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Quote1 You gotta know by now I always figure out an incredibly clever way to get out of a fix! Quote2
Star-Lord[src]

History

Early Life[]

Meredith Quill (Earth-199999) and Peter Quill (Earth-199999) from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol

A young Peter and his mother

Peter Quill was born in St. Charles, Missouri in 1980, to the kind and excitable human Meredith Quill, and the narcissistic and cruel Celestial Ego. Peter never got to meet Ego as a child, so his mother raised him for the first eight years of his life, and remained unaware of his Celestial heritage. The two became very close, with Meredith calling him her "Star-Lord" because of his father, sharing with him her love of classic rock music, and gifting him a Sony Walkman that became his prized possession, along with a mixtape titled "Awesome Mix Vol. 1" that his mother made for him.

By 1988, Meredith had fallen ill and was dying of brain cancer. On her deathbed, she gifted Peter a present that he would keep wrapped for many years, and reached out to hold his hand in her final moments. Too distraught, Peter turned away and Meredith passed. Wracked with grief and guilt, Peter ran out of the hospital into a field where he was captured by the aggressive but compassionate Centaurian Yondu Udonta, who kept him on as a member of his clan of Ravagers, intergalactic pirates and mercenaries who used Peter as an ally in their heists, and he spent the rest of his childhood growing up on their ship, the Eclector, and getting to know the other Ravagers, becoming friends with one named Kraglin.

Yondu Udonta (Earth-199999) and Peter Quill (Earth-199999) from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol

Learning from Yondu

Yondu taught Peter much of what he knew, including expertise in using blasters, how to pilot a ship, how to be stealthy, and more. While their relationship was strained and Peter grew bitter at Yondu for abducting him, Yondu cared for Peter quite a bit and came to view him as a son, being hard on him to prepare him for the universe's cruelties. Adopting his "Star-Lord" nickname as his codename and utilizing his own ship, the Milano, Peter grew up to be a mostly competent thief, having grown arrogant, humorous, and laidback for the most part, but also oversensitive from his unusual childhood trauma, and well-meaning towards those he cared about.[7][3]

Conflict with Ronan[]

Peter Quill (Earth-199999) from Guardians of the Galaxy (film) 009

Retrieving the orb

When Yondu's Ravager clan was contracted to retrieve a mysterious metal orb on Morag, Star-Lord broke ranks to claim the orb's hefty bounty for himself, and traveled to the planet to retrieve the orb. However, he was intercepted by the vicious Korath, an associate of the Kree tyrant Ronan, who wanted the orb to destroy the planet Xandar. Quill escaped Korath and left Morag in the Milano.

He made his way to Xandar to collect the orb's bounty, but once there was forced to fight for it with the fierce and cold warrior Gamora, who was also working for Ronan to get the orb for her father, the monstrous warlord Thanos. On top of that, Star-Lord was attacked by the cynical and sarcastic intelligent raccoon Rocket and the powerful and sweet flora colossus Groot, two bounty hunters hoping to collect the bounty an angry Yondu put out for Star-Lord's capture. The three way fight lasted until they were all arrested by the Nova Corps and sent to prison, where they got to know each other better.

Guardians of the Galaxy (Earth-199999) from Guardians of the Galaxy (film) 004

A reluctant team

While Rocket and Groot protected Quill with the intent to secure their bounty when they broke out, Gamora revealed that she was betraying Ronan and planned to sell the orb to a third party who would pay more than double Yondu's bounty on Quill, and the four reluctantly teamed up to escape and collect the bounty together. While in the prison, Gamora was nearly killed by the vengeful but simple-minded Drax the Destroyer for working with Ronan, who slaughtered Drax's family before his eyes. Wanting to protect their bounty, Quill convinced Drax to spare her life on the basis that she had betrayed her superiors and that they could use her to find and kill Ronan and Thanos. Drax agreed, and decided to join them in their breakout.

With Rocket leading the breakout, the group escaped in the Milano, Peter risking their lives to retrieve his Walkman, and then led them to the mining colony Knowhere by Gamora's directions. While the group relaxed and bonded while waiting for Gamora's buyer, Star-Lord tried flirting with Gamora, and ended up having to stop a drunken brawl between Rocket and Drax, exerting himself as their leader for the first time. Soon after, there they met Gamora's buyer, the enigmatic Collector, who revealed the orb contained the lethal and destructive Power Stone, one of the cosmically charged Infinity Stones. When the Collector's unhappy assistant grabbed the Stone and accidentally destroyed the Collector's entire museum, the group narrowly escaped, and Gamora insisted they had to give it to the Nova Corps to keep it from Thanos and Ronan.

Rocket Raccoon (Earth-199999) and Peter Quill (Earth-199999) from Guardians of the Galaxy (film) 001

Battling Ronan's forces

As they argued over what to do with it, Ronan's forces arrived, having been called by Drax to summon his enemy to battle. Star-Lord, Rocket, and Gamora used industrial pods to fight Ronan's forces, but Gamora's embittered and vicious sister still loyal to Ronan, Nebula, destroyed Gamora's ship, grabbing the Stone and leaving her floating just outside Knowhere's atmosphere. To save her, Quill sent his coordinates to Yondu and exited his pod, giving her his oxygen mask. Just as he began to freeze, the Eclector arrived and took them away. As soon as Quill and Gamora recovered, they convinced Yondu to help them acquire the Stone from Ronan, promising to let them keep it.

Once Rocket, Groot, and Drax caught up with them in the Milano, Quill convinced them to come together and formulate a plan to take out Ronan and take the Stone before Ronan could use it to destroy Xandar: after contacting the Nova Corps to aid them, Quill and Yondu planned to enter Ronan's ship with the help of Rocket, and would kill Ronan in his chambers. They carried out the plan, with the Nova Corps even responding to Star-Lord's message to help them stop Ronan's ship from reaching the surface. However, Yondu was unable to enter Ronan's ship, and so Quill, Drax, Groot, and Gamora were forced to fight Ronan alone as Rocket helped protect Xandar from the outside.

Making their way past Ronan's guards, with Drax killing Korath and Nebula escaping, the group reached Ronan's throne room and attempted to destroy him with Rocket's Hadron Enforcer, but he had become invincible thanks to the power of the Stone imbued in his mallet. After Ronan used the Stones to destroy the Nova Corps cruisers blocking off his ship, prompting Rocket to crash the Milano into the throne room in a desperate effort to kill him. As Ronan's ship plummeted to Xandar's surface, Groot used his branches to create a dense, spherical cocoon to protect his friends, saving their lives but perishing from the impact.

Guardians of the Galaxy (Earth-199999) from Guardians of the Galaxy (film) 005

The team defeats Ronan

When the group climbed from the rubble, they realized Ronan was still alive, and fought with him for the Power Stone, with Star-Lord finally getting his hands on it, his Celestial genes allowing him to hold it longer than most. As the energy began to slowly consume him, Gamora, Drax, and Rocket joined hands with him, sharing the power between him. Channeling it through themselves, they used it to destroy Ronan before sealing the Stone in a containment unit. Star-Lord handed over a duplicate orb holding an Earth toy in it to Yondu to satisfy him, while he gave the real Stone over to the Nova Corps for safekeeping.

Guardians of the Galaxy (Earth-199999) from Guardians of the Galaxy (film) 007

The Guardians of the Galaxy are born

As thanks for their efforts, the Corps reconstructed the Milano for the group and wiped clean their criminal records. Rocket also planted a piece of Groot's shattered body in a pot of soil, which began to grow into a new Groot, more excitable and outgoing than his father. Now proudly working together, the five decided to officially become a team of intergalactic protectors and hired mercenaries, known as the "Guardians of the Galaxy", with Star-Lord acting as their leader, even coming to view them as family, which gave him the strength to finally open his mother's gift from all those years ago, a new mixtape labelled "Awesome Mix Vol. 2".[1]

Over the next couple of months, Quill and the Guardians worked as heroes for hire, as they protected planets from potential threats for a price. Quill also grew closer to Gamora, beginning to fall in love with her while she rejected his advances, although she did hold a slight affection for him.[3]

Facing Ego[]

Eventually, the Guardians were tasked by the Sovereign to protect their anulax batteries from an approaching abilisk. They succeeded and collected their reward, a captured Nebula, and took her off in the Milano with the intent to collect a bounty on her head. As the team left the Sovereign homeworld, an approaching fleet of Sovereign craft began chasing them, infuriated at Rocket for stealing some of their batteries. As they attempted to escape, Star-Lord and Rocket began fighting over who should pilot the ship, causing much more damage on the Milano that allowed the Sovereign to gain on them.

Peter Quill (Earth-199999), Ego (Earth-199999) and Gamora (Earth-199999) from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol

Peter finally meets his father

As all seemed lost, a ship flew by and decimated the Sovereign fleet, allowing the Milano to make an emergency crash landing on the nearby planet Berhert where Rocket could work on repairs for the ship. Before long, the ship that had saved them touched down on Berhert, and its pilot revealed himself to be Ego, Quill's long lost father, who told him he'd been searching for his son for years after Yondu decided to keep him when Ego had asked him to bring Quill to him. Ego invited Quill to accompany him to his home and teach him about his Celestial heritage, and while Quill was at first apprehensive, Gamora convinced him it would be a chance to finally connect with his father, and so they left with Drax and Gamora, leaving Rocket to repair the ship and look after Groot and Nebula.

On the ride to Ego's planet, the trio got to meet Mantis, a naive and sweet empath who acted as Ego's aide. Once on the exotic and strange planet Ego called home, Ego explained that he was a godlike Celestial, and that he was, in actuality, the planet itself, a large astral brain at his core, merely using a humanoid avatar that he used to explore the galaxy. He explained that he sought out new life when he thought he was alone in the universe, and on his travels he found Peter's mother and fell in love with her, but was unable to stay with her for he'd die if his avatar were away from his core for too long. Soon Quill and Ego began to bond, with Peter feeling as though he had finally found his true family, and Ego no longer feeling alone as the only Celestial in the universe, especially seeing how Quill discovered his Celestial powers to warp matter and energy to his will.

Ego (Earth-199999) and Peter Quill (Earth-199999) from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol

Ego reveals his true colors to Peter

Despite her suggestion to trust him, Gamora became very suspicious of Ego, but when she tried explaining it to Peter, he brushed it off, driving a wedge between the two. After their argument, Ego retrieved Peter and brought him to his main hall, revealing his true plan: to generate biomass from extensions of himself planted on countless worlds in a ploy to consume and incorporate all those planets into himself. He revealed that he'd had other heirs brought to him by Yondu, seeing how he needed another Celestial to help him power this feat, but none of them could wield the Celestial power like Quill, and so he killed them all, revealing Yondu had kept Peter from him when he discovered this.

Quill was at first enchanted by this, and overwhelmed by the cosmic beauty of Eternity that Ego showed him, he began to agree with it. However, Ego let slip that he put the tumor in Meredith's brain that killed her as a means to keep himself from distractions from his expansion, and Peter immediately went into a furious rage and turned on his father, attacking him and seeing his genocidal plan for what it really was.

Peter Quill (Earth-199999) and Ego (Earth-199999) from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol

Father versus son

Star-Lord engaged in a violent battle against his father, who briefly captured him and crushed his Walkman, but was then joined by the rest of the Guardians, Nebula, who had formed a truce with Gamora, and Yondu, who had traveled to Ego with Rocket, Groot, and Kraglin. The battle raged all the way to Ego's center, where Rocket was forced to fashion a powerful bomb with his anulax batteries to place on Ego's core and destroy the planet with a chain reaction, which Groot managed to place and set as Quill kept Ego distracted. During the battle, Star-Lord tapped into his Celestial powers to match Ego's, flying through the air and creating rock constructs around himself to aid in the fight.

Yondu Udonta (Earth-199999) and Peter Quill (Earth-199999) from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol

Yondu sacrifices himself for Peter

When the bomb finally detonated, Ego's avatar form disintegrated and his planetary form began to explode, leaving Peter without any powers. Seeing Peter on his own in the middle of the destruction, Yondu flew in with an aerorig and flew them as fast as he could from the exploding planet. As they exited the atmosphere, Yondu put the remaining spacesuit on Peter, allowing him to breathe as Yondu suffocated and froze in the vacuum of space, Peter only able to watch helplessly before he was picked up with Yondu's body by Kraglin and the Guardians in the Eclector.

A grand Ravager funeral was held in Yondu's honor, and Quill mourned the man he now realized was the father he never knew he had. Before the funeral ceremony, Kraglin gave Peter a Zune MP3 player that collected 300 songs to replace his Walkman, and during the ceremony, Quill reassured a distraught Rocket that their friendship was still intact despite their differences and arguments. Gamora also finally admitted her feelings for Quill, and the two began dating.[3]

War with Thanos[]

In 2018, sometime after acquiring their new ship, the Benatar, the Guardians received a distress call from the Asgardian refugee ship Statesman. When they arrived on the scene, they found the Statesman in ruins with dead Asgardians floating in the vacuum of space. They encountered and rescued one survivor, the noble, laidback, and bitter warrior Thor Odinson, who quickly became a rival of Quill. He explained that Thanos had attacked the ship as part of his attempt to acquire all six Infinity Stones to wipe out half of all life in the universe to maintain population control, and that he already had the Power and Space Stones fastened into a special gauntlet. With no time to lose, the Guardians split up, Thor going with Rocket and Groot to acquire a new weapon to kill Thanos, and Quill leading the rest to Knowhere to get the Reality Stone from the Collector's possession.

Peter Quill (Earth-199999), Gamora (Earth-199999), and Thanos (Earth-199999) from Avengers Infinity War 001

Star-Lord faces Thanos

Upon arriving at Knowhere, they discovered Thanos had already ravaged the Collector's museum and had the Reality Stone. Gamora tried to fight him head on, but Thanos captured her, leading Star-Lord to try and attack Thanos himself. Gamora then pleaded with Star-Lord to kill her so Thanos couldn't use her for her secrets about the Stones, but even after she finally convinced him, Thanos disarmed him with the Reality Stone and teleported himself and Gamora away, leaving the Guardians alone and Star-Lord in shambles.

Still reeling from the battle, Mantis received a message from Nebula, who told the Guardians to rendezvous with her on Titan, Thanos' homeworld. When they arrived, they confronted three of Earth's superheroes, the Avengers, who had hijacked a ship of Thanos' army to get there; the tech-aided genius Iron Man, the mystic Doctor Strange, and the web-slinging Spider-Man. After a brief misunderstanding where they mistook each other for agents of Thanos, the two teams joined forces to stop Thanos, using the Time Stone in Doctor Strange's possession to check potential futures and find one what steps to take to find one in which they won, only finding a single future out of millions, requiring a very risky plan.

Thanos (Earth-199999) and Peter Quill (Earth-199999) from Avengers Infinity War 001

Quill learns of Gamora's death

When Thanos arrived, now with the Soul Stone in his gauntlet as well, the Guardians and the Avengers ambushed and fought him, strategically combating his near godlike power, and even being joined by Nebula. Eventually with Star-Lord and Iron Man's tech, Drax's strength, Strange's magic, and Spider-Man's webs, they were able to restrain Thanos as Mantis used her empathic powers to sedate him. As Spider-Man and Iron Man tried pulling the gauntlet off his hand, Quill asked Thanos where he'd taken Gamora, and Nebula revealed that he'd killed her to get to the Soul Stone. Enraged by this, Star-Lord attacked Thanos, snapping him out of Mantis' trance and allowing him to take back his gauntlet.

Peter Quill (Earth-199999) from Avengers Infinity War 001

The death of Star-Lord

Thanos resumed his battle with the teams, taking them out rather quickly. Eventually, to stop him from killing Iron Man, Strange surrendered the Stone to Thanos, and he quickly left for Earth. Soon after, in the wake of their battle, Thanos acquired the final Stone on Earth, and used the completed gauntlet to turn half of the universe's life to dust. This included most of the Guardians, including Star-Lord, leaving Rocket as the only survivor of the team in an event that would be known as "The Blip".[5]

Five years later, Iron Man discovered the secrets of time travel and decided to use it to collect the Infinity Stones from throughout time, as Thanos had destroyed them before Thor killed him. They acquired all the Stones and created their own gauntlet, with the gamma-powered Bruce Banner using it to resurrect all the victims of the Blip, including Star-Lord and the Guardians. Doctor Strange explained that they needed to travel back to Earth, and so teleported them there where they found a version of Thanos had followed the Avengers back from an alternate 2014 and was now trying to get their gauntlet to reset the universe.

Peter Quill (Earth-199999) and Gamora (Earth-TRN734) from Avengers Endgame 001

Reunited for the first time

Thus the Guardians joined the Avengers, as well as the Ravagers, the armies of Wakanda, and many more in a gigantic battle against Thanos and his hoards. They fought long and hard, and eventually Star-Lord came upon the Gamora of this alternate past, having teamed up with the prime timeline's Nebula in the midst of the battle. Quill mistook this Gamora as the one of his timeline, but was attacked and incapacitated by her, leading her to then slip away in the fight. After Iron Man used the Infinity Stones to destroy Thanos and his armies at the cost of his own life, Star-Lord reassembled the Guardians, this time with Nebula and Thor, and set off for the stars in search of his lost love.[6]

Guardians of the Galaxy (Earth-199999) from Thor Love and Thunder 001

Adventures with Thor

After a year of adventures with him, Thor left the team and Kraglin became a full-time member. The Guardians then bought out Knowhere from the Collector and made it their new base of operations, and acquired a new, much larger spacecraft called the Bowie. They even took on a resident of Knowhere, a telekinetic dog named Cosmo, as a member of the team. But despite all of this, a Christmas party from his friends to cheer him up, and Mantis revealing that she was actually his half-sister, Peter remained in a deep depression over the loss of Gamora, and his inability to locate her divergent counterpart.[8][4]

Saving Rocket's Life[]

Guardians of the Galaxy (Earth-199999) from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol

Examining Rocket in the med bay

Sometime after the Christmas party, Rocket was attacked and mortally wounded by the evolved Sovereign Adam, who the Guardians barely managed to fight off and drive away. Rocket was left in critical condition, and the Guardians discovered they were unable to perform life-saving operations on him due to a kill switch implanted on his heart. Rushing his unconscious body to the Bowie's medical bay, Nebula traced his kill switch's origins to OrgoCorp, and so the Guardians made their way to the Orgoscope, their base of operations, to try and get the code to disarm it from their archives.

Gamora (Earth-TRN734) and Peter Quill (Earth-199999) from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol

Peter tries to reconnect with the alternate Gamora

When the Guardians reached the Orgoscope, they were met by the Ravagers, one of whom was the alternate Gamora who Peter had been searching for. Thanks to a steep payment from Nebula, Gamora had agreed to help the Guardians break into the Orgoscope and search for the code. As the group infiltrated the complex through a hole they carved in the exterior, Quill attempted to reconnect with this alternate Gamora and rekindle the love he'd had with her prime counterpart. However, she repeatedly rejected him, despite him continuing to push.

Eventually, they located Rocket's files but discovered the code was missing, tracing its location to Counter-Earth, where it had been retrieved by OrgoCorp's founder and Rocket's experimenter, the cruel and narcissistic High Evolutionary, and so they rushed there, desperate to save their friend. When the Guardians arrived on Counter-Earth, Star-Lord, Groot, and Nebula made their way to the High Evolutionary's mobile laboratory and palace, the Arête, while the rest stayed behind to guard Rocket.

Peter Quill (Earth-199999) and High Evolutionary (Earth-199999) from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol

Confronting the High Evolutionary

Nebula was barred entry to the complex due to her weaponized mechanical arm, so Quill and Groot went up alone to face their newest enemy. When they met the High Evolutionary, he explained that he wanted Rocket back so he could study his brain and use its traits to create a perfect species. Star-Lord refused and attempted to attack the High Evolutionary, just as he began destroying Counter-Earth as a distraction, thinking one of his henchmen had acquired Rocket.

Rocket Raccoon (Earth-199999), Groot II (Earth-199999) and Peter Quill (Earth-199999) from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol

Embracing Rocket

As the Arête began taking off from the exploding planet, Star-Lord and Groot fought their way through his guards and soldiers. Quill located the recorder who retrieved the needed code from the Orgoscope, Theel, and tackled him through a window, Groot following close behind. As the trio plummeted, Groot grabbed Quill and formed a pair of wooden wings to glide with, allowing Quill to hold onto Theel and slam him into the ground, killing him instantly. He removed the cybernetic implant on Theel's head that housed the code just before he and Groot were picked up by Gamora in the Bowie and rocketed away just in time. In the ship's medical bay, they hooked Rocket up to the implant and ran the code through the kill switch, which deactivated it and allowed them to heal him with a medpack, saving his life.[2]

Personality

Peter is humorous, sly, cocky, and laid back to an extent. While he grew up as a thief with the Ravagers, Peter has a good heart, and would sacrifice himself for his friends. He is also rather sensitive and is prone to emotional outbursts, particularly in situations regarding his parents or Gamora. Peter has attachment issues and has difficulty moving on from his trauma, listening to his mother's "Awesome Mix Vol. 1" cassette tape and refusing to open her final gift to him, and falling into a deep depression for years after Gamora's death. However, his time with the Guardians has helped him move past some of these issues and become a stronger person emotionally.[1][3][5][4]

Attributes

Powers

  • Human-Celestial Hybrid Physiology: Star-Lord is a Celestial-human hybrid thanks to his paternal heritage from Ego, and so has a physiology superior to that of an average human.
    • Superhuman StrengthEnhanced Strength: Quill has above-human physical strength, being able to tackle the strong and sturdy Groot with ease.
    • Enhanced Durability: Quill's enhanced physical constitution has allowed him to survive powerful physical attacks, even those from superhumanly strong beings without it slowing his performance, even being able to survive holding an Infinity Stone for an extended period without being destroyed by its power.
    • Peak Human Condition: Star-Lord can endure long periods of time in battle without tiring.
    • Multilingualism: Though he possesses a translator implant, it doesn't translate every language, and Quill had to learn to understand Groot's speech over time with him.

Abilities

Expert Combatant: Quill is shown to be an expert in hand-to-hand combat. He was able to hold his own against Gamora, an assassin trained by Thanos, as well as being was able to defeat superior numbers of trained soldiers.

Expert Marksman: Quill is shown to be well-versed in the use of firearms from all over the galaxy. His primary firearms are a pair of quad blasters which discharge either bolts of fire or electricity.

Expert Pilot: Star-Lord is an accomplished starship pilot, being able to perform complex maneuvers and fly ships through dangerous battles and regions of space.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Translator Implant: Star-Lord has a translator implanted on his neck allowing him to understand and speak various alien languages.

Awesome Mix Vol. 1: Quill has a mixtape of his mother's favorite songs, which is one of his most prized possessions and one of the only things he has to remember her by.

Nanotech Helmet: Quill wears a nanotech helmet with various capabilities, such as breathing in space's vacuum, radio communication, and seeing ultraviolet and thermal waves.

Jet Boot Attachments: Quill has small jets that he attaches to his boots. The jets can facilitate an increase in forward movement, and can also be used to achieve directional control during a space walk.

Weapons

Notes

Trivia

See Also

Links and References

References

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