J'son (comics)

For the R&B singer, see J'Son (singer).

J'son is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is the father of Star-Lord.

Publication history

J'son of Spartax first appeared in Marvel Preview #11 and was created by Chris Claremont and John Byrne.

In 2000, a character Prince Jason of Spartax is introduced in Inhumans Vol. 3 #2. He was originally meant to be the same Marvel Preview #11 Jason, but from earlier in time.

In 2004, when Peter Quill is introduced into the Earth-616 continuity, the events of Marvel Preview #11 and other appearances of "classic" Star-Lord are officially designated as occurring in Earth-791 due to continuity issues.

In 2013, J'son of Spartax is introduced in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Due to continuity issues, it is assumed that Prince Jason of Spartax from Inhumans Vol. 3 exists in Earth-616, but is a different character from Emperor J'son of Spartax from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. There is no official explanation for these continuity issues.

Fictional character biography

When J'son's ship crash lands on Earth, he is taken in by Meredith Quill. The two form a relationship while J'son makes repairs to his ship. Eventually, J'son is forced to leave to return home and fight in a war. He leaves, not knowing Meredith is pregnant with Peter Quill.^[1]

Years later, J'son is revealed to be the King of the Spartax planetary system. J'son joined other members of the Galactic Council to declare the Earth off-limits to extraterrestrial interaction. Once his son defended Earth from a Badoon attack, J'son sent Spartoi soldiers to capture him and his team called the Guardians of the Galaxy. However, the Guardians managed to escape and flee.^[2]

In an attempt to finally get rid of the Guardians and make his son join him, all of the Guardians were separately dealt with by the Spartoi and its allies. However, they didn't count with the Guardians' ally Captain Marvel, who saved Peter Quill from J'son and the Spartoi Empire. As he was escaping, Quill discredited J'son to the whole empire, revealing him as a heartless murderer. The entire Spartoi Empire rebelled against J'son, who was forced to flee.^[3]

With no longer an empire or fortune, J'son became the villain known as Mister Knife, and started building a criminal empire. He put a bounty on his son, and also assembled the Slaughter Squad to recover The Black Vortex.^[4]

Because of the price put on his head, Star-Lord began raiding Mister Knife's crime syndicate, unaware that he was dealing with his own father. After the Slaughter Squad managed to finally capture Star-Lord while he was on a date with Kitty Pryde, Mister Knife revealed his identity to his son.^[5]

After Peter escaped with the help of Kitty Pryde, who traveled all the way from Earth to save him, J'son tracked down to a planet where Thanos' son Thane is and convinced him to join his cause.^[6]

After Star-Lord and Kitty Pryde decided to steal the Black Vortex from J'son with the sole purpose to annoy him, Mister Knife sent the Slaughter Lords to hunt them down and recover the Vortex. After numerous failed attempts to recover the Vortex, Mister Knife managed to get his hands on it. As part of a deal with Thane, he submitted to the Black Vortex and used his cosmically enhanced power to encase the entirety of Spartax in his amber construct. The trapped Spartax was later traded to the Brood by Mister Knife, in exchange for taking advantage of their expansion and acquiring one planet for every ten worlds they conquered ever since.^[7]

At a moment when Captain Marvel retrieved the Black Vortex, she was cornered by Thane and J'son, who demanded she give them the Vortex back. When Thane tried to use his powers to encase Carol in amber, she used the Black Vortex as a shield and deflected the attack towards J'son.^[8]

J'son remained encased in the amber construct floating through Spartax's orbit, until he was found by the Collector, who was too late to recover the Vortex, but settled for adding J'son to his collection.^[9] J'son's amber construct imprisonment was later recovered by his daughter Victoria and brought back to Spartax.^[10]

Powers and abilities

J'son of Spartax uses Spartax weapons.

Other versions

Earth-791

J'son first appears in Marvel Preview #11, but after Peter Quill's introduction to Earth-616 in 2004, this issue and other appearances of "classic" Star-Lord have been officially designated as occurring in Earth-791 due to continuity issues. In this issue, Star-Lord meets his father and learns of his past. Years earlier, J'son is summoned by his father when war broke out between the Spartoi and the Ariguans. On his way back home, he was forced to crash land on Earth, where he fell in love with a human woman named Meredith Quill. The two began a short relationship before J'son was forced to leave to wage war for Spartax. Wishing to shield Meredith from the pain of his departure, J'son erased her memories of him, without knowing that the two had conceived a child. Meredith would later go on to give birth to his son Peter Quill. J'son would eventually go on take his father's place as emperor. After telling Star-Lord this story, J'son offered him a place as heir to the throne. Peter refused, and in his stead J'son adopted Kip Holm as future heir.^[11]

Inhumans Vol. 3

Jason is from the Spartoi Empire where the Spartoi are a sister race to the Shi'ar, separating from their cousins millions of years ago. He was the only son of the previous Emperor Eson, and therefore was Prince and sole heir to the throne. Rejecting his idealism, the ruling Council of Ministers prevented J'son from taking the throne. The future emperor would be educated, as per Spartax tradition, by being brought up on dozens of the Empire's planets working many professions, including servant, miner, poet, soldier and pilot - excelling in the latter two.^[12]

When Ronan the Accuser of the Kree Empire forced the Inhuman Royal Family to attempt to assassinate the Empress Lilandra, ruler of the neighboring Shi'ar Empire during a wedding ceremony that would symbolically unite the Shi'ar and Spartoi, J'son (who had been seen with the Inhumans) was accused of being part of the plot. For this, he was banished and deemed unworthy of the throne.^[13]

While the events of Inhumans Vol. 3 take place in Earth-616, this incarnation of Jason causes continuity issues with the J'son introduced in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. For this reason, it is assumed that these are two difference characters, although no official explanation has been given for these continuity issues.

In other media

• J'son appears in the Guardians of the Galaxy episode "Don't Stop Believing", voiced by Jonathan Frakes.^[14] He is the Emperor of Spartax and the father of Peter Quill with Meredith Quill as well as being the father of Captain Victoria. He first appears where he encounters the Guardians of the Galaxy and Mantis in his throne room. J'son eventually recognizes his own son due to them having the same elemental gun. When Mantis states that J'son is a tyrant and tries to attack him, she is subdued by the Guardians of the Galaxy and taken away by the guards still claiming that J'son is a tyrant. J'son allows his son to use his servant during his stay on Spartax. What Star-Lord doesn't know is that J'son is in cahoots with Thanos where a deal has been arranged for J'son to bring the Cosmic Seed and Star-Lord to him when that day comes. In the episode "Accidents Will Happen," J'son meets with the Galactic Council members Thor, Irani Rael, the Grand Commissioner of Rigel, and the Supreme Intelligence while introducing Star-Lord to Captain Victoria. As a reparation to the Supreme Intelligence, J'son plans to give him one of the asteroid refineries to the Kree Empire. In the episode "We Are the World Tree," J'son has the unveiling of his latest statue while in the presence of Thor and Angela. Following an incident where Drax the Destroyer fought Thor resulting in the destruction of the unveiled statue, J'son has Drax, Gamora, Rocket Raccoon, and Groot banned from his palace. While speaking to his son, J'son tells him how he once went looking for the Cosmic Seed which led to events that led him to meeting Meredith Quill. While in his private room afterwards, J'son tells Thanos that they'll have the Cosmic Seed soon, knowing his son would go after it. Later on, J'son pretends to be angry the Guardians were caught stealing, but is disappointed with Star-Lord's inability to get the seed. Realizing J'son intended for it to happen, Quill revokes his right as heir to the throne and leaves with the Guardians. In the episode "Come and Gut Your Love," Thanos starts getting impatient with J'son who then cuts off the transmission from Thanos when Star-Lord enters his office and gives him the CryptoCube to solve himself. After Star-Lord leaves, J'son finds that the CryptoCube is fake and calls his guards. Upon Star-Lord, Gamora, and Rocket Raccoon hijacking Rora, J'son sends a transmission to Rora to bring his son back to Spartax. Following the defeat of Lucy and Supergiant, Rora shows Star-Lord some archive footage where it was revealed that J'son had Yondu train Star-Lord to be a good thief while not wanting him to come to Spartax until the time is right. J'son's meeting with the Galactic Council is crashed by the Guardians of the Galaxy who show the footage of J'son's actions involving the Cosmic Seed. Thor states to J'son that what he has seen is an act of war. The other Galactic Council members hang up before the Guardians of the Galaxy could reveal other footages. J'son gets angered at what the Guardians of the Galaxy did and calls for his guards. In the episode "Asgard War Part One: Lightning Strikes," J'son had the Guardians of the Galaxy imprisoned and has his armies prepare for the invasion from Asgard. After Captain Victoria secretly frees the Guardians of the Galaxy, they end up fighting their way past J'son's robots. Star-Lord ends up fighting his father until he manages to land on the Milano in order for the Guardians of the Galaxy to get to Thor. When Loki later meets with J'son, Thor and the Guardians of the Galaxy show up where Star-Lord uses the footage taken from the Destroyer armor to expose J'son having stolen the Cosmic Seed and Loki stealing it back from him. J'son then retaliates by hitting a button that causes Thanos and his army to show up. In the episode "Asgard War Part Two: Rescue Me," J'son states to Thanos that they need his son alive to activate the CryptoCube causing Thanos to make off with Star-Lord. Before Victoria could arrest her father, J'son states that they need him to help retrieve Star-Lord. This causes the Guardians of the Galaxy to place him in special cuffs. When in range of Thanos' fleet, J'son disables the Milano's cloaking device and escapes into one of its pods. During the fight between Thanos' forces, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Asgardians, Star-Lord briefly engaged his father in battle. After Thanos disappeared into a black hole, Captain Victoria caught up with the Spartaxian fleet where J'son is arrested and removed from his position as Emperor of Spartax.

References

External links

• J'son at Marvel Wiki
• J'son at Comic Vine