Ship (Starlord;Marvel Comics)

Ship (Starlord;Marvel Comics)

SHIP

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Sentient energy form (former stellar body)

Occupation: Assistant/Partner

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Jason of Sparta, Star-Lord (Peter Quill), Starlord (Sinjin Quarrel) (partners); Master of the Sun (possibly the leader of her race); Widgets (self-extensions); Aletha, Trinity that is One, Kip and Sandy, the people of Cymoril

Enemies: Harith Damyish, Haalmhad race, Inhumans, Kree, Lorq, Kyras Shakati, Slavers, Symbion (planet), unnamed race

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Aurora, 'Rora, Caryth Halyan, Soulship

Base of Operations: mobile throughout the universe; formerly Bovric, R'Ralmis, an unnamed solar system

First Appearance: Marvel Preview#11 (Summer, 1977)

Abilities: Ship is a highly powerful sentient energy form. She most often exists in the form of a starship, but can alter her structure into many different forms. She can fly through air, space, and water. She possesses many of the conventional starship accessories, including shields, energy blasters, advanced sensors, replicators (able to form any kind of food, drink, etc.), and hologram projectors. She has proven capable of creating a human form, which she can then animate and take as a host. Even if completely destroyed, she has proven capable of restoring her form, since her true form is her consciousness. In addition, she takes on a number of feminine characteristics, such as a mothering type instinct for those she is partnered with. She has also felt deeper attachments, and even lover for her partner(s).

Ship can create Widgets--small, mobile droids able to scout out situations, gather information, and then return to her.

The full extent of Ship's abilities, as well as her limitations, remains to be seen.

History: (Marvel Preview#15(fb)) - The entity known as "Ship" was once a sentient star: a Yellow Dwarf, whose solar system held eleven planets, two of which had begun to develop intelligent life. However, it became a pawn between two rival forces from another star system, and one of these sent a bomb into the center of her, forcing her to go super-nova, destroying her solar body, the rival starships, and all of the planets in the system. For an uncertain period of time, she somehow existed as a consciousness without form. Eventually, she was found by the Master of the Sun, who brought her to his base on R'Ralmis.

BTS - She eventually took the form of Ship and was linked to Jason of Sparta, presumably under the guidance of the Master of the Sun.

(Inhumans IV#2-4) - Allied with Jason, Ship opposed the onslaught of the Kree's temporary pawns, the Inhumans, against the Shi'ar and the Spartoi. She transported Jason, Kyras Shakati, and other dignitaries to Kritnah. During the meeting between the Shi'ar and the Spartoi, Ship counseled Jason in politics and love. After Jason was exiled from the Spartoi, she flew him off into space. Delphos (a precognitive member of the Imperial Guard) saw a potential future of Ship crashing on Earth, where Jason would father "A Lord among the Stars."

(Marvel Preview#11(fb)) <1961-1962> - Jason of Sparta attempted to return to Sparta, but his ship blew a converter and he crashed on Earth. After a year, Jason rebuilt his Ship and returned to Sparta. (see comments)

BTS - "Ship" returned to R'Ralmis as a formless consciousness.

(Marvel Spotlight#6(fb)) - The Master of the Sun introduced "Ship" to Jason Quill, the newly remade Star-Lord. She returned to the form of Ship and became Star-Lord's transport and friend.

(Marvel Preview#11) -Ship assisted Star-Lord in his assault on the Slavers. She then transported Star-Lord, and two of those recently freed (Kip and Sandy) to Cinnibar to gain vengeance on Kyras Shakati, who had sent the Slavers. She rescues the three of them and escaped Cinnabar when Shakati's entire base exploded. She brought them to Sparta, but was shot down by starships under the control of Gareth, Jason's uncle and would-be usurper. She crashed on the surface of Sparta, but saved the lives of all aboard. She later left with Star-Lord after he turned down Jason's offer to become heir to the throne.

(Starlord Special Edition#1: Epilogue) - After having sat through the reprint of Marvel Preview#11, Kip and Sandy's children nodded off. Jason announced that he would abdicate the throne. However, later Starlord returned to see Jason, with Ship present, too. Sandy and Kip came to Jason's bed and found the imperial signet ring and Starlord's helmet, as Jason and Starlord, with Ship, took to the stars.

(Marvel Preview#14) - Ship was shot down again, this time by a squadron of Lorq starfighters, and they crashed on the planet Ferrol. Star-Lord was badly injured, and Ship created a human form to operate and save his life. When he revived, she pretended to be a woman who had found him, and named herself Caryth Halyan. Star-Lord and Caryth explored the planet, searching for what the Lorq had been after. She attempted to seduce him, but found the feelings this generated to intense for her, and so she broke it off. They encountered and saved the life of the Trinity-That-Is-One and its insectoid symbionts, and Star-Lord provided a water source to keep them alive. Then the Lorq attacked anew, slaying Caryth and destroying Ship before he could fight them off. Ship, however, as a being of primal energy, was able to reform. Star-Lord guessed that she had been Caryth.

(Marvel Preview#15) - Ship senses the destruction of the planet Carillon at the hands of the Haalmhad. Furious over such senseless destruction and feeling a connection to the destruction of her own star-form, Ship went on a mission to stop the Haalmhad. She and Star-Lord disabled the Haalmhad homeship, saving their next target, the planet Cymoril.

(Marvel Preview#18) - Ship sensed an immense power source (the Power Rod) on Redstone and sent Star-Lord to investigate.

(Marvel Spotlight II#6) - Star-Lord sensed an attack on the Master of the Sun and rescued him. However, the Master instructed them to return him so he could accept his fate.

(Marvel Spotlight II#7) - Star-Lord and Ship traveled to the planet Heaven, where they tried to save Thorn from Shreen and allow Thorn to regain his wings and return to the cloud world. Ultimately both Shreen and Thorn died, a result of their debts of honor.

(Marvel Premiere#61) - Star-Lord investigated the planet "Symbion" (see comments). The planet, a sentient being, tried to form a temporary symbiosis with him, but he mistook it to be a parasitic creature. He broke free of its clutches and planned to destroy the planet to prevent it from taking other victims. Ship talked him out of it, and he left the planet behind.

(Marvel Super Special#10) - Ship and Star-Lord were pulled through a warp associated with a black hole and were separated. There Star-Lord met an alien race living on a massive, planet-sized ark. Their leader, Noah, initially claimed that they were the last remnants of the human race, having come from 3 million years in the future. However, another member of the race, Aletha, revealed that they were aliens, using illusions (which they called "smoke") to appear to be human. Aletha revealed that "Noah" and his allies had actually sought to use Star-Lord's knowledge to conquer Earth and take it for their new home. With Star-Lord's aid, Aletha and the rest of the people of the ark overthrew Noah and his warlords, so that they would then live on the ark for the rest of their lives. After a brief affair with Aletha, Star-Lord was then reunited with Ship. As they left the ark, Ship revealed that she had been linked with Aletha for the course of their adventures.

(Starlord#2(fb)) - Ship, and presumably Star-Lord, were caught in the pull of a black hole. Ship narrowly escaped destruction by "slingshotting" around the gravity well, but she crashed on the planet Bovric.

(Starlord#1-3) - Twelve years later, Star-Lord was still missing, and Ship had no memory of what had happened to him. Ship encountered and trained the Probiti (a race/group of telepaths) Sinjin Quarrel to be the new Starlord until they could find the original. She also assisted him in uncovering a plot of lawgiver Harith Damyish. This adventure took them to R'Ralmis, where they learned it to be the source for the Element Gun, and saved it from iatrogenic damage. They then traveled to Holmrig, where they broke up an alliance between Glazgon and Damyish, and exposed Damyish as a Probiti. Sinjin named Ship " 'Rora" short for Aurora, goddess of the dawn.

Comments: Created by Chris Claremont and John Byrne.

Starlords' and Ship's adventures most likely take place a few decades in a potential future. See the comments for Star-Lord for discussion.

Ship initially described herself (in Marvel Preview#15) as having taken the form of the Ship to work alongside Peter/Star-Lord. In the Inhumans series, Ship is seen as the ally of Peter's father, Jason of Sparta, before Peter had been conceived. The ship with which Jason crashed on Earth (in Marvel Preview#11) is distinctly different from Ship's form, but in Inhumans IV#1, Delphos saw Ship crashing and "dying" on Earth. Since she had survived the destruction of her physical form before (and did so again later), it seems likely that she could have again. She may likely then have returned to the Master of the Sun, awaiting a period when she could be returned to solid form. It would also seem likely that if this is the case, that when Jason rebuilt his ship, it was just a mechanical device, no longer inhabited by the consciousness of Ship. Luis Dantas backed me up on this: this is actually hinted at by that issue's line where Jason mentions to his earthly lover (Starlord's mother) that his ship is "imperfect". Granted, there are many other, more mundane reasons why the fixed ship would be imperfect, but it still fits in nicely with your interpretation.

Marvel Super-Special#10 was published in Winter of 1979, which would place it between Marvel Preview#18 and Marvel Spotlight II#6. However, the trip through the black hole seems to connect it to the disappearance of Star-Lord discussed in the 1996 Starlord series. I see two possibilities. CLARIFICATIONS: Ship, Star-Lord's companion, aka 'Rora/Aurora, has no known connection to: Ship's Widgets have no known connection to:
 * Marvel Super-Special#10 took place in the order that it was published, Star-Lord and Ship returned to their original location, and there was a completely separate black hole adventure that led to Star-Lord's disappearance.
 * Marvel Super-Special#10 took place after Marvel Premiere#61, making it the last known Star-Lord adventure. A portion of Ship's mind (and possibly her form as well) was pulled into the Black Hole with Star-Lord, and she eventually recovered her mind by linking with Aletha and by rebuilding herself from the ark. A separate portion of Ship escaped the Black Hole, crashing on the planet Bovric, where she was found by Sinjin Quarrel, with her memories damaged.
 * Ship, the being that escaped the Celestials and traveled to Earth to become the temporary base of X-Factor; and who later had its programming merged with Nathan Christopher Summers when he was sent into the future, becoming the Professor as Nathan became Cable; and who eventually evolved into the being known as Prosh, @ X-Factor I#; New Mutants I#??; X-Force#39
 * Aurora, Olympian goddess of the dawn, not yet seen in the MU
 * Aurora, Jeanne-Marie Beaubier, of Alpha Flight, @ Uncanny X-Men#120
 * Widget, the mental essence of Kate Pryde from Earth-Days of Future Past, sent back to the modern era, but initially trapped in a series of progressively more advanced robot-like forms, @ Excalibur I#1

Appearances: Marvel Preview#11 (Summer, 1977) - Chris Claremont (writer), John Byrne (pencils), Terry Austin (inks), John Warner & Ralph Macchio (editors) Marvel Preview#14-15 (March, 1978 & June, 1978) - Chris Claremont (writer), Carmine Infantino (pencils), Bob Wiacek (inks), Rick Marshall & Ralph Macchio (editors) Marvel Preview#18 (Spring 1979) - Doug Moench (writer), Bill Sienkiewicz (pecnils), Bob McLeod (inks), Rick Marshall & Ralph Macchio (editors) Marvel Super Special#10 (Winter 1979) - Doug Moench (writer), Gene Colan (pencils), Tom Palmer (inks), Rick Marshall (editor) Marvel Spotlight II#7 (July, 1980) - Doug Moench (writer), Tom Sutton (artist), Jim Salicrup (editor) Marvel Premiere#61 (August, 1981) - Doug Moench (writer), Tom Sutton (artist), Jim Salicrup (editor) Starlord Special Edition#1 (February, 1982) Starlord#1-3 (December, 1996 - February, 1997) - Timothy Zahn (writer), Dan Lawlis (artist), Tom Brevoort (editor) Inhumans IV#2-4 (July-October, 2000) - Carlos Pacheco & Rafael Marin (writers), Jose Ladronn (#2-3) & Jorge Pereira Lucas (#4) (artist), Mark Powers (editor)

Last updated: 01/19/05

Any Additions/Corrections? please [mailto:snood911@attbi.com let me know].

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