The Rise of Star- Lord — The Conquest of Peter Quill
By: Mike Luoma
Tags: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel, Books, Comics, Star Lord

The Rise of Star- Lord — The Conquest of Peter Quill

From ANNIHILATION to GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

Detail, Cover, Annihilation: Conquest — Star-Lord #1. Art by Nic Klein. Credit: Marvel Comics.

Author’s note: This is another in a series of adapted excerpts from Star-Lord and the Guardians of the Galaxy: An Unofficial Comic Book History (Glow-in-the-Dark Radio, 2018), now available in paperback and as an eBook.

Star-Lord — Peter Quill — rose to prominence and truly arrived in the Marvel Comic Book Universe with Annihilation, a major Marvel comic book event in the middle oughts. You can catch up on that part of his story in Part Five of our history of the character, with insights from former Marvel editor Andy Schmidt.

Up until that point, he’d been featured in books set outside of the “reality” most of the rest of Marvel’s comics took place in, apart from a Thanos miniseries just before Annihilation. Part One of this series gave us creator Steve Englehart’s insights on Star-Lord’s beginnings. In Part Two we saw how Chris Claremont helped turn Star-Lord into a more traditional hero. Part Three covered the adventurous Doug Moench years. And in Part Four, Timothy Zahn and Rafael Marin explained why, for a time in the nineties, Star-Lord was no longer Peter Quill.

After coming back in a big way in Annihilation, Star-Lord got his own miniseries as part of the sequel event Annihilation: Conquest. The structure for Annihilation: Conquest was similar to Annihilation’s. The series began with a Prologue issue, followed by three concurrently released mini-series: Star-Lord, Quasar and Wraith — the place of the fourth mini-series being filled by four tied-in issues of NOVA’s ongoing. These were followed by a monthly main event mini-series in six issues.

Cover — Annihilation: Conquest — Prologue. Art by Aleksi Briclot. Credit: MArvel Comics

Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning were brought in as the main writers — they would script the Prologue, the NOVA cross-over issues, and the main event itself. The Prologue and the first issues of the mini-series arrived in the summer of 2007.

In the aftermath of the attack by the Annihilation Wave, much of the formerly civilized Marvel Cosmos has been blown apart, long-standing governments and societal structures now in ruins. The Skrulls’ worlds have been destroyed or overrun by those who once served Annihilus, and the ancient civilization of the Kree is battered and frayed. Ronan the Accuser, having cleaned out the corrupt leaders responsible for ruining the Kree Empire, now rules.

Other veterans of Annihilation are off doing their part to heal the cosmos after all the destruction. Peter Quill is trying to help Ronan restore the Kree government and keep the peace. In the Prologue, Quill prepares to welcome Spaceknight envoys to Hala. Quill “negotiated terms between Lord Ronan and the Spaceknights personally.”

The Spaceknights bring Galadorian “A-Ware” — bleeding-edge defense programming. Quill helped convince Ronan to buy it to help restore the Kree’s defense networks. The envoys are there to provide Ronan with a demonstration of the A-Ware. This does not go well. The Spaceknights — or something controlling them — grab control of the Kree War-Net as soon as they are given access for the demonstration. They take over all Kree ships and Sentries and begin attacking Quill and the Kree warriors!

Star-Lord faces the Phalanx-infected Kree. Interior Page from Annihilation: Prologue. Art by Mike Perkins, Color by Guru EFX. Credit: Marvel Comics.

The Sentries, the Kree’s giant robot war machines, begin massing together into some kind of tower on the surface of Hala. As it reaches orbital height, the spire sends out a massive pulse of energy that blasts ships apart and ultimately creates a cocoon of energy around all of Kree space, isolating it from the rest of the universe. Quill tries to get to the War-Net’s power source to disable it, but the Kree warriors he’s with turn on him — they too are now possessed by the Spaceknight’s A-Ware programming, somehow. Apparently, the infection is techno-organic.

“We must join together,” they now state in chorus. “We must be one.” As they complete their conquest of the Kree and claim all of Kree space as their own, the Spaceknights reveal themselves at issue’s close as completely taken over by The Phalanx.

The action then shifts to the three mini-series and NOVA issues four through seven. For the first time in ages, Star-Lord had a book with his name on the cover! Providing some creative continuation from the Annihilation event, Keith Giffen remained on board to write the four Star-Lord issues.

“Bill (Rosemann) said, ‘Hey would you like to write a Star-Lord mini-series?’ And Peter Quill was always one of my favorite characters from way back when I started using him in THANOS,” Giffen told Comic Book Resources at the time. “I was to turn Peter Quill back into Star-Lord. Since I was the one who kept hinting that something had happened in the past that made him put down the mantle, if I got a chance I would explain that to the readers and then show a little more about the man as he realizes there’s a place for Star-Lord in the universe.”

In the mini-series Giffen does indeed strip away some of the mystery behind Peter Quill’s past. We get Quill’s narrated recaps of “the whole Master of the Sun thing” and Star-Lord’s sentient ship — “Ship” — from the character’s earliest days. We’re finally filled in on the “something” that’s been hinted at: Ship helped Star-Lord find Galactus’ former herald The Fallen One. They battled, Star-Lord lost.

Star-Lord looks back at his past, via Writer Keith Giffen, in an interior page from Annihilation: Conquest — Star-Lord #1. Art by Timothy Green II, Inks by Victor Olzaba and Color by Nathan Fairbairn. Credit: Marvel Comics.

Then, they battled again — and hundreds of thousands of people were sacrificed by Star-Lord to try to kill The Fallen One. Ship died, and Star-Lord was declared a murderer by the NOVA Corps and sentenced to life imprisonment in the Kyln, and received his implants. As Quill wakes up from the aftermath of the attack in the Prologue, he’s being attended to by Kree surgeons — who have removed those cybernetic implants.

Star-Lord — Peter Quill — wasn’t the lone star of his Annihilation: Conquest mini-series, however. Giffen also told CBR at the time, “It was my chance to do a Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos story… When Bill gave me the names of the characters that Star-Lord would be teamed up with in his strike force — Bug, Deathcry, Captain Universe, Groot, Mantis… and Rocket Raccoon! There’s no way that I’m walking away from that.”

Hearing those characters’ names, you may have guessed by now that the new Guardians of the Galaxy began to assemble in this mini-series. Quill is forced by Ronan and the Kree to lead a no-tech team to help stop the greater invasion of the universe by the techno-organic Phalanx… as Star-Lord.

We meet Rocket Raccoon and the giant tree-being Groot for the first time, as it’s established that Rocket likes the biggest guns, and that he and Groot have bonded — Groot is happy to carry around Rocket and his guns. Here, Groot speaks complete sentences — still proclaiming his reign over Planet X. His trademark phrase, “I am Groot,” developed later.

Star-Lord meets Groot for the first time. Interior Detail, Annihilation: Conquest — Star-Lord #1. Art by Timothy Green II, Inks by Victor Olzaba, Color by Nathan Fairbairn. Credit: Marvel Comics.

“The group dynamic — if there is a group dynamic — is dysfunctional as hell,” Giffen told CBR in 2007 as he was still writing the series. “Even though none of them with the possible exception of Bug would ever admit it to Peter Quill, the main reason each one of these people volunteered for this mission is because of the Star-Lord legacy. That’s another thing that’s driving Peter Quill crazy. Peter looks around and goes, ‘I’ve got a huge tree that thinks its royalty. I’ve got a raccoon, an insect and a woman who thinks she’s the Celestial Madonna. I think she’s brain damaged.’”

As for Star-Lord’s “legacy”? “Peter’s state of mind is, ‘I really don’t want this. I’m more than happy to help you guys out and lead your strike force, but I don’t really want to pick up this whole Star-Lord thing again — it’s a very reluctant decision on his part,” Giffen told CBR.

But by first issue’s end, Quill’s been handed a replica of his old Star-Lord helmet on Ronan’s orders and informed, “the problem with having a past, Mr. Quill, is that sooner or later it WILL catch up with you… You are of more use to us as The Star-Lord than as a misplaced Terran.” Peter Quill becomes Star-Lord again, whether he likes it or not.

The Not-Yet-Guardians? Opening page detail, Annihilation: Conquest — Star-Lord #2. Art by Timothy Green II, Inks by Victor Olzaba, Color by Nathan Fairbairn. Credit: Marvel Comics.

The group is so dysfunctional that Captain Universe manages to kill Deathcry in the second issue, when she turns berserk on him — he affronts her by trying to help her in battle, and is only defending himself from her rage… when he makes her explode. It’s not clear if Groot survives the second issue, either — In a cliffhanger ending, he sacrifices himself to buy time for the rest of the group to escape.

In the third issue, however, Groot returns — a sprig of his former self. Tiny Groot is still regal, however, and will not be patronized.

Watering the plant? Rocket Raccoon and a surprisingly talkative Groot. Interior Detail, Annihilation: Conquest — Star- Lord #3. Pencils by Timothy Green II, Inks by Victor Olzaba, Color by Nathan Fairbairn. Credit: Marvel Comics.

In a neat turn-around, Rocket now carries Groot. But the group is captured as they try to destroy a Phalanx facility creating an airborne nanobot contagion currently turning all Kree on Hala into incubation units for more Phalanx. All but Mantis and a badly damaged Captain Universe are in enemy hands as issue three closes, and all are aware they, too, are infected by the airborne contagion.

The group is kept alive in captivity so the Phalanx can study how their contagion adapts to different species as the final issue opens. Although still free, Captain Universe — Gabe — surrenders his power, the Uni-Force, temporarily to the Phalanx to root out a cure to the contagion. Once he reclaims his power, he rejoins the group, whom Mantis has helped free, they blast their way off Hala, and unite with Kree survivors — now armed with a cure to the Phalanx contagion obtained by the Uni-Force.

The group have all been pardoned for their crimes. Groot has grown back to his full — large — size. The Uni-Force has moved on — Gabe is no longer Captain Universe. But Star-Lord is informed, “You and your team have not been decommissioned.” Much as he might hate it, Peter Quill and his team are needed for the battle ahead.

Cover, Annihilation: Conquest #1. Art by Aleksi Briclot. Credit: Marvel Comics

We catch up with Star-Lord and his crew in the main series Annihilation: Conquest, as they join the larger war against the Phalanx. More great cosmic characters out of Marvel’s past appear as well.

As the series begins, Phyla-Vell, who’s now Quasar, and Moondragon — now in dragon form — come across Adam Warlock — freshly reborn from a cocoon they’d found in the Quasar mini-series. Reborn as a much younger version of himself, he has no memory, no idea who he’s supposed to be. As he begins to remember, he brings the other two with him to meet another classic cosmic character, Warlock’s father-figure, the High Evolutionary.

The Phalanx are now “processing” the Kree population, turning those with special abilities or powers into their “Select” — an elite group with some small manner of their wills intact. They harvest all minds for knowledge, hungry for it, and they search for… something. They disassemble non-Select on a molecular level, killing them to create energy to power the “Babel Spire” — their name for the tower assembled out of Kree Sentries in the Prologue that, in turn, powers the energy cocoon the Phalanx have thrown up around Kree space.

There’s no sign of Star-Lord and company yet in the first issue; however, finally disclosed as the Big Bad, the villain of the piece behind the Phalanx, we do find ULTRON revealed on the final page!

Enter: Star-Lord. Cover, Annihilation: Conquest #2. Art by Aleksi Briclot. Credit: Marvel Comics.

Star-Lord appears, guns blazing, on the cover of issue two, and inside the team shows up, still fighting on Hala. Star-Lord is now the “secret head of the Anti-Phalanx Resistance” on Hala. They’re planning an assault on the Babel Spire. And we hear for the first time from the big tree-man, “I am Groot!” The issue ends with Ultron teleporting to capture Warlock. Ultron apparently kills Moondragon in the process, in a scene reminiscent of when her father — Drax — killed Thanos in the first Annihilation series.

Quasar attempts to save an as yet still-breathing Moondragon and Warlock tries to fight Ultron as we get into the event’s third issue. When Moondragon dies, Quasar rejoins the fight, but the High Evolutionary detonates the star they’re hiding in, in his attempt to kill Ultron.

On Hala, Star-Lord and the team are in the Babel Spire setting charges, when Blastaar, now taken over by the Phalanx as a Select, tracks them down with the Phalanx and kills Gabe. A freshly reconstituted Ultron — “I have just had my molecules scattered by a supernova. I was forced to re-coalesce my consciousness via Phalanx Gestalt and download it in a fresh body.” — shows up to ask a stunned and beaten Star-Lord, “Was there, Human, any point at all where you actually believed you were going to win?”

Ultron is torturing Star-Lord as the fourth issue starts. Mantis protects Peter’s brain from afar as Ultron attempts to use an encephalo ray to read his mind, until she’s discovered. Meanwhile, on Kree-Lar, Ronan used the powers of Wraith and Super-Skrull’s companion Praxagora to make an army of hidden, off-the-grid Kree Sentries found on that world Phalanx-proof. Knowing they cannot win, he plans to send them to Hala to raze the planet, and spare his people the infection of the Phalanx through death. The Sentries later blast the Phalanx around Kree-Lar before heading off to obliterate Hala. Ronan grabs a ship to follow them there.

He’s Star-Lord. Interior Detail, Annihilation: Conquest #2. Pencils by Tom Raney, Inks by Scott Hanna, Colors by Frank D’Armata. Credit: Marvel Comics.

Warlock, Quasar and the High Evolutionary escaped the exploding star and travelled to Hala in a protective globe made by Adam. He’s not yet in full control of his powers, though, and the globe vanishes in the sky over the planet. The three begin to fall from the sky, and Adam must rescue a power-drained Phyla-Vell.

They go on to speak of her father, Mar-Vell — and Phyla’s need to get her act together despite the loss of Moondragon. Adam is beginning to get his memories back. Together, they find the High Evolutionary at their planned-upon destination — a lab for creating “Nu Kree” Warriors designed by the High Evolutionary. The High Evolutionary, however, has already aligned himself with the Phalanx, and blasts Adam — along with an apology.

The High Evolutionary scans through Ultron’s memories as issue five opens, trying to figure out how Ultron and the Phalanx came together, and how Ultron came to control them. Adam is in a cocoon and Ultron is hooked up to the High Evolutionary’s machines beside him as they undergo some sort of “transfer process” — evidently transferring Ultron’s consciousness into Adam Warlock’s body.

The High Evolutionary discovers the union happened when Ultron was expelled from Earth by The Avengers; his consciousness racing across the cosmos detected the calling of one the Phalanx’s Babel Spires, calling out to their masters, the Technarchy. Ultron answered the call instead and was absorbed into the Phalanx as he absorbed them, and through sheer perfection and force of will Ultron instantly dominated the technologically more advanced Phalanx, creating this new symbiosis.

Rocket Raccoon, Mantis and Bug are still trying to save Star-Lord. Rocket shows up with his big guns to save the other two at an opportune moment. When they then manage to grab Star-Lord, Rocket informs him Groot is growing. Mantis is both helping accelerate his growth and make his sap extra-flammable — she’s also a pyrokinetic. Groot is growing himself up and through the structures that make up the Babel Spire and fills up about a tenth of it as they rescue Star-Lord.

They’ve saved a sprig of him to — hopefully — bring him back. As Rocket Raccoon, Mantis, Bug and Star-Lord escape the Babel Spire, Mantis sets Groot ablaze. The Babel Spire explodes into flame.

The High Evolutionary ignores the blast as Ultron’s consciousness finishes transferring into Adam Warlock. The newly-reborn Adam/Ultron believes possessing Adam’s perfection will allow him to pursue his goal of combining technological and organic life. He then commands the High Evolutionary to use the Phalanx Host and his Nu Kree to create an army of Adam Warlocks! We see row after row of Adam’s cocoons in the issue’s final panel.

As issue six opens we see life beyond Kree space for the first time since the Phalanx’s energy shield went up. Many of the races still standing after Annihilation now wait just beyond the energy cocoon, puzzling out what’s going on, and are shocked as NOVA arrives with Drax and Gamora in tow — along with the other Warlock of the Technarchy, from the New Mutants, and his offspring Tyro. With Warlock’s help, NOVA punches through the energy shield, and their team flies through.

NOVA arrives with the Technarchy… and some future Guardians of the Galaxy… interior detail, Annihilation: Conquest #6. Pencils by Tom Raney, Inks by Scott Hanna, Colors by Frank D’Armata. Credit: Marvel Comics.

Saved by Groot’s final act, the team then also loses Mantis, as Adam/Ultron teleports in and whacks her, snapping her neck… just after she tells Peter Quill it will happen. Ultron blasts Rocket and Bug out of the way to face Star-Lord. Before he can kill him, NOVA comes rocketing through, plastering Ultron into a wall. Ultron knocks him away, and Richard Rider and Peter Quill meet up again for the first time in a long time. “Rich! What kept ya?” “You know. Stuff.”