less-favored adoptive daughters emotionally and socially stunted, albeit with Mantis acting much more outwardly kind to strangers than Nebula. Both also team up with the Guardians to fight against not just their own adoptive fathers but eachother's. But while Mantis ends Vol. 2 staying with the Guardians after Ego is vanquished, Nebula leaves to find a way to kill Thanos, who's still out there. And while Nebula survives the Snap in Infinity War and is forced to live with the knowledge of her adopted sister's death well beforehand, Mantis, knowing something is wrong but not quite realizing what exactly the uncomfortable feeling is, perishes, with Star Lord (revealed to be her half-brother in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special) following shortly thereafter.
• Freudian Excuse: She grew up as The Unfavorite to a very competitive sister and when she fell short of Gamora's accomplishments, Thanos would replace parts of her body with cybernetics. She even said that all she wanted was a sister, not a rival.
• Future Me Scares Me: In Endgame, when 2014 Nebula meets her future heroic self who's turned on Thanos, she is extremely confused and angry at how she could have gone out of her father's shadow.
• Genocide Survivor: She's part of the one half of the universe that wasn't killed by the Snap at the end of Infinity War.
• Gold Makes Everything Shiny: During the Time Skip in Endgame she replaces some of the face-plates in her head and face with shiny gold ones. They don't appear to contain any circuitry so presumably she did so for purely aesthetic reasons - which would make it a hilarious callback to Kraglin's encouragement in GOTG 2 to get herself a nice hat. Her 2014 self steals them and uses them to impersonate her back in 2023.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: Nebula's cybernetics allow her to tank gruesome injuries that would be outright lethal to anyone else; a fight in Vol. 3 has her neck snapped, and she still keeps going before she even begins healing.
• Green-Skinned Space Babe: Blue, specifically. Her outfit isn't as fanservice-y as is usual for this trope, but it is still very tight regardless.
• Handicapped Badass: As a former Dragon she spends part of the second film with only one natural hand and a crude mechanical claw, as she cut off her much more sophisticated cybernetic hand in the climax of the first movie. Until the Ravagers give her a better prosthetic hand, the one she's wearing hardly works.
• Hates Being Touched: Notable through Vol. 2, Nebula really doesn't like being touched. She brushes at her shoulder after Kraglin touches it, and flinches when Gamora tries hugging her. Which is quite common for survivors of child abuse, like Nebula suffered at the hands of Thanos.
• Healing Factor: She got shot point-blank by a rocket launcher and was up and raring to go a few scenes later. We see and hear her bones resetting themselves.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: In Vol. 2, she struggles with joining the Guardians. She ends the film on their side, but leaves to continue her crusade against Thanos. She's fully on the heroes' side by Infinity War, even going as far as to find the Guardians and tell them what happened, then joins the Avengers in Endgame.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: After helping Taserface take over the Ravagers, Nebula receives one of their red leather outfits.
• Hourglass Plot: In the past, both the films had ended with Gamora going with the rest of the Guardians for new adventures while Nebula ran off to venture out on her own. As of Endgame, Nebula ends up taking over her original sister's co-leader position to travel with the rest of the Guardians while the Alternate Gamora has ran off.
• Irony: Nebula is consistently treated as The Unfavorite amongst the Children of Thanos, being seen as nothing more than a living weapon to further the Mad Titan's goals. She's also spared from the Badass Fingersnap in Infinity War, and is thus the only Child of Thanos who's still alive at the end of the film.
• Identical Twin ID Tag: Nebula has burnt orange head plate by 2023. When she time traveled to 2014 and got stuck there, she had a face to face with her past self who still has her original Cobalt blue plate. This actually becomes a plot point when her past self takes her plate and pretends to be her in order to be The Mole.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Although she either can't show affection or refuses to, she does love and care for her sister and eventually, the rest of the Guardians and Avengers as well.
• Killing Your Alternate Self: Nebula kills her past self in order to protect Past Gamora in Endgame. Due to how quantum time travel works, she is unaffected and actually rather proud over this.
• Last of His Kind: At the end of Infinity War, she is the only Child of the original timeline's Thanos who is still alive.
• Lightning Bruiser: Thanks to her cybernetic enhancements, Nebula can tank a lot of damage and keep on going.
• Mirror Character: To Yelena Belova. Both are orphaned at a young age and were taken in by morally dubious people who trained them to become deadly assassins. They also reconcile with their respective adoptive father and sister after leaving their complicated past behind. Nebula, however, was tortured by her adoptive father so that her adoptive sister can reveal the location of the Soul Stone, though she reconciled with him before his death. Yelena reconciles with her adoptive father before she is killed by the Snap and is resurrected after her adoptive sister sacrificed herself to obtain the Soul Stone.
• No Social Skills: Having been raised as a weapon all her life, Nebula is emotionally stunted and has no idea of what normal people do with each other. In Endgame, Stark and her play games to pass the time, but while she recognizes there's some fun in it, she can only say it matter-of-factly.
• Not So Above It All:
  • At the end of Endgame, she agrees with the others' suggestion that Peter and Thor should fight one another for the honor of leading the Guardians of the Galaxy.
  Drax: You [Thor and Quill] should fight one another for the honor of leadership.
  Nebula: Sounds fair.
  • During the Holiday Special, Nebula can be seen swaying to the music Kevin Bacon and his band are playing, and also decides to give Bucky's arm as a gift to Rocket, despite her initially dismissing Christmas as a "triviality".
  • At the end of Vol. 3, Nebula participates in the Dance Party Ending, with her smiling and cheering alongside the other Knowhere residents.
• Not So Stoic:
  • During the final battle of GOTG, she becomes a bit more unsettled than her usual monotone indifference while dealing with the heroes tactics and Ronan's egotistical indifference, at one point yelling at random mooks and shoving them out of her way offscreen. After Gamora defeats her, she angrily steals a Ravager's ship with a very pissed off "GET OUT!"
  • Likewise, from Vol. 2, her reaction to nearly getting sucked out of a hull breach in the Milano, caused by Quill and Rocket's reckless piloting while being pursued by the Sovereign fleet.
    Nebula: IDIOTS!!
  • Endgame features Nebula outright panicking once she realizes that the 2014 Thanos knows about the Time Heist plan and she can't escape to the future, desperately trying to inform the Avengers to no avail.
  • Upon learning about the extent of Rocket's experimentation at the High Evolutionary, Nebula expresses nothing but pure horror as she notes that his past made her mutilation at Thanos's hands seem better by comparison. She also starts shedding relieved Tears of Joy when she learns Rocket survived.

O-Y

• Odd Friendship:
  • Granted, it's due to the fact that they're both stuck in space, but Nebula manages to bond with Tony Stark of all people, in spite of their vastly different personalities. She also forms one with James Rhodes, calling him by his nickname and being partnered up with him during the Time Heist. When they are sent to Morag in 2014 to retrieve the Power Stone, they bond over their mutual Handicapped Badass status and shared stoicism with regards to making the most of what they've been given.
  • Possibly because they've had 5 years to get to know each other, or maybe their shared cynical outlook and tragic pasts; outside of her sister, the Guardian she's closest to is Rocket. She even goes out of the way to get him a Christmas present! Emphasized in Volume 3, where The High Evolutionary's experiments visibly repulse her, and she cries when she hears Rocket is alive. She even calls Rocket part of her family.
  • Interestingly, if you look at her friendships with Tony, Rhodey, and even somewhat Rocket, it appears Nebula has bonded specifically with all the other cyborg members of the Avengers.
  • This is also in place with her relationship with Gamora: Thanos specifically tried to invoke Cain and Abel with them by pitting them against each other, and seemed to have succeeded in making them view each other as The Rival... yet some combination of Gamora's Big Sister Instinct whenever Thanos wasn't enforcing their rivalry and their simple proximity resulted in them becoming more tolerable and grudgingly caring for each other, even becoming confidantes. Thus Nebula specifically told Gamora that she was the sibling she hated least, and eventually they came to genuinely feel a loving kinship with each other.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: In Infinity War, Thanos claims that Nebula managed to infiltrate his ship and very nearly kill him.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Nebula subtly panics when Ronan kills the Other, clearly fearful of how Thanos might respond.
  • Nebula very much panics in Endgame when she inadvertently mind-links with her past self, tipping Thanos off to what the Avengers are up to.
• Omnicidal Maniac: After defecting to Ronan from Thanos, she says that she would help Ronan destroy a thousand planets if he'd also kill Thanos.
• Only One Me Allowed Right Now: Nebula's mind is stored on a network only she and Thanos's special equipment can access. However, the network could theoretically be picked up by other Nebulas (Nebulae?), if more than one ever existed at the same time. In Endgame, 2014 Thanos learns that he managed to complete his plan in another timeline and that the Avengers of said timeline are using time travel to try to reverse it when 2023 Nebula's memories suddenly leak over to 2014 Nebula.
• Only One Name: She goes by a single name without any other identifiers.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • You know that something isn't right with Ego when someone like Nebula gets cold feet upon discovering countless bodies hidden beneath the planet.
  • Her reaction to deducing that Thanos murdered Gamora has her very visibly fight back tearing up and freezing up, preventing her from stopping Quill from ruining the plan, showing how much she really cared about Gamora and how badly her death affects her.
  • Nebula's bond with Rocket is so strong that when he barely manages to survive certain death in Vol. 3, she can't do anything but cry Tears of Joy knowing that one of her Found Family members is still with her.
• Opt Out: After being thrown off the Dark Aster, she cuts off her own hand, hijacks a Ravager ship, and hightails it outta there.
• Other Me Annoys Me: In Endgame, 2014 Nebula beats her future self senseless and openly says she's "disgusted" by her.
• Patricide: Nebula's greatest desire is to kill her adoptive father Thanos after everything he did to her and Gamora. Infinity War revealed that she almost succeeded in doing so, although she lost her drive in Endgame upon seeing Thanos weakened and confessing his regrets about treating her too harshly.
• Perpetual Frowner: Being nearly machine-like in her seriousness (with frequent bouts of annoyance and anger), she's never with anything other than a scowl in her face. Even when she is starting to loosen up as of Endgame, she never so much as cracks a smile. It's in part due to Enforced Method Acting[invoked]; according to Karen Gillan, the makeup and prosthetics she wears as Nebula makes it legitimately impossible for her to change her facial expressions.
• Pet the Dog:
  • In Endgame, she gently refuses the last bit of food left aboard the adrift Benatar when Tony offers it to her and insists that he have it.
  • She's clearly annoyed by "trivialities like Christmas", but she begrudgingly participates in creating a sort of holiday wonderland for Quill, then gives Rocket Bucky's arm as a gift.
• Primary-Color Champion: The color of her skin is primarily blue and she starts to wear a red Ravager jacket since Vol. 2.
• Pulling Themselves Together: Her body can repair itself after sustaining blunt force impacts, which is accompanied by sickening bone-snapping and mechanical whirring sounds.
• Purple Is Powerful: She's a ruthless and dangerous assassin who wears a purple outfit while serving Thanos and later Ronan The Accuser. She stops wearing it when she goes independent but is forced to wear it again in Endgame when her past self swaps outfits with her to time travel to the present day and send Thanos' army there.
• Red Is Heroic: In Vol. 2 she changes into red Ravager leathers and shortly after that, reconciles with her sister. She's still wearing red in Infinity War, firmly on the side of the heroes.
• Redemption Earns Life: She makes a Heel–Face Turn and ultimately outlives her father and most, if not all, of his followers.
• Redemption Rejection:
  • Gamora twice attempts to convince Nebula to turn on Ronan. The first time, Nebula just tries to kill her, while after the second, she just decides to skip town while she can.
  • Her past self undergoes this in Endgame. Though conflicted, she is still in the end too indoctrinated by Thanos to turn on him even as present Nebula implores her that she can be a better person, forcing present Nebula to kill her to save past Gamora.
  • Subverted in Vol. 2. It's shown that she's driven by anger and resentment at Gamora always besting her and failing Nebula as a sister. Once they reconcile, Nebula joins up with the Guardians, albeit temporarily.
• Related Differently in the Adaptation: The comic book version of Nebula claims to be the biological granddaughter of Thanos, but Thanos himself disputes the claim, and the two have no familial relationship whatsoever, as they were already adults when they met for the first time. The MCU Nebula is not biologically related to Thanos, but she was raised as his daughter.
• Retractable Weapon: She can collapse her two Electroshock Batons into small sticks.
• Revenge: Her main motive in Vol. 2. She wants payback against Gamora for the conflicts from their youth, and especially against Thanos for his cruel treatment of her.
• The Rival: Serves as the Loki to Gamora's Thor, i.e. she's not the favorite daughter.
• Sadist: When she was still with Thanos, she gained a reputation for being one. Not so much after she's gone off on her own. (Tony even comments that the "Blue Meanie" is "just a tiny bit sadistic".)
  Taserface: I thought you were the biggest sadist in the galaxy.
  Nebula: That was when daddy was paying my bills.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Decides to bail before the climax in Guardians of the Galaxy.
• Self-Serving Memory: During Vol. 2, she claims Gamora "left her to die" on Ronan's ship — Gamora tried to save Nebula, who sliced off her own hand to get away and fled in a stolen Ravager ship.
• Serial Prostheses: Every time she failed to best Gamora, Thanos removed part of her body and replaced it with mechanical implants.
• Shipper on Deck: In a strange twist, Nebula supports Gamora being with Peter Quill, as in Avengers: Endgame she’s the one who reunites them across time, space and death. She's still snarky about it.
  Nebula: Your choices were either him...or a tree.
• Shock Stick: She wields two Electroshock Batons as her main weapons of choice.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Her climactic speech to Gamora is abruptly cut short by Drax opening fire after a sentence or two.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: While the Ravager red leather outfit is received through twisted means (helping Taserface take over the gang), following the makeover she becomes a better person, stopping short of killing Gamora, and thus it also serves to distinguish from the fully evil, purple-wearing Nebula.
• Sole Survivor: By the end of Infinity War, Nebula is the only one of Thanos's adopted "children" left alive. She's also one of the two remaining Guardians, the other being Rocket, even if she never really traveled with the group.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Vol. 2 reveals that under her rage and harsh exterior, Nebula is deeply hurting from all the trauma Thanos put her through and she blames Gamora for failing to protect her.
  Nebula: You were the one who wanted to win, and I just wanted a sister!
• The Starscream: Offers to aid Ronan in his schemes if he promises to kill Thanos.
• Static Stun Gun: Her Electric Blaster fires strong electrical blasts that can knock targets out. At close range, it can even kill her targets, as seen when she fires a hole through her past self to save Gamora and Hawkeye.
• The Stoic: She raises her voice maybe once or twice in the first film, and her expression almost never changes. Taken to an extreme at the ending of Infinity War where her only reaction to Thanos's victory in wiping out half the universe and almost all the Guardians along with their Earthern allies is bluntly stating the obvious (though there is a trace of pain/anger in her voice).
• Supermodel Strut: Whenever she's not running or fighting, she's apparently incapable of walking without swinging her hips back and forth like a pendulum. She seems to drop this habit in Infinity War and Endgame.
• Super-Strength: Strong enough to punch through armored glass.
• Super-Toughness: Crashes her ship with no damage.
• Swiss-Army Appendage: After her arm was badly damaged in Endgame, she replaced it with a new one designed by Rocket that's made of metal cords. She can rearrange her arm into various shapes, including an Arm Cannon, a blade, and wires that she can use to interface with technology.
• Sympathy for the Hero: Nebula shows genuine sympathy towards Tony Stark, who's emotionally devastated after Thanos's plan succeeds and everyone around them perishes, including Peter Parker, speaking uncharacteristically softly to him while they despair.
• Sympathy for the Devil: She's visibly remorseful over having to kill her past self in Endgame, completely understanding and sympathizing with her feelings of being trapped under Thanos' control as she went through those feelings before.
• Team Member in the Adaptation: Thanks to being a pure villain in the comics, she joins neither the Guardians Of The Galaxy nor the Avengers there, while in the MCU she becomes a member of both teams.
• Too Kinky to Torture: This exchange:
  Yondu: This is gonna hurt.
  Nebula: Promises, promises.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: After 2014 Nebula impersonates her future self, helping Thanos get to the Avengers Compound and blast it into a giant crater, Nebula finally gets what she'd always wanted; a "well done" from Thanos.
• Took a Level in Badass: By the time of Vol. 3, Nebula's received several upgrades that allow her to pull off far more impressive feats than ever before. She's now capable of flight, and her arm is made of nanotechnology that can shoot laser bolts at her enemies.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: At the very end of Vol. 3, she can be seen happily dancing and smiling with the other Guardians, fully embracing them as her true family.
• Took a Level in Kindness: She starts Vol. 2 off as the same violent backstabber she was in the first movie. However, she tries to kill Gamora one last time and simply throws down her sword when Gamora is at her mercy. The two talk out their differences with Nebula's anger at Gamora given a much more sympathetic portrayal. She joins up with the Guardians after that and manages to be a team player, even attending Yondu's funeral. It's telling that when she departs from the film she and Gamora end on much more friendly terms than in the first film. She takes a further level in Avengers: Endgame, forming genuine friendships with the Avengers, especially Stark and Rhodey, and even trying to convince her own past self to turn on Thanos, not out of hatred for her adoptive father, but by telling her that she can be a better person.
• Tragic Villain: Nebula is a loyal enforcer of Thanos, but only because of a lifetime of abuse and torture. In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2, Nebula laments that she hates Gamora because she only wanted a sister to share her pain with. In Endgame, the future Nebula, who has had time to adjust to a life without Thanos, tries to convince her past self to turn over a new leaf, to which past Nebula can only shed a tear and reply "He won't let me." Nebula is then forced to kill her past self.
• Tyke-Bomb: Kidnapped and raised as an assassin from a young age by the man who murdered her family.
• The Un-Favourite: Thanos openly favors Gamora over her. In the prelude comics, Thanos openly states that he should just kill her since she's a failed experiment, while also giving her a speech about how "Flesh" is weak and should be gotten rid of. In Infinity War proper, Thanos refuses to kill her while torturing her because that "would have been a waste of parts". Considering Thanos's other adoptive children, the Black Order, don't seem to have cybernetics (which suggests they're strong enough that Thanos doesn't feel the need to cybernetize them), that says a lot about her status as The Un-Favourite. Subverted in Avengers: Endgame, where Thanos states that he may have been a bit too harsh on her the instant before he dies.
• Ungrateful Bitch: Gamora pulls her out a burning wreck only for Nebula to resume trying to kill her, prompting a You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me! reaction from her sister.
• Unwilling Roboticisation: Thanos would replace parts of Nebula's body with cybernetics whenever Gamora bested her in sparring matches, the process of which was excruciating and engendered a long-lasting resentment for her sister.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • Her attempt to kill Thanos allows him to learn Gamora knows where the Soul Stone is, which helps lead to Gamora's death.
  • And once she time travels to get the Power Stone in the past, her past self ends up connected to her in a Hive Mind way. This leads to Thanos discovering both about the future and how the Avengers intend to undo his endgame.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • During the Battle of Xandar, she becomes a bit more unsettled than her usual monotone indifference.
  • Her past self in Endgame shows conflict when both Gamora and her future self offer her a chance to break free from Thanos. She rejects that chance out of fear and tries to kill Gamora, only for her future self to kill her in self-defense. A single tear drips from her eye as she collapses against the wall.
• "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: Despite Thanos's cruelty, Nebula's hatred for her father was mixed in with a need to earn his approval, which Thanos never granted her in life; Thanos's final words to her are made an even more bittersweet moment due to this. Amazingly enough, Thanos finally gives her a compliment right before the Avengers execute him in his farmhouse, thanking her for saying he's not a liar, and ends by admitting he may have been too hard on her over the years. Despite all he ever put her through, she still closes his eyes after Thor lops his head off.
• "Well Done, Daughter!" Gal: In the first Guardians film, her main motivation boils down to wanting approval from her abusive adoptive father.
• What You Are in the Dark: When she finally has Gamora at her mercy in Vol. 2, Nebula can't bring herself to actually kill her.
• When She Smiles: Due to the trauma Nebula carries with her, her default expression has her being a Perpetual Frowner. This finally begins to change in Vol. 3, where she starts smiling a lot more as she comes to love her fellow Guardians. At the end, Nebula's shown dancing and shouting for joy as part of the Dance Party Ending, which is possibly the happiest we've ever seen her.
• You Killed My Father:
  • Like Gamora, Nebula resents Thanos, her adoptive father, for being responsible for the death of her biological family.
  • Averted in Endgame when she watches Thanos being decapitated by Thor. Nebula is clearly saddened by the death of her adoptive father despite everything he did, but she does not hold a grudge against Thor since she understands what needed to be done.

Variants

Ravager T'Challa's Nebula

Nebula

"Hey, Cha-Cha."

Species: Enhanced Luphomoid

Affiliations: Ravagers

Voiced by: Karen Gillan

Appearances: What If...?

The Nebula of Earth-21818, who became a tech-savvy "intergalactic opportunist" due to T'Challa convincing Thanos to abandon his plan to use the Infinity Stones.

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• Abled in the Adaptation: Because T'Challa convinced Thanos to pull a Heel–Face Turn which made him a better father, Nebula retains many of her organic body parts in this timeline as Thanos never replaced them as punishment.
• Adaptational Angst Downgrade: Thanos was still an Abusive Parent to her growing up, but he went through a Heel–Face Turn several years ago. As a result this Nebula didn't suffer as much as her Sacred Timeline counterpart and didn't have as many body parts replaced with robotic limbs, while Thanos is attempting to be a better father to her.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: The original Nebula's face was scarred and full of mechanical components, with Black Eyes of Evil and Bald of Evil. Here, since T'Challa presumably talked Thanos down before he further roboticized her, the few modifications to her face are hidden behind her flowing blonde hair, and her eyes have visible sclerae to them; she also has fuller lips.
  • Originally in the comics, Nebula was a beautiful woman with luscious black hair, light blue skin and Icy Blue Eyes.
• Adaptational Heroism: Sacred Timeline Nebula is an anti-villain to begin with, but given that Thanos has long since undergone a Heel–Face Turn in this timeline, Nebula hasn't worked for Thanos in a very long time and is instead allied with the Ravagers from the beginning. There's a double subversion for a while when it seems she had been planning to betray them to Tivan this whole time; however, she was only a Fake Defector, which was part of the plan from the start.
• Adaptational Nice Girl: Nebula is a significantly happier person in this timeline, as she wasn't abused constantly at Thanos's hands. Here, she's shown to also work with the Ravagers, has a much better relationship with her adopted father, and only lost an eye instead of becoming an alien cyborg. She's also implied to have feelings for T'Challa, if her Affectionate Nickname for him is any indication.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Not only does this version of Nebula have hair, it turns out to be blonde, unlike the Nebula from the comics, who has dark hair.
• Affectionate Nickname: Calls T'Challa "Cha-Cha".
• Bait-and-Switch Gunshot: After an apparent Face–Heel Turn, she goes to the cell where the Ravagers are at with Corvus Glaive. She aims her weapon at Korath, but as a part of her Fake Defector plan with T'Challa, Nebula instead turns around and shoots Corvus.
• Fake Defector: As part of their heist plan, Nebula pretends to betray the Ravagers to the Collector in order to settle her debt with him.
• Femme Fatale: Given the heist theme of the episode, Nebula gives off the vibe of being one. Complete with the bangs and seemingly morally ambiguous allegiance. This is ultimately a Subverted Trope, as her "betrayal" was all a part of her and T'Challa's plan from the start.
• Green-Skinned Space Babe: Unlike her Sacred Timeline counterpart (a dysfunctional Perpetual Frowner) this iteration is well-dressed with coiffed hair and doesn't bear as many physical or emotional scars. She even flirts with T'Challa. The result is overall much more seductive.
• Implied Love Interest: It's left subtle but given her flirting with T'Challa, there are hints that the two might be a couple.
• Pimped-Out Dress: She's introduced in the episode wearing a very shiny and appealing silver dress.
• Ship Tease: Spends much of the episode flirting with T'Challa.
• Statuesque Stunner: She's as tall as her other counterparts and is even more beautiful than any of them as a result of not being as cyberized.
• Younger and Hipper: Downplayed, but her appearance her is set six years before her counterpart debuted in the films and combined with her Adaptational Angst Downgrade and Adaptational Heroism, she's a more happy and thrill seeking version of the character.

Party Thor's Nebula

Nebula

"Blow on these. Mama needs a brand new eye."

Species: Enhanced Luphomoid

Voiced By: Karen Gillan

Appearances: What If...?

On Earth-72124, Nebula comes to Midgard to participate in Thor's planet-wide party.

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• The Gambler: She is seen playing craps in order to get money for a new eye.
• I Need to Go Iron My Dog: When Thor is trying to get people to help him clean up, Nebula makes an excuse about hearing her father needs her.
• In Spite of a Nail: It appears Nebula has still suffered abuse at Thanos's hands and is seen gambling to earn a new eye that she lost from him while on Earth.
• Oh, Crap!: She joins in the overall attitude of fear when Thor mentions Frigga is en route to Earth.

Corpsman Nebula

Nebula

"This is Xandar. All we got are problems."

Species: Enhanced Luphomoid

Affiliation(s): Children of Thanos (formerly), Nova Corps

Voiced By: Karen Gillan

Appearances: What If...?

A variant of Nebula who, after Ronan killed Thanos and the entire Black Order except for her, is saved and recruited by Nova Prime to become a member of the Nova Corps. Five years after Nova Prime initiated a force field around Xander to protect it from Ronan's invasion, Nebula finds herself investigating the murder of her old friend Yondu.

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• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: While they did meet, Nebula and Yondu never had the chance to get closer prior to his death in the Sacred Timeline. Here it's shown they became friends at some point. She likewise looks up to Nova Prime as a Mentor Archetype while there's no indication the two ever met in the Sacred Timeline.
• Badass Longcoat: She dons one after her cybernetics are repaired and upgraded.
• Broken Pedestal: Nova Prime, after it's revealed she was selling out Xandar to Ronan and was abusing Nebula's faith in her to do so.
• Hardboiled Detective: Gruff, tough-as-nails, and drinks to deal with pain and frustration. Hardboiled alright.
• Heel–Face Turn: Instead of this being caused by the Guardians and her love for Gamora, it's caused by the kindness shown to her by Nova Prime.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • While the exact reasons behind her Heel–Face Turn are different, she still ended up becoming a hero.
  • Despite the different circumstances and not being as close, she and Groot are still friends.
  • Just like her Sacred Timeline counterpart, this Nebula also lost Gamora and the rest of the Black Order as her family after Thanos died.
• Private Eye Monologue: Nebula’s thoughts serve as the narration for her episode, with the Watcher’s introduction to the episode’s universe giving way to her own explanation of her backstory.
• Reformed Criminal: Has genuinely become a loyal member of Nova Corps after Thanos' death, being dedicated to upholding the standards they set.
• Trick Arrow: She takes up Yondu's Yaka Arrow as a weapon as part of the cybernetic upgrades given to her by Howard the Duck and his crew. Irani breaks it in half when Nebula tries to hit her with it and misses.

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"I'm going to lead the city. Make it the type of home I never had."