Marvel’s Star-Lord Comes Out As Bisexual

Another Marvel Comics character has come out as queer – this time it is Guardians Of The Galaxy’s Peter Quill aka Star-Lord who reveals he is bisexual.

Actor Chris Pratt, who has faced the rap in recent months for his association with a notorious anti-LGBTQI church, portrays Star-Lord in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It is not clear whether the news that Star-Lord is bisexual, will have any impact on the story arc when Pratt returns to play the character in the forthcoming MCU film Thor: Love And Thunder in 2022.

Star-Lord’s coming out as bisexual happened in the new one-off issue, I Shall Make You A Star-Lord by British writer Al Ewing, artist Juann Cabal, colourist Federico Blee and letterer Cory Petit. Ewing had in 2014 also confirmed that Loki was bisexual and gender fluid. “Loki is bi and I’ll be touching on that. He’ll shift between genders occasionally as well,” Ewing had said in a Tumblr post then.

I Shall Make You A Star-Lord reveals that Peter did not die in a fatal explosion in a previous issue and was actually trapped in a parallel universe on the planet Morinus for 140 years.

On the planet, he first declines and then starts a polyamorous relationship with a humanoid couple Morunus and Aradia. Peter’s initial reluctance had to do with the fact that he had left behind his girlfriend Gamora. Twelve years into his stay on Morinus, Star-Lord finds the charms of his companions hard to resist. The coming out happens effortlessly as he shares an intimate romantic moment with Morunus and Aradia in a bath in an ancient temple. At the end of the issue, as his enemies discover him on Morinus, Star-Lord makes his way back to his home after a tearful farewell with Aradia as Morunus fights off and distracts the Gods of New Olympus who are after Peter.

While fans were thrilled about this new development, they wondered if Pratt would play the character as bisexual.

 “Starlord discovering he is bisexual is pretty cool. More bisexual representation is always nice and honestly makes sense since he grew up in space. Would love to see it touched on in the Guardians of the Galaxy 3 movie” wrote a social media user.

Starlord discovering he is bisexual is pretty cool. More bisexual representation is always nice and honestly makes sense since he grew up in space. Would love to see it touched on in the Guardians of the galaxy 3 movie. #GuardiansOfTheGalaxy 🌈 pic.twitter.com/NiVMet2BY0

— Rod (@supernerdyrod) December 14, 2020

For the record Pratt has denied accusations that his church (he attends the Zoe Church, that is associated with the Hillsong church that he used to earlier attend)  was against the LGBTQI community. “It has recently been suggested that I belong to a church which ‘hates a certain group of people’ and is ‘infamously anti-LGBTQ.’ Nothing could be further from the truth. I go to a church that opens its doors to absolutely everyone,” Pratt had said in an Instagram post, adding that he had seen his church support people  “regardless of sexual orientation, race or gender.”

Marvel has had queer characters before –  Loki is bisexual and gender fluid, Kronan warrior Korg has come out as gay, Wakandan super warrior Okoye is lesbian, one of the Captain Marvel versions is played by a lesbian character and Deadpool is pansexual.

Marvel films have been criticised for lack of LGBTQI representation but has had token, blink-and-you-miss-it moments in recent times. However, some forthcoming Marvel films promise to do more. Marvel’s first gay character will be in the forthcoming The Eternals, with gay superhero Phastos played by actor Bryan Tyree Henry sharing an onscreen kiss with his husband, played by Haaz Sleiman. This year in January, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige had said that the MCU will soon have a transgender character. Then the Dr Strange sequel Multiverse Of Madness (2022) will have actor Xochitl Gomez in the role of lesbian teenage superhero America Chavez.