EDITORIAL: 'Who is Star-Lord?' by Lokein Lyesmith

When I started this endeavor, to write a bio on Peter Quill aka Star-Lord, I had no idea what I was in for. This character has gone through some serious changes over the years. Not just costume changes, but serious growth and change of true character. I find it so much fun to focus on a single character for something like this, and re-read story arcs and dig up issues never before read. I've read the Annihilation/Conquest story arcs a million times. I thought I knew them inside and out. But when you single out a character, soak up their specific dialogue and their path through the story, you end up seeing it in a dramatically different light.

Our daring do-gooder started out in 1976. Peter Jason Quill, The Star-Lord. Half-Human Half-Alien. Peter's father, Prince Jason of the Spartoi, hated court life and sought a destiny of his own amongst the stars. When Spartoi and another alien planet began warring with each other, Jason's father summoned him home. On his way home Jason crash landed on Earth and was found by Meredith Quill - Peter's mother. Jason develops a relationship with Meredith, whom ends up pregnant. Here's where the origin stories vary. In the 1976 version, when Jason is finally out of excuses to stay, his duty and responsibilities requiring him to return home, he wipes Meredith's memories of him. Meredith goes on to marry her highschool sweetheart, Jake. Jake is unable to believe that Peter is his child, insists that Peter looks nothing like him, and tries to kill the infant Peter. He's stopped by a sudden heart attack. Meredith raises Peter alone until Jason asks his uncle to bring Meredith and Peter to Spartoi, after the war his family was involved in dies down. Instead, his uncle, Gareth, puts a hit out on Meredith and Peter. Peter sees the spaceship of the hitmen land, and collects his mother to show her. The alien hit men kill Meredith and fly off, leaving Peter behind with his mother. Gareth told Jason that Meredith and Peter had died during childbirth. Peter grew up, swearing to one day find and kill the men responsible for his mother's death.

In the current (2013) version of Peter's origin story, they seem to skip all this. Meredith remembers Peter's father (Now J'Son of Spartax) and raises Peter on her own. The Badoon (an alien race quite frequently used as villains in Marvel over the last few years) come to Earth seeking to end the Spartax royal bloodline. They kill Meredith and chase Peter through the house. Peter runs into his mother's room, grabs her shot gun, and shoots both Badoon. Pulling down the shotgun knocks loose another gun; his father's element gun. Peter takes the gun and runs from the house just as the Badoon blow the house up from their ship, now hovering over the house in the sky. Peter's in and out of consciousness, over hearing voices talking about a gas leak, the explosion, his house blown to kindling, and awakens in the hospital. A nurse returns his “toy space gun” to him, citing it as the only thing he has left. Peter spends the rest of his childhood in an orphanage and foster homes. He eventually joins NASA to get into space. He blames J'Son and his lack of involvement for his mother's death, swearing not to let the Badoon touch Earth again, no matter what they do to the rest of the galaxy.

As for how Peter actually becomes Star-Lord, that too differs a bit from his 70s origin to his 2013 origin. When talking about his origin in Guardians of the Galaxy 0.1 by Brian Michael Bendis, they don't address the act of him actually becoming Star-Lord, so it's unsure the origin stories match up here or not, as he makes no mention of The Master of the Sun, whom, in the 1976 origin, is responsible for giving Peter his Star-Lord suit, equipment (including a sentient spaceship named Ship) and abilities after Peter becomes an astronaut. He joined NASA in order to reach space, just like in his current incarnation; however, Peter was a disturbed young man. He lashed out at his peers, was socially awkward, and didn't take rejection well at all, often throwing temper tantrums and drinking till he passed out. In his original origin, NASA assembles a space station. After first being rejected due to his attitude and personality being incompatible to stay with other astronauts for long periods of time, he manages to change his attitude and gain access to the station.

While on the station, The Master of the Sun telepathically informs the entire space station that one Terran (human) will be allowed to become the Star-Lord. Peter suggests that they choose amongst themselves, and volunteers for the position. His superior agrees with choosing the astronaut to become Star-Lord, but disagrees with it being Peter in favor of someone with more experience in space. Peter throws one of his tantrums, throwing things and yelling, and is escorted away. Furious with yet another set back on his road to avenging his mother's death, Peter turns violent, shooting down peers and superior officers alike on his way to meeting place where the Star-Lord will be accepted. Cornered in the room, he's fired upon by several officers just as he's teleported away.

The Master of the Sun introduces himself and calls Peter by his full name, though Peter insists no one knows his middle name. Peter confesses his wrong-doings to the Master, who still gives Star-Lord the means to avenge his mother, and teleports Peter again, this time to the exact location of the aliens he seeks to kill. After murdering the ship full of alien hit men, Peter appears back in front of The Master of the Sun, questioning if he ever, in fact, left at all. The Master dismisses the question implying that's it's irrelevant; Peter got the revenge he thought he so desperately needed. He told Peter he could now move on with his old life, or begin a new one amongst the stars, as Star-Lord. The over-all feel of the first issue arguably leaves the impression that The Master of the Sun is giving Peter a second chance, a chance to get over his mother's death and redeem himself. (On a personal note, it's my opinion that the interaction with The Master, and the questioning over whether or not he's God, was all very surreal, and left in such a way as it could be explained that Peter died on the station, shot by those officers after going mad with the need for revenge for his mother's death. Being accepted, getting his revenge, being chosen to be Star-Lord, would definitely seem like Peter's version of Heaven. It seems to me that they kind of left that open to interpretation as a means of ending the story if necessary.)

Peter went on to adventure amongst the stars through-out the 70s and 80s, being featured in Marvel magazines such as Marvel Preview, Marvel Super Special, Marvel Spotlight, and Marvel Premiere. Most notably of these adventures was coming across his father's home planet, after saving a ship full of slaves from their captures and learning of a plan the slavers had to help Jason's uncle overthrow him. Upon arriving on Spartoi Peter soon confronts, unbeknownst to him, his uncle Gareth. Under Gareth's employ was an alien of the same race as the hit men who killed Peter's mother. Peter acknowledges the alien as the one who actually killed his mother. Enraged at the sight of him, Peter attacks and kills the alien, then turns on Gareth. Peter intends to spare Gareth's life and turn him over to Spatoi authorities, but as Peter turns his back on Gareth, Gareth throws a knife into Peter's back. Peter instinctively turns and kills Gareth in retaliation. After killing Gareth, Peter finally comes face to face with his father, who admits who he is, and explains his relationship with Peter's mother. Jason asks Peter to stay and become his heir, though Peter refuses and soon leaves Spartoi.

Peter comes back later, during Jason's 100^th coronation anniversary with the intent of finally getting to know his father. Jason leaves with Peter; however, at some unspecified point later, Star-Lord gets separated from Ship when she was caught in a black hole. What happened to Jason is unknown. Nothing's heard of Peter until his return in 2004 to a Thanos mini-series, a prelude to the Annihilation story arc. Having no mention of Ship, or of The Master of the Sun, Peter now has cybernetic implants and is being held on a super prison called Kyln. In the Kyln, Peter teams-up with Gladiator, who was there to watch over the mortal form of the Beyonder. With Thanos' help the Beyonder was defeated but another great threat then broke free of his imprisonment: the Fallen One Galactus' first herald. Gladiator drafted Peter into the Imperial Guard to help them defeat the Fallen One and Thanos.

We find out in 2007, in Star-Lord #1 during Annihilation: Conquest, that the last act as Star-Lord for Peter was defeating The Fallen One years earlier. Again, with no mention of Jason or what happened to Ship afterwards, Peter narrates his battle with The Fallen One and the choice to kill him, along with 350,000 innocents of the nearby populace to keep The Fallen One from continuing to destroy worlds in an effort to starve Galactus. It's assumed that during his battles with The Fallen One, and defeats before finally taking him out, is where his cybernetic implants became necessary. Though there was some question of his guilt, since sacrificing those thousands saved the rest of the planet and countless others, Peter still handed himself over to the Nova Corps and was remanded to Kyln. He then gave up being Star-Lord, feeling that the murder of any populace no matter the justification stripped him of any right to call himself Star-Lord, as the title and responsibility were given to him to redeem himself in the first place; Star-Lord should be above that. Better than that. Star-Lord doesn't kill. If Peter killed, he can't be Star-Lord anymore. But just as we find this out, Peter is drafted once again into battle; this time by Ronan the Accuser, who insists on Peter reclaiming his title as Star-Lord.

After the Annihilation War, Peter was hired by Ronan to upgrade the Kree War Net. During the Annihilation war, the War Net had been broken. Peter was to unify it and make it stronger. He was offered an upgrade by the Galadorian Spaceknight Restitution Program and Peter set up the deal. They integrated both systems together. During a test drill Kree Sentries shot down one of their own ships. Peter ordered the War Net to be shut down, but it was too late. The Phalanx transmode virus had already taken control of the entire empire.

It's here that we see the beginnings of a team that will eventually become The Guardians of the Galaxy. Peter is put in charge of several aliens whom are all in jail for various crimes (informally known as The Dirty Half Dozen), but all have skills sets that could help Peter covertly defeat The Phalanx, who can detect any form of high-tech machinery. Peter was given the choice of leading the team, or being imprisoned for his part in allowing The Phalanx to infect the Kree. After defeating The Phalanx, Peter forms The Guardians of the Galaxy out of the team he ends up with at the end of Annihilation: Conquest, to help protect the fragile galaxy still healing after two wars. His original team members from the Kree prison didn't all survive. The new team consisted of Mantis, Adam Warlock, Phyla-Vell, Rocket Raccoon, Drax and Gamora, though Peter had Mantis mentally nudge the group into joining, with Bug joining up a few issues later. Nova told them about a base called Knowhere, an interdimensional crossroads inside the severed head of a celestial, ran by a telepathic dog named Cosmo. Once they found out about the deception, however, the team split to handle their own individual concerns and quests.

While the rest of the Guardians moved on, Peter went to the Kree homeworld, got in an argument with Ronan over the Kree using left over Phalanx tech, and Ronan threw Peter into The Negative Zone. While trying to defeat the King of the Negative Zone, Blastaar, Peter ran into Jack Flagg, another Terran. They escaped by forcing Carrion, a telepath, in the Negative Zone to contact the Guardians. After saving Peter and Jack, the Guardians are finally back together, with Jack and Moondragon joining. (Wait! Moondragon?! You want to know about Moondragon? Check the Drax bio. This is about Peter. Come on. Focus.)

With a brief stop at a favorite bar to celebrate the return of Moondragon, and the inevitable bar fight that followed, the Guardians set out to handle the War of Kings. Peter took a portion of the team to speak to Black Bolt of the Inhumans, while Rocket took the rest of the team to negotiate with Vulcan. Things didn't go well, both teams retreated back to their headquarters, only to be followed by both warring parties. Once the Inhumans retrieved Crystal, Phyla having brought her back as a hostage, they promptly left, leaving the Guardians to deal with the Imperial Guard. In the course of taking out the Imperial Guard, Starhawk, from the future, who was at the time held captive in the Guardian's base and considered dangerous, broke free and transported the Guardians to her future.

Starhawk showed them the future, a massive fissure in space that Black Bolt will cause during the War of Kings, threatening to consume the universe. They sent a message back home, warning about the fissure and began fighting to get back, slipping through timeline after timeline, until they settled in a timeline were Magus, the evil version of Adam Warlock, ruled the Church of Eternal Truth. Kang the Conqueror, much to their surprise, stepped in and brought them home. Kang gave Peter a cosmic cube and insisted he use it to save the universe as Adam Warlock was moments from closing the fissure and began becoming Magus. After a battle where half the Guardians died at Magus' hand, Peter was finally able to use the cube to revert Magus back to Warlock, and shoot him dead, to keep Magus from regaining control.

Later, Moondragon learns that the other Guardians, presumed dead, were very much alive, as was Magus. While trying to escape Magus' imprisonment, the group of Guardians presumed dead find a cocoon, holding a resurrected Thanos. The rest of the Guardians show up to rescue their teammates and Peter uses his cosmic cube to knock out Thanos. While trying to figure out a way to kill Thanos, Magus blows up planets in an effort to force the fissure open even wider and opens a rift to the Cancerverse, a parallel dimension who's super-powered beings have killed the avatar of death, essentially making themselves un-killable. Peter and Nova are forced to team up with Thanos, whom as the avatar of death for our universe is the only one who can kill and stop the Cancerverse beings from doing the same thing to our universe than they've done to their own. Trying to kill Thanos proves harder than the Cancerverse Mar-Vell anticipated, as Death herself shows and kills Mar-Vell, reducing him to a skeleton,. The blast grows to consume the entirety of the Cancerverse. In order to keep Thanos in the Cancerverse long enough for it to consume him as well, Nova and Star-Lord sacrifice themselves, keeping Thanos busy until all three are consumed.

Which brings us to present day. With a new origin story, blonde hair, a really cool gun and whole new costume (not to mention his father's alive again) Star-Lord is back without any explanation, and without Nova. No one's asked Peter how he survived, or how he returned, but he wasn't the only one to make it out of the Cancerverse. Thanos himself has returned. With time in shambles due in large part to Earth's meddling back and forth in the time stream, the straw that broke the camel's back belonging to none other than Wolverine, Peter has gone to Thanos to ask what's going on. The rest of the Guardians, now consisting of Rocket, Groot, Drax, and Gamora, are left dealing an angel who's fallen through one of the rifts made by the break in time. 

 

As we gear up for our first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, we can't help but wonder what's next for our hero and his team. With things headed in the direction they seem to be, it's no doubt going to be big, not just for Peter Jason Quill, The Star-Lord, but for the Marvel Universe, and us as well.