Groot Fact — November 6, 2026

Today's Fact

Years before the Guardians, Groot's strangest service record was monster-squad duty in a war against Camelot's own sorcerer.

GROOT LEFT A BACKUP OF HIMSELF GROWING ON EARTH — AFTER HELPING BEAT MERLIN THE WIZARD!

The Featured Fact

S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Paranormal Containment Unit — the monster-hunting Howling Commandos — tracked Groot down and locked him up with the rest of their menagerie. When Merlin and his forces attacked the base, the prisoners were turned loose into the stampede, and Groot was the only captive who turned back and volunteered to join the unit properly. Across Nick Fury's Howling Commandos #1–6 (2005–06), the tree who once invaded Earth helped its monster squad break the wizard's army.

The detail almost nobody kept is what Groot did on his way out. Recaptured by the Kree shortly after the Merlin campaign, he first left part of himself behind on Earth, planted to grow into a new Groot — a living insurance policy rooted in the soil of the planet he had once tried to conquer. Marvel's official character history records the cutting in a single throwaway sentence, which is exactly how a backup plan should be filed.

And in the comics, that cutting would not be a copy or a child. Marvel's history states the rule plainly: a properly replanted fragment grows into a new Groot that retains all of his memories. The screen version treats the regrown Groot as the original's son; the page version is stranger — the Groot who left Earth had already arranged for himself, memories and all, to keep growing there without him.

Why It's Obscure

A six-issue monster series from 2005 quietly holds Groot's heroic debut, his Merlin campaign, and his oddest contingency plan.

The squad

Monsters hunting a magician — Gorilla-Man talked Groot into enlisting alongside the Living Mummy and Vampire by Night; S.H.I.E.L.D. filed the whole unit under paranormal containment.

The wizard

Merlin, the Arthurian one — not a codename or a robot: the Commandos' campaign targeted the sorcerer of Camelot legend, and Groot's muscle helped end it.

The cutting

Biology as an escape plan — where another prisoner might leave a note or a weapon cache, a Flora colossus leaves a piece of his own body in the ground.

The memory clause

Regrowth with recall — comics fragments keep the original's memories whole, so the Earth Groot would wake up knowing exactly who planted him, and why.

Gallery

The Commandos page below has Groot carrying the entire monster squad on his shoulders while its dialogue discusses betraying Merlin — the wizard is name-checked right there in the panels.

Comic page of a giant Groot carrying the Howling Commandos, including Gorilla-Man and Frankenstein's monster, past unicorns, with dialogue discussing Merlin — **Carrying the monster squad**Groot as living transport for the Howling Commandos during the Merlin campaign — the page's own dialogue is about the fairy-folk betraying 'this Merlin guy,' while Groot does all the heavy lifting and unicorns scatter below.

Comic panels of Groot stretching his wooden body across space to tether Rocket Raccoon beside a wrecked ship — **A limb, lent long-distance**Groot reshapes and extends his own body to hold Rocket fast in deep space — Rocket is the helmeted figure tethered to his hand — the same plant-body flexibility that makes a planted fragment a whole person waiting to happen.

Cover of Groot #4 showing Groot's wooden body cracking and bursting apart in pink energy — **Breaking is not ending**The cover of Groot #4 (2015): his body splinters apart in a burst of energy — for a Flora colossus, fragments are not debris; planted properly, they are beginnings.

Sources

Every fact on this page was checked against at least two independent sources before publication.

Bullpen Bulletins

Marvel — Groot In Comics Official history: the Howling Commandos' Merlin campaign, the piece of himself Groot left growing on Earth, and regrowth retaining all of his memories.
Superhero Wiki — Groot Groot's capture by the Paranormal Containment Unit, his volunteering against Merlin's forces, and his later regrowth from sprigs.
WatchMojo — Superhero Origins: Groot The Collector, Monster Island and Howling Commandos chapters of Groot's pre-Guardians life, including the takedown of Merlin.