Not only does Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the first big blockbuster movie of the summer season, bring back fan-favorites like Star-Lord, Drax and Groot, it plumbs the depths of the Guardians’ comic book continuity to add new team-members. Most notably, the empathetic Mantis, played by Pom Klementieff. In the new film, Mantis serves as Ego’s carer-of-sorts, able to use her powers of emotional manipulation to allow the living planet to get some much needed sleep.

But aside from appearance, Mantis is a large departure from her original incarnation, who debuted in The Avengers #112, by Steve Englehart and Don Heck. Earlier this week, I got the chance to speak to Englehart about his work on the original “Secret Empire” story, but I also had the chance to speak to him briefly about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. He admitted he didn’t see much of a connection between the character he created and the character on screen.

“Well, I was not happy with Mantis’ portrayal," Englehart said. "That character has nothing to do with Mantis. I will say that I liked the film quite a bit overall, they’re doing good stuff and I enjoyed my night at the movies so long as I turned my brain off to the fact that that’s not Mantis up there. I really don’t know why you would take a character who is as distinctive as Mantis is and do a completely different character and still call her Mantis. That I do not know.”

The character of Mantis in the comics is a human woman of German and Vietnamese descent who was raised by a Kree cult as the potential mother of their Celestial Messiah. She was given training, before her memory was erased and she was sent out into the world to gain life experience, where eventually she crossed paths with the Avengers. She joined the team for a while before eventually discovering her true purpose and leaving to become the Celestial Madonna.

The character was one that Englehart had an obvious affection for, but, one of the problems with shared universes is that you don’t always get a say in what happens to the characters you create. After Mantis moved towards villainy with the controversial and almost immediately retconned Avengers: The Crossing, Englehart returned in the early ‘00s for Avengers: Celestial Quest, which fixed some of the more troubling developments to the character and wrapped up the Celestial Messiah storyline he'd started in 1973.

“I was not happy with Mantis’ portrayal”

Mantis on-screen may not have been the Mantis that Steve Englehart created forty-five years ago, but the writer was also very quick to mention that he enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and the character that was on screen, stating “I wasn’t impressed with what they did with Mantis but the Mantis on the screen was entertaining, I liked her but that’s not Mantis.”

The topic of creator compensation also came up, with the recent news of Marvel’s deal with Bill Mantlo and his family over the use of Rocket Raccoon has allowed them to move him from his nursing home to a new house. When asked about whether Marvel had reached out to him over the use of his characters, Englehart said “I think Marvel’s been pretty open-handed about that sort of thing, or I should probably credit Disney for that. They’ve been good about that kind of thing, so I’m happy when it benefits the creators, not just me for myself but for anybody.”

Steve Englehart was in Marvel's second generation of creators, expanding upon the groundwork laid by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko. With all that he’s created for Marvel, it’s pleasing to hear that that the studio side of the business is acknowledging him for his contributions. There’s another huge Englehart co-creation coming to screens later this year with The Defenders, and while — like Mantis — they might not be the team Englehart created, it’s good to know that Marvel Studios is rewarding the contributions of the giants whose shoulders it stands on.