A Follow-Up... What Is Classic Star-Lord?

  • Real Name: Peter Jason Quill
  • First Appearance: Marvel Preview Vol 1 Issue 4
  • Species: Human/Spartoi Hybrid
  • Occupation: Explorer, warrior, protector of the universe
  • Aliases: Star-Lord, Boyo

NOTE: This will only focus on the classic iteration of Star-Lord that belongs to Earth-791. For current/modern iterations of Star-Lord, please refer to my previous blog of Star-Lord vs Fox McCloud.

We will also be ignoring Annihilation Star-Lord as while he is the weird middle ground between canon and classic Star-Lord, we have already covered him in our initial blog. Guidebooks have implied that Annihilation Star-Lord is also part of classic Star-Lord’s history but we will keep our focus on classic Star-Lord regardless. Ship’s appearances in other comics outside of Earth-791 will also not be included.


Background

What are you offering me- an empire? A throne? I left all that behind on Earth. Don't you see? I'm a seeker- I don't know, after a cosmic Holy Grail. A... dream that's forever unattainable. Or maybe... I just need to see what's beyond the farthest star. I have the universe. I don't need to be shackled to a throne. I am Starlord.


Back in the wondrous year of 1975, humanity had yet to know what truly lies beyond the stars that light up the night sky. Other worlds, other universes, it is all so unfamiliar to us, and yet we’ve managed to gain an understanding of our home galaxy. Little did J’Son, the emperor of faraway planet Sparta, realize, there resided a curious little planet filled with life; it would be the very planet that he would be forced to crash land onto as he had to escape from the danger of an ongoing war. At the same time, Meredith Quill would be strolling through the Colorado Mountains when she saw a ship streak through the sky and make impact nearby. There, she would find the unconscious J’Son and save his life, nursing him back to full health. Once J’Son was awake, the two would get to know each other well, fall in love, and Meredith would become pregnant with their baby. Before J’Son could see his son in full however, he had to leave Earth to fill his duties as Sparta’s emperor, forced to leave Meredith behind as it was too dangerous for her to tag along. One mind-wipe later, J’Son would never get the chance to return to Earth while Meredith continued with her life.

Flash-forward to her next relationship and upon giving birth to Peter Jason Quill, her partner was furious. The baby looked nothing like her husband and he went insane as he took the baby and was going to chop him up with an axe. Fortunately, he happened to have a heart attack, and Quill was left staring at the stars for the next hour while his mom remained weak and his dad remained dead. Odd beginning aside, Quill had a relatively normal childhood, gaining a fascination for the stars and aliens as a whole. On one fateful day, he found an actual alien ship, and wanting to show his mother that aliens are real, he took her to that exact spot. Unfortunately she would be immediately shot down and die by Quill’s side, and even when she tried to tell authorities what had happened, no one believed him. From that point on, he made it his mission to bring revenge to the very aliens who had taken his mother away from him. He may have been sent to the orphanage but he’d dedicate his life to studying the cosmos before he then ran away and found a spot on NASA. Despite his capabilities, his general anti-social behavior made it difficult for him to cooperate with anyone, almost getting him booted out of NASA entirely. However, he was given that second chance and was able to make it to a space station where he winded down a bit before he then saw a weird projection. Some sort of heroic figure was out in space, a so-called “Star-Lord” that would select one person to take up their destiny as an actual Star-Lord. In all the commotion, Quill insisted that he was the one who should be selected, and when they denied him, he got real angry and would be kicked out once again. Quill never gave up hope however as he stormed into the base once again and managed to intercept the selection process.

In a moment’s notice, he was zipped away into the depths of outer space, heading straight for the sun’s light. He closed his eyes, and before he knew it, he was teleported to some unknown land where he was greeted by old man Master of the Sun. An out-of-this-world suit and Element Gun would be bestowed upon Quill, and now that Quill had the power, it was up to him to follow his oath and take revenge on these aliens. It wouldn’t be an easy task but once he tracked them down, he would fight them head-on like he did a million times in his dreams. His mission would be met with success, but to his dismay, it was all yet another vision. Master of the Sun made him realize that vengeance isn’t the kind of thing that takes up his whole life. He had freed Quill from his past life so that he could carve a new one as the legendary Star-Lord. Despite his initial confusion of everything, he chose to live up to that name as he would partner with a literal living Ship and take to the cosmos. Across his many adventures, he would learn about the many lifeforms on every planet, every bad guy who threatened to throw the balance off, and the true power at his disposal. The bond between him and Ship would grow as Quill tried to become a hero who only brought justice through nonviolent means, a task which proved to be difficult with how much his morals were shaken up. Through it all however, even when he had to let go of the few characters he grew fond of through Master of the Sun’s departure and his eventual disappearance that tore him away from Ship, Quill understood what it meant to be a Star-Lord.

Quill had made amends with everything that haunted him in his life, and while his fate is left unclear, he did manage to tie up all loose ends and even escape into space with his true father. The Star-Lord name would not die either as a certain Sinjin Quarrel would stumble upon a wrecked Ship and take on the task of finding Peter Quill. While we never got to see how that story played out, the Star-Lord name is not one that just dies out. It will continue to shine as bright as the sun itself, and even when that light dies out, it’ll do so in a glorious blaze.

Also Annihilation Star-Lord technically finished that story but shush


Experience & Skill

Only feeling pure enragement at the idea of his mother’s otherworldly killers escape, Quill’s vow to take them down for good would require him to study the stars themselves. He was so dedicated to enacting revenge that he thoroughly studied astronomy, having jammed his room with all sorts of star charts and astronomy equipment that made it look more like a lab than the room of a future astronaut. He was recognized as a top-notch student, he spent 16 years of his life dedicated to becoming an astronaut, and the people at NASA did recognize his potential… the keyword would be did. NASA would see him as an immature brat and antagonize him for his behavior but that never stopped Quill. In fact, Quill is very much beyond NASA after he became the Star-Lord.

He is described to be a skilled marksman, swordsman, and unarmed fighter after all of his previous adventures but when he was just starting out, he only had his experience at NASA to his name. It’s clear that Quill at heart is a resourceful guy that can make the most of dire situations. Whether it’s stealing weapons/ships and immediately using them to his benefit, using his surrounding environment to get the jump on foes and kidnap them to get info, or stealing disguises to hide amongst the enemies, Quill is capable of adapting to any given scenario. Even when Quill lacked any prior experience with swordsmanship, he’s managed to adapt on the fly and keep up with the kind of warriors that were champions of their planets and use it just as effectively as his innate powers or his gun. He also tries to find ways in which he can put enemies on the backfoot, whether it’s disarming foes, incapacitating enemy ships so that enemies are forced to fight on the ground with more limited weapons, blasting coolant pipes to create an icy fog that lets him stay hidden from guards, baiting out enemy ships to attack them from behind, or immediately zapping an enemy ship’s comms and warp engine to prevent them from escaping. It’s also worth noting that Quill has become especially adept with the Element Gun as he’s used numerous settings in quick succession to apprehend foes without having to kill them outright.


Arsenal

Star-Lord Outfit

An outfit that befits a classic space-faring hero like this Star-Lord. Master of the Sun would create the suit out of thin air as it was directly put onto Star-Lord, granting him abilities such as strength, space survivability and flight. Those abilities would soon become innate to Quill but even so, the suit is useful in that it gives Quill armor that is tougher than steel. What’s more important is that this suit befits the kind of cosmic explorer and warrior that makes Quill a true Star-Lord.


Element Gun

Ah yes, the iconic Element Gun. It isn’t too dissimilar from the one found in 616 as it is a magical gun that lets Quill shoot out various quantities of air, water ,earth, and fire at will. In fact, the gun is only accessible to Quill thanks to the fact that his willpower directly powers it. No one else is able to fire the gun and just like in 616, the weapon is practically invincible with its only weakness being Quill himself. Despite the seemingly unlimited quantity of elements that it can fire whenever activated, the gun doesn’t actually create them out of thin air. Instead, it acts like a portal as it is connected to the planet R’Ralmis and pulls all four elements from that specific planet through teleportation. This doesn’t necessarily limit its supply to where Quill will run out of elements mid-battle but if too many specific elements are pulled from the planet, it can likely cause it to be thrust into disaster.

Elements also remain limited to the main four unlike 616’s Element Gun but that doesn’t hinder Quill at all. He can make great use of the gun’s many applications in battle, taking his foes off guard while overwhelming them with mother nature. With the air setting, Quill can blow away both obstacles and enemies alike, even using air to force enemies into spots where Quill will have the advantage or to knock the weapons out of their hands. A different Star-Lord could use air to create a continuous gust of wind that will knock people off their feet or to move himself away from danger. With the water setting, Quill can shoot out a flash flood’s worth of water to send robots flying, knock flying enemies out of the air, penetrate heat barriers by ejecting a water stream, or create freezing blasts of ice. Given enough time, Quill can shoot out an ocean’s worth of water if his willpower is strong enough to let him survive such a task. With the earth setting, other Star-Lords can create rock walls that can plug up magma or create enough stone to where it can be frozen by water and make for a devastating meteor. Quill himself has shot out tons of rocks to knock down foes and encased foes in giant slabs of rock. Finally, with the fire setting, Quill can easily melt through obstacles like metal walls, create walls of fire to trap foes or pin them down, melt enemy weapons, shred through restraints, light up dark caves, and blow up ships by making them combust from within. In general, it seems like the Element Gun can just make small explosions that tear through rock like it’s nothing.

Defensive Satellites


Peter apparently had access to numerous defensive satellites that he could scatter throughout the system at any time. Huh.

Laser Rifle


A makeshift weapon that Quill picked up after he had knocked out a guard. He would use the gun to threaten his fellow spacemates to make a quick escape and he’d use it to shoot down his newfound enemies. At this moment in time, he’d do anything to deliver his justice.


Swords


For something a bit more traditional, Ship can always give Star-Lord access to a Spartan sword. Longer than a man’s arm length, this sword has allowed Star-Lord to directly duel with other warriors of the sword despite having lesser experience. If he no longer has any qualms for killing you, he won’t be afraid to use it to cut your limbs off or stab you right through the stomach with it.


Abilities

Enhanced Physiology

Even though it is never directly stated, it is likely that the Master of the Sun was the one to grant Quill with an enhanced body after he bestowed him the title of Star-Lord. Not only did Quill gain superhuman strength and the ability to breathe in space [among other abilities] but he also gained enhanced healing, letting his wounds repair in much shorter periods of time than any regular human. From his viewpoint, being able to heal much quicker doesn’t make Quill invincible by any means so he does still have to watch himself in battle.

Natural Flight

Being able to fly freely at trans-light speeds, Quill can take to the sky whenever he wants without additional gear. No drag or resistance is present as he glides through the depths of space, letting him keep up with enemy spaceships and blast them out of the sky. It seems like he initially needed his suit in order to fly but that ability would soon become innate to him as he would no longer require it later on.


Personal Forcefield

According to his handbook entry, Star-Lord apparently has the ability to generate his own personal forcefield around him, presumably giving him a much better defense against stronger attacks. This may seem like a part of his suit’s functions but the handbook claims that it is simply a natural ability of his that is no longer tied to the suit, a case similar to Star-Lord’s other abilities.


Master of All Languages

Not only is Quill the master of life with his Element Gun but he also became the master of everything to do with language. Any written or verbal language will automatically translate once it reaches his eyes or ears, and even in cases where certain languages are tougher to comprehend, he only needs a short amount of time to figure it all out.


Master of All Things Mechanical

On a similar note, Quill also became the master of all things mechanical. No matter how foreign a piece of technology is, a single touch will give him all the info needed to operate it effectively.


Telepathic Connection To “Ship”

While this isn’t technically an ability of Star-Lord’s per say, it is an odd trait shared between him and his living ship. Both can talk to each other through telepathy, even when Ship is high above the planet’s atmosphere, but the more notable aspect is the fact that Star-Lord and Ship’s shared feelings force them to feel the same amount of damage if Ship is ever damaged. This can be pretty detrimental as it has hindered Quill in the past and it’s even applicable to the smaller widgets that follow Star-Lord [more on that later], but despite this, Quill perseveres nonetheless.

It’s worth clarifying that this pain isn’t one to one with durability but rather the pain felt by Ship is seemingly proportional to Quill’s own pain endurance. This is because it’s moreso tied to shared feelings rather than proper damage transfer.


Resistances

Support

Ship/Aurora

In a solar system far beyond ours, there lied a living star in the center of it all. She could not move, she could not act, but nonetheless she watched over the system. She watched as the miracle of life began to flourish across two of her system’s eleven planets. Soon after however, she would be caught in a battle between two enemies, resulting in a bomb that would be dropped into her center which forced her to instantly go supernova. Not only was her solar body completely obliterated but so was the entire system, leaving her consciousness stranded in the depths of outer space.

How is this possible? Well, we don’t know what she was. In fact, we don’t even know her true identity. She can live on as a consciousness even when her “physical body” is destroyed, and if a proper target is available, then she can jump into that target and take it over. She would be capable of doing this when she had to create a humanoid version of herself to mind-shift her consciousness into the body so that she could operate on Peter, and even when she’s at death’s door, her consciousness could jump into Quill’s belt and conjure her ship form around him. Soon enough, she would be saved by the Master of the Sun as he would be able to find her a new purpose in the form of assisting a newfound Star-Lord. According to the Master of the Sun, Ship is a being that has full control over her molecular structure, letting her change her size, shape, density, and opacity at will. She can theoretically take on any form that she wants as she’s shapeshifted into everything from common ships for disguise to a fake replica of Star-Lord for trickery, but in most cases, she will often take the form of a sleek futuristic ship made of organic steel. As a literal living ship, she will always be at the beck and call of Star-Lord and assist him in any way that she can.

Not only can Ship use its grav thrusters to fly through atmospheric conditions and the depths of space at anywhere from hypersonic to sub-light speeds, but she comes with a variety of useful accessories. She has a hull that is durable enough to withstand atmospheric reentry, a skimmer that lets it sneak past planetary defenses, and all sorts of scanners. Bio scanners can scan for any nearby lifeforms, weather analyses of planet atmospheres, time-shifted resonances can be picked up, she can position lock onto specific areas that aren’t even visible, she can detect unknown power sources from nearby planets and determine their strength level, she can scan entire planets before crashing, and she may even be able to scan entire solar systems and record the destruction of any nearby planets. Her built-in forcefields let her withstand numerous attacks from all sorts of blasters and missiles, she can create atmospheric barriers around openings, she can shoot out lasers that destroy ships, intercept missiles, and attack multiple enemies at once, she can go into hyperspace to cross MFTL distances, she can turn invisible to hide from foes, she can use Gravifex beams that can grab onto Star-Lord or drag meteoroids to precise altitudes to give them a good whack towards a target, and she can provide Quill with all the resources he needs with the power of her synthesizer. The ship’s lifeboat can act as a great getaway option and if Quill needs to force info out of enemies, he can utilize Ship’s hypno-probes to neutralize mind shields and make them spit out the truth. For something a bit more destructive, Ship can essentially become a small star in heat output as she can raise her exterior temperature up to a thousand centigrade via controlled matter-to-energy conversion. Needing to focus her power to prevent a small-scale supernova from happening, this heat output can easily melt surrounding metal structures and overload shields to the point of causing ship tech to burn out.

Little known fact, Ship can actually read the minds of anyone in her vicinity rather than it just being exclusive to Star-Lord. She can also project a humanoid version of herself as a hologram, letting her better connect to the Star-Lords that are always at her side. Despite the fact that she often prefers to be in the company of Quill, that isn’t to say that she fully relies on him. She often stays within a planet’s orbit if Quill is not around and can fight and act on her own volition. Her experience as a living ship has let her warn Quill of incoming danger, utilize her flight skills to effortlessly weave through mountains, shoot enemies off of Quill, send widgets his direction for additional help [more on that in a bit], outsmart enemies to sneak past their defenses or to make them blow each other up, and bring Quill back from death’s door by taking on her humanoid form and tending to him. That humanoid form of hers can also just fight alongside Star-Lord if the actual ship in question is taken out, and in this form, her skin is tougher than steel and she is still able to fly and do other human things her original self couldn’t. Ship is just a very capable ally of Star-Lord’s in general, and even when Quill mysteriously disappeared one day, she would eventually come across a new Star-Lord, take on a new name of Aurora, and continue her duties.


Ship’s Widgets

Ship wasn’t technically the only ally to join Quill’s side that day as she also comes with a few… extensions. These two drone-like “widgets” are meant to be extensions of her personality and intellect while also acting as their own entities that can act separately from Ship herself. The range of these widgets likely extends further than the distance of a planet’s atmosphere as Ship’s used it to eavesdrop on conversations and send remote messages to Quill from outer space. Small enough to fit in duckworths, these widgets can fly freely, hold enough weight to save the new Star-Lord from falling, retrieve Star-Lord if he is hurt elsewhere, scan and detect life across entire bases, monitor a guy’s mental trace in order to gain info from his visions, and generally let Quill and Ship investigate new surroundings from a safe distance. A very helpful function of these widgets would have to be the fact that they can perform precise laser surgery at a moment’s notice, letting Quill and his allies heal in a very short amount of time.

It could also be assumed that these widgets share a lot of functions with Ship as these essentially act like her hands and have already shown to share many functions that Ship has on her.


Feats

Overall

  • Dedicated a good chunk of his life to enacting vengeance on his mother’s killers
  • Became a top student at NASA
  • Found new meaning as the cosmic hero Star-Lord
  • Saved planet after planet from the bad guys
  • Travelled across a good portion of the cosmos with Ship by her side
  • Eventually made amends with his true father and shot off into the stars with him

Strength

Physically…

With his Element Gun…

With Ship/Aurora…


Speed

Physically…

With Ship/Aurora…


Durability

Physically…

With Ship/Aurora…


Weaknesses

The seemingly invincible Star-Lord has weaknesses, who would’ve thunk? Quill himself rarely shows weakness but that doesn’t mean he lacks any whatsoever. If you were to fight him one-on-one earlier in his career, he would often try to apprehend you rather than go straight for the kill as he had valued life too much to finish the job right there and then. Enemies have easily used to their advantage in the past but given how much his morals were shaken-up, this weakness may no longer be applicable. For something more detrimental, Quill is technically still half-human at the end of the day. He isn’t the strongest physically and if he’s weakened, then his will may not be strong enough to let the Element Gun work to its fullest potential. In fact, it is implied to kill him given enough time and fatigue. There is also his aforementioned connection to his ship and the pain that he feels whenever Ship takes damage, and given how their minds are connected, mental attacks could potentially affect them both.

In terms of Ship’s weaknesses, her only notable weakness in ship form is her lack of resistance to getting the life sucked out of her. In her humanoid form, she loses control of the ship, her sensors are limited to that body, and reflective material can easily mess with those sensors which in turn make her go blind.


Before We End It Off…

Why Is This Star-Lord Separate To Begin With?

Star-Lord has had many different versions even across his comic runs and while one could [reasonably] find themselves confused on what’s canon or not, the distinction is actually pretty simple. 616 Star-Lord is categorized as everything from the Annihilation comics and beyond, which while there was a pretty massive shakeup to Star-Lord’s character because of James Gunn’s movie, it is all still considered to be his mainline self.

So where does that leave classic Star-Lord? Well, he was considered canon at one point as it was this version of Star-Lord that jumped from his classic comics to the Annihilation storyline. However, Quill’s soft reboot as a character would end up retconning classic Star-Lord out of the universe. Previous guidebooks [notably ones from 2006 and 2008] were referring to this version of Star-Lord as the one in 616 but thanks to an updated page in 2013’s “Star-Lord: The Hollow Crown”, classic Star-Lord and his entire story is now purely located in Reality-791. 616’s Star-Lord would have his backstory redone and 2020’s Guardians of the Galaxy run would also imply that all those classic adventures were merely visions that 616 Peter Quill got when he got ahold of the Element Gun; in general, it’d be pretty difficult to justify that these two versions can coexist in the same universe.


Could This Version Change Star-Lord vs Fox McCloud?

[thumbnail by Gloomy_Database8550]

Short answer: I think it does change things up quite a bit but Fox should still win? Maybe?

Long answer: Assuming that classic and modern Star-Lord are being combined together, this would end up adding quite a bit I imagine.

Flying freely at relativistic speeds can add a lot to his mobility, that personal forcefield could at least let Quill take more shots from Fox, and being the “master of all things mechanical” would be insanely useful here. Granted, Quill does need to touch the Arwing a single time but given that his mobility can let him get close, he’ll instantly know everything he needs to know about the Arwing. That kind of info would easily let him counter it and given that Fox would heavily rely on the Arwing as his go-to wincon, it does make it much more of a pain on Fox’s end. Add on additional showcases of resourcefulness and his clever uses with the Element Gun and Star-Lord alone would be a lot trickier to deal with.

However, the real being that Fox should be worried about is Ship as she is an insanely useful ally here. She and Quill may share their feelings of pain, which would be quite a downside by itself, but Ship makes up for it with her own firepower and very prominent versatility. Being able to shapeshift into a fake version of Quill would certainly trip up Fox, plus skimmers would let her sneak past defenses and land shots that are prominently around planet-level worths of AP. If you only buy lower/mid ends for the Arwing’s durability then Ship could certainly tear through it, albeit higher ends would only be met by Ship’s capability to blow up into a supernova. The fact that her forcefields can withstand planet-cracking missiles would also make it difficult for the Arwing to tear Ship up with sheer force, and even if the Arwing took Ship down, she can live on as a consciousness that can possess tech and take on her original form again. Reading minds, scanners with planetary/solar system ranges, whacking meteors, her massive heat output, and widgets that can heal Quill’s minor injuries at a moment’s notice are all pretty notable, and due to the fact that Ship can act on her own volition, Fox would have to fight it out 2v1 style until he summons help.

The reason why I don’t think the result massively changes here is that Fox would still have the speed advantage. Quill may be able to fly at and dodge at sub-light speeds and his ship could fly that fast but the ultimate outcome on speed doesn’t change. Because of this, the verdict becomes reminiscent of modern Star-Lord vs Fox, especially when Quill and Ship still don’t have resistances to the Arwing’s Starlink technology either. Classic Star-Lord does add a lot to the debate and Quill would certainly last longer but Fox may just be able to hold out long enough to land the final blow once again.


Summary

You heard my old man, “Ship”. Let’s go find our destiny. And they did just that. And it was indeed glorious.


  • Quill would get higher physical durability through scaling to mountain-busting ships
  • He can fly at trans-light speeds and he can likely react at those speeds too
  • He comes with natural flight, forcefields, natural rapid healing, mastery over all languages, and a touch that lets him become the master of any select machine
  • Peter has shown just as much trickiness with his fighting ability, resourcefulness, and creative usage of his Element Gun
  • His ally Ship would grant Quill a massive amount of versatility
    • Full control over her molecular structure lets Ship take any form
    • Can naturally read any mind
    • Can live on as a consciousness that can jump to different “bodies”
    • Has standard features like sub-light flight speeds, weapons capable of destroying planets, forcefields that can withstand planet-cracking arsenals, warp drive, etc.
    • Her skimmer can bypass planetary defenses
    • She can raise her exterior temperature to the point of melting metal
    • Acts on her own volition even when away from Quill
    • Also has extensions of her that can act on their own and heal Quill
  • Almost got my imgur account banned

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