MCU Vs Comics: Star Lord's Origins

Way back in 2014 the ball that was the Marvel Cinematic Universe was picking up speed with no signs of stopping any time soon. The studio was eager to flood the market, but with big name superheroes like Ironman, Captain America, Thor, and even the Avengers already under their belt, they were quickly running out of sure-fire crowd pleasers. With that in mind they attempted what many would consider a hail mary and launched the Guardians of the Galaxy.

The superhero team certainly wasn’t mainstream at the time, but that made them a gold mine of untapped potential. Their relative obscurity allowed the developers a degree of creative freedom that the more popular heroes lacked. The end result was a loveable cadre of rogues able to stand on their own while simultaneously adding to the existing MCU for future crossovers. And while the film was a huge success, some of the characters within were changed drastically from their appearances in the pages of comics. Easily the most notable among them was the de facto leader of the group, the roguish Star Lord.

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Like many comic book characters through the years, Star Lord has undergone many changes over his lifetime. His most recent iteration, and the one that inspired his film counterpart, appeared in the 2008 run of the Guardians of the Galaxy comic. In the early issues of this series Peter Quill himself narrates his origin starting with how his mother met and fell in love with his dad. The two share a loving but ultimately brief time together before Quill's father blasts back off into space, leaving his mother to care for their son, Peter, by herself. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Peter and his mom are later set upon by alien invaders searching for his father. As the smoke clears on their violent arrival, Peter’s mom is killed, effectively orphaning the boy.

As it turns out, Peter's father was the emperor of a far-off planet known as Spartax. The invaders that attacked Quill’s home had come not only to kill his father, but him as well, effectively wiping out the royal bloodline. This lineage earned Peter the title of Star Lord; a moniker bestowed to the successor of the throne on his father’s home world. It’s a position Quill has no intention of filling, but a title he carries none the less. This is partly out of spite for his father, who he holds responsible for the loss of his mother.

Following his survival of the alien attack, Peter moved from various orphanages and foster homes until he was old enough to set off on his own. All the while he yearned to travel the stars and protect earth from any further incursions. This eventually led to him working for NASA as an engineer, before stealing a derelict alien ship and blasting off into the galaxy. The ship would eventually be captured by Yondu and taken to the Kree, who previously owned the vessel. From there, Quill was strong-armed into forming the team that would eventually become the Guardians of the Galaxy.

As is often the case in the MCU, Star Lord’s new characterization was brought about to simplify his origins and make his inclusion into the cinematic universe more seamless. In this telling, Peter Quill is introduced to us as the child of a single mother dying from a brain tumor. Distraught at his mother’s rapidly declining health, he flees into the night only to be picked up by an unidentified space craft. We then cut to the present and learn that Peter has been raised by Yondu and his band of space pirates known as The Ravagers. This leads Peter, now going by the alias Star Lord, a nickname given to him by his late mother, to seek out an infinity stone. This endeavor snowballs into the eventual formation of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

If there’s one thing that these two versions of the characters share, it’s daddy issues. In his second outing, the Peter from the MCU learns that his father is Ego, a sentient planetoid and a member of the Celestials. It’s a touching father/son reunion until Ego lets slip that he implanted the tumor that would go on to take Peter’s mom’s life. Peter may not have had to share the galaxy with his father for long, unlike his comic book counterpart, but Ego’s death and the knowledge that his own father murdered his mom weighed heavily on the hero. A stark contrast to the comics, where his father played an indirect, yet no less callous, role in his mother’s passing.

With shared irredeemable dads aside, the differences start to become more apparent. The two Star Lords have vastly different upbringings, which led to two unique personalities. MCU Star Lord was raised by pirates and mirrored their roguish sense of morality. However deep down he was still a good person, with great taste in music, and grew to be a slightly more goofy Han Solo type. By contrast, the Star Lord of the comics was much less removed from his family tragedy, which drove him to protect the earth from extraterrestrial threats. This mission left him much more driven and gritty than his film counterpart.

Whether it’s the loveable underdog of the MCU or the single-minded space hero of the comics, there’s a lot to love about Star Lord. Each version serves as a stand in for us human readers and offers us another vessel to look into the life we could lead in the uncharted vastness of space. To far-flung worlds and bizarre vistas across the cosmos, all with a diverse and always changing roster of aliens by our side. No matter what medium Star Lord is a part of, you can be sure it’s going to be a wild ride.

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Source(s): YouTube

Written by Marshall Gurley

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