Remember when Nebula had eyebrows? Neither does most of the MCU fandom

This doesn’t quite work in a written format, but before moving on to the next paragraph, do us a solid – close your eyes and picture Nebula. All of her facial features. The dual tone color pattern of her face, her constant scowl, her void-black eyes, really envision the character you’ve gotten to know over the last decade or so. Done? 

Fantastic. Now, in that little visualization exercise, did Karen Gillan’s fan-favorite character and daughter of Thanos have eyebrows? If the answer is yes, good for you. If not, you’re just as shocked as the rest of us – including those who sparked a conversation about the matter over on the r/MarvelStudios subreddit: 

Much like the author of the post, a lot of the responses to the thread were quite flabbergasted, with one even making a deep-cut nod to NBC’s The Office, referencing a cold opening gag in which the entire Dunder Mifflin office descends into a chaotic debate as to whether or not Stanley has a mustache. 

While it turns out that Nebula had eyebrow (at least one) all along, many other commenters pointed out that up until recently, Nebula had a silver piece of machinery obscuring the left side of her face. That, and the fact that up until Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, we’ve more often than not seen Nebula in darker and poorly lit environments, at least in comparison to the screenshot referenced in the above thread. 

This led to other comments about how as Nebula has gradually shifted to a force of good and away from her murky past under Thanos’ thrall, she is slowly but surely taking on more ‘human’ characteristics. Evidently, this includes a second eyebrow. Sure seems like a sure fire setup for Nebula (and perhaps more of the Guardians) to go out in a blaze of glory in James Gunn’s Marvel swansong.

We’ll be catching up with Nebula and all of her pals, and discovering their fates when Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 arrives in theaters on May 5, 2023.