Wrongly branded a traitor by his father Eson, Prince Jason of Spartoi fled the Empire, exploring deep space for many years. When war broke out between the Spartoi Empire and the Ariguan Confederacy,
Eson summoned his wayward son home, but en route his ship's converter
blew. To avoid a complete meltdown, and with his ship apparently
slipping backwards through time, Jason crash landed in Earth's Colorado
Mountains, his arrival witnessed by Meredith Quill,
who dragged him from the burning vessel. As she nursed him back to
health and helped him rebuild his ship, the pair fell in love. After a
year, Jason was ready to depart; informed by his bio-comps that Meredith
had just conceived their child and unwilling to endanger her, Jason
reluctantly left Meredith behind, promising to return for her once the
war ended, but mindlocking her memories, sparing her the heartbreak he
felt. Less than a month later, Meredith married her childhood
sweetheart, Jake.
Suspecting Meredith's child was not his, when Peter Jason Quill was born, Jake angrily noted that the infant resembled neither of them. Intending to slay the child, Jake carried him outside, but suffered a fatal heart attack; Peter was left staring into the starlit sky for an hour before Meredith found strength to crawl outside to him. Mentally and physically weakened, Meredith's world revolved around raising her son. Peter grew up a loner, fascinated by science fiction shows and NASA's exploits.
When the Spartoi / Ariguan conflict turned in Sparta's favor, Jason asked his uncle Gareth to bring his family to him. Having his own designs on the throne, Gareth instead hired Kyras Shakati, crimelord of Cinnibar, to eliminate the Quills; Shakati in turn sent the Ariguan Sith-Lord Rruothk'ar to carry out the murder. Peter, now 11, witnessed Rruothk'ar's ship land, and watched Rruothk'ar and his men slay his mother. The killers departed, unaware they had missed their main target; Peter swore to one day make them pay. Gareth informed Jason that his wife and son had died in childbirth, while Peter became increasingly insular, running away from the orphanage on his 13th birthday. Subsequently devoting himself to intense study, he graduated college and was accepted into NASA's space effort astronaut training program. Though one of their highest ever scoring trainees, he remained socially withdrawn, his sole friend his pet owl, Al. During training, Peter risked his life to save fellow student Greg Harrelson when a centrifuge malfunctioned, but afterwards castigated Harrelson for being too stupid to save himself, engendering a deep hatred. When Peter's lack of social skills saw him passed over for Mars Probe III in favor of Harrelson, Peter re-evaluated his life. He spent the next five months improving his deportment, eventually being assigned to Eve, NASA's first permanently manned space station; entering space for the first time was a rapturous experience for Quill.
Though Peter loved being amongst the stars, he soon realized his childhood vow might never be fulfilled, as mankind's limited technology meant he was unlikely to venture further into space. A couple of months later, Eve's crew witnessed a celestial apparition which declared itself Star-Lord, a concept of what a Terran of their selection would become in a fortnight. Peter volunteered, but Houston High Command was skeptical of the vision's claims, and felt that any candidate required more space experience; Peter's violent reaction saw him discharged Earth-side. Refusing to miss his opportunity, Peter stole a scoutship from Cape Canaveral, returned to Eve, and shot his way to the appointed spot, where his old rival Harrelson, NASA's choice, was awaiting selection. Dislodging his rival at the critical moment, Peter was transported away in his stead. Finding himself before the enigmatic Master of the Sun, Peter admitted his transgressions, but was nonetheless transformed into Star-Lord; to free Peter of his need for vengeance, the Master seemingly allowed Peter to destroy an Ariguan ship, afterwards informing him he was free to begin a new life and giving him Ship, a sentient former star who would be his guide and companion.
When Ship sensed the destruction of the planet Carillon by the Haalmhad homeship, the same people who had destroyed Ship's planets back when she was a star, Star-Lord rushed to the K'yndar system to save its other inhabited world, Cymoril; while Ship distracted the Haalmhad, Star-Lord disabled their homeship, then stranded the inhabitants on a primitive world 20 parsecs away. Investigating an unidentified massive power source on planet Redstone, Star-Lord learned the world's "founder" Quan-Zarr had slaughtered the previous inhabitants, experimenting on the survivors to turn their children into leonine Beastmen, who now sought revenge. Star-Lord allowed the Beastmen to attack Quan-Zarr's tower and slay the scientist, but was forced to kill the last surviving Beastman before he used Quan-Zarr's Power-Rod to destroy the entire colony. Snatched from Ship by an artificial fusion vortex, Star-Lord was then taken onboard a space ark. Ark leader Noah claimed they were the time-lost last survivors of Earth, but another inhabitant, Aletha, revealed that they were aliens cloaked by illusions, whose militaristic rulers planned to conquer Earth using information extracted from him. With Star-Lord's aid, the ark's populace overthrew Noah, and, reunited with Ship, Star-Lord departed once more.
When an Ariguan assault force attacked the Master of the Sun, Star-Lord came to his aid, only for the Master to claim he too was an Ariguan, the scientist Ragnar, who had defied his people by creating the Star-Lord and must now face their justice; reluctantly, Peter acquiesced. On the cloud-shrouded planet Heaven, a world ruled by a strict honor code, Star-Lord rescued Thorn from a fatal fall, then protected him from the huntress Shreen until Thorn's wings regrew, only to watch them both sacrifice themselves for honor's sake. Investigating ruins on the primordial planet Symbion, Star-Lord mistook the sentient planet's attempts to communicate as attacks and he fled, leaving the lonely worldmind to mourn his departure.
