There was a prophesy that one day, the perfect human, the Celestial Madonna, would have a union with the perfect plant, and from their union would spring the perfect plant, and from their union would spring the perfect child, the Celestial Messiah, who was destine to change the universe. In recent years, a newborn star proclaimed that the Celestial Madonna's time was at hand. The Madonna was a human female named Mantis, a member of the Avengers. She mated with a male member of a plant race called the Cotati, who altered his form to resemble that of her dead lovers, the Avenger known as the Swordsman. Mantis and her partner successfully avoided the scheming of Kang the Conquerer, who sought to control the child they would create. Their baby was named Sequoia, after the noblest of Earth trees. Mantis hid on Earth, raising him for years in Willimantic Connecticut. Eventually realizing that he was not safe there, Mantis asked Sequoia's father to take him to the Cotati homeworld of Tamal. When he reached maturity a second newborn star appeared in the heavens and attracted the attention of the Thanosi (a blend of android, clone and mystical doppelgangers which possessed powers, intelligences and personalities echoing Thanos and sometimes other beings on which they were based), who sought to slay the Messiah as a sign of his powers over both life and death. Believed at that time to be the true Thanos, the Thanosi kidnapped one of the Priests of Pama, who were sworn to protect the Messiah, and tortured him until he learned where Quoi was hidden.

When Mantis and a group of Avenger journeyed to Tamal to protect Quoi from the Thanosi, they discovered that Quoi had entered an angst-ridden phase in his existence, preferring to call himself "Q" which he claimed was the weirdest of Earth's letters. The Thanosi empowered several servants, including the Plasmagen Primo and Cap'n Reptyl, to bring him the Celestial Messiah, but it was the pirate Raptra who succeeded in capturing Quoi, hoping to use him to save her from the wrath of the Thanosi. When the Thanosi refused to bargain with her, Raptra found herself making an uneasy alliance with Quoi, taking refuge in a region of space known as the Rot, where the unholy spawn of Death and the Thanosi was consuming space. There they came face-to-face with both the Avengers (who now had a new reality displaced ally, Haywire) and the Thanosi. After battling the Thanosi on the Astral plane, Quoi came to terms with his feelings towards his mother and joined with her to oppose the incursion of the deadly Rot, which destroyed all it touched. Quoi failed in his attempt to drive back the Rot, but after the Thanosi destroyed it with the help of Death, Quoi elected to remain in the region, helping bring new life to the decimated area of space. At his side was Raptra, the saurian pirate who was inspired by his nobility and for whom he had proclaimed his love.

NOTE: In reality-90651, Mantis raised her son, Sprout, on Earth, protecting him from those that would destroy him - like the Kree Empire of the Evil Mangog - aided by the Silver surfer.