What Comic Fans Know About Star-Lord That You Don't

A comic book character without a code name is no comic book character at all; at least, that's what conventional wisdom (and marketing) seem to be saying. Don't get us wrong — Tony Stark is a pretty cool-sounding name, but Iron Man is a much punchier—literally and figuratively—super-heroic name. However, like Tony's moniker, Barry Allen's zippy Flash, or Peter Parker's Spider-Man tag, their names also make a good deal of sense to their respective crime-fighting identities. Tony's exosuit is made from metal (or alloy), Allen is really fast, and Peter is a man infused with the radioactive gene of a spider.

In Star-Lord's case, however, his title doesn't make much sense initially. True, he's out there among the cosmos, but he certainly doesn't seem like much of a lord, unless prison yellow is the new royal look around the galaxy. Depending upon which origin story you go by, Star-Lord was either granted his title by the Master of the Sun — a moniker which he literally stole from a competitor — or, in his more recent incarnation, his title is actually an ironic jest upon the character's birthright. See, after Peter Quill leaves Earth in a stolen Kree ship, he later discovers that his father actually is a star lord named J'Son, ruler of Spartax. His father wants him to follow in his footsteps, and rule the Spartoi Empire as the Star-Lord, but Quill has no interest in galactic politics, conquest, or petty despotism. Parting on meh terms with pops, he shirks his royal duties, carrying on paradoxically as "Star-Lord" while he runs around the galaxy with the Guardians.

As far as intergalactic do-gooders go, few can top the witty banter and charmingly offbeat derring-do of Marvel Cosmic's Guardians of the Galaxy, in all their tree-hugging (I am Groot), blue pirate butt-kicking, Infinity Stone-stealing glory. Heck, giving a foul-mouthed anthropomorphic raccoon the voice of Bradley Cooper was a stroke of genius alone. However, Rocket, Gamora, Groot, and Drax aren't charter members of the galactic squad. Even Star-Lord didn't sign up until much later on.

The Guardians initially launched way back in 1969. First strung together by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan, the initial team fought the good fight in the 31st century (and later, on the alternative Marvel timeline, Earth-691). The team was comprised of Major Vance Astro, an astronaut stuck in suspended animation for a millennia (Rip Van Winkle, eat your heart out); Martinex T'Naga, a creature made from crystal and hailing from Pluto; Captain Charlie-27, a Jupiterian—Jupiterite? Jupiteranian. Whatever—soldier; and blue-skinned Alpha Centauri IV-dweller, Yondu Udonta, whom fans will recognize as captain of the Guardians' big screen foes, the Ravagers.

After their late-'60s launch, the original lineup bounced around the cosmos for several decades, before being "retired" in 1995 due to lack of sales. The current line-up actually didn't come together until 2008, when modern Marvel Cosmic legends Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (known as DnA) brought together the current incarnation of Star-Lord, Gamora, Groot, et. al.

Peter Quill wasn't always the wisecracking cosmic goofball brought to life by Chris Pratt in theaters everywhere. When first conceived and executed by Steve Englehart and Steve Gan, he was more of a jerky orphan who got hold of some mad cosmic skills. He initially donned a costume that looks like something of a cross between the intergalactic 5-0 and an un-caped crusader—which makes some sense, seeing as the Star-Lords was another form of cosmic cops.

Peter starts life rocking a mushroom-like army helmet and a uniform, complete with utility belt-looking thingy, which protects him to from the vacuum of space. It also allows him to fly, all while looking like a total fool. This incarnation of Pete also brought with it a rinky-dink version of the Element Gun, even if it was still capable of harnessing and controlling air, water, earth, and fire (but not heart) at will.

When writer Chris Claremont (of Uncanny X-Men fame) and artist John Byrne later took over, they ditched the mushroom-like helmet whenever possible, leaving Star-Lord with just a silly cowl. For his return in 2004, he got a major overhaul, and yet another update when he and Marvel Cosmic went to war with a bunch of power-hungry space bugs from the Negative Zone, during the "Annihilation" story line. At that point, his space uniform, complete with a nifty hypno-eyed space helmet, consistent with his more-recognizable look, began to take shape.

When adapting Star-Lord for the cinema, though, Marvel revamped his getup once again, giving Star-Lord more of a slacks, t-shirt, and a killer space ranger jacket affair—perfect for the casual space adventurer/son of a planet that he became.

A few years before Guardians of the Galaxy first rolled in theaters, Peter Quill faced one of his toughest, and bleakest, challenges ever. A handful of cosmic cuckoos decided to open a rift (known as The Fault) to another universe where Death had lost to everlasting life. In this particularly bizarre place, known as the Cancerverse, every time you die, you just respawn, like some sort of disturbing comic book MMO game.

Apparently, however, living forever wasn't enough for these death-free folks. Nope, they decided to kill off Death in the regular Marvel Universe, so they could take over there as well. In order to do so, they had to kill Thanos. The only problem was, Death (the cosmic embodiment, anyway) decided to spite him with the inability to die. They really should have found some common ground there.

After failing to kill Thanos, the death-enabled members of Earth-616 called his star-crossed lover, Death—the ultimate "it's complicated" status update—to wipe out the life-enabled Cancerversians, which she did handily. However, Star-Lord, Richard Rider (Nova), and the un-fragged Drax the Destroyer decided to trap the perpetual pain-in-the-butt Thanos inside the alternative dimension. They almost succeeded in doing so, at the cost of their own lives. Fortunately, Nova managed to get his hands on a handy, universally potent Cosmic Cube, allowing everyone to escape ... including Thanos, ironically.

As some fans of Guardians may know, the cosmic defenders cruise the space ways in a wicked little ship known as the Milano. According to director James Gunn, he christened the ubiquitous spacecraft after his childhood crush, Alicia Milano—one-time star of the sitcom Who's The Boss? But Star-Lord's spaceship originally started life in a very different way.

In the early days, before Peter Quill cruised the cosmos with the Guardians, his vessel simply went by the clever name of "Ship." Before Ship ferried Quill across the cosmos, though, she was once a sentient star named Aurora. Apparently, just as she was starting to make friends with the evolving species on the worlds she illuminated, some hot-shot alien scumbags turned her into a supernova, destroying her solar system. Yet her conscious lived on, and the first Star-Lord mentor, the Master of the Sun, hammered her self-awareness into a spaceship. At one point, Ship even developed a serious crush on Peter, creating a humanoid female form named Caryth Halyan. They even made out once, before her slinky bipedal form was destroyed, and she returned to vessel format. Talk about an awkward trip home.

In the present comic continuity, though, the Guardians' spacecraft was built by Rocket Raccoon and goes by the also-quick-witted name of C.I.T.T.—or Cool Interstellar Travel Travelship. C.I.T.T. also more closely resembles the Milano than Ship ever did.

Throughout the years, many characters have swapped monikers, or taken up the mantle of their fallen or disappeared comrades. For example, Bucky Barnes was only one of a dozen characters to take over the Captain America gig from Steve Rogers. Dick Grayson filled in as Batman during Bruce Wayne's "death." And Carol Danvers isn't the first Captain Marvel by a long shot.

Some characters like Star-Lord, on the other hand, have remained relatively legacy-character free throughout their comic book career. Relatively. During a brief stint in the mid-'90s, another character did take a spin in his name (and his vessel). For three whole issues of Starlord, Sinjin Quarrel, a psychic law enforcer who discovered Peter's living ship named "Ship," badly damaged and suffering from sentient vessel amnesia, took over the moniker. With Sinjin's aid, Ship recovers her memories, and helps him unlock the secrets to Star-Lord's nifty gear. During this time, Ship also gets a little backstory too, as her name is finally revealed as Aurora. At least it wasn't "Girl."