"The Legendary Star-Lord" was created by Sam Humphries, Paco Medina, Juan Vlasco, Freddie Williams II, David Curiel, and Joe Caramagna. It starts off with Star-Lord navigating the cosmos by himself as he fights aliens to win a powerful Celestial weapon called the Mandalay Gem. Peter runs into Thanos, who the hero is desperate to take down after previously being stuck in the Cancerverse and feeling somewhat responsible for his return. Star-Lord nearly takes out the Mad Titan for good but is forced to abandon the crystal and Thanos, realizing he could cause more damage than good and potentially destroy the Earth if he followed through on killing the cosmic villain.
The first arc also deals with the growing relationship between Star-Lord and Kitty Pryde of the X-Men. Peter tries to impress the mutant hero despite Pryde being on Earth and him continuing his mission to stop Thanos in space. The comic shows Quill trying to win Kitty's heart from afar, but wooing her is difficult, as she continues to think he's stood her up while he deals with cosmic hijinks.
At the same time, a new mysterious villain named Mister Knife sends the Slaughter Squad after him. The masked foe and his team end up breaking into the planet Kymellia III and getting inside its vaults, where they successfully steal a mirror-like cosmic artifact called the Black Vortex, which shows and grants whoever submits to it their darkest cosmic potential. Star-Lord soon learns he has a significant connection to Mister Knife, whose plans involve several other uber-dangerous characters.
