Star-Lord (Marvel)

File:Star lord abnett.jpg

Star-Lord (Peter Quill) is a fictional character, a superhero appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Steve Englehart and Steve Gan, the character first appeared in Marvel Preview #4 (Jan. 1976). The son of a human mother and alien father, Quill assumes the mantle of Star-Lord, an interplanetary policeman.

The character played a role in the crossover comic book events Annihilation (2006) and Annihilation: Conquest (2007), and became the leader of the space-based superhero team Guardians of the Galaxy in the 2008 relaunch of the comic of the same name. He has been featured in a variety of associated Marvel merchandise, including animated television series, toys, and trading cards. Chris Pratt is set to portray Peter Quill as the lead character in the 2014 live-action film Guardians of the Galaxy.

Story

Peter Quill is born during an unusual astronomical phenomenon when many of the planets align. Seeing no resemblance, the man who believed he was Quill's father accuses his wife Meredith of infidelity and attempts to kill the infant, but dies of a sudden heart attack. Quill is raised by his single mother until she is killed by an alien when he is eleven. Quill is placed in an orphanage but escapes and eventually becomes a trainee NASA astronaut. An alien entity called the Master of the Sun later visits the space station that Quill and other astronauts are inhabiting, and offers the mantle of Star-Lord (an interplanetary policeman) to a worthy candidate. Quill volunteers, but is rejected in favor of a colleague he once treated badly. Quill is outraged, and NASA orders his return to Earth and discharge for his conduct. Instead, he steals a scout ship, returns to the space station, and takes his colleague's place. Quill becomes Star-Lord, with the Master of the Sun first creating an illusion in which the character is able to find and kill the aliens that murdered his mother to free him of his past. Equipped with a sentient vessel called "Ship", Quill commences his role as Star-Lord.

Years later, Star-Lord becomes involved in stopping a group of slavers who are destroying worlds. His efforts led him to discover a conspiracy to replace the emperor of the Spartoi Empire with his uncle, Prince Gareth. In order to thwart the takeover, Star-Lord travels to the imperial throneworld Sparta where he encounters and kills the alien who killed his mother. Star-Lord then meets Emperor Jason who reveals that he is Peter's father. Jason explains that he had crashed on Earth decades earlier and been rescued by Meredith Quill. During the year that he had spent repairing his ship, Jason and Meredith fell in love. When it came time to leave, Jason, for Meredith's safety, had placed a mindlock on her memories of him, causing her to remember their year together as only a dream.

This origin was later retconned and the astronomical phenomena and murderous not-father were removed. Instead, J'son of Spartax - an alien with a human appearance - crashes on Earth and strikes up a relationship with Meredith. A short time later, he leaves Meredith pregnant with his child and with his gun for safekeeping. Ten years later, Meredith is killed by members of the alien race known as theBadoon. Peter kills both assassins with a single shotgun blast, then finds the alien gun in his mother's closet. Realizing that the alien ship is about to attack, Peter gets out of the house just before it is destroyed. Believing that they have killed their target, the alien ship leaves. After being found by the authorities, who believe the Quill house was destroyed by a gas leak explosion, Peter is taken to a hospital where a nurse brings him the only thing that survived the explosion, his "space toy", which is J'son's gun.^[16]

The character encounters the former Herald of Galactus, the Fallen One, and is almost killed defeating the entity, and in addition Star-Lord's vessel "Ship" is destroyed in the conflict. The pair are subsequently imprisoned in the intergalactic prison the Kyln. Star-Lord is freed by the hero Nova during the "Annihilation War" storyline and aids in the war against villain Annihilus. Quill later acts as military adviser to the Kreegeneral Ronan the Accuser.

When the Kree homeworld of Hala is conquered by the Phalanx, Star-Lord leads a band of rebels against the invaders until the war is over. In an effort to prevent another interstellar war, Star-Lord forms a new version of the Guardians of the Galaxy. They are "proactive" and try to end emerging galactic threats early.

During the war with the Cancerverse, Star-Lord sacrifices his life to stop Thanos.

"They Will Not Be Forgotten" Once again in Project PEGASUS, Nova was faced with a doppelganger Quasar from a twisted reality dubbed the Cancerverse within the Fault who attempted to assist his brethren in invading the "prime reality" through a gateway found in the institution. Nova shut down the gateway and pursued the fake Quasar into space where a massive war was already in progress between the forces of the "prime reality" and that of the Cancerverse. The mad titan Thanos had been previously resurrected and was thought to be the only hope to defeat the Cancerverse, so he and the Guardians of the Galaxy went into the Fault to find a way to defeat the invading reality. Nova soon followed after rescuing a kidnapped Namorita from the Revengers – a distorted version of the Avengers. He assisted Star-Lord in detaining an enraged Thanos from escaping back into the "prime reality" with the intention of destroying everything after Mistress Death again rejected him, even after Thanos eradicated an entire reality for her. Nova remained with Star-Lord until the Cancerverse imploded and the Fault was sealed in the process, seemingly killing them all.

Despite this, he later reappears with a new Guardians line-up on Earth to aid the Avengers against the returned Thanos. After this, Star-Lord and his new team of Guardians engage in conflicts with the Badoon.

Gallery

1970's Starlord

Starlord during Annihilation Conquest