How did Rocket meet Groot?

Question

In Guardians of the Galaxy, Rocket seems pretty close to Groot. Rocket understands (or at least pretends to understand) Groot, they travel together, he treats him nicer than the rest of the crew.

And at the end:

When Groot is destroyed in the crash, he gathers a twig and replants him so he can revive.

So how did they meet? And how long have they been working together?

Answer 1

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Earth-199999, there has been no confirmed or official time period that Groot and Rocket have been working together or how they came to be doing so.

• During the Xandarian booking in the Guardians of the Galaxy, it was mentioned the two had been working together and that Groot was basically Rocket's "muscle" in their bounty-hunting endeavors.

In the canon Marvel Universe, Earth-616, Groot and Rocket first teamed up with the future Guardians to help fight back the invading alien race called the Phalanx.

• In ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST - STARLORD, 2007 Issue #1, Rocket's superior ballistic weaponry and expert pilot skills came in handy when Star-Lord and his crew needed to flee the Phalanx-occupied planet called Hala.

• Both Groot and Rocket were languishing in the Blue Kree prison. Rocket was deemed an L.L.F (lower-life form) and would have eventually been terminated by the Kree in due course. They were assigned to Peter Quill (Star Lord) as part of an expendable team of agents to penetrate the defenses of the Phalanx using low tech weaponry.

• Despite the movie depiction of Groot as having a very limited vocabulary, the Guardians Groot was far more loquacious and imperious in his speech.

• Groot's resurrection form a twig was foreshadowed in ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST - STARLORD, 2007 Issue #3 when Groot was apparently killed only to find he recovered as a twig and maintained his faculties. Where once Rocket rode him, he now rode on Rocket's shoulder until he regained his heroic stature.