In a Tweet posted on Wednesday, December 16th, 2020, Kris Anka revealed a design for a character that he and co-creator Chip Zdarsky developed. According to the Tweet, had the 2016 Star-Lord series been continued past issue 6, Anka and Zdarksy intended to have the character become a love interest for Peter Quill.
So back when @zdarsky and I were doing Star-Lord, if the series had gone long enough we actually developed and designed a character we were gonna try to make a love interest for Peter pic.twitter.com/cxbaGuvrVj
— krismas (@kristaferanka) December 16, 2020
The Star-Lord solo series, which was subtitled “Grounded” and lettered by Matthew Wilson, followed Quill as he returned to Earth and was forced to adapt to a non-Galaxy guarding lifestyle, taking a job as a bartender and befriending some of the Earth locals.
The series ran for six issues, from December 2016 through April 2017, and in May 2017, Zdarsky and Djibril Morissette-Phan, Mat Lopes, and Cory Petit collaborated on the Star-Lord Annual (2017) #1, which included a cover by Anka and served as something of a coda for the “Grounded” run of the series.
While little is known about the newly revealed character, whose name (and even their pronouns) are not alluded to in the Tweet, it’s hard not to get excited about a new Anka design.
In 2014, Anka made a huge impression by redesigning the Spider-Woman suit. More recently, during his time as interior artist on Runaways, for example, he delivered stylish new outfits for the entire team each and every issue, posting “style guides” on Twitter and overseeing sartorial developments in the Marvel universe, such as Janet Van Dyne’s ongoing in-universe fashion brand (VAN DYNE).
So heres the style guide for Runaways 12
ive left an outfit off to not spoil anyone who hasn't picked up the issue yet
so the dresses. they took me a solid day just for the two of them. they both had to be extravagant in different ways; nicos seemed simple, but karolinas was loud pic.twitter.com/jIGFR6efwL— krisanka (@kristaferanka) August 30, 2018
It’s been a big week for Star-Lord’s romantic life, as in Guardians of the Galaxy #9 (2020) by Al Ewing, Juann Cabal, Federico Blee, and Petit, Quill is depicted as taking part in a bisexual polyamorous relationship.
Is there any chance we might see the Star-Lord love interest designed by Zdarsky and Anka in a future issue? We can always hope!
