Prophecy[]

A prophecy read that one day the perfect human female, who would be the Celestial Madonna, would have a union with the perfect male plant of the Cotati race, and from their union would spring the perfect child, who would be the Celestial Messiah; a being destined to change the universe.^[3] A newborn star sent by Uatu the Watcher appeared in the sky above Avengers' Headquarters during the period when Mantis was an active member of the group,^[4] proclaimed that the Celestial Madonna's time was at hand. Kang the Conqueror had set up an automatic monitoring device to alert him to this appearance, in hopes of capturing the Madonna and using the child to advance his quest for power, but did not know which of three human females was The Madonna: Mantis, the Scarlet Witch, or Agatha Harkness.^[5]

Once it was revealed that it was Mantis, she mated with the elder member of the Cotati contingent that had been left on Earth along with a group of the Kree-born Priests of Pama (to protect it from the Star Stalker). Though this Cotati was a tree, this mating was made possible because he took the form of the Avenger known as the Swordsman, who had recently been killed saving her life in battle with Kang. Their baby was named Sequoia, after the noblest of Earth trees.^[3]

Early Years[]

However, after giving birth to the pod, the Cotati saw that they were more fit to raise their son, the Celestial Messiah alone on Tamal and forced Mantis to leave.^[6][7] Mantis and her allies, the Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer, went on a quest to retrieve her son. In order to prevent that the Cotati and the Priests went to Pyramid where they allied themselves with Kang. They demanded Mantis to cease her quest, but refused, not wanting her son to grow to become an emotionless being like the other Cotati, and battled the Cotati and the Priests. When Mantis began battling the Cotati with her psychic powers that she had learned from the Priests, the Cotati fled to their realm of pure thoughts with the pod, with Manti's psyche following shortly behind after leaving her body behind once again.^[8]

Mantis was seemingly successful in retrieving her son and raised Sequoia in hiding in Willimantic, Connecticut for a time. While there he had dificulty blending with the other kids, but eventually was able to make some friends like Connor, until his Cotati genes manifested.^[9] Mantis then asked Sequoia's father to take him to the Cotati homeworld of Tamal.^[10] He was supposed to take teachings from both his father and his mother, but because Mantis' esence was disperced he grew up without his mother.^[11]

Celestial Messiah[]

At the time of Sequoia's puberty, a newborn star once again appeared, signaling the Celestial Messiah. This caught the attention of a group of Thanos-based artificial beings called the Thanosi, who tried to kill him. Mantis and the Avengers traveled to Tamal to save him.^[11]

At this time in his life, Sequoia was going through a period of adolescent rebellion. Usually referred to as Quoi for short, he had taken the name "Q". He was captured by the pirate Raptra, but she decided not to deliver him to the Thanosi. They escaped to a region of space called "the Rot", in which space itself was being consumed by beings created by Death and the Thanosi. After a great battle involving the Avengers and Mantis, the Rot was defeated, so Quoi and Raptra remained in that sector of space to help its recovery.^[12]

Empyre[]

After parting ways with Raptra,^[13] Quoi reunited with the Cotati on Tamal, where he was welcomed into the Cotati's conclave. In contrast, the collective rejected the Cotati Swordsman due to his half-human nature. Quoi accompanied the Swordsman in returning to the temple of the Priests of Pama in Vietnam, where his original form rested alongisde a Cotati grove. During their journey, the Swordsman first shared his disdain for animal life to Quoi, which took root in his conflicting half-Cotati, half-human nature. Short time after the Swordsman fused back with his original form despite Quoi's heartache, workers from Alchemax arrived and tore down the grove. Swordsman broke off from his original form and killed the workers, horrified by the fact he was the grove's only survivor. This episode caused Quoi to embrace the Swordsman's belief that all animals were unworthy plunderers.^[14]

Quoi's new campaign against animal life was fueled by the Swordsman's stories about the carnage the Kree had brought to their ancestors becuase of the Skrulls, prompting Quoi to lead the Cotati into targeting both species first. Quoi and Swordsman experimented with a power-boosting flower called the Death Blossom in the Kral System of the Skrulls, which was then destroyed by the empire in an attempt to eradicate the new threat.^[15] In response to the Cotati's resurgence and further attacks against the Kree and the Skrulls, both empires united into the Alliance, enlisting the hybrid Hulkling as their figurehead.^[16] The Cotati forces converged in the Blue Area of the Moon in preparation for an invasion on Earth, foresting its ruins and planting the seed for a Death Blossom. Quoi went through a ritual to purge all doubt from his mind, during which he was confronted by a construct of Mantis, who attempted reason with Quoi to abandon this conquest. However, after unearthing each other's memories, Quoi became further convinced that animal life should be destroyed.^[9] With the Alliance approaching Earth, Swordsman and Quoi sent a distress call to the Avengers, and used their pacifist facade to earn the heroes' protection.^[13] The intervention of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four bought the Cotati enough time for the Death Blossom to bloom, allowing Quoi to use its power-boosting energies to cripple the Alliance's war fleet and launch the Cotati's invasion on Earth.^[17]

As armies of the Empyre spread throughout the world, Quoi and the Swordsman prepared for their endgame, to breach into Wakanda and plant a Death Blossom on its Vibranium-enriched soil, which would boost Quoi's powers to cosmic levels.^[18] Joining forces with Earth's heroes, Mantis tried once again to reach out to her son to no avail.^[19] When Cotati forces managed to overpower Wakanda's defenses, Quoi and the Swordsman arrived to plant the Death Blossom.^[20] They were intercepted by Mister Fantastic, who was wearing an armor designed by Iron Man that could disrupt the Cotati's plant-controlling powers. The Cotati were further overwhelmed by a contingent of Earth's heroes and Alliance soldiers, which included Thor, who used a power-boost from Gaea to nullify the Cotati's powers worldwide. The turn in the tide of the battle prompted the Swordsman to hold Quoi at sword's point in an attempt to escape, but he was impaled by Black Panther with Hulkling's Star-Sword and destroyed along wtih the Death Blossom. Quoi was apprehended, accepting to see justice since he felt solace in the belief that he was right in trying to liberate the universe from exploitation by animal life.^[21] Following the Empyre's worldwide surrender, all the Cotati were teleported to a secluded planet in uncharted space, where they could live out in peace without posing a threat.^[22]

Human/Cotati Hybrid Physiology: Quoi had enhanced abilities of a plant and a human. He could breathe oxygen like a human, or photosynthesize, and thus did not require food or oxygen to survive. He could survive in the vacuum of space, possessed superhuman strength, and could manipulate the oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air.

• Chlorokinesis: Quoi has a degree of control over plant-life, which can be vastly increased through means like the Death Blossom.^[17]
• Accelerated Wood Growth: He has the ability to control the growth, shape, and toughness of his bone-like wood structure.^[9] He was able to create a sword from his body which he gave to his father.^[14]
• Human Form: Quoi was able to transform himself into a human form.^[14]

Energy Channeling: Quoi could also siphon, focus and redistribute raw power from other beings, even powerful entities the likes of whom being Thanos. Having limited capacity for controlling the Power Cosmic, which will presumably grow as he matures.

Dream Projection: Quoi was able to manipulate the dreams of other people, such as making Tony Stark dream about the slaughter of the Cotati.^[15]

• Thor was somewhat of an uncle figure to Quoi.^[13]