in flight STAR-LORD

Real Name: Peter Jason Quill

Identity/Class: Alternate Reality (Earth-791) human/extraterrestrial (Spartan (see comments)) hybrid

Occupation: Explorer, warrior

Group membership: None;
    formerly "Ship" (partner and would-be lover);

Affiliations: Al (his pet owl), Aletha, "Dune Devils," Dwellers of the Ark, Kip Hölm, K'yndarii race, Master of the Sun, Sandy, Scania race, Sylvana, Thorn, Trinity-That-Is-One;

Enemies: Arak, Ariguans, Arion, Beastmen of Redstone, Dirac, Gareth of Sparta, Haalmhad race, Greg Harrelson, Jake, Lorq race, "Noah," Quan-Zarr, Rruothk'ar, Kyras Shakati of Cinnibar and his Slavers, Shreen, Symbion, Tikos, 

Known Relatives: Jason of Sparta (father), Meredith Quill (mother, deceased), Gareth of Sparta (paternal great-uncle);
    Jake ("step-father"), Kip Hölm (adoptive brother), Sandy (sister-in-law), Alain, Rhys (adoptive nephews), Robyn (adoptive niece);
    see comments

Aliases: Starlord, "Boyo" (nickname from Ship, c/o Chris Claremont)

Place of Birth: Colorado, USA

Base of Operations: Mobile throughout the universe;
    formerly Space Station Eve in Earth orbit;
    formerly NASA training center, Houston, Texas
    formerly the "State orphanage," Ohio;
    formerly a cabin in the Western United States;

Education: NASA astronaut

First Appearance: Marvel Preview#4 (January, 1976)

Powers/Abilities: Star-Lord wore a costume that enabled him to survive in space. It is possible that the costume has actually altered his physical structure, as he does not need to wear any helmet, or any form of life support to survive the nearly absolute zero, airless vacuum. He can fly through air or in space, presumably another attribute of his costume. He possesses enhanced healing and uses personal energy shields. In the event that he were injured beyond his own ability to recover, Ship could administer emergency medical or surgical care.

He wields the Element Gun, which can generate and manipulate the four ancient elements: earth, air, fire, and water. The gun actually serves as a portal in space, drawing the above elements from the planet. While the supply of these is practically limitless, removal of excessive amounts of one form may up set the balance on that planet, with catastrophic consequences. The use of the Element Gun is otherwise limited only by Star-Lord's will, focus, and imagination.
(Note: the image to the left is of the Sinjin Quarrell Starlord)

    In addition, Star-Lord is highly athletic, a skilled marksman and swordsman, and proficient at hand-to-hand combat. After overcoming his lifetime of hatred, Star-Lord took a vow to never take another life unless absolutely necessary.

    His greatest asset is his partner and would-be lover, Ship.

Height: 6'2"
Weight: 175 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Brown (formerly blond)

History: 
(Marvel Preview#11 (fb) - BTS) - When war broke out between the Sparta empire and the Ariguans, Jason's father summoned him home. En route, his ship blew a converter and he crash-landed on Earth. This was observed by Meredith Quill, who found and recovered Jason, and nursed him back to health. Over the course of a year, Jason and Meredith fell in love, but when he had rebuilt his ship, he was forced to leave. Not wanting to risk her life at the hands of the Ariguans (and knowing that she carried his son, and he didn't want to hazard that life), he left Meredith behind. For her own safety and sanity, Jason placed a mindlock on her memories of their time together, so that she would only remember it as a dream.

mother's death    Within a month, Meredith married her high school sweetheart, Jake.

(Marvel Preview#4) <February 4, 1962> - Meredith gave birth to her son, Peter Jason Quill. Jake recognized that the baby looked nothing like him and flew into a rage, assuming Meredith had been unfaithful to him. Jake took the baby outside to kill it with an axe, but instead had a heart attack and died. It was an hour before Meredith had the strength to crawl outside and recover her baby, during which time Peter stared at the starry sky.

    Meredith's sanity and health were strained by the series of events, and she withdrew from life, devoting all of her time to her son.

(Marvel Preview#4) <1969> - Peter grew up a loner, not fitting in with the other kids, and not wanting to do so, either. He was fascinated by science fiction shows and the US moon landing.

(Marvel Preview#4) <Spring, 1971> - Peter discovered the scorched Earth where his father had crash-landed, but his mother explained it away. It did, however, serve to feed his dream of space and aliens.

(Marvel Preview#11 (fb) - BTS) - After a few years, Jason felt it to be safe to bring Meredith and their son to Sparta. However, as Prince, he was too involved in the war and could not leave, so he requested aid from his uncle, Gareth. Seeking to potentially gain the throne himself one day, Gareth decided to eliminate anyone else who would stand in his way, and so he hired Kyras Shakati of Cinnibar to kill Meredith and Peter.

(Marvel Preview#11 (fb) - BTS / Marvel Spotlight II#6) - Shakati sent Rruothk'ar, Sith-Lord of the Ariguan Confederacy, to do the deed.

(Marvel Preview#4) <August 11, 1973> - Rruothk'ar and a band of Ariguans traveled to Earth. However, their understanding of their mission was incomplete. They killed Meredith, but left her son alive, kneeling by her corpse. No one believed his story, but they were unable to prove anything different. Peter was placed in the state orphanage, where he continued to set himself apart from the other kids. In addition, he now developed an inner hostility due to his experiences.

(Marvel Preview#4) <February 4, 1975> - On his thirteenth birthday, Peter ran away from the orphanage.

(Marvel Preview#4) <November 11, 1987> - Peter enjoyed his lifelong dream, training for NASA. Still he remained isolated from other trainees and everyone else. He saved a fellow trainee, Greg Harrelson, from a centrifuge accident, but rather than accept his thanks, Peter berated him for his stupidity and turned a potential friendship into a mutual hatred.

(Marvel Preview#4) <June 7, 1989> - Peter proved to be one of the most proficient graduates in the aeronautics program, but his lack of people skills continued to plague him. He was passed over for inclusion in the Mars probe program because it was known that he could not work with the other astronauts. Quill flipped out, cursed out his superiors, and got hee-hee-hammered on Jim Beam.

(Marvel Preview#4) <November 23, 1989> - Missing that position served as a wake-up call to Quill and he reapplied himself, eventually being placed aboard the Space Station Eve. Quill was ecstatic to finally make it into space.

(Marvel Preview#4) <January 26, 1990> - The crew of the Eve were confronted by the image of Star-Lord, which described itself as a concept one of them would become, in 14 days. Quill proudly volunteered himself, but was turned down, in favor of someone with more space experience: Greg Harrelson. Quill went ballistic, screaming and smashing anything he could get his hands on. He was soon discharged from service and sent back to Earth.

(Marvel Preview#4) <February 9, 1990> - Quill, determined not to miss this opportunity, broke into the Kennedy Space Center and stole a scoutship. He arrived back on Eve and fought his way into the chamber in which Harrelson was being prepared. Quill forcibly dislodged Harrelson from the oval chamber and was taken in his place. He was instantly transported into a city in space, where the Master of the Sun transformed him into Star-Lord.
The Master of the Sun then sent him to gain his vengeance on the aliens who had killed his mother. He soon encountered an Ariguan ship and slew everyone aboard, after which he immediately returned to the Master of the Sun's realm. Quill was unsure whether he had actually ever left the realm, but the Master told him that he had experienced his vengeance and was now free of his past life--"free to form a new life...Then come, Star-Lord. Leave your madness behind and walk with me."

(Marvel Preview#15 (fb)) - The Master of the Sun introduced Starlord to a sentient energy being that had once been a star. The energy being reformed itself to become his ally, "Ship."

(Marvel Preview#11) - Star-Lord rescued the prisoners of a group of Slavers, taking them to the planet Windhölme. He was then joined by Kip and Sandy, two recent slaves, who wished vengeance on those who had sent the Slavers. Their search brought them to the planet Cinnibar, and to the merchant Kyras Shakati. They were briefly ensorcelled by Shakati's Telempathic Crystal, but managed to break free. Shakati tried to offer hidden information to Star-Lord in exchange for his own life, but Sandy killed Shakati before he could speak; she then revealed that Shakati had a finger-blaster trained on Star-Lord and would have killed him had she not stopped him. Star-Lord and his allies narrowly escaped as the palace exploded, as it was programmed to do upon Shakati's death.

    Star-Lord learned that the profits from the worlds stripped by the Slavers were being used to replace the Emperor with his uncle, Gareth. Star-Lord and his new allies traveled to Sparta, where Ship was shot down and they crashed on the planet. Kip and Sandy were captured, but Star-Lord made it to safety and then rescued them. Quill confronted Gareth and his associate Rruothk'ar, whom he recognized as the one who had slain his mother. Star-Lord fought and killed Rruothk'ar and then Gareth, as well. He then met the Emperor, who revealed himself to be his father, Jason, and revealed his origins. Jason offered Peter the role as heir to the throne of Sparta, but he declined, preferring the freedom of space. Instead, Quill recommended that Jason adopt Kip and take him as heir to the throne.

(Marvel Preview#14) - A squadron of Lorq starfighters blasted Ship out of the sky over the planet Ferrol and she crash-landed on the surface. Star-Lord was gravely injured, and Ship created a human form to operate and save his life. When he revived, she pretended to be a woman who had found him, and named herself Caryth Halyan. Star-Lord and Caryth explored the planet, searching for what the Lorq had been after. She attempted to seduce him, but found the feelings this generated to intense for her, and so she broke it off. They encountered and saved the life of the Trinity-That-Is-One and its insectoid symbionts, and Star-Lord provided a water source to keep them alive. Then the Lorq attacked anew, slaying Caryth and destroying Ship before he could fight them off. Ship, however, as a being of primal energy, was able to reform. Star-Lord guessed that she had been Caryth.

(Marvel Preview#15) - Star-Lord accompanied Ship on a mission to defeat the Haalmhad homeship, saving the planet Cymoril, although they were too late to save the planet Carillon.

(Marvel Super Special#10) - Ship and Star-Lord were pulled through a warp associated with a black hole and were separated. There Star-Lord met an alien race living on a massive, planet-sized ark. Their leader, Noah, initially claimed that they were the last remnants of the human race, having come from 3 million years in the future. However, another member of the race, Aletha, revealed that they were aliens, using illusions (which they called "smoke") to appear to be human. Aletha revealed that "Noah" and his allies had actually sought to use Star-Lord's knowledge to conquer Earth and take it for their new home. With Star-Lord's aid, Aletha and the rest of the people of the ark overthrew Noah and his warlords, so that they would then live on the ark for the rest of their lives.

    After a brief affair with Aletha, Star-Lord was then reunited with Ship. As they left the ark, Ship revealed that she had been linked with Aletha for the course of their adventures.

(Marvel Preview#18) - Star-Lord traveled to the planet Redstone, where he and Ship encountered Sylvana, Quan-Zarr, and the Beastmen. Quill stood back as the last of the Beastmen slew Quan-Zarr to retake the Power Rod, but then was forced to kill the Beastman to stop him from using the Rod to destroy Redstone.

(Marvel Spotlight II#6) - Star-Lord sensed an attack on the Master of the Sun and rescued him. However, the Master instructed them to return him so he could accept his fate.

(Marvel Spotlight II#7) - Star-Lord and Ship traveled to the planet Heaven, where they tried to save Thorn from Shreen and allow Thorn to regain his wings and return to the Cloudlands. Ultimately both Shreen and Thorn died, a result of their debts of honor.

(Marvel Premiere#61) - Star-Lord investigated the planet "Symbion" (see comments). The planet, a sentient being, tried to form a temporary symbiosis with him, but he mistook it to be a parasitic creature. He broke free of its clutches and planned to destroy the planet to prevent it from taking other victims. Ship talked him out of it, and he left the planet behind.

(Starlord#2 (fb) - BTS) - At some point, Peter Quill either overcame his intense hatred for the Ariguan race or he (at least) learned to differentiate between the warriors and the civilians.

(Starlord#2 (fb) - BTS) - At some point, Star-Lord visited R'Ralmis, a planet where the Master of the Sun had once lived, and possibly saved its Ariguan population from some unspecified threat. At the very least, those Ariguans were left with a very high opinion of "Starlord."

(Starlord#1 (fb) - BTS) - At some point, certain details about Star-Lord's origin became common knowledge around the Milky Way galaxy, including the fact that his real name was Peter Quill; that he had been an ordinary human from a minor planet called Earth; that he had been chosen to receive mystic powers and incredible technology by a being who had called himself simply the Master of the Sun; that his mystic weapon was the Element Gun; and that his partner was a one-of-a-kind sentient starship.

(Starlord#1 (fb) - BTS) - During his first seven years of life, while growing up on the planet Iolum, the young Sinjin Quarrel was told story after story about Star-Lord by his parents Sinindru and Merimarth. They chose to tell their son those stories because Star-Lord (a.k.a. Peter Quill) was their favorite example of how one man could make a difference.

(Starlord#2 (fb)) - Flying through hyperspace to an unspecified destination, she encountered an uncharted black hole right in her path. The black hole's gravitational gradient snapped her cocoon ("field-effect bubble") and broke her back into Space-Normal before she knew what was happening. Ship found the gravity, the radiation and the infalling debris raining down on her to be terrifying and, in a desperate attempt to survive, she blasted laterally to the black hole so that she could slingshot around it.

(Starlord#2 (fb) - BTS) - Thanks to the time-dilation effect near the black hole's event horizon, what seemed to Ship to take only a few minutes was actually twelve years to the rest of the universe.

(Starlord#1 (fb) - BTS) - At some point, Starlord "just sort of dropped out of sight" for about twelve years.
    Since no definitive explanation for this disappearance has ever been provided, three possible scenarios have been presented    in the "Comments" section.:

(Starlord#1 (fb) - BTS) - Twelve years after Star-Lord had last been seen in action, Ship crashed-landed on the frontier planet of Bovric but the crash went unnoticed since it occurred in a forest near the small village of Paka's Crossing. Ship remained there, alone in the forest, for months.

(Starlord#1 (fb) - BTS) - Eventually, Ship's dream of calling to someone inadvertently interacted with the minor telepathic ability of Sinjin Quarrel who had just arrived on Bovric, causing him to sleepwalk out into the forest and straight to her. Once inside the shipwreck, Quarrel soon met Ship, whose memory had been damaged, and learned that she had been Star-Lord's ship. Quarrel began using his strange telepathic link with Ship to help nurse her damaged mind back toward health. A week later, events forced Quarrel to pose as Starlord in order to defend Ship from a ruthless local official, Lawgiver Damyish.

(Starlord#1-3) - Ship encouraged Sinjin to help her look for the missing Peter Quill and to pose as Star-Lord while they searched.

(Conjecture:) - At some point, under circumstances that have never been revealed, Ship and Sinjin succeeded in finding Peter Quill who then resumed being Star-Lord. What happened to Sinjin after that has not been revealed.

(Starlord Special Edition#1 (fb) - BTS) - Peter and Ship roamed from one end of the galaxy to the other -- and beyond -- always searching, never at peace, Peter driven by his insatiable curiosity and Ship by her love for him.

(Starlord Special Edition#1 (fb) - BTS) - At one point, years later, Ship made an abortive attempt to bring Peter back to Sparta. Although this attempt failed, Ship did manage to meet up with Kip and during that encounter she told Kip what she and Peter had been doing. Kip chose to keep his meeting with Ship a secret from everyone, including his wife and his adoptive father.

(Starlord Special Edition#1 (fb) - BTS) - As the years passed while he roamed the universe, Peter came to certain realizations regarding what was important in the scheme of things. As a result, he began to miss the father he had never given himself the chance to know.

(Starlord Special Edition#1 (fb) - BTS) - As the people of the Spartan Empire began a year-long celebration of the hundredth year of Emperor Jason's reign, Peter experienced a growing desire to see his father, but the thought of a possible reunion terrified him.

(Starlord Special Edition#1 (fb) - BTS) - Meanwhile, on Sparta, Emperor Jason began to feel tired and that he was no longer equal to the task of being the emperor. As he began to frequently examine his life and found it wanting, he began seriously considering abdicating in favor of Kip. During the last days of the Jubilee, Jason was gripped by a dark mood. Although he loved his adopted son and his daughter-in-law, Jason began to increasingly feel the absence of his biological offspring. He began to hope that Peter would come to see him but prayed that he would stay away because he knew his heart would break when he would have to see his son leave a second time.

(Starlord Special Edition#1) - On Jubilee Night, the last night of the celebration, Kip approached Jason and asked him what was wrong. Kip then confided that his Windrunner psychic sensitivity had made him aware of the fact that Jason was seeking but not finding his biological son Peter. As Jason acknowledged his feelings, he and Kip were ambushed by Kip's three young children. Knowing when he was beaten, Jason quickly surrendered. When Kip asked if the children weren't supposed to be in bed, Rhys protested that that wasn't fair because it was Jubilee Night and asked the adults to tell them a story. While Alain asked Jason to tell the story of how he and Kip had defeated the Ariguans, Robyn declared that they'd heard that one and asked her mother to tell them about the new worlds she had discovered beyond the Rim. Kip then stated that he would tell them a very special story to mark that very special night: the story of how he and their mother and their grandfather had first met, and of the man who had brought them together, a man whose name was Peter Jason Quill but who was known to them and to the wide, wonderful universe as Star-Lord!

(Starlord Special Edition#1) - After telling the story up to the point when Peter and Ship left Sparta, Kip added the information that he had received from Ship years earlier. When Jason asked where he'd heard that ending to their story, Kip revealed that Ship had told him after an abortive attempt to bring Peter back. Since the children had already fallen asleep in Jason's bed, he invited Kip and Sandy to stay there with them while he slept on the roof. Jason also revealed that he planned to announce his abdication at the next day's Council meeting and that hearing Kip tell Peter's story had crystallized the doubts he had been feeling about having served long enough to know that it was time for his service to end. Jason then left them to go up to the roof to sleep.

 

 

(Starlord Special Edition#1) - Later, while it was still evening, Ship and Star-Lord reached the roof of the palace without being detected. Awakened by their arrival, Jason grabbed the weapon (that he apparently kept close at hand when he slept) and turned to confront the intruders, and was shocked to see Star-Lord standing on the roof with Ship hovering in the air behind him. Once Ship had greeted him with a "good evening" and offered him their warmest congratulations on the occasion of his jubilee, Star-Lord simply said, "Hello...Father." 

    Jason responded by telling his son why he had hoped he would come but had also prayed that he would stay away. After removing his helmet, Peter replied, "Funny. I wanted to see you, yet the thought of that reunion terrified me." When prompted by Jason, Peter continued, saying, "I had to. I've roamed the length and breadth of Creation and learned the eternal truth: that the more I learn, the more I realize how much there is to learn. And I realize as well how important people - - simple human contact - - love - - are in the scheme of things. I've missed you, Father. In part because I don't know you. I never gave myself that chance, or you the opportunity to know me." Extending his hand to his father, Peter added, "I'd like to now -- If you'll let me."

(Starlord Special Edition#1 - BTS) - Jason accepted Peter's officer and they each left something on Jason's pillow: the imperial seal ring that Jason had worn for so long and Star-Lord's helmet. They then entered Ship would departed with a loud BOOM that awoke Kip and Sandy who quickly found the two items and deduced what had taken place.

 

 

 

 

 

(Starlord Special Edition#1) - As they flew away from Sparta, Ship asked Jason how it felt now that the patterns were broken and the ex-emperor replied that it was exciting and that for the first time in ages he felt alive. Peter spoke up, saying, "How's that for irony, Ship -- He's becoming the daredevil swashbuckler and I the contemplative sage." When Ship told the younglings that change was essential to growth and growth was essential to life and that the magnificent promise of humanity lay in the fact that Man possessed an infinite capacity for both, Peter asked, "Will it ever end, this quest of mine, of ours? Will the circle never close?" Ship replied that the end was not important and that they must try to fulfill their promise because the glory lay not in success or failure but in the attempt. Peter then asked Jason, "What do you say, Father - - Do we dare?" when Jason responded with a "Hell, yes!", Peter told Ship, "You heard my old man, Ship. Let's go find our destiny."

 

And they did just that. And it was indeed glorious.

 

 

 

Comments: Created by Steve Englehart and Steve Gan. 

    Eson of Sparta is the father of the complicated Jason of the Spartoi of Reality-616, who is different than J-Son of Spartax, the father of Earth-616's Star-Lord...Jason  of Sparta-791's father is thus far unidentified.

STAR-LORD and his place in the Marvel Universe (courtesy of Donald Campbell)

   Initially, Starlord was NOT meant to be part of the "mainstream" Marvel Universe. His creator, writer Steve Englehart, has been quoted as saying that Peter Quill "wouldn't fit in the MU." This idea that Starlord's adventures were non-canon is supported by the fact that none of the costumed characters or alien races from Earth-616 appeared in any of his "classic" stories. Also, the time frame was wrong. While most "in-continuity" stories published in the 1970s were set in that time period, Peter Jason Quill wasn't transformed into the Starlord until 1990. Therefore, although Peter may have existed on Earth-616 in "1976" as a runaway from a state orphanage, his adventures as Starlord, like those of Deathlok or Killraven or the Guardians of the Galaxy, were, at best, set in a possible alternate future of the mainstream MU.

   For over twenty years, Starlord's relationship to the MU remained undefined, and the 1996/97 miniseries (featuring Ship working with a new Starlord (Sinjin Quarrel) after Peter Quill had disappeared 12 years earlier) did nothing to help. It was not until the 2000 Inhumans miniseries that things began to change. One of the major guest characters in that miniseries was Prince Jason of Spartax, heir to the throne of the Spartoi Empire. By the end of that mini, Prince Jason had been banished to wander among the stars with his Soulship but not before the precognitive Delphos had a vision in which she saw Jason might eventually crash on Earth where he would fall in love with a woman who would give him "a human child, destined to be a Lord among the stars!" These revelations seemed to officially connect Starlord to the Marvel Universe...but they also acted to displace his existence completely into the future, as he had not even been born as of the modern era. 

    So, the end result was that Starlord was now definitely part of the mainstream MU but only in one of its potential futures. Worse yet, the fact that Peter hadn't/wouldn't become Starlord until he was 29 years old meant that at least 30 "Marvel Years" would have to pass before the "present-day" MU would catch up to Peter's possible future and, as a result, Starlord could not have appeared as part of the contemporary MU until stories published sometime between 2090 and 2120!!!

   However, this idea that Starlord existed entirely within a potential future of the MU only lasted until 2004 when writer Keith Giffen included ex-Starlord Peter Jason Quill as a supporting character in his Thanos series and in the subsequent Annihilation miniseries. Obviously, having an adult Peter Quill exist in the early 21st Century of the MU contradicted the idea that he hadn't even been born yet, and two competing theories sprang up to explain this discrepancy, both of which involved time travel. One theory was that Peter was born in the 21st Century where he grew up to become Starlord but eventually traveled back in time to the late 20th Century in some adventure that hadn't been published yet. The other theory was that it was Jason of Spartax who had somehow traveled back in time from the 21st Century and crashlanded on Earth-616 in the year 1960 where he subsequently sired Peter who grew up to become Starlord in 1990. Eventually, the idea that Jason was the time traveler came to be the favored explanation, and it was made "official" when it was mentioned in the Star-Lord profile page which appeared in the Annihilation: The Nova Corps Files one-shot (October, 2006). However, even that aforementioned Star-Lord profile was careful to use the word "apparently" on several occasions, suggesting that the time travel theory was, at best, only a hypothesis.

   Most recently, Star-Lord's status with regard to the MU underwent yet another change when writer Brian Michael Bendis presented his "streamlined and updated" version of Star-Lord's origin in issue #0.1 of his new Guardians of the Galaxy series. As many continuity-lovers like myself had feared, this Bendisized origin differed significantly from the "classic" origin from the 1970s. In fact, BMB's version is SO different that it is essentially a re-imagining of the earlier origin. Normally I would be absolutely incensed by such a drastic revision but in this case I see it as something of a blessing in disguise. It seems to me that the differences between the two origins are so extreme that it's impossible to believe that they were both connected to the same character. Trying to force both origins to be about the same individual would be like taking the two versions of Commander Adama from the two Battlestar Galactica series and insisting that they were both the same character, existing within a single fictional continuity. It simply isn't at all believable.

   Accordingly, the only reasonable explanation is that these origins actually refer to two DIFFERENT characters or, to be more precise, two different versions of the same character. And this being the Marvel Multiverse, such similar-but-different characters are usually other-dimensional counterparts of each other. If this idea has any validity, then the "re-imagined" Star-Lord, the one who has appeared in stories which were definitely set in the "mainstream" MU, would exist in Reality-616 while the "classic" version of the character, the one who appeared in all Starlord stories published in the 20th Century, would exist in another reality entirely. 

    The classic Star-Lord stories have since been designated as Reality-791 in Star-Lord's most recent profile in Star-Lord: The Hollow Crown.

   In support of the theory that there are two Starlords, here is a list of eleven of the differences which I have noticed between the "classic" and the "new" origins:

  1. Year when Jason/J'Son crashed on Earth: 1960 => "30 years ago" (as of the time of this profile publication/update in 2022, and accounting for the sliding timescale, that would be around 1990)
  2. Number of alien travelers: Two (one died in the crash) => One
  3. Duration of Jason/J'Son's stay on Earth: Over a year => A matter of days
  4. Meredith remembers that Peter's father (Jason/J'Son) is an alien: No => Yes
  5. Location of the Quill home: A cabin in the Colorado Mountains => A two-story house in rural Colorado
  6. Year of Meredith Quill's death: 1973 => "20 years ago" (currently, that would be 1993)
  7. Location of Meredith's murder: In the woods => On her own front porch
  8. Alien assassins: Ariguans (reptilians with tails) => Badoon (reptilians without tails)
  9. Fate of aliens who killed Meredith: Returned to space => Killed by Peter Quill
  10. When Peter learned that his father was an alien: When he met him after becoming Starlord => Realized it after finding his father's alien weapon
  11. How Peter obtained the Element Gun: It was a gift from the Master of the Sun => He found it in his mother's belongings, an unique Spartax weapon that J'Son had left with Meredith as a "romantic" memento.

   In my opinion, there is no plausible explanation which could reconcile these two origins into a single narrative. Accordingly, I can only hope that the "Two Star-Lords" theory will be made "canon" in the near future.

    The basic premise in the Marvel Universe is to fit together stories and events, often by different writers and sometimes spanning decades, into one coherent whole. Often explanations are need to explain how a character got from point A to point B. Initially the premise was that the Star-Lord who first appeared in the Thanos series was indeed classic Star-Lord, and that his father was Jason from the Inhuman series. There was as-yet, no in-story explanation to resolve this, so some possible or "presumptive" explanations were offered.
     If Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning had remained writing the Guardians, I believe an in-story explanation would have been provided at some point...they regarded this as "classic Star-Lord." With the Bendis-re imagination, the handbook profile defines some of the major contradictions and identifies "classic Star-Lord" as likely being from alternate Reality-791.
 --Snood

"Spartans"

   In the original stories, the name of the race who ruled their interstellar empire from the planet Sparta was never mentioned. Jason of Sparta is mentioned, for example, but he is not called a Spartan.

Donald discusses a lot more about the nature of the people of Sparta and their possible origins in the comments for Gareth's profile.

Imperfections

   Most of my problems with the story in Marvel Preview#11 stem from the fact that Chris Claremont's ret-conned origin for Peter Quill doesn't mesh exactly with Steve Engelhart's original back-story for the character. Here's a list of differences that stand out to me:

  1. 1. In Marvel Preview#4, Peter is apparently the son of Meredith Quill and her husband, Jake. Despite Jake's murderous rantings, there is no evidence that Peter is the result of an affair between Meredith and some other man. The reason why Peter is different (he has a special destiny) is attributed to the fact that he was born during a planetary alignment similar to that which once shone above a babe born in Bethlehem in 7 B.C. With these words, Engelhart seemed to be drawing a parallel between Mary, Joseph and Jesus and Meredith, Jake and Peter...but maybe I'm reading too much into it. Anyway, Marvel Preview#11 reveals that Peter isn't actually Jake's son. Instead, he's the product of a love affair which Meredith had with an alien whom she had rescued from his crashed spaceship. The reason why she seemed to truly believe that her husband was her son's father was because Prince Jason had put a mindlock on her memories of him and their relationship.
       As retcons go, this one isn't bad but it does seem a bit contrived. Jason claimed that he placed the mindlock on Meredith "for safety's sake" but exactly how it was supposed to protect her is never explained. As things turned out, the mindlock actually endangered her since it was the fact that she couldn't remember Jason which led her to marry her childhood sweetheart, Jake, who turned out to be an insanely jealous husband who plotted to kill her child as soon as it was born. Even though Peter survived, the physical and emotional aftereffects of that night haunted Meredith for the rest of her life.

       Also, I would really like to know if the idea that Jake was not Peter's biological father was something which Claremont made up or if it had always been part of Engelhart's plan for the character.
    Maybe there's a divergent reality Star-Lord in which Jake was the father? (or Star-Lord-791 is the divergent version of that one...)--Snood
     
  2. In Marvel Preview#4, Meredith's death is basically the result of bad luck: Her son just happened to see an alien spaceship land in the woods and when he brought Meredith to see it as well, the aliens spotted them and killed her, presumably to get rid of an unwanted witness. The fact that they didn't kill Peter is an odd oversight but otherwise insignificant. However, Marvel Preview#11 revealed that the Ariguans actually came to Earth specifically to kill both Meredith and her son. This discrepancy leads to several unanswered questions.
    A) Since Kyras Shakati knew that the targets were Humans living on a planet of Humans, why did he send assassins who were so obviously alien to do the job? Why not employ an assassin who was a member of the "indistinguishable-from-Human" Spartan race instead? A Spartan could have easily infiltrated the town to learn where Meredith lived without attracting any attention, something that an Ariguan could NOT have done.
    B) It seems like an awfully big coincidence that the only Humans to see the Ariguan ship land just happened to be the two Humans whom the aliens had come to kill. Sure, they probably homed in on the site where Jason's ship had crashed years earlier, which would have greatly improved their odds, but it was still quite a stroke of luck that Peter was the only person to see their ship land. Also, since he couldn't have counted on being so lucky, how exactly did the Ariguan Rruothk'ar plan to find his targets? After all, it's not like he could have just walked into town and asked the townspeople to direct him to where Meredith Quill lived. Well, maybe he had a scanner which could remotely detect Spartan DNA or something?
    C) Since Rruothk'ar's mission was to kill both Meredith and her son, why did he leave Peter alive? Emperor Jason claimed that Rruothk'ar "botched it" by killing Meredith but missing her son. However, both Marvel Preview#4 and Marvel Preview#11-FB clearly show that Rruothk'ar only fired at Meredith and not at Peter, even though the boy was in plain sight, standing beside his mother. Given the situation, I can only think of two possible reasons for why Rruothk'ar failed to kill Peter: either he simply didn't realize that the boy was one of his targets OR he did recognize him but for some reason he CHOSE to not kill him.
       Okay, this whole "just didn't recognize his target" idea doesn't work for me. After all, someone as pragmatic as Shakati would not have sent an assassin all the way to Earth without making sure that he would be able to locate the people he was supposed to kill. Besides, even if Rruothk'ar truly did not realize that Peter was Meredith's son, he should have killed Peter anyway, just because he was a witness to Meredith's murder. So, that moves us back to the "chose not to kill Peter" idea. Given that Rruothk'ar did not seem to have any problem with gunning down Meredith, why wouldn't he have been just as unconcerned about killing her son? The only reason that I can think of is that it may have been because of some sort of Ariguan cultural prohibition. Maybe Ariguans consider it dishonorable to kill (unarmed) pre-adults who pose no threat to them?

What happened to Star-Lord?
Marvel Super-Special#10 was published in Winter of 1979, which would place it between Marvel Preview#18 and Marvel Spotlight II#6. However, the trip through the black hole in Marvel Super-Special#10 would seem to connect it to the disappearance of Star-Lord discussed in the 1996 Starlord series. I see two possibilities.

Further chronological discussion by Donald Campbell, including  "the lost years"

Establishing an exact chronology for the classic Star-Lord is not as easy or straight-forward as one might assume. Aside from his origin story and the framing sequence in Star-Lord the Special Edition#1 being the end-points, most of his adventures are one-shots whose only recurring characters are Star-Lord and Ship. However, since there are no compelling reasons to think otherwise, I have chosen to presume that they (probably) occur in the same order in which they were published. Why make things more difficult when there's no reason to do so?

   Trying to synchronize Peter's life on Earth with his outer space adventures is also difficult. Although we know that he was born on February 4, 1962 and left Earth on February 9, 1990, there is almost no indication of how much time passed during his adventures. The only two stories that are connected are those about when he first met his father and when he returned to ask his father to join him. Information revealed in the framing sequence establishes that the two stories took place approximately 70 years apart but that period must be presumed to have been measured using the calendar of Jason's extraterrestrial empire and it would be ludicrous to ASSume that those "Imperial" years would be the same length as Earth-years.
   Also, although the events in the framing sequence (which really needs its own name) are specifically stated to take place one hundred years after Jason's coronation, exactly when that coronation took place has never been established. We know that Jason was definitely not the emperor when he crashed on Earth in 1960 or when he left in 1961, and we strongly suspect that he had been crowned emperor by 1973, but that leaves a window of 12 Earth-years during which his coronation might have occurred.

   Depending on how much time elapsed from when he left Sparta in Marvel Preview#11 to when he encountered Symbion, this period could be almost 70 "Imperial" years in length.

   I would like to make it clear that I truly do not know where Star-Lord's twelve-year disappearance is meant to fit into his chronology with regards to the abortive attempt to bring Peter to Sparta. I've chosen to place the disappearance before the attempt but only writer Timothy Zahn could say for sure.

   Also, since there is no mention of how old Sinjin was when he met Ship, I couldn't determine whether or not Star-Lord had disappeared before or after Sinjin was sent to Carina Prime for training as a Probiti. If that training took more than five years, then Star-Lord would have dropped out of sight after Sinjin was born. On the other hand, if the training lasted under five years, then Star-Lord must have already disappeared by the time Sinjin was born. Once again, only Timothy Zahn knows for sure.

What happened to Star-Lord during that the twelve years he was missing?
   Since Mr. Zahn didn't reveal what he had intended to have happened to Peter Quill during those twelve years, I have limited mention of it in the History to what is known and have placed my speculation about what might have happened here in the Comments section. Based on what Mr. Zahn had Sinjin tell Ship/Rora, I suspect that Scenario Two is the least likely , and i personally prefer Scenario Three over Scenario One but there's nothing in-story to prove which, if any, of them is accurate.

Scenario One: For unspecified reasons, Peter Quill and Ship parted company, for what was (presumably) meant to be a short period. Quill left both his Star-Lord uniform and his Element Gun aboard Ship.

(Starlord#2 (fb)) - During their separation, Ship went on a voyage to an unspecified destination. However, while flying through hyperspace, she encountered an uncharted black hole right in her path. The black hole's gravitational gradient snapped her cocoon ("field-effect bubble") and broke her back into Space-Normal before she knew what was happening. Ship found the gravity, the radiation and the infalling debris raining down on her to be terrifying and, in a desperate attempt to survive, she blasted laterally to the black hole so that she could slingshot around it.

(Starlord#2 (fb) - BTS) - Thanks to the time-dilation effect near the black hole's event horizon, what seemed to Ship to take only a few minutes was actually twelve years to the rest of the universe.

(Starlord#1 (fb) - BTS) - Ship eventually crashed-landed on the frontier planet of Bovric but the crash went unnoticed since it occurred in a forest near the small village of Paka's Crossing. Ship remained there, alone in the forest, for months.

(Conjecture:) - Wherever Peter Quill was during those twelve years has never been revealed. However, given that he was without both his Starlord uniform and his Element Gun, it seems likely that he may have assumed a different identity when (or if) he went into action. This would account for why it had been twelve years since "this Starlord character did anything noticeable."

Scenario Two: Peter Quill and Ship did not separate prior to her encounter with the black hole

(Starlord#2 (fb)) - Peter Quill was aboard Ship when, while flying through hyperspace to an unspecified destination, she encountered an uncharted black hole right in her path. The black hole's gravitational gradient snapped her cocoon ("field-effect bubble") and broke her back into Space-Normal before she knew what was happening. Ship found the gravity, the radiation and the infalling debris raining down on her to be terrifying and, in a desperate attempt to survive, she blasted laterally to the black hole so that she could slingshot around it.

(Starlord#2 (fb) - BTS) - Thanks to the time-dilation effect near the black hole's event horizon, what seemed to Quill and Ship to take only a few minutes was actually twelve years to the rest of the universe.

(Starlord#1 (fb) - BTS) - Ship eventually crashed-landed on the frontier planet of Bovric but the crash went unnoticed since it occurred in a forest near the small village of Paka's Crossing. For unspecified reasons, Quill left Ship and left both his Star-Lord uniform and his Element Gun behind on Ship who remained there, alone in the forest, for months.

(Conjecture:) - Whatever might have happened to Peter Quill after he left Ship on Bovric has never been revealed. However, the fact that he never returned to Ship suggests that he may have met an unhappy fate (i.e., death, imprisonment or a long-term comatose state). On the other hand, maybe he was also suffering from amnesia and, lacking memories of his traumatic past, had managed to find a new and happy life for himself.

Scenario Three: Peter Quill and Ship again did not separate prior to her encounter with the black hole

(Starlord#2 (fb)) - Peter Quill was aboard Ship when, while flying through hyperspace to an unspecified destination, she encountered an uncharted black hole right in her path. The black hole's gravitational gradient snapped her cocoon ("field-effect bubble") and broke her back into Space-Normal before she knew what was happening. Ship found the gravity, the radiation and the infalling debris raining down on her to be terrifying and, in a desperate attempt to survive, she blasted laterally to the black hole so that she could slingshot around it.

(Starlord#2 (fb) - BTS) - Thanks to the time-dilation effect near the black hole's event horizon, what seemed to Quill and Ship to take only a few minutes was actually twelve years to the rest of the universe.

(Starlord#2 (fb) - BTS) - At some point after escaping the black hole, Ship visited an unspecified planet where, for unspecified reasons, Peter Quill chose to get off, leaving both his Starlord uniform and his Element Gun behind on Ship.

(Starlord#2 (fb) - BTS) - For unspecified reasons, Ship left that planet without Peter Quill, taking his Starlord uniform and his Element Gun with her.

(Starlord#1 (fb) - BTS) - Ship eventually crashed-landed on the frontier planet of Bovric but the crash went unnoticed since it occurred in a forest near the small village of Paka's Crossing. Ship remained there, alone in the forest, for months.

(Conjecture:) - Whatever happened to Peter Quill after he got off on that unspecified planet has never been revealed. He may have met an unhappy fate (i.e., death, imprisonment or a long-term comatose state). Alternatively, maybe he was also suffering from amnesia and, lacking memories of his traumatic past, had managed to find a new and happy life for himself.

    When first written by Englehart, Star-Lord was a heavy mix of Astrology and Sci-Fi. Given that it was the seventies, I guess it could have been worse--he could have replaced Astrology with Satanism, or perhaps even Kung Fu. Englehart's Star-Lord was also something of a mad dog, with a lot of hatred inside of him. We'll never know where Englehart was going with this saga. There were about 18 months between the first and second Star-Lord sagas. John Warner, editor of Marvel Preview, maintained an interest in the character and decided to bring him back, but by this time, Englehart was involved with other commitments.

    The next batch of stories, written by Claremont, dropped the Astrology, as well as Peter's inner rage and hatred. There was a period of years, at least, in Star-Lord's time between Marvel Preview#4 and 11, so it is ASSumed that he came to terms with himself and mellowed with age. 

    Why did his hair turned from brown to blond (in Marvel Preview#18 (the cover anyway), Marvel Spotlight II#6+7, and Marvel Premiere#61)? In Marvel Super Special, it was also blond on the cover, and brown in the story.
Maybe all the exposure to sun/star light bleached it!

    Characters from the Starlord sagas, including Kyras Shakati and the Slavers from Marvel Preview#11 are seen at a party at Imperial Center, hosted by Lilandra Neramani, in Uncanny X-Men#125, also by Claremont and Byrne. Also present: Popeye!

Changing Writer's Syndrome is usually a bad thing. However, while Star-Lord never made it into the big time (A Star-Lord series was in the works back in the 1970s, as discussed in the pages of Marvel Preview), I enjoyed all of the different takes.

    Taking some "profiler's license," as I often do, I've referred to name the planet that Starlord encountered in Marvel Premiere#61 as "Symbion." This is mostly for clarification and future reference.

    Lastly (for now), Ship and Sinjin visited a planet called R'Ralmis and mentioned that the Master of the Sun once lived there. Whether this is the same place that Starlord visited in Marvel Preview#4 is unclear.

    Quill/Star-Lord got an entry in OHotMU 2006 A-Z#10, which concludes by placing Star-Lord Earth-616 appearances as following Star-Lord Special Edition. 2010's hardcover OHotMU A to Z#11 continued this assumption. 
    In Star-Lord: The Hollow Crown (August, 2013), Marvel Preview#4 and #11 were reprinted, along with an expanded Star-Lord profile, which covers the adventures of both Star-Lord-791 and -616, but notes that they are most likely different reality versions and provides the -791 designation. 

Profile by Snood and Donald Campbell.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Peter Quill, Star-Lord, should be distinguished from:

Sparta, the planet of Star-Lord's father, should be distinguished from:

images: (without ads)
Marvel Preview#4, Cover (main image)
(Element Gun)
(head shot)
(mother dies)
Marvel Preview#11, Cover (Star-Lord vs slavers)
Marvel Preview#18, Cover (Star-Lord on Redstone)
Starlord Special Edition#1, page 56, panel 3 (Star-Lord and Ship on the roof)
      page 56, panels 4-5 (Peter talking with his father and offering his hand)
      page 57, panel 4 (Peter and Jason and Ship go adventuring)

Appearances:
Marvel Preview#4 (January, 1976) - Steve Englehart (writer), Steve Gan & Bob McLeod (artists), Archie Goodwin (editor)
Marvel Preview#11 (Summer 1977) - Chris Claremont (writer), John Byrne (pencils), Terry Austin (inks), John Warner & Ralph Macchio (editors)
Marvel Preview#14 (March, 1978 & June, 1978) - Chris Claremont (writer), Carmine Infantino (pencils), Bob Wiacek (inks), Rick Marshall & Ralph Macchio (editors)
Marvel Preview#18 (Spring 1979) - Doug Moench (writer), Bill Sienkiewicz (pencils), Bob McLeod (inks), Rick Marshall & Ralph Macchio (editors)
 Marvel Super Special#10 (Winter 1979) - Doug Moench (writer), Gene Colan (pencils), Tom Palmer (inks), Rick Marshall (editor)
 Marvel Spotlight II#6-7 (May-July, 1980) - Doug Moench (writer), Tom Sutton (artist), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Marvel Premiere#61 (August, 1981) - Doug Moench (writer), Tom Sutton (artist), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Starlord Special Edition#1 (February, 1982)
Star-Lord#2 (January, 1997) - Timothy Zahn (writer), Dan Lawlis (artist), Tom Brevoort (editor)

All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z#10 (2006) - Jeff Christiansen (head writer/coordinator), Michael Hoskin, Sean McQuaid, Stuart Vandal, Mark O'English, Anthony Flamini, Chad Anderson, Eric J. Moreels, Mike Fichera, Ronald Byrd, Al Sjoerdsma, Rich Green & Madison Carter (writer), Michael Short (assistant editor), Jeff Youngquist & Jennifer Grunwald (editors)

Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z hardcover#11 (January, 2010) - Ronald Byrd (writer), Jeff Christiansen, Stuart Vandal, & Sean McQuaid (head writers/coordinators), Mike Fichera, Madison Carter, Markus Raymond, & Mike O'Sullivan (coordination assistants), Ronald Byrd, Michael Hoskin, Mike Fichera, Mike O'Sullivan, Madison Carter, Eric J. Moreels, Rob London, David Wiltfong, Jacob Rougemont, Gabriel Shechter, Markus Raymond, Chris Biggs, Rich Green, Kevin Garcia, Jeph York, & Mark O'English (writers), Brian Overton (copy editor), John Denning & Alex Starbuck (assistant editors), Mark D. Beazley (editor, special projects), Jeff Youngquist & Jennifer Grunwald (editors)

Star-Lord: The Hollow Crown: Star-Lord profile (August, 2013) - Mike O'Sullivan (writer), Jeff Christiansen (Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Overseer), Stuart Vandal (writer), with special thanks to Donald Campbell, Jeff Christiansen & Gregory He


First Posted: 12/14/2002
Last updated: 12/11/2022

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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