Warning: This article contains MAJOR spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War.

As comics nerds, we've always found Gamora to be one of our favourite characters. A badass, no-nonsense assassin with a gruff attitude and a heart of gold – at least when it suits her – while she strays into 'strong female character' cliché territory, she does it with such style that it's hard not to love her regardless.

Thanos's adopted daughter has been portrayed for years as strong and fearless (she's known as the 'most dangerous woman in the galaxy'), willing to sacrifice herself for her friends and unusually sexually confident and liberated.

Marvel Comics

So why has the MCU treated her so badly?

It's no secret that Marvel Studios has a diversity problem that it is only just beginning to drag itself out of. Black Panther put people of colour centre stage, but we still have to wait until 2019 – 11 years into the MCU project – for Captain Marvel to become the first female-led Marvel movie. Black Widow was the Smurfette of the Avengers for a long time, and even the cast of the new Avengers: Infinity War remains overwhelmingly male. The MCU remains a giant playground for the big boys first and foremost.

Now don't get us wrong – we like Zoe Saldana's take on the character for the most part. She's certainly demonstrated that she's a highly-skilled fighter and one of the more morally upright members of the ragtag Guardians of the Galaxy. We enjoyed the development of her relationship with Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2 – although that plot was more about Karen Gillan's tragic cyborg than her green-skinned sister. That film also showed off how crazy strong Gamora is.

Disney

But the MCU's Gamora has been too much defined by the men in her life, minimising her own narrative for the sake of Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) and later, Thanos (Josh Brolin).

Gamora's main narrative in the Guardians films was about Peter Quill seducing her. She initially spurns Star-Lord's advances, but who could possibly resist his increasingly unlikeable adolescent charms? The film falls into all the old, well-worn clichés, reducing Gamora to a damsel in distress dying in space so that Peter can save her. How much more interesting it would have been for her to save him for a change, and it would have made more sense considering that she is manifestly tougher and more reliable than our designated hero.

Disney

The double standards used for Gamora are typified when Drax – who is completely literal and doesn't understand metaphors, lol – is entirely capable of referring to her as a "green whore", which she is categorically not. Of course, no-one bats an eyelid.

Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2 continues the theme, with Peter convincing her to like his music and dance with him. Maybe it's just not her thing – leave her alone, you creep.

And then we get to Avengers: Infinity War, in which Gamora is kind of given her own arc, in a 'railing against my wicked daddy'-meets-exposition-delivery-machine kind of way. She begs Star-Lord to kill her (a depressing motif that recurs throughout the movie) rather than letting her fall into Thanos's hands and reveal the location of the Soul Stone. And he does even try to fulfil her wishes after an admittedly badass battle ends with her in Thanos's grasp, and is only thwarted by the villain's intervention.

Marvel Studios

But when it's her turn to face that same dilemma, she sells out the entire universe because Nebula is being tortured. Since when is Star-Lord more reliable and strong than she is?

The final, insulting chapter in Gamora's story sees her led up a mountain to find the Soul Stone. We have to watch as she completely fails to understand that Thanos is going to kill her for the sake of a magical trinket, even when it's completely obvious to everyone watching. It's deeply uncomfortable to watch her realisation followed by Thanos dragging her slowly to the edge of a cliff and throwing her to her death.

Infinity War becomes a story about Thanos's regret, and Peter's pain over her loss. If that isn't a 'Women in Refrigerators' moment, we don't know what is.

Gamora has so much potential and so much entertaining source material to draw from. Instead, she is reduced to the laziest of female character tropes – damsel in distress, love interest and, finally, victim. She is denied agency and her own narrative, operating only within the context of the men in her life and their stories. Having been the MCU movies' only high-profile actress of colour until Thor: Ragnarok and Black Panther finally came along, Saldana's arc has been particularly ill-considered.

Marvel's treatment of Gamora has been a huge betrayal of her character and shows that there is still a way to go before the MCU has solved its diversity problems.

Avengers: Infinity War is out now. Book tickets here.

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