As promised last month in Saturday Splash Page, Many Months of Marvel is taking to the stars!
Marvel Preview was one of Marvel's black-and-white mags of the '70s. Judging by the covers, there's not consistent theme, as it may go from Blade, to Star-Lord, to Sherlock Holmes over the course of 3 issues. But all I've got is the 5 Star-Lord stories, so that's what we'll stick to.
Steve Englehart explains in a foreword to the first story that Marv Wolfman came up with the name "Star-Lord", then tasked Englehart with building a character and concept out from that. Englehart was apparently big into astrology at the time, and incorporated that. Beyond the part where the convergence of the planets is a big deal, I don't know in what way, but the foreword assures us you don't need to know or believe in astrology to enjoy the story. Fair enough.
Englehart's Peter Quill is an angry, driven one. His father was convinced he wasn't the father, but had a heart attack before he could kill the infant. His mother is killed by lizard aliens years later, but no one believes Peter. So he pushes himself into astronaut training, determined to be the best, intending to travel to space and take revenge. But he has no patience, interest, or care for other people, and it gets him passed over for the mission he wanted. Because no one could tolerate living in a confined space with him for long.
Quill tries to change, to tell himself he accepts his whole notion of revenge was foolish. But when the convergence occurs and the mysterious Master of the Sun promises one human with be selected for a glorious destiny, all bets are off. Quill seizes his chance - definitely killing some people in the process - gets his audience, and gets his shot at revenge. Whether it's real or just a fantasy to offer some measure of closure is left ambiguous by Englehart (but not by Claremont, who writes the next three stories.)
It feels a bit like Dr. Strange's origin. An immensely talented man, focused only on his own desire (in this case, revenge) learns to grow beyond that and embrace truly helping others. Not exactly the same; Strange's change is driven by a desire to not feel powerless to help the Ancient One, while Quill's seems prompted by the way taking revenge clears the anger from his mind.
In Claremont's stories, Quill's grown as a person. He travels the cosmos helping those in need. He tries to refrain from killing, while still defending those who are helpless as he once was. He's still capable of being outmaneuvered or overcome, but he tends to act calmly and rationally. The challenge is in understanding what he's dealing with, as it's a big universe, with many creatures and people Star-Lord's never seen.
Claremont and Byrne give Star-Lord a shapeshifting intelligent spacecraft, called Ship. Quill and Ship have an empathic bond - because of course they do - and when Quill's badly injured and it's difficult for Ship to save him otherwise, she assume the form of a woman to help him out. In some cases, Ship is the one advising Star-Lord to observe and think, while in others he has to rein in her desire for vengeance. Byrne and Carmine Infantino each draw ship's default form as almost sculpted. Smooth, no seams or visible engines, wings that angle in a gentle arc, rather than the sharp angles of every other ship they encounter. It gives Ship a recognizable, alien appearance, even among all these other alien spaceships.
(Nobody after Byrne ever draws Quill wearing the helmet, though. Not even when he's zipping around in space. Don't know why. Didn't like it, maybe.)
After Claremont's third story Star-Lord appears in a different book - which we'll get to next week - then returns for one more appearance. This time it's a Doug Moench/Bill Sienkiewicz/Bob McLeod story, and, well, it looks fine, but the writing. . . Moench takes the approach that Quill's refusal to kill is not only naive, but makes him culpable for the murders of the people he doesn't kill. The person he doesn't (initially) kill is a man out for revenge on the warlord who stole his people's planet, then experimented on the survivors until they became lion-headed beast-people. Oh, and he's the last of his people. Quill doesn't stop him from killing the warlord, and he can't figure any way to get the planet-threatening weapon away from the beastman, except to kill him.
Besides ignoring that Quill's not responsible for the actions of other adults, Moench ignores that Quill killed two people in the Claremont/Byrne story in issue 11. Englehart wrote Peter Quill as a man of great potential, held back by his resentment and bitterness. Claremont writes him as someone who (mostly) progressed beyond those vices, and meets the incredible mysteries and challenges of space with indomitable will and ingenuity. Moench writes Quill as an inexperienced dope that has to be schooled by every people he meets. A blunt instrument with no gift for subterfuge or lateral thinking.
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