Sunday, July 2, 2023

Character Analysis: Star Lord

 

In Case You Were Wondering…

Star-Lord has some earlier appearances prior to Thanos issue 8 that aren’t overly congruent with later appearances, and are officially designated as having taken place in an alternate reality: Earth-791. With that said, recent comics, particularly the Master of the Sun stuff, seem to be reintegrating ideas from the original Star-Lord in with 616 Peter Quill. However, he refers to the individual who grants him that power as being from a “false memory” that wasn’t truly lived. All this is to say that as of now, the exact canonicity of those early comics is a bit up in the air, so they will be excluded for safety’s sake.

Incidentally, if you’re wondering where that one “trans-light speed” statement is, it’s referring to his early power set from those comics, not the unenhanced human Peter Quill from Earth-616.

Background

  • Full Name: Peter Jason Quill

  • Age: >164 years

  • Height: 6’2” | 1.88 m

  • Weight: 175 lbs | 79.4 kg

  • AKA: Star-Lord, King of Spartax, Master of the Sun

  • Leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy

  • Likes: Music, dancing, coffee, Kitty Pryde (formerly), Gamora (formerly?)

  • Named his son after Rocket Raccoon

In his youth, Peter Quill was a farmboy who grew up in Colorado, raised by his single mother Meredith after his father left. But this father wasn’t your average cig enjoyer, he was King J’Son, the monarch of the alien planet Spartax, who had crashed to Earth in the middle of a major war. So I guess leaving to return to his planet was kind of justified? Make no mistake though, J’Son is still kind of a dick.

In any case, Peter was a generally good-natured kid, albeit a troublemaker who solved problems at school through fighting, but everything changed one day when some lizard people called the Badoon showed up to kill Peter, and shot his mother to death right on their front porch. Yikes. After shotgunning the assailants to death and finding an alien gun keepsake left by his father, Quill managed to escape the assassination attempt and went into foster care. It was then that he swore to one day become an astronaut and go up to space to get revenge on the ones that killed his mom.

Which kiiiiind of happened? After some time spent at NASA, Quill ended up getting discharged, but stole a ship anyway and hightailed it into space, where he was eventually found by the alien pirate Yondu and his Ravager crew. After a little convincing, Yondu agreed to let Quill join his crew, and after some time spent together, Quill became accepted among the Ravagers as a member of their family. Though he still harbored a grudge against the Badoon, he eventually decided to become a force for good…ish, becoming the space pirate thief Star-Lord and occasionally doing some cosmic superheroing on the side.

Then he accidentally killed 350,000 people. Whoops! He was trying to put a stop to a former herald of Galactus, the Fallen One. It worked at least, but the collateral damage got him locked in a prison called the Kyln for life, and he swore off the Star-Lord name, which was a thing for like 5 issues and then wasn’t anymore. Eventually he got out and was drafted into the Nova Corps’ war against Annihilus and his Annihilation Wave, a conflict that eventually led to the formation of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Led by Quill, this strike team would put a stop to threats like the Annihilation Wave before they could get out of hand. Though the members have cycled in and out over the years, including faces like Gamora, Drax, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Mantis, Adam Warlock, Cosmo the Spacedog, Phyla-Vell, Moondragon and more, the Guardians became a surrogate family to one another, saving the cosmos countless times, with Quill at their head. Despite occasionally taking a break to succeed his father as Spartax’s king, or vacationing for 144 years in another dimension to become the legendary Master of the Sun, Quill always found himself back with the Guardians eventually. Whether you’ve heard of him or not, Star-Lord won’t ever stop kicking ass and saving the universe.

Experience & Skill

After his mother’s death, Quill spent years studying how to become a pilot with NASA, with hundreds of unauthorized hours spent in a simulator, and as a result is an ace pilot who exceeds top experts, a skill honed even further from years spent dogfighting in space. After ending up stranded in space, he was taken in by Yondu and his Ravagers and taught how to fight and shoot by Yondu himself.

Eventually, he made a name for himself as the superhero Star-Lord, before proceeding to fight in the war against the Annihilation Wave, and later many other cosmic conflicts as the leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Over the years, he has proven himself a capable leader and tactician, claiming to always have a plan. In combat, he is a skilled marksman and excellent at employing unorthodox tactics to catch opponents off-guard. He is skilled enough at close range to keep up temporarily with martial artists like Daredevil and Black Cat. In terms of specialized talents, he can pick locks, and was smart enough to recognize that an imposter Gamora was in fact amogus.

It should be noted that while he spent 144 years in Morinus becoming Master of the Sun, of which he retained some degree of knowledge after leaving, he does not remember large portions of his time there. As Master of the Sun, he possesses cosmic awareness and generally always “knows where he needs to be”.

Arsenal

Uniform & Body Armor

Star-Lord’s Guardians uniform dampens heat signatures, which can be used to fool sensors, even those as advanced as the ones employed by the Phalanx. He’s also been known to wear body armor under the uniform, especially after Gamora took a giant sword to his chest. This armor is durable enough to greatly diminish the impact of a blast from Nebula, turning it from an insta-kill into something that only broke a few ribs.

Helmet

Quill’s space helmet/mask can be unfurled and retracted at will as he pleases. When he has it on, it allows him to breathe in space, and somehow survive the vacuum despite only his head being covered. It also has some useful applications like scanning an opponent for weaknesses, though it can be hacked by an intelligent enough individual.

Rocket Boots

Star-Lord possesses boots with rocket thrusters in them that allow him to jet around through the air, functioning both in outer space and within an atmosphere. This grants him increased mobility and greater speed.

Walkman

His most important piece of equipment, because you can’t kick alien ass and guard the galaxy without some jammin’ tunes to listen to on the way.

Holographic Communicator

Quill has access to a communicator that can project holograms across interstellar distances, allowing for long-ranged communication. When Quill was dating Kitty Pryde, he made very frequent use of this. He also has a version of this on his wrist.

Armor-Piercing Explosives

Just what it sounds like, Quill has access to explosives that are designed to blow through a target’s armor.

Flashlight

IT’S A FLASHLIGHT, WOAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH~

Element Gun(s)

The Element Gun is Quill’s primary firearm that he’s used throughout his life. Originally a one-of-a-kind weapon created for Quill’s father J’Son and given to his mother Meredith, Quill acquired the gun after his mother’s death, and found that he was one of the only people capable of using it, since it was coded to J’Son’s DNA. The body of the gun is an ultra-dense Kymellian fiber, which allows it to get past metal detectors, and it does not have any energy signature.

With it, Quill can conjure an almost unlimited array of elemental attacks, including fire, wind, water, earth, ice, and lightning. It can create localized hurricanes, encase a target in granite or diamond, or “bake” enemies by firing what appears to be radiation. It can fire multiple distinct elements simultaneously, once used to channel four at once to produce the “essence of growth” and amp Groot to massive size. Perhaps most powerfully, in addition to producing the elements, the gun is able to change the composition of just about any substance he aims it at, such as transmuting a wall into glass or a metal enemy into plastic. The gun has a limited charge which can run out and requires time to be restored, though it can also be set to absorb energy from its surroundings to recharge, which can steal power from entities as strong as the Olympian gods (more on this later).

The Element Gun was, for a long time, a weapon that Quill had no true understanding of. Even though he had taken the gun apart a couple times, changed the housing, added a voice chip, and even made a second one (which was eventually destroyed), he still had no idea how it works, describing it as a hieronymus machine that won’t work for anyone else. According to Quill’s Master of the Sun mentor, the gun at its full potential is invincible, but that Quill’s one weakness in working his will was himself, likely referring to this lack of understanding.

After the time he spent in Morinus, however, Quill seems to have gained a full understanding of the weapon, stating that it isn’t just a gun; it’s a prism, an object of focus, which Quill can focus himself through like the Sun. Thanks to this, Quill seems to be capable of drawing out massively more power from the gun than he could previously, especially in conjunction with the powers bestowed on him as Master of the Sun. Speaking of which…

Master of the Sun

In the 2020 run of Guardians of the Galaxy, Quill gains a power boost from his old mentor, becoming “Master of the Sun,” and spent 144 years in the extra-dimensional Morinus where he learned to use this power, before returning to the present and rejoining the Guardians with increased power. This increased his physicality to an unknown extent and allows him to focus himself through the Element Gun like the Sun through a prism, producing massive blasts of solar power. He also gained immunity to Moondragon’s telepathy, and cosmic awareness that grants him an understanding of where he needs to be at any given time.

So first of all the big question, is this usable? The answer is yes… sort of. It’s complicated. Something important to note is that there are three different power boosts to consider here, which all occurred at around the same time (confusing, I know) and vary in permanence.

The first is that Quill was bestowed with power by his mentor, becoming Master of the Sun. Is this permanent? Yes, he had it for 144 years in Morinus and used the power in Guardians (2023) issue 3, some time after he initially received the amp. So it’s not going away on its own, and he currently still has it.

The second is that the time spent in Morinus allowed him to master the Element Gun and gain a greater understanding of how it works, which removes the lack of understanding that was previously his biggest limitation. This is probably the hardest thing to argue excluding, since it’s just a matter of knowing how to use the weapon he’s always had. While he did lose some of his memories from Morinus, his knowledge of the Element Gun’s true nature has clearly remained with him after he leaves.

The third, and the thing that really throws a wrench in things, is the fact that before gaining the Master of the Sun powers and being transported to Morinus, Quill used the Element Gun to absorb a significant amount of power from the Olympian gods, significantly weakening them and empowering the gun and likely Quill himself. This absorption, which I’ll henceforth call the “god amp”, allowed the Element Gun to retain its charge for the full 144 years in Morinus without ever running out, and remaining with him upon his return despite some of it being expended with each use, as the Olympians were still notably weakened. However, a while later, in Bane of Blastaar, the gun is shown to run out of charge again, meaning the god amp has been fully expended.

The reason this is a problem is that almost every feat people ascribe to Master of the Sun Star-Lord (oneshotting a Symbiote Dragon, destroying a manifestation of Knull, shooting out Zeus’ eye, surviving an attack from the Olympian gods) were performed with the god amp. The only super notable feat he has without it is creating a continent-sized flare on a planet’s surface and blowing up a ship in orbit with a blast. Very impressive to be sure, but not exactly on the Skyfather levels that people tend to argue him as.

In short, the Master of the Sun powers and greater understanding of the Element Gun should be standard and permanent as of right now, and are the natural progression of his usage of the Element Gun, which is a weapon he’s had for his entire history. However, the god amp was not permanent and has been expended, so feats from that point cannot be used, unless more context in the future ends up making them retroactively applicable.

Feats

Overall

  • Formed and led the Guardians of the Galaxy

  • Stole a space-ship from NASA

  • Fought in the war against the Annihilation Wave

  • Survived battling Thanos in the Cancerverse

  • Fought in the second superhero Civil War

  • Spent 144 years in the extra-dimensional world Morinus

  • Became the Master of the Sun, gaining god-like powers

  • Defeated Yondu, Blastaar, Thanos, the Fallen One

Strength

Speed

Durability

Scaling

“Normal” Star-Lord without his Master of the Sun powers or full control of the Element Gun is an unenhanced human, capable of keeping up to some extent against peak humans / possible superhumans like Daredevil and Black Cat, though tends to only do so briefly and still be on the losing end. He would thus be in the ballpark of some lower-tier street levelers physically.

The Element Gun could arguably be considered a herald level weapon given its showing against Blastaar and the fact that Quill believed it could harm Thanos. It was also notably able to take out Angela, though only by exploiting a weakness. This would be somewhat consistent with some of the hype surrounding the weapon, but the showings themselves aren’t really that amazing, so you could also contest it.

Master of the Sun discussed in its own section.

Weaknesses

Quill can be overly reckless or immature, which can lead to poor decisions, though he’s also a very gifted tactician and leader, and knows how to be serious when the situation calls for it. For a long time, his biggest weakness was his own mental limitations and lack of understanding of how the Element Gun works, which held him back from realizing the weapon’s full potential. However, this is largely no longer an issue at the moment.
Posted by at

1 comment:

  1. trex40July 2, 2023 at 10:31 AM

    So none of the early Star-Lord comics will be used for Death Battle? Well, that sucks. I was hoping to see some calcs for some feats from those old issues. Oh well.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)