Warning: SPOILERS for Guardians of the Galaxy #2

Peter Quill a.k.a. Star-Lord has been a staple member of the Guardians of the Galaxy since the team’s inception post Annihilation: Conquest in 2008. While the members of the team have changed over the years, Star-Lord has stayed fairly consistent as the team’s leader – aside from when a Punk-Rock Groot took the title. However, after years of leading the Guardians, Peter’s time may finally be up as he makes the ultimate sacrifice to destroy the floating city of Olympus while his team escapes.

In Guardians of the Galaxy #2, the new team roster consisting of a sharp dressed Rocket Raccoon, Richard Rider (Nova), Moondragon, Phyla-Vell, and Marvel Boy take on a mission to Olympus – the floating city home to the newly resurrected Greek gods. These gods, lead by Zeus himself, are war-hungry. Their city has the ability to transport in and out of dimensions, enabling the Gods to arrive from nowhere and wipe everything in their path clean. Destroying everything in their way, they take tribute in blood and treasure – fuel for their new teleporting city. The Guardians decide to take the fight to the gods of Olympus, because they are the Guardians of the Galaxy – and if the gods are taking all the treasure, well that is less for them.

The team splits up, to cause a distraction to allow Star-Lord to make a play alone to get a black-hole bomb to the city’s dimension rotor. On his solo sprint to the rotor, he runs into the god Artemis – goddess of the hunt. After taking an arrow to the thigh, he is able to freeze her in solid carbon turning her into diamond. How come Star-Lord has never thought to use that option on his weapon before to make his team rich? Well, we don’t know and shockingly neither does Rocket. But Star-Lord presses on until he gets to the dimension rotor room, where he is confronted by Hephaestus – the metalsmith of the gods, and creator of the dimension rotor. After proving how much of a badass Star-Lord truly is, he finally is able to ready the black-hole bomb and warns his team to get back to the ship and get ready for take-off.

The rest of the gods of Olympus are finally aware of an intruder in the rotor room and swarm in on Star-Lord. Peter tells the guardians that he can set the bomb and the rotor to go off at the same time, taking the explosion to another dimension when it goes off. With ten seconds left the team makes it back to the ship only to discover Peter never made it back. As the ship begins to take off Star-Lord speaks to them over the comm. Using the controls in his helmet, Peter forces the Bowie to take flight and informs them he won’t be making it back in time.

While fighting the gods Peter discovered that they are turning the people that have conquered into an army of mindless warriors call Automatons. Star-Lord is determined to stop the Gods of Olympus at any cost – deeming his own life a sufficient payment. As the rest of the gods arrive, Peter tries to explain that he has a plan, and he knows what he is doing. It is then revealed that there is a timer malfunction on the bomb, and he has to execute it manually.

As Zeus promises to make Quill pay for spilling the blood of gods, Peter detonates the bomb. Olympus explodes and gets sucked into a black hole all while the dimension rotor pulls it into another dimension. The Guardians look on as horror, as Olympus is completely gone.

It remains to be seen if Quill is actually dead after his apparent sacrifice to destroy the city. Peter seemed confident that he knew what he was doing, and even when Zeus asks “Do you think you can live through what follows?” He responds with “Yes.” We do not know the effects of the black-hole bomb, so Star-Lord could very well be alive… trapped in another dimension… with very angry gods. Alive or not, things are not looking good for Peter. Regardless of whether Peter Quill is alive or not, his willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice to not only save his team but also to protect the universe shows his leadership and what truly makes him the Legendary Star-Lord.

Guardians of the Galaxy #2 is available now from your local comic book shop, or direct from Marvel Comics.

Next: Captain America Shows Why He’s The GREATEST Avenger