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Legendary Star-Lord

Legendary Star-Lord, Vol. 1: Face It, I Rule

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Exploding from the pages of Guardians of the Galaxy!

Peter Quill battles the Badoon, saves an orphanage, and still finds time to flirt with the X-Men's Kitty Pryde--all in a day's work for the legendary Star-Lord! But when Peter is captured by a bounty hunter with a strange connection to his past, can the two make amends before he's fed to a giant alien? A Badoon death sentence isn't exactly Peter's idea of a good time--luckily, he's got an ace up his sleeve. But Star-Lord soon encounters the all-powerful Titan responsible for so much mayhem in his life: Thanos! It's the battle to end all battles! Unless Star-Lord somehow survives--and if he does, the vicious Mister Knife and the ancient cosmic artifact known as the Black Vortex are waiting!

Collecting: Legendary Star-Lord 1-5

112 pages, Paperback

First published July 2, 2014

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909 people want to read

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Sam Humphries

562 books141 followers

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5 stars
384 (22%)
4 stars
603 (35%)
3 stars
568 (33%)
2 stars
111 (6%)
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15 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 164 reviews
Profile Image for Anne.
4,771 reviews71.3k followers
June 3, 2015
Because...OUTER SPACE!

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Ok, so this was good, but not as cool as I was hoping it would be.

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This is another solo title that's made up of one & done issues that only loosely interconnect. Which is fine, not everything needs to have a grand story arc.
One constant theme is his budding relationship with Kitty Pryde.
It was cute, but I can't say that I see it going anywhere.

description

The plot goes a little like this:
He saves an orphanage, which lets Humphries insert childhood flashbacks. Saves a Badoon kid, which ties back in to the orphanage issue. Gets caught by multiple bounty hunters, which leads him to find out that he has a {not telling you...read it for yourself}. And finally, tracks down & confronts Thanos, which leads back to the Cancerverse story that you can find in Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 4: Original Sin.
You're welcome.

There was humor, but a lot of the time it felt sort of forced and corny. However, there were enough genuine chuckles for me to want to come back. If the next volume improves just a smidge, I'd be thrilled!

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Profile Image for Kerri.
1,105 reviews461 followers
January 6, 2019
I had a lot of fun reading this. Peter is funny and pretty likeable, I love Kitty Pryde so it's great to see her here. The story is enjoyable, I read it in one sitting and am tempted to start the next volume right away, but I have things to do!
Profile Image for Anthony.
816 reviews62 followers
September 29, 2015
Yeah. Okay. This was quite good.

There's some cool nods to music (thanks to the awesome GOTG soundtrack) and the Quill/Kitty relationship didn't play out as I thought it would, which was fun. For me, that was the best part of this book. Partly because Kitty is my favourite X-man character.

But the bit with Thanos hurt my head a little continuity wise. Cause didn't Bendis do a bit with him and Quill post-Infinity over in Guardians? And when did he get out of that stone 'cell'...

Comics are hard work.
Profile Image for Eli.
874 reviews131 followers
March 9, 2016
Overall, it was pretty good. I didn't really enjoy the first two issues in terms of plot or character development, but the last three issues really turned it around. Those issues were enough to make me decide to continue this series in the future.
Profile Image for Rahmi.
246 reviews27 followers
January 22, 2017
I had a very high expectation for this one but sadly it turned out to be a little boring story. Idk but Star-Lord without the Guardians of Galaxy crew just meh.
Profile Image for Brandon.
2,854 reviews40 followers
January 26, 2021
For a book so often trying to be a fun action-packed comedy series about a lovable space rogue, this wasn't funny or intense or actually lovable. So many of the 'jokes' bordered on cringe or played out. The best part of this, and probably the only reason this gets rated 2 stars instead of 1, is issue 4. Freddie Williams II comes on as a guest artist to draw the battle between Star-Lord and Thanos. It's wonderful, has some very Dragon Ball-like action, and reminds me of reading Infinity Gauntlet with how grandiose Thanos was. But then issue 5 happens and it's just throwing a bunch of boring new characters at us to set up the next arc.
Profile Image for Sesana.
6,305 reviews329 followers
July 7, 2015
This was actually pretty fun. Sure, it's hardly deep reading, and some of the humor is kind of cheesy. But it was mostly entertaining, and I liked Peter rather more than I probably should have while reading it. His relationship with Kitty is cute, but it so isn't going anywhere. I mean, come on, no. Still, fun while it lasts. The Thanos faceoff is a bit anticlimatic, but I didn't really expect anything more in a side book like this. I get that Thanos would have kind of been the elephant in the room if not addressed, but I could have done without anyways.
Profile Image for Carrie-Anne.
698 reviews60 followers
August 9, 2019
3.75

This was a fun read, not quite good enough to give 4 stars though.

The art is enjoyable, the main arc of the story is interesting enough, but maybe it's missing just a little bit more story development, or a bit more humour
Profile Image for Ariana.
488 reviews
August 12, 2014
''What kind of sister would i be if i let you fall?''
''No one calls the guardians of the galaxy krutackers!''


Oh Victoria! Tengo que decir que en el final del primer comic, la primera aparición de Victoria, Ella no me agrado, me molesto el hecho de que J'son haya tenido otro hijo supongo.. Sobre todo porque J'son tampoco me agrada, pero en fin. El comic quedo en una parte en donde deja demasiado, demasiado por saber.

Victoria es una de mis badass favoritas de marvel desde ahora.

Conozcan a Victoria: :)




Merged review:

''-Call me baby boo. Rocket does.
-The Raccoon gave you a pet name?''




El final.. El final.. Creo que se puede odiar a J-son un poquito más. Excepto que no lo odio, sino no me agrada.
Profile Image for J.
1,563 reviews37 followers
February 16, 2016
Peter Quill lands in jail (twice), meets his half-sister, and breaks Kitty Pryde's heart, just a weenie-tiny bit.

Quill is a cool character. Lots of swagger and boasting. Cocky. Confident. A heart of gold. Not very original, but worth reading about. Some of the charm offensive wears thin after a while, but I did enjoy this enough for a 3 star rating. The art was great and rendered Quill in a very suave manner, yet still retaining his frat boy persona. Nice.

This begins the major cross over dealing with the Black Vortex, which apparently crosses over a lot of different series which means it's going to be a pain to read. I'm curious how all the different creative teams work well together telling this story.
Profile Image for Stewart Tame.
2,482 reviews121 followers
November 5, 2015
This was a lovely romp! Humphries has a good handle on Peter Quill's character. The book is a lovely combination of action and humor reminiscent of Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat books or Walter Jon Williams' tales of Drake Maijstral. Star-Lord is a lovable rogue in the classic tradition. I am unquestionably looking forward to volume 2, especially as this ends on a bit of a cliffhanger.
Profile Image for Sean Kennedy.
Author 45 books1,019 followers
June 13, 2015
Fun, but Peter Quill by himself is not as compelling a character as Rocket Racoon and Groot. The scenes with his sister were brilliant, though. I really hope she comes back into it.
Profile Image for Brandt.
693 reviews17 followers
January 19, 2019
Remember in the early 1980s when Chris Claremont and John Byrne were doing The Uncanny X-Man and they culminated their run together with "The Dark Phoenix Saga" and then they went their separate ways--Claremont continuing his run writing really excellent X-Men story arcs and Byrne heading to a multi-year run on The Fantastic Four. Remember how the juice generated by this run eventually lead to too many goddamned X-Books in the 1990s? Now, instead of classic story arcs, there were crossovers galore and you couldn't follow a thing. Eventually it collapsed under its own weight.

In 2008, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning created a new Guardians of the Galaxy team, which didn't have any classic story arcs, but the new team was parlayed into one of the best films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2014, starring Chris Pratt as Star-Lord, the de facto leader of the team. The movie proved so popular that the Guardians comic was re-worked so it was more like the movie version of the team, with some Marvel universe specific changes (Venom? Really?) but for all intents and purposes, the new team was more like what you see in the movies, probably to try and attract new readers. Since a second Guardians film was also sucessful, Marvel editorial, not learning from their mistakes with X-Men decided to spin-off the characters into their own books, one of them being Legendary Star-Lord.

Legendary Star-Lord breaks absolutely no new ground here, and while it might serve as something fun for Guardians junkies, even the story arc is nothing I haven't seen before. There's yet another Ultimate Nullifier/Cosmic Cube/Infinity Gauntlet over powered device here called "The Black Vortex" (not another overpowered cosmic artifact in the Marvel Universe--OH NOES!!!!1111) which leads into a giant crossover event with the Guardians and the X-Men (I'm not kidding) that I'm still on the fence about reading. But most everything in this collection seems superfluous and is kind of repetitive. So it's probably best to stick with just the main Guardians book or if you came at this from seeing the movies, just stick to those. I'm not convinced that most MCU fans read comic books anyway...
Profile Image for Judah Radd.
1,098 reviews15 followers
May 10, 2020
Really fun first volume!

The layouts are a little unclear (hence 4 instead of 5), but the issues have great characterization, humor and action. I’m into the story, and I really like Quill here.

Sam Humphries has a good eye for thrills. There are quite a few cool moments where the hero gets an upper hand when we least expect it. I also liked the dynamic with Kitty.

Quill is doing the rogue thing... but he’s so much more likable than other rogues like Gambit and Deadpool. The was mostly good, Mr Knife is an intriguing big bad, and I’m stoked to learn what this Black Vortex thing is. Cool stuff!
Profile Image for Public Scott.
659 reviews45 followers
November 20, 2020
A very entertaining entry in the Guardians canon... though the other Guardians mostly just make cameo appearances. Star-Lord doesn't do a bad job starring in his own title. He's charismatic and fun. I would have appreciated having this mixed into some of the Guardians compilations that led up to the Black Vortex storyline. I feel like the way the Guardians volume collections get put together makes it very hard to follow a longer storyline like that - it is completely incoherent how they are organized.
Profile Image for Gerry Sacco.
392 reviews11 followers
September 25, 2018
Great story, outstanding art. Seriously, this is some of the best art I’ve seen. Also really enjoyed the quips. Also the back and fourth between Kitty and Quill were perfect. I wanted to give this a 5 but there just wasn’t enough story to get there. Solid read though, and I highly suggest it. Looking forward to volume 2.
Profile Image for Rachel.
2,253 reviews58 followers
August 7, 2018
A fun little story to follow our wonderful and snarky Star-Lord as he is bouncing around the universe and wrecking havoc....or saving it, you know, whatever! I love that we also get to see a tie in with the Avengers and X-men as well as a REAL love interest for our Star-Lord!
Profile Image for Nicole.
Author 5 books49 followers
August 25, 2021
I'll take some responsibility for jumping into this mid-story arc, but it wasn't nearly as much fun as the title implied. Quill was trying to make things right in awkward, hapless ways; and the Thanos thing went nowhere.
I did like how a guy Quill met called Quill out for trying to put all the blame on a woman who tricked him (Quill) when Quill was partly to blame for not being smart about the situation. And the bit involving holo-Kitty's Halloween costume made me laugh out loud.
Profile Image for Amanda.
115 reviews
June 5, 2023
I've always liked Peter Quill. Peter Quill is a cool character. He's funny, charming, witty. His character is good enough for a stand-alone story/run - I would HAPPILY watch a Disney+ show with him having stupid adventures on Earth, space, whatever if it were a thing.
Profile Image for Brian Poole.
Author 2 books40 followers
March 19, 2015
Legendary Star-Lord expands the unlikely ascendance of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise quite nicely.

Legendary Star-Lord Volume 1: Face It, I Rule finds Peter Quill, the Guardians’ erstwhile leader, facing off with a band of alien Badoon pirates on an orphanage world. Peter’s deposed emperor father had hidden the valuable Mandalay Gem there. The Badoon nab both the gem and Peter, still the subject of a galactic bounty thanks to the mysterious Mister Knife. Peter retrieves the gem and escapes the Badoon, leaving a generous cash haul for the orphanage.

Peter next receives the big surprise that he has a half-sister named Victoria. Victoria was also a bastard, but unlike Peter was raised in their father’s kingdom. Since the Emperor’s fall, Victoria has patrolled his former dominions to keep peace. Victoria takes Peter in to collect the bounty. Except the half-siblings pull a double-cross on the bounty administrators, striking a blow against Mister Knife. Peter later wakes in a Badoon jail cell. He escapes, acquiring a sleek, sports-car styled spaceship (complete with sassy A.I. companion Lydia).

Armed with the power of the Mandalay Gem, Peter heads to Earth’s moon for a fierce showdown with Thanos. Peter still reels from guilt over the deal he made with Thanos that allowed them both to escape from the Cancer-verse, but the clash ends in a draw. Peter then tracks down information on Mister Knife’s band of brutal mercenaries, the Hatchet Crew, who have acquired a powerful, potentially destructive object: the Black Vortex.

Peter’s adventures are adorned with long-distance “holo-dates” with Earth-based Kitty Pryde of the X-Men. After having met during the Shi’ar abduction of young Jean Grey, Peter and Kitty struck up a rather sweet flirtation. Kitty even finds a way to help Peter out of a bind despite being on the other side of the universe.

Legendary Star-Lord fits quite nicely into Marvel’s successful (and growing) stable of quirky, character-driven solo series that take a “day in the life” approach to what famous heroes do when they’re not enmeshed in universe-shattering sagas. Writer Sam Humphries does a great job with Peter, striking a nice balance between the goofier Star-Lord familiar to movie fans and the somewhat more serious version that’s been kicking around comics for years. Humphries gives Peter a devilish streak and a way with a smartass quip. But he also finds subtle ways to tease out the burdens weighing on Peter, especially his guilt about the Thanos deal.

Humphries creates some intriguing characters and scenarios to surround Peter. The mysterious Mister Knife has a lot of potential as a motivating factor in Peter’s life, and the Hatchet Crew makes effective use of existing Marvel alien species. Victoria is an interesting addition to Peter’s web of allies, and the orphanage crew provides a surprisingly subtle link to Peter’s own past. Humphries handles the Peter/Kitty relationship pretty well, capturing the couple’s playful vibe while not ignoring the limitations and frustrations of a really long distance relationship.

Legendary Star-Lord Volume 1: Face It, I Rule is also very friendly to new readers. While past comic book events inform a lot of the action, Humphries provides all the info a comic book novice would need to follow along. And does so without drowning the action in clunky exposition.

Paco Medina is on board for most of the art on Legendary Star-Lord Volume 1: Face It, I Rule. His bright, cartoonish, slightly exaggerated style is a good fit for the swashbuckling space action. He displays a lot of imagination on the more outlandish scenarios and alien settings, but also grounds the quieter moments quite effectively. Freddie Williams II steps in for an issue; his style is very similar to Medina’s and the substitution is nearly seamless for readers. Colorist David Curiel does some really nice work, too, using a bright, bold palette that makes the art really pop. He also deploys some cool effects that add a lot of depth and interest to the action.

If you’re a fan of Guardians of the Galaxy (movie or comic), you’ll want to check out Legendary Star-Lord Volume 1: Face It, I Rule. It’s a well-produced book that embraces the revived concept of “comics should be fun.”

A version of this review originally appeared on www.thunderalleybcp.com
Profile Image for Lorenzo.
170 reviews5 followers
August 16, 2020
This was a lot more sombre than I expected. Sure, Quill is witty and bantery, but since his endgame seems to be all or nothing, then the stakes seem higher than normal and its also the reason he goes at it by himself. He suffers a little from not having his usual banter partners, but he finds different people to play off against. There's also a mysterious villain, Mister Knife, that us trying to get Quill and moves different things around. We don't get the payoff here though.

The artwork is okay. Does its job but there was nothing that blew me away. There are some really funny panels, like Kitty Pryde scaring a Badoon jailer and things like that. I liked this one most when it was lighthearted or when it was action. When it got too deep, I wasn't that into it.

Recommendation: If you want a light cosmic story, this is something that you can read and have fun with. Does its job well and Quill is fun.
Profile Image for B!!!.
328 reviews3 followers
December 19, 2022
He’s such a wacky guilt drenched man
Profile Image for David Sarkies.
1,933 reviews386 followers
May 9, 2017
I'll stick with the movies
9 May 2017

With the release of the latest chapter to the Guardians of the Galaxy saga I thought it might be time to read this comic that has been sitting on my kitchen table for something like forever. I believe I picked it up a couple of years ago but decided to hold off reading it namely because I wanted watch Vol 2 before actually writing about it, not that I should actually write about the movie because, well, this doesn't happen to be the movie and I have already written about the movie on IMDB. Okay, I probably should say that I did think that the movie was pretty cool, and we did find out who Peter Quinn's father is, though from what I gather from reading the comics (or the handful that I have read), the movie took this in a different direction.

However, I would not recommend reading this comic. Okay, I probably wouldn't recommend any comic, especially the ones that come out of the United States, because, well, they are just boring – and sexist – but this one was doubly so, which is a shame because I quite enjoy science-fiction. Then again as I have mentioned, even though I enjoy science-fiction it doesn't mean that I am going to rush out and start buying comics that are set in such a realm. First of all they tend to be pretty expensive, and the fact that I read this one in less than a day, it also makes me feel like I am wasting my money.

The particular thing about this comic though was that it seemed to jump all over the place. Sure, there was some form of continuity, but not a huge amount. In fact it seemed to be going all over the place and there were huge gaps between each of the episodes. Okay, I can forgive them for not having Rocket Raccoon, or even Groot, in the comic because this is supposed to be focused entirely on Peter Quinn (and it appears that Rocket Raccoon does happen to have his own comic anyway), but the fact that the story really didn't seem to flow really annoyed me.

Then there was Kitty Pride. Why is it that all women in Marvel comics have to be incredibly busty – does this have something to do with the readership of the comics. Seriously, it actually goes beyond annoying. Okay, while they aren't as explicit as some that I have seen (such as Manga), they do tend to overtly sexualise the women, and also create a image in the readers head of what a good woman is supposed to look like, and it tends to be something that is almost impossible to attain. In fact biology simply does not produce the type of proportions that Hollywood (and Marvel in particular) is suggesting that women should look like. Actually, come to think of it Marvel is apparently now owned by Disney so I'm actually not surprised (then again Marvel has always been like that).

Anyway, enough of my rant, here's a picture of Rocket Raccoon:

Rocket Raccoon
Profile Image for Zombieslayer⚡Alienhunter.
476 reviews72 followers
September 30, 2016
Peter Quill, the self-proclaimed (and intergalactically hailed as, he'll remind you) 'Legendary Star-Lord', gallivants around the galaxy, kicking ass and taking names, all the while in pursuit of Thanos, alien warlord.
Having recently acquired the Mandalay crystal, not only the toughest mineral in the galaxy but also a bona fide superweapon, Star-Lord might be on the right track.

As he beats down orphanage robbers, (freaking orphanage robbers... ) breaks out of not one but two jail cells, has a mini-family reunion with the daughter of Emperor J-Son of the Spartax, his half-sister, binge-drinks with a horse-alien warrior and continuously misses dates with Kitty Pryde, (yep, that's a thing. Kinda cute) a shadowy villain known only as Mr. Knife pursues our space knight, gathering an army as he goes.

The legendary Star-Lord finally comes face-to-ugly purple face with Thanos and their fight...
"I'm gonna make you pay for every person you murdered, every war you instigated, every planet you- Uh...." THWAK
Probably could've gone better.
All of this and more in Sam Humphries' Legendary Star-Lord!


Not bad. Endearing story that's worth a few laughs.
As far as continuing the series, I would, but first I must get off my lazy ass and continue with Brian Michael Bendis's Guardians of the Galaxy, as Legendary Star-Lord spins off from it.
So yes, I'll be continuing...
At some point.
Something about Star-Lord singing along to the Aquabats just kinda tickled my fancy.

Art specs
Issues one, two, three and five featured the art of Paco Medina.


Yes, okay, I just wanted to add that picture of Rocket. Don't judge me.

Ehhhh. Your generic post-2000's style, nothing special. It's not offensive to the eyes, I don't hate it.
Also wasn't eye candy, either.

Now, issue four, illustrated by Freddie Williams II....



It may not be the best comic book art you've ever seen, but it was original, at least.
I mean, sure, Star-Lord kinda looks like Chris Pratt, but like I said, still not bad.

Looks like Williams II does more art in vol. 2, which is a definite point in their favor.

Profile Image for Chris Lemmerman.
Author 7 books123 followers
April 3, 2015
I checked this out because I was reading The Black Vortex, and fancied a little more backstory, and I certainly got some of that. This is mostly some done-in-one adventures featuring Star-Lord, although issues 1 and 4 especially do tie together. There's an attempt made to reconcile this new 'movie-friendly' portrayal of Star-Lord with the one that went into the Cancerverse and came back, and I'm glad they made the attempt, though the level of success varies.

There's not a hell of a lot of substance to this volume outside of the last two issues, with Star-Lord doing what Star-Lord does best whilst Mister Knife (which is still a stupid name for a villain, c'mon) cackles away in the background. There are some nice cameos from Kitty Pryde and Rocket Raccoon, but it's mostly a Star-Lord show, and if you know what you're getting into, you'll likely enjoy this.

The artwork on issues 1-3, and 5, is excellent. Paco Medina really manages to make Star-Lord look distinctive without going overboard on the sideburns like other artists seem to do (coughEd McGuinnesscough), and I love the detail that Medina puts into Star-Lord's clothes, they really make a difference. Issue 4 is by Freddie Williams II, and whilst it's not particularly bad, it's easily a step down from Medina, and feels a little rough around the edges.

Fans of the Guardians of the Galaxy movie will definitely get what they came for, and whilst more hardcore comic fans might find this a little thin on the ground, it does offer some good links to the Black Vortex story and beyond that makes it worth a look.
Profile Image for Grace Arango.
1,351 reviews672 followers
October 5, 2016
Actual Rating 4.25 out of 5 stars.

If the title doesn't make you want to read this, I honestly don't know what will.
I'm so happy this is comic was the first take on Star Lord that I got to read.
DANG!
I LOVED THIS!

I should go into some PROs and CONs now.

PROs:
- Star Lord is a protagonist that you can never get bored or tired of. His witty dialogue and sassy humour just makes his bad ass self even more awesome to read about.
- The art style was very well done and complemented the story nicely.
- There was a bit of family reunion in here. I loved that!
- There was a scene where he went up against Thanos, OH BOY I WAS FREAKING OUT ON THE TRAIN WHEN I WAS READING IT! (I was also listening to "Until Dawn" by Jaegar. I felt like I was watching a movie at the time)
- Overall, I'm happy that we got to see Peter Quill's side of the galaxy when the rest of the guardians aren't around.

CONs:
- Some issues were great while others were just okay. I found #1 to be good for the world building, I found #2 and #4 freaking awesome! But I found that #3 and #5 were just meh for me.

Once my library gets the next issue in this series, I will definitely continue on.
This was a decent to the series!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 164 reviews

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