Skill wise he's nothing to write home about. He's passable, but nothing near Marvel's top. In the comics Gamora is far and away the GotG's most skilled fighter, with Drax behind her. She's stated as having mastered 85% of the martial arts in the known universe.
Quill usually relies on good reflexes and his weapons like Rocket.
In comics Quill is a skilled veteran leader & tactician with decent hand-to-hand skills and fairly good ability with hand guns but nothing about him is particularly "super human" as of 2008.
Movie Quill is carefree man of rakish charm and decent physicals and isn't afraid of getting into scraps or gunfights, though his skills aren't able to measure with the best since he isn't a trained fighter in the way his Guardian compatriots are.
So Star Lord is basically just above average as a fighter? That sucks
Pretty much. He's definitely above average, but nothing really exceptional. He had a handful of okay strength and durability feats in Annihilation Conquest and the Abnett/Lanning run of Guardians, but nothing really concrete or impressive.
Conversely, classic Starlord (i.e. from the 70's) had super strength, super speed, and was an exceptional fighter and even a fairly skilled duelist. Still no real way of comparing him to Marvel's top tiers, but he would completely stomp his current incarnation. For reasons I do not understand, Keith Giffen decided to strip him of all his Star Lord powers when he brought him back. Then Bendis gave him back his element gun, but also made him younger and more annoying.
@freefa11: that kinda sucks.. at least he's an accomplished strategist. But I'd like to see him closer to cap in terms of Skill ya know? Thanks for all the info though!
@freefa11 think he did it to make the character more relatable and down to Earth to make him fit the setting they had in mind. And when you have a guy capable of destroying a planet and duking it out with the heralds of Galactus combined with "hanger-on's" who are city busters at best... You can see the issue from a writer's POW.
@supermanwithatan01: Well, I don't know. It would get kinda boring if every hero was built like brick shit house and hitting like a Mack truck. IMO Star-lord's current incarnation has worked fairly well so far and its not like his completely worthless despite being toned down; his still pretty smart and able. He just can't brute force his way out of sticky situations any more which makes him more fun to read.
Log in to comment