Peter QuillStar-Lord

Straight Outta Missouri

A cosmic Celestial known as Ego visited an untold number of planets to seed them as preparation for his Expansion, during which he would assimilate all life in the cosmos. As part of this process, he needed a second Celestial, which led him to woo and impregnate females on the planets he visited. He unexpectedly fell in love with one such woman, the Earthling Meredith Quill. Fearing she would distract him from his true mission, Ego caused her to develop a fatal brain tumor and then left her to raise the product of their relationship, their son Peter, by herself.

Peter lived with Meredith in Missouri until the night she passed away from the tumor. The eight-year-old boy was subsequently abducted from Earth by aliens. Yondu Udonta, the leader of the Ravagers mercenary band that kidnapped the boy, had been paid by Ego to deliver Peter to him. Yondu reneged on the deal when he discovered the other children he’d retrieved for Ego had been killed (after Ego discovered they were not in fact Celestials and could not help him) and raised Quill as a Ravager instead.

Christmas Memories

During his youth as a member of the Ravagers, Quill attempted to introduce them to some of his favorite Earth traditions. He told Kraglin all about Christmas, got gifts for everyone and the pair even worked on decorating a tree. However, Yondu saw all this and was not pleased. He smashed the tree and told him to trash the gifts.

Later, Yondu secretly opened the gift from Peter. It was a small figurine he placed on the dashboard of the ship, starting his tchotchke collection. Without letting the others know, Yondu then gifted the boy his quad blasters. The pair did not speak about the exchange, but did share a nice moment afterwards.

After reaching adulthood, Quill struck out on his own with all the experience he’d gained with the Ravagers, a spaceship of his own, and his mother’s mixtape of Earth pop tunes to restyle himself as Star-Lord, the galaxy’s most notorious thief… a status completely in his own mind.

His Stuff

As Star-Lord, Quill utilizes several pieces of equipment, most likely gained during his time with the Ravagers, such as a mask-helmet that allows him to breathe in space. He also uses a unique double-barrel blaster pistol, boot thrusters for limited flight, and a starship he dubs the Milano. In addition, Quill sports multiple devices and tools that aid in his thievery.

Star-Lord himself is a fair hand-to-hand combatant, though he seems to prefer shooting to punching. He keeps himself in shape, though, and has been able to withstand certain degrees of physical abuse from his opponents. Though not of low intelligence, Quill possesses a clever mind that while useful in some situations, tends to get him into trouble more often than not.

He Needs a Lot of Enemies

In his travels around the galaxy, Star-Lord has picked up more than a few enemies. In fact, given his ego and bluster, more people probably hate him than love him.

Quill earns the enmity of the Kree warrior called Ronan the Accuser and his troops when the thief purloins the object known as the Orb from a dead world. This leads to a massive effort from Ronan to acquire it for himself and a world of hurt for Quill. Still, in the end, Star-Lord offers to settle the entire matter —interstellar war—with a so-called “dance-off,” but the Accuser doesn’t accept the offer in the spirit it was given.

Sadly, one of Peter Quill’s greatest foes turns out to be his own father, the Celestial known as Ego. It began well, with father reaching out to son to gift him with his legacy. But when Star-Lord discovers Ego’s part in the death of Meredith Quill, and his dark intentions for the universe at large, blood becomes thinner than water and open war is declared.

Quill gains the wrath of Ayesha, the leader of the Sovereign race. Star-Lord also forms a burning enmity against Thanos the space tyrant, who brings about a very personal loss to Quill.

Stuck Together Until We Get The Money

Quill operates almost entirely on his own after leaving the Ravagers, beyond brief relationships with women across the galaxy. This solo act continues until he meets the group of individuals who join with him in becoming the Guardians of the Galaxy and builds unique rapports with each of them.

The assassin Gamora becomes perhaps the most complex of Star-Lord’s relationships amongst the Guardians. Quill holds her in high esteem and the frustrations between the two eventually relent as they began a romantic relationship. Drax’s childlike nature can be trying for Quill, as can Rocket’s competitive nature and the alien raccoon’s tendency toward theft, which at times exceeds Quill’s own thieving urges. As for Groot, Quill acts as something of a parental figure to the walking, talking tree-alien, a status that Groot himself doesn’t seem to care for. Quill welcomes Mantis to the Guardians, while also learning to work alongside former enemy Nebula.

The strange bond between Quill and the man who raised him, Yondu Udonta of the Ravagers, defies description for many year, until the blue-skinned mercenary opens Star-Lord’s eyes to the truth about his father and supplants Ego in the young thief’s eyes. The man who was once seen as an adversary and someone to beat, becomes a father-figure himself.

Galaxy Games

Star-Lord acquired knowledge of a valuable item called the Orb and one-upped his old mentor Yondu by stealing it before the Ravagers could get their hands on it. In doing so, Quill also acquired the interest of the Kree warrior Ronan, who wanted the Orb for his lord, the dreaded Thanos. But, when the thief tried to sell the object on the Xandarian homeworld, he was arrested by the Nova Corps and unceremoniously thrown into prison. There he gained the partnership of Gamora, Rocket, Groot, and Drax, and together the little band escaped from incarceration and made their way to the far-off place called Knowhere to attempt to sell the Orb to the Collector, an eccentric antiquities acquirer.

After the Collector revealed the Orb contained one of the powerful artifacts known as Infinity Stones, Quill and his team were attacked by Ronan’s forces and then rescued by Yondu and the Ravagers. Finally in possession of the Infinity Stone, Ronan turned to attack the Nova Corps on Xandar, prompting Star-Lord to convince his new friends to join in defending the planet. Their infiltration of Ronan’s baseship brought it crashing down to Xandar, where Quill challenged the Accuser directly in a bid to wrest the Stone from him.

In accessing the object’s power for himself, Peter Quill drew strength from a vision of his late mother and also from his team and together they defeated Ronan and saved everyone. In a gesture of thanks, the Nova Corps expunged Star-Lord’s criminal records from galactic databases and gifted him with a rebuilt starship exactly like the one he lost during the struggle.

Calling themselves by the lofty name of the “Guardians of the Galaxy,” Quill and the others began to take on missions from different parties seeking help on various matters. When the Sovereign race asked the team to win their precious power batteries back from an alien who’d stolen them, which Rocket later stole for himself, it set off another wild adventure for the Guardians.

Star-Lord’s long-lost father Ego contacted him while the team was fleeing from the angry Sovereigns and directed him to a planet where he would be waiting to receive him. After their reunion, Ego explained why he left Quill’s mother and also how he’d seeded multiple worlds with parts of himself, and then helped his son embrace the incredible power already within him from birth.

At first, Star-Lord reveled in his new abilities, but he subsequently discovered the dark truth behind his father’s explanations: Ego had caused Meredith Quill’s fatal tumor and was planning on terraforming countless worlds in his own image with his son’s added power. Together with a newly arrived Yondu and his fellow Guardians, Quill devised a plan to distract his father while the team planted a bomb on Ego’s brain, deep within the planet they stood upon.

The plan worked and Ego was defeated, but in the process Yondu sacrificed his life to save Peter Quill and his friends, awakening Star-Lord to the realization that the Ravager leader acted as a real father to him, not the cosmic being that had tried to manipulate and use him. Star-Lord arranged for a proper funeral for Yondu, with full honors.

In the time that followed, the baby incarnation of Groot began to age and grow. Having taken on a fatherly role with Groot, Quill was exasperated to learn that his charge was now at the temperament one might expect to find in a typical adolescent, complete with a healthy disrespect for Quill’s authority.

When the Guardians later answered a distress call, they discovered the wreckage of a ship that was destroyed by Thanos. Bringing a survivor, the Asgardian god of thunder, Thor, aboard his ship, Quill learned more about Thanos’ drive to acquire all six Infinity Stones and destroy half of all life in the universe. Thor took Rocket and Groot with him to forge a weapon to kill Thanos, leaving Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, and Mantis to head to Knowhere to intercept Gamora’s adoptive father. During the voyage, Gamora made Quill promise he’d kill her if and when she asked, in order to stop Thanos from gaining knowledge only she possessed.

On Knowhere, Quill and the others realized they were too late to stop Thanos from snatching up another Infinity Stone. When Thanos grabbed Gamora, she implored Peter to do as he promised and kill her. Despite the pain it brought him, he finally pulled the trigger on his gun—only for Thanos to use the power of the Infinity Stones so that harmless bubbles were all that were emitted. Thanos escaped with Gamora as his prisoner. Star-Lord, Drax, and Mantis traveled to Thanos’ home planet, Titan, hoping to rescue their teammate. There they met Earth heroes Iron Man, Doctor Strange, and Spider-Man, who were also pursuing Thanos. Quill was key in devising a plan to stop Thanos from gaining Strange’s Infinity Stone.

When Thanos arrived on Titan, the heroes nearly succeeded in wresting away his Infinity Gauntlet, and all the Infinity Stones it contained, until Quill learned that Thanos had killed Gamora. Unable to control his anger, Quill’s reckless fury inadvertently destroyed the heroes’ chance of incapacitating the tyrant, who was able to gain control of Strange’s stone, and departed for Earth.

Soon after, Thanos gained the sixth and final Infinity Stone and carried out his grand design, eliminating half of the universe with a snap of his fingers. On Titan, Peter Quill was one of the unlucky fifty percent who disintegrated into nothingness.

A Real Kick In The Crotch

Later, the surviving Avengers and Guardians worked together to snatch the Infinity Stones from throughout time and used them to bring everyone who had been erased back to life. Quill and the others found themselves still on Titan, but began making their way to Earth thanks to Doctor Strange's magic.

Star-Lord flew into battle against Thanos' forces, blasting away at the enemies. During the fight he was saved by an unexpected encounter with Gamora from the past. When he tried caressing her, she kneed him in the crotch twice and went off to continue fighting alongside the modern-day Nebula. The battle ended when Iron Man gained control of the Infinity Stones and used them to snap past Thanos' forces away, leaving the status of Gamora from that time a mystery. 

The Never-Ending Mission

After attending Tony Stark's memorial service, Quill and the Guardians agreed to let Thor travel with them, answering distress calls and helping those in need. He also kept an eye out for any more information about Gamora from the past. The Asgardian's tenure with the team ended when Gorr, the God-Butcher began to truly make his presence felt. Star-Lord and the Guardians dedicated themselves to responding to as many pleas for help as possible while Thor and Korg went to assist Sif. Before parting ways, Peter told the Odinson to get out there and find something or someone to love and fight for.

At some point down the line, Peter and the Guardians purchased Knowhere from the Collector, who left the floating Celestial head after his encounter with Thanos during the Infinity War. Quill dedicated his efforts to repairing the damage done to the place so the citizens could carry on living there, an effort aided by the locals as well as the Guardians.

An Alien For Christmas

Having heard Kraglin recount a story of Peter's childhood and his love of Christmas, Drax and Mantis decided to travel to Earth and bring back his hero, actor Kevin Bacon. They also picked up a lot of decorations, which everyone used to bring some holiday cheer to Knowhere. Quill loved the initial sentiment, but was not pleased when he realized they had kidnapped Bacon and altered his mind with Mantis' powers. Though he asked Kraglin to return the actor to Earth, Bacon stuck around after hearing how important his movies had been to Quill.

Bacon did go back home, but after sharing a special Christmas song. During the gift exchanging portion of the festivities, Quill gave Groot a Gameboy and received a piece of art from the walking tree in return. Peter received an even better gift shortly after when Mantis revealed that she was his half-sister. Quill was delighted to find out he was actually related to someone in the family of misfits he had built for himself.