Peter Quill

== History ==
: I almost made it work. The Guardians were more than I could ever have hoped for! But the universe is also more dangerous than I ever imagined! Look around! This is the kind of thing that can happen! The galaxy doesn't need guardians! It doesn't need brave souls! If it's going to survive another one of these, it's going to need absolute bad-asses! It's going to need the biggest guns of all! Cosmic heavy hitters as scary as the menaces they have to face! It's going to need flarking annihilators! 
:: -- Star-Lord
=== Early History ===
Peter Quill was conceived as a result of the love between the terran Meredith Quill and the Spartoi Emperor at the time, J'son. J'son left Earth soon after conceiving Peter in order to continue his intergalactic war, leaving Meredith on Earth in order to protect her. Nine months later, during an unusual astronomical phenomenon when many of the planets aligned, Peter was born and not much later his mother Meredith, for reasons she could not quite explain, had the urge to take him outside and present him to the stars. [2] For ten years, Quill was raised by Meredith who remained a single mother but had help from her best friend Lisa Chang and her daughter Monica. Peter soon started developing a big interest in sci-fi shows and after a visit to an amusement park where he was impressed by the wonders of space, he decided he wanted to be an astronaut when he grew up, however he was a little disappointed later when he found out the aliens on the ride weren't real.
One day Peter returned home, bruised from trying to stop a bully. As he was washing up for dinner, his mother saw a bright light and two Badoon aliens emerged. Vowing to end the 'Spartoi bloodline', they killed Meredith. After Quill saw the aliens and his dead mother, he panicked and ran. As the aliens pursued, he grabbed a shotgun and managed to kill them with it. He then found a mysterious device in a closet. Seeing a bright light he fled the house, just before the alien ship destroyed it.[3]
Quill was placed in an orphanage where he had much trouble adapting and finding a foster home, he never lost his desire to become an astronaut, leave Earth and find the aliens that killed his mother though. Eventually, Lisa, now a NASA commander, got him a job as a mechanic in the NASA Ops Launch Facility on California. Once there, Peter started training in secret with the simulators during all his free time. One day, after an altercation with an important Astronaut, Lisa had no choice but to discharge Peter from his position at the facility. Feeling this was his last chance to get to space, he stole a Kree ship, managed to outfly the security of the station, and left Earth.[4]
Not long after he had left his birth planet, the Kree ship Peter stole malfunctioned. He was stranded in orbit for three days until the pirate crew commanded by Yondu found him and tried to steal his ship. Peter managed to outsmart every member of the crew and even knocked out Yondu before capturing him. After he woke up, Yondu managed to set himself free from his restrains and attacked Peter and gave him a choice between letting himself be released to space without more trouble or get killed right there, Peter instead asked him if he could join his crew, Yondu wasn't sold on the idea but after he found out Peter was like him, a kid without a home, Yondu changed his mind and let him stay in the ship with his pirate crew as the cleaning boy. Peter decided to stay and try to learn everything he could from space while he was part of the pirate crew.
Yondu eventually heard about the Asterion One from Peter and demanded he help to steal it for the Ravagers. Peter had doubts at first but Yondu promised to give him a gem that contained the location of the Badoon ship that killed his mother. Consumed by revenge, Peter helped Yondu to board the Asterion One and capture all the crew inside. Peter, who was having second thoughts, managed to steal the gem from Yondu and was prepared to leave Lisa and the crew behind to fulfill his dream of revenge, however he realized that wasn't what his mother would've wanted for him and came back to free the crew and expel Yondu out. He decided against pursuing revenge anymore and, once the Colony was settled on planet Xerxes, set out to find his destiny in the stars as the "Star-Lord".[6]
=== Star-Lord ===
Two years later after he began his travel, he met Ma Savage and started funding her orphanage.[7] He also, at some point, met his father J'son of Spartax, the second son of the galactic Emperor who acted as Star-Lord before him.[8] He learned about his heritage and his birthright to become the Star-Lord, however the meeting didn't end well, as J'son wanted him to become the prince of Spartax and rule alongside him while Peter resented the idea of anyone being the owner of the galaxy, preferring to see it free to create and live. They both parted ways in bad terms. Peter also met a sentient Ship called "Ship" with whom he travelled the galaxy for some time.
Not long after, Star-Lord encountered the former Herald of Galactus, the Fallen One, who was trying to starve his former master by destroying all planets he could feed on, and was almost killed in his first battle with the entity, Ship discovered that the energy generated from destroying planets harmed the Fallen One. Sacrificing a little Kree lunar colony (35,000 lives) near a Kree planet the Fallen One was going to destroy, Ship was able to harness that energy and defeated the entity (Star-Lord's vessel "Ship" was destroyed doing it). Star-Lord turned the Fallen One and himself to the Nova Corps for Galactic level genocide. While there were divided thoughts about his choice, the pair were subsequently imprisoned in the intergalactic prison the Kyln. There, Peter allied himself with Ch'ak, Gladiator and Thanos against the Maker in fear of her immense power. They filled Thanos in on her background, and asked for his assistance, but he just walked out. Later, Peter observed a giant explosion in the Kyln, and assumed that it was Thanos who caused the Maker to attack. They went to the explosion site, and Gladiator filled Peter in on how he and the Maker got into the Kyln. When Gladiator asked Peter on how he got in the Kyln, he declined to answer.
Later, after Thanos had defeated the Maker, Peter found out that the Fallen One had escaped. He told Thanos about this, and Thanos went off, presumably to deal with it. Peter made his way around the Kyln and was met by Gladiator who was going to leave, now that the Maker was incapacitated for good. Gladiator told Peter that he had drafted Peter into the Shi'ar Guard, to Peter's disapproval. He met up with Gladiator's Shi'ar allies later on, and was told that they weren't going after the Fallen One nor Thanos, but that they decided they wanted Peter to help them.[9]
=== Annihilation ===
A couple months after the Kyln and Xandar were destroyed in the first days of the Annihilation War, Peter organized the United Front with Nova Prime to battle the Annihilation Wave led by Annihilus from conquering their universe.
On the 183rd day of the war, Peter and Nova Prime were defending Daedalus 5 from the wave. They were aided by Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, Ronan the Accuser and his Kree warriors, and the former heralds of Galactus, Firelord, Red Shift and Stardust. They managed to hold the defense while the former heralds attacked and destroyed the mothership, and captured Extirpia. Days later, Peter filled in Nova about the health status of Firelord after he exploded fighting Extirpia. The two then interrogated Extirpia, who revealed that Thanos was working with Annihilus, and that they had defeated and captured Galactus and his current herald, Silver Surfer.
A few days later, Peter and Nova Prime met with the leaders of the Kree division of the United Front, House Fiyero and Ronan the Accuser. House Fiyero had some problems working with Ronan because Ronan was a fugitive from the Kree empire. They threatened to leave the United Front if Nova Prime and Peter didn't arrest Ronan. Nova Prime furiously shot down the demand, and a small argument erupted. Ronan then slaughtered all of House Fiyero, which angered Nova Prime. Just then, Gamora arrives with Praxagora and the news of Super-Skrull's death.
Just then, Ravenous, Terrax, Paibok, and Delinquent, and many more arrive on Daedalus 5 via Thanos' teleportation technology and the United Front are forced into battle. Negative Zone Centurions later arrived as well, and so did an Annihilation Wave flagship, with a weaponized Galactus aimed to devour the planet. The United Front retreats while Red Shift and Stardust cover their escape, dying in the process. Peter, Nova Prime, Ronan, Gamora, the one-time Captain Marvel Phyla-Vell, Praxagora, the miraculously revived Super-Skrull and Drax's human companion, Cammi are among the few who escape. After the severe loss, the United Front disbands.
Later, Peter informs Nova Prime that Ronan is going to Hala to take down the rest of House Fiyero, and Praxagora and Super-Skrull would be going with him too. Peter suggests calling on the heroes of Earth, so Nova Prime then tries reaching the Fantastic Four, but his hopes for saving Earth are completely shattered when he learned of what was happening between the heroes. Peter then tells him that he'll be accompanying him on his next plan to attack Annihilus head on. Peter, Nova Prime, and Phyla-Vell all go to the ruins of the planet Xandar where they teleport and go deeper into Wave territory. On Canticus Prime, they meet up with Blastaar and his Spaceknights. They finally teleport their way the center of the Annihilation Wave, and they attack Annihilus head on. They were losing until the Quantum Bands that Annihilus acquired off the dead Quasar attached themselves to Phyla-Vell, turning the tide of the battle. She weakened Annihilus, and Nova Prime killed him. After the war was over, Peter was filled in by the rest of the factions that aided in destroying the Annihilation Wave. He told the stories to Nova Prime as he was recovering from the battle.[10]
=== Phalanx Invasion ===
He was later assigned by Ronan to be in charge of rebuilding the Kree defense network. The Space Knights offered to upgrade Hala's defense systems with new tech and give them an army of Centurions. Peter pitched it to Ronan and Ronan quickly accepted the offer. Peter had the Spaceknights bring the Centurions to Hala for a few threat scenario exercises. However, the Centurions began to attack Hala, and when Peter confronted the Spaceknights about this, they revealed themselves and their "Trojan Horse"-like ploy. One of the Spaceknights broke Peter's arm and he was forced to flee. He fell out a window of a building while trying to escape.[11]
Peter awoke after surgery on the Kree planet, Aladon Prime. He was removed of all his cybernetic attachments, including his left eye and his universal translator, and was briefed on the Phalanx's conquest of Hala and the rest of the Kree Empire. Admiral Galen-Kor, the person in-charge of Peter's recovery, revealed the Phalanx's plan to infect the Kree with an airborne techno-virus that would put the Kree under their control. Galen-Kor requests that, in exchange for nursing him back to health, he'd lead a commando team into Hala to destroy the machine that would release the techno-virus. He agreed, and he met with the team. The team consisted of prisoners that the Kree had caught over the years; there was a Kaliklak warrior known as Bug, a Shi'ar berserker codenamed Deathcry, the Celestial Madonna Mantis, a former Terran soldier that went by the name Captain Universe, a lower life form known as Rocket Raccoon, and a flora colossus that called himself Groot. Peter was given his old Star-Lord outfit, with a few upgrades. He trained the team for a couple of days until they were dropped off in Hala.
They infiltrated and were met with heavy resistance. The team was a pretty dysfunctional one, with Peter seeing them more as an expendable team rather than allies in battle. They sneaked through most of Hala, looking for the bio-tech reproduction facility, when suddenly a battle between some of Annihilus' remaining bugs and the Phalanx broke out. Deathcry jumped into the battle, revealing the rest of the team. During the battle, Deathcry attacked Captain Universe, and in an act of self defense, Captain Universe disintegrated Deathcry. The team retreated and was also forced to leave Groot behind as he covered their escape.
After two days of no luck finding the facility, Peter went alone on a reconnaissance mission to find it. He looked through classified Kree archives, and there he found that they had already released the virus as a airborne nanovirus — meaning that everyone on the planet were slowly becoming infected. He returned back to the sewers where he told the team of his plan. Not long after, they were attacked by the Phalanx. Captain Universe covered their escape and they made it out into the streets of Hala. However, Peter, Rocket Raccoon, Bug, and a tiny little Groot (who regrew after his destruction) were captured on the street not long afterwards. Mantis was able to turn herself invisible and Captain Universe defeated all of the Phalanx down in the sewers, so they weren't captured. Peter and his teammates were later about to be dissected by the Phalanx, but Mantis and Captain Universe saved them. They made their escape, only to find Kree soldiers in their way. The Kree soldiers decided to let Peter and company go due to Peter's reputation as the Starlord. Mantis explained to Peter that they risked the Kree soldiers threw away their lives to save his, because the Starlord was an ideal. They commandeered a Kree ship and flew out of Hala to Alon-Gin. There, he was debriefed on the outcome of their mission. Since Captain Universe got the genetic information of the virus when he was rescuing the team, the Kree were able to come up with a cure. Also, the team was clean of infection. The team came to Peter saying they were ready for the next assignment, despite Peter's clear unwillingness.[12]
A few days later, Peter was back on Hala with his commando team. He had now become the secret leader of the anti-Phalanx resistance. Rocket reported to him that Blastaar had been captured, tortured and killed by the Phalanx, as per the plan. Blastaar brought with him spores that would map the entire Babel Spire, the heart of the Phalanx power. They got into the tower and set up the bombs that would cripple the tower, allowing the Kree empire to be accessible to outside forces. However, all of a sudden, a mind-controlled, resurrected Blastaar appeared and killed Captain Universe. Peter would've been killed too had it not been for the appearance of the Phalanx's leader, Ultron, who was enraged and wanted to torture somebody. Ultron tortured him, trying to get information on the anti-Phalanx resistance's plans, but Peter wouldn't give it up nor would the mind scans work, for Mantis was telepathically shielding him. Ultron later found Mantis and sent the Phalanx to attack her. Peter was physically drained, and passed out. He was awakened by Mantis, Bug, and Rocket, saying that they had a plan of escape. They ran through the Babel Spire and jumped out of the building. It was revealed Groot expanded and wrapped himself around the tower and detonated his body, and so the tower was destroyed. Groot was once again "killed" doing a heroic act. Mantis told Peter that she had foreseen that three members would be lost during the fight against the Phalanx, and the third she revealed to be herself. Just then, Ultron arrived in the body of Adam Warlock and struck Mantis across the head. Before Ultron could attack Peter and his crew, Nova Prime arrived with Gamora, Drax, and the Technarchy, and attacked Ultron and his Phalanx. Peter was leading his injured team away from the battle when he saw that the Phalanx were building another giant structure, which would turn out to be a giant version of Ultron. He watched as Phyla-Vell, now going by the name Quasar, and Adam Warlock (with his own consciousness back in his own body) attacked and defeated the giant Ultron.
The Kree empire was saved and everything slowly went back to the way things were. Star-Lord would hang out with Nova Prime, Gamora, and Drax once in a while. He saw to Mantis' and Groot's recuperation. Peter blamed himself for the Phalanx invasion, and so he sought to make it right.
=== Guardians of the Galaxy ===
After Ultron and the Phalanx were defeated, Star-Lord formed the new Guardians of the Galaxy. The universe was in a very fragile state after the two Annihilation events, and fissures in reality were beginning to form and spread. In order to prevent the collapse of the universe, he had Mantis telepathically nudge Adam Warlock, Phyla-Vell, Rocket Raccoon, Drax, and Gamora into joining his team [13]. This motley crew set up base in the severed head of a Celestial, called Knowhere. When Star-Lord's deception was found out, everyone but Mantis quit the team in disgust and set off on their own quests.
Star-Lord responded to a Kree summons and returned to the Kree homeworld to speak with Ronan. Upon arriving, he is shocked to see that they are rebuilding the Phalanx Spire to protect Kree space. He argued with Ronan and was then thrown into the Negative Zone. He was then forced into helping the newly appointed ruler of the Negative Zone, King Blastaar, into taking over the Superprison 42 so he could gain access to their portal to Earth.
Star-Lord was then sent into 42 to convince them to open the door and surrender. Once inside he spoke with the unofficial leaders of 42 and told them not to surrender, but only Jack Flag agreed with him. They tried to stop them but the doors were opened and Blastaar's army was unleashed; after learning of his betrayal, Blastaar sent his men to find and kill Star-Lord. Running for their lives, Star-Lord and Jack Flag located a telepath in 42 to ask the Guardians for help and they were able to escape before being killed by Blastaar.
=== War of Kings ===
Once he returned to Knowhere, Peter found that Rocket had assembled a new team, consisting of Major Victory, Bug, Groot, and Mantis. Eventually, the other members returned as well; Adam and Gamora returning in order to still help the universe, and Drax and Phyla returning with the newly resurrected Moondragon.
Their first order was to split up and attempt to end the War of Kings, which would cause irreparable damage to the fabric of the universe. Peter led his team to Hala to speak with the Inhumans. Even after telling them the dangers of their war, they refused. Phyla, who now called herself Martyr, had other ideas of negotiating and took Crystal hostage. Star-Lord could not get her to release her prisoner and they were teleported back to Knowhere.
Upon their return, they soon found themselves in the middle of a battle with the Inhumans and the Imperial Guard, who had followed the other team back. After rescuing Crystal, the Inhumans left and the Guardians were left to face the Imperial Guard, who wished to take over the station. In the process of the battle, Starhawk escaped her captivity and took Star-Lord, Mantis, Bug, Jack Flag, and Cosmo to her future.
In Starhawk's bleak future, she was finally able to convince them what she had been saying all along was true. A massive fissure was consuming the universe and it had to be stopped. The two Guardians teams worked together to try to send a message back through time to warn that the fissure, known as the Fault, was actually caused during the War of Kings by Black Bolt.
With their time machine broken, they formed a new plan. The Badoon, who now ruled what little was left of the universe, had enslaved the Celestials and created what was called the Celestial Engine, used to keep the fissure at bay. They send back their message and break the alignment of the Celestial Engine, causing the destruction of this future.
To Star-Lord's surprise, this did not kill them. They found themselves in a different time with a different set of Guardians. Another surprise: he was old enough to be his own grandfather. The Starhawk of this future received messages from his previous selves and learned the truth. The team was adrift in time, which was causing their changes as well. They formed a plan to find a time machine under Avengers Mansion, but once they got there they slipped through time once again. And again. And again.
They finally arrived at an alternate future, one ruled by the Magus and the Universal Church of Truth. While battling the members of the Church, they had an unexpected guest: Kang the Conqueror. He returned them to their normal states and took them to his headquarters in Limbo. He explained that all futures were becoming Magus futures and it was up to Star-Lord to stop this from happening.
Kang gave Peter a Cosmic Cube and told him that future must be saved at all costs. They were sent back to moments before Adam would turn into the Magus while repairing the Fault. Star-Lord tried to talk to Adam, but the damage had been done. He had overlapped the time lines and essentially he had been the Magus for months.
Adam transformed and began his battle with the Guardians, who were all reunited. After killing Major Victory, Mantis, Cosmo, Gamora, and Phyla, Star-Lord was finally able to grab the Cube and use it to revert the Magus back to Adam. Adam told him that he must finish him, and to his own regret, Star-Lord shot and killed his friend. The universe had been saved, but the price was very high.
=== Thanos Imperative ===
Adam managed to avoid death, however, and Magus continued in his service to his Lord Mar-Vel, a Mar-Vel from a universe where death had lost and life had triumphed, resulting in a universe of immortal monsters. When the denizens of Lord Mar-Vel's universe, the Cancerverse came out of the fault in order to consume the 616 universe as well. Peter Quill, together with the rest of the Guardians, Nova, and Thanos traveled into the Cancerverse in order to stop Mar-Vel and the Old Ones whom Mar-Vel served. Drax, however, was driven mad due to the fact that he was an avatar of life in a universe where life had triumphed, and he tried to kill Thanos, who in turn vaporized him. The Guardians and Thanos met up with the Machine Resistance, the unliving robotic denizens of the Cancerverse who had been immune to Mar-Vel's conversion of his universe and had fought to stop him ever since. They informed Thanos and the Guardians that Mar-Vel was planning a Necropsy, in which he would kill the Avatar of Death (Thanos) thus killing Death itself. Thanos seemed to betray the Guardians when he submitted to Mar-Vel, but when Mar-Vel ran him through with a sword, Death appeared and, due to being summoned by Thanos, killed the entire Cancerverse and forced the Old Ones into a coma that would last a very long time. Death refused to take Thanos with her and he flew into a rage, vowing to destroy the universe. Peter and Nova volunteered to distract him, managing to keep him in the Cancerverse long enough for it to collapse and presumably kill all three of them.
Thanos, Star-Lord, and Nova remained in the Cancerverse fighting over the Cosmic Cube. A returned Drax joined the brawl against the Mad Titan. After Star-Lord starting losing control over the Cube, Thanos offered Quill to give him the Cube, as he could control it to get back to Earth-616.[14] However, Star-Lord killed Thanos with it. As Thanos reappeared and killed Star-Lord from behind, who also returned, the heroes discovered death was impossible in the Cancerverse, as one would merely respawn in another location.
After killing Thanos for a third time, the heroes' discussion on what to do was interrupted by the arrival of the resurrected Cancerverse's Revengers. Following an extremely long battle, the Revengers got hold of the Cosmic Cube.[15] Thanos managed to retrieve the Cube and defeat the Revengers, but was soon opposed by Drax, Quill, and Nova. While the Mad Titan was distracted by Drax, Nova picked up the Cosmic Cube and decided to use it along with the Nova Force to open a gate to Earth-616. However, Rider couldn't come along as he was acting as the door between the two universes. As his last wish, Nova asked Peter not to tell Gamora about this event, as it would devastate her.
Peter Quill, Drax and Thanos were then returned to Earth-616.[16]
=== Return ===
Peter disappeared after the Cancerverse events until a reunion with his father J'son alerted him that the council of galactic empires had decided that Earth was off-limits for all empires from now on. This pushed Peter to reform the Guardians of the Galaxy in order to protect Earth from many invasions that were coming thanks to that new rule. They aided the Avengers to fight Thanos, who had once again targeted Earth following his return. Thanos managed to get a Cosmic Cube from the Army, with which he escaped to Moord, the homeland of the Badoon. The Guardians arrived at the Avengers Tower and informed the Avengers about the situation.[17] They joined the Guardians to fight Thanos and the Badoon. After Thanos apparently killed the Elders of the Universe, to impose his supremacy,[18] he became one with the Cosmic Cube and killed the Avengers and the Guardians as well. But actually they were sent to the Cancerverse along with the Elders. While there, Tony Stark found that Thanos' weapon wasn't actually a Cosmic Cube and that it had defects. They bargained with the Collector in exchange for a weapon capable of deactivating the "Cube" and return to Earth. The Avengers and the Guardians would let Thanos be defeated by the Elders. With the help of other members of the Avengers, Thanos was defeated and sent to punishment by the Elders.[19]
Shortly after Iron Man joined the group, the Guardians fought a Badoon invasion on Earth.[20] They were briefly imprisoned by Spartoi forces after defeating the Badoon in London,[21] but managed to escape, becoming fugitives of the Spartoi Empire.[22] The Guardians later encountered a warrior named Angela, who later joined their ranks.[23]
During Thanos' invasion on Earth, the Guardians helped Abigail Brand recover control over the Peak.[24]
=== The Trial of Jean Grey ===
Peter and his team intercepted a conversation that revealed the Shi'ar were planing on abducting a teenage Jean Grey and put her on trial for the crimes of her older self. Peter decided to go and alert the X-Men but arrived too late, as the Shi'ar had already taken Jean.[25] The X-Men and the Guardians teamed up to rescue her, and in route to the Shi'ar empire, he met Kitty Pryde, the leader of the X-Men. Both teams were subsequently assaulted by a Shi'ar ship, but saved just in time by the Starjammers,[26] who joined the heroes' mission.
They arrived to Chadilar, the Shi'ar homeworld, and confronted the Imperial Guard.[28] After recovering Jean Grey, who had escaped custody, and was later able to subdue Gladiator, the Guardians and the X-Men left the planet. When the Guardians took the X-Men back to Earth, Star-Lord gave Kitty an holographic phone to keep in touch.[29]
Soon after, Star-Lord and the Guardians were individually captured by different galactic empires to be dealt with separately, as planned by J'son and the Spartoi, who wanted his son to join him in his place as the prince of Spartax, but also to make him pay for his crimes against the Spartoi Empire.[30] Peter managed to escape custody with the help of Captain Marvel, one of the Guardian's recent recruits. Before fleeing from Spartax, Peter took advantage of J'son's live broadcast of Quill's trail and exposed his father's corruption, inciting a rebellion[31] After recovering his ship, Star-Lord and Captain Marvel proceeded to recover their teammates, except the newly-inducted Agent Venom, who went into hiding after escaping a run-in with the Skrulls.[32]
=== Mister Knife ===
After escaping from Spartax, Peter decided to search for a very powerful gem to seetle his feud with Thanos once and for all. After sneaking into an orphanage to search for the gem he left behind by the Spartax, Peter was confronted by a group of Badoon bounty hunters. Outnumbered, Peter was captured by the Badoon. While imprisoned, Peter discovered that a mysterious "Mr. Knife" placed the bounty on his head and that he also had plans for Earth. Soon after, Peter escaped the ship with the gem only to come face-to-face with the commander of the Spartax Royal Guard who turned out to be the sister he didn't know he had, Victoria.[33] She turned him in to Fortress Viderdoom for the bounty, but quickly turned on Quill's captors to help him escape and steal Viderdoom's assets. The siblings escaped the planet together, narrowly avoiding death. When back on her ship, Victoria offered half of the money to Peter but he declined it, saying he was in it for the adventure.[34]
During this time Peter kept in touch with Kitty Pryde, usually calling her while being imprisoned.[33][35] His feelings for Kitty started to grow, but put them aside to deal with Thanos once and for all. Powered-up with the Mandalay Gem, Star-Lord confronted Thanos on the Earth's moon, and managed to subdue him after a furious fight. However, Star-Lord was convinced not to execute Thanos, due to the resultant release of energy being capable of destroying the Earth. Reluctantly, Peter let him go, dropped the gem and decided to change his life and start pursuing a relationship with Kitty instead.[36]
Soon after finding Agent Venom, the Guardians came into contact with the Klyntar, the original race of symbiotes. Upon returning from the planet of Klyntar, Star-Lord received the news that after his father's overthrow he had been elected as the new president of Spartax.
=== Black Vortex ===
Following the news of his unexpected political career, Peter decided to keep a low profile. He discovered that Mr. Knife's group of mercenaries, the Slaughter Squad were ordered to hunt him down, and also that Knife was looking for the mysterious Black Vortex.[38] During a long-distance date with Kitty Pryde, Peter was kidnapped by the Slaughter Squad and taken to their flying fortress, where Mister Knife revealed himself as J'son.[39] Mister Knife tried to brainwash his son into being of use for his plans, but Kitty Pryde, who had travelled all the way from Earth to space, rescued him.[40]
Both escaped and went straight to Spartax where they spent some time at the Savage orphanage, the home of some allies of Peter. After convincing Kitty to stay in space with him, she convinced him steal the Black Vortex from J'son to annoy him.[41] However, when they infiltrated Mister Knife's fortress, they discovered the Black Vortex was no ordinary object, it was a mirror with the ability of unleashing an individual's cosmic potential. Now fearing of such powerful item being in J'son's hand, Star-Lord and Kitty stole the artifact. They turned to both the Guardians of the Galaxy and the X-Men for help.
The cosmically-empowered Slaughter Squad, now calling themselves Slaughter Lords, pinned the heroes down in order to retrieve the Black Vortex. While not outnumbered, the heroes where outmatched. During the battle, Gamora submitted to the Black Vortex's power, giving the Guardians and the X-Men the necessary edge to escape to Spartax's moon.[7]There, Peter tried to convince his allies to submit altogether to the Black Vortex, in order to defeat the Slaughter Lords. Kitty opposed him, claiming that such incredible powers could corrupt them. Both Beast[42] and Angel submitted. The immense power corrupted them and Gamora, who betrayed their fellow allies when they tried to destroy the Black Vortex. Soon after they escaped with the Vortex, the Guardians and the X-Men were attacked by Mister Knife's flying fortress.
They survived the attack, and fled the moon and fled on Star-Lord's Bad Boy, subsequently coming across the Starjammers, who offered their help.[44] When Gamora, Beast and Angel assaulted Hala after their Accuser Corps stole the Black Vortex for help, Star-Lord and a group of heroes heeded the call for help.[44] Ronan the Accuser empowered himself with the Black Vortex and fended off the attackers.[45] However, Mister Knife's flying fortress arrived to recover the Vortex, and used its entire firepower to destroy Hala. The Guardians and X-Men there escaped.[46]
When J'son recovered the Vortex,[47] he used it on his ally Thane, who proceeded to encase the entirety of Spartax in an amber construct, trapping its inhabitants in a state of living death. Mister Knife had made a deal with the Brood, providing them of the host bodies necessary to reproduce, in exchange of taking part of their planetary conquest.[48] When the heroes retrieved the Black Vortex once again,[49] Kitty Pryde used it on herself to enhance her abilities and phase Spartax through the amber carcass, saving the planet and its inhabitants, at the same time she managed not to succumb to her new abilities.
Once the dust settled and the Black Vortex was dealt with, Star-Lord proposed to Kitty Pryde, and she said yes.[50] Back in Spartax, he had to resolve the problem of his election and after some encouraging words from Kitty, he decided to give in to the desire of the people of Spartax and become the new leader of the Empire.[51]
=== Secret Wars ===
Peter and the rest of the Guardians traveled to the Earth to help defend it from a colliding alternate version of said planet, during the last of the phenomena known as incursions, which caused universes to collide. The eventual collision between the two planets caused the total destruction of all of reality, with Star-Lord being the only survivor of his team, after being teleported by chance to a life raft that survived the end of the Multiverse.[52]
Star-Lord and the other heroes in the raft were awakened after spending eight years in stasis, finding themselves in Battleworld, a patchwork planet composed of the remnants of several realities, ruled by the omnipotent God Emperor Doom with an iron fist. Their welcomer was Doctor Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme of the previous universe who had helped Doom achieve goodhood, thus becoming his right hand and sheriff of Battleworld.[53]
Star-Lord and the other heroes were later teleported and scattered across Battleworld by Strange, in order to prevent them from suffering the unfair wrath of Doctor Doom, who had recently learned of the existence of these interlopers.[54]
Peter ended up in the domain of the Kingdom of Manhattan, a domain composed of the remains of the New York City of his former world. Looking for a place to hide from Doom, he ended up in a nightclub known as the Quiet Room, becoming a singer under the name of "Swingin' Stevie Rogers."
One day, Quill found a Kitty Pryde of an alternate reality in the midst of the Quiet Room's clients. She was an agent of Valeria von Doom's Foundation and was negotiating with Gambit the Collector to get an anomaly he had acquired, an "anomaly" being an object that could defy the doctrine of Doom, namely any evidence that pointed to the existence of something before this world. Quill foiled the negotiations when he appeared to defend her against Gambit's flirtations. Gambit fled, taking the anomaly with him. During the ensuing struggle, a device Pryde used to identify if an anomaly was authentic confirmed that Quill's origin was unknown, thus making him a living anomaly. Surprised, Pryde handcuffed him to herself and decided to take him with her to further studies.[55]
In order to discover Gambit's whereabouts and retrieve the anomaly in his posession back, Pryde and Quill followed his trail to a museum in Midtown.[56] After capturing Gambit, Peter discovered the anomaly in his posession was Rocket Raccoon's tail. As it was the only thing left of Quill's home reality and a remaining part of his lost friend, Pryde let him keep it. After kissing him, she departed for Doomstadt to report to her superiors.[57]
At some point in time, Peter traveled to the satellite Knowhere where he found his old teammates who had been recreated to recruit them in the fight against Doom.[58] During an uprising against Doom, the Reed Richards of Earth-616 and Earth-1610 requested Star-Lord's services to fly them to Castle Doom.[59]
Doctor Doom's reign was ultimately overthrown by Reed Richards, who managed to seize Doom's power and use it to begin recreating the lost Multiverse, including his native reality and all of its inhabitants,[60] but with no memories of their temporary demise.
=== King Quill ===
Over the following months, Peter resumed his work as king. His overwhelming schedule, inexperience in politics, and desire to satisfy everyone; eventually pushed his friends away. Angry at this, Rocket took the leadership position in the Guardians from Peter and left to resume their work. Peter's still fiancée Kitty Pryde became distant and bitter at Peter's lack of attention and also left him to join the Guardians as the new Star-Lord. Despite having lost both his best friend and his fiancée, Peter bitterly remained as King and tried to help people as best as he could.[62] Eight months after the Guardians left, they decided to come back in order to examine one artifact they stole from the Chitauri. While they were there, a female accuser named Hala invaded Spartax and started destroying the planet in retaliation of Peter's supposed participation in the destruction of the Kree planet, Hala.[63]
The female accuser defeated the Guardians and captured Peter, taking him hostage and promising the destruction not only of Spartax but Earth as well.[64] He was rescued by the Guardians and together they managed to come back and defeat Hala.[65] However, not much later, Yotat the Destroyer appeared and contributed to further damaging Spartax. The Guardians could defeat him but plenty of damage was done and the people no longer trusted Peter. His delegates took advantage of this and ousted him from power, claiming he should answer for all the destruction caused on his watch. Peter escaped with Kitty and rejoined the Guardians, once again, as a wanted man.