Ego

"After all these years I found you." "And who the hell are you?" "I figured my rugged good looks would make that obvious. My name is Ego, and I'm your dad, Peter."

- Ego and Peter Quill

Ego was a Celestial, a primordial and extremely powerful entity, and the father of Star-Lord. He originally appeared to be a caring and wise father with a cocky personality, similar to his own son. However, it is later revealed that he is a ruthless entity with a god complex who wishes to conquer the universe. He is a mysterious adventurer from far parts of the galaxy who has heard the legend of the Guardians of the Galaxy following the Battle of Xandar and has come to meet them for the first time.

Reunited with his son in 2014, Ego desired to forward his plan to rule the universe by using his son's Celestial genes to terraform the planets he has planted alien seedlings on. Ego's plans were foiled by the Guardians of the Galaxy and he was ultimately destroyed by their hand.

Apparition in the Galaxy
Millions of years ago, Ego was born as a member of a primordial, brain-like race known as the Celestials. He dwelled in loneliness for years, until he discovered his ability to manipulate matter and constructed a protective shell around himself. Over the course of many years, he kept building layers over the shell which evolved into a planet itself.

After this, he began to wonder about the purpose of his existence. To find purpose and meaning, Ego decided to create an humanoid avatar, which was an extension of his consciousness, to explore the galaxy and dwell among other galactic civilizations as well as learn about these civilizations.

Dividing and Conquering
As time progressed and as Ego had became one of the last few of his species, he began a desire to conquer the universe for himself. He tried to achieve this feat by planting extraterrestrial seedlings across different planets in the cosmos. He, in the guise of an individual of the home species of the planets he had encountered across the universe had conceived multiple children in an attempt to terraform the planets and interlink them to his own body, as the mechanism required to activate the seedlings required two individuals with the Celestial gene. When his children had failed to inherit his Celestial DNA, Ego murdered them and their mothers he had impregnated with over the millennia. Ego, in an attempt to defend his actions claimed the deaths were painless.

Experiences on Earth
"You’re so like your daddy, you even look like him. And he was an angel, composed out of pure light..."

- Meredith Quill to Peter Quill

In 1980, he visited Earth to plant one of his seeds in the woods of Missouri, United States. He met human Meredith Quill and awed her almost instantly, under the guise of a "spaceman". Ego and Meredith had conceived a child named Peter Quill, who would later go on to inherit Ego's Celestial DNA, becoming the first successful offspring of Ego's to do so. Ego then realized that he was genuinely falling in love with Meredith and that it would put him off-task to stay on Earth with her instead of forwarding his plans to conquer the galaxy. Because of this he deliberately, yet reluctantly, caused a inside Meredith's genes, leading to her death in 1988, before leaving Earth. Meredith described him to her son as an "angel," and a being of pure light, which her family seemed to regard as a delusion.

In the weeks leading up to Meredith's death, Ego had hired the Ravagers led by Yondu Udonta to bring his son to him. Udonta, though, realized that Ego was killing his children and thus withheld from delivering his son to him. Yondu trained Peter Quill to be a Ravager as his protégé instead of delivering him to Ego. In between Meredith's death and the Quest for the Orb, Ego took up a new protégé, Mantis and the two had resided on Ego's planetary form. After the Battle of Xandar, the Nova Corps did an analysis of Peter Quill. Irani Rael commented that Quill's father was something "they had never seen before."

Meeting the Guardians
When Ayesha had sent her fleet of drones on the Guardians of the Galaxy team following the reason Rocket Raccoon had stolen their batteries after defeating the Abilisk, Ego appeared and destroyed the fleet while the Guardians crashed on a nearby planet, which is Ego's. On the planet, Ego met with the Guardians and revealed himself as Quill's father. During the meeting, Ego attempted to make Quill to return to his home accompanied by Gamora and Drax while Rocket and Groot kept an eye on Nebula. When Yondu Udonta and the Ravagers arrived to capture Quill and to hand him over to the Sovereign after being hired by Ayesha, Nebula tricked Groot to free her, while Taserface carries out the mutiny against Yondu and executes his loyalists with the help of Nebula, who leaves to kill her sister as revenge for being installed with cybernetic and robotic body parts by their father Thanos.

Quill, Drax and Gamora meet with Mantis, Ego's assistant which he raised. Nebula arrives on Ego's planet and attempts to kill Gamora, who survives and defeats her sister via a blaster gun, however, she is reaching to an uneasy alliance point, and the two are exploring the planet. Gamora and Nebula are discovering thousands of skeleton remains hidden inside the caves of Ego's planet, and feeling that Ego is hiding a secret from them.



True Colors Revealed
"You killed my mother!"

- Peter Quill

While still meeting with Quill and Drax, Ego explains that he is one of the god-like Celestials, and exists in the form of the planet on which they are standing. He assumed a human guise to travel the universe and interact with other species, eventually meeting and falling in love with Quill's mother Meredith. After Meredith's death, Ego paid Yondu to collect the young Quill, but Yondu never delivered the boy, and Ego had been searching for his son ever since.

He teaches Quill to manipulate the Celestial power within the planet. Ego reveals to Quill that in his travels to thousands of worlds, he planted seedlings upon thousands capable of terraforming them into new extensions of himself. He called this plan The Expansion. The problem with this plan is the seedlings could only be activated by the power of a second Celestial. To that end, he impregnated hundreds of women and hired Yondu to collect the children; they all failed to access the Celestial power, so Ego killed them, until he found Quill.

Ego uses Quill to activate the seedlings, which begin to consume every world. Quill is hypnotized into helping Ego, but fights back after Ego reveals that he deliberately caused Meredith's death.

Battle on Ego's Planet
"Listen to me! You are a god! If you kill me, you'll be just like everybody else!" "What's so wrong with that?" "No!"

- Ego's final words to Star-Lord

Mantis then warns Drax, Gamora, and Nebula of Ego's plan just as Rocket, Yondu, Groot, and Kraglin arrive. The reunited Guardians reach the core of the planet, where Ego's brain is housed, and fight the Sovereign's arriving drones as well as Ego himself. Rocket makes a bomb out of the stolen Anulax Batteries that Groot plants in Ego's brain, while Quill battles Ego with his newfound Celestial powers to allow the other Guardians to escape.

Through the battle, Star-Lord gains the upper hand. Ego senses the bomb on his brain and pleads to Peter that if he lets Ego die, he will loose his "godhood". Peter Quill accepted this, much to Ego's horror. The bomb explodes destroy's Ego's brain, while Peter Quill grievously watches his father's avatar dying in his arms. Without Ego's essence, his planet begins to break down and starts disintegrating, ending his reign to conquer the galaxy and killing him for good.

Personality
"It doesn't need to be like this Peter. Why are you destroying our chance? Stop pretending you aren't what you are! What billions? Trillions, even more! What greater meaning can life possibly offer?"

- Ego to Peter Quill

When he first meets the Guardians, he seems to be a very lovely, caring and charming being. While meeting his son for the first time, he had the personality of a cool and cocky dad, who was also wise at the same time. It is later revealed this is an illusion to cover up true personality, which is an extremely powerful, intimidating, manipulative, megalomaniacal, ruthless, destructive, genocidal and emotionally cold being who appears to have a god complex even claiming that after he discovered life he found it disappointing. This is most likely due to him being a Celestial, therefore predating the first civilizations themselves as well as having vast cosmic powers. He is obsessed with his goal of conquering the universe via his seedlings. Seemingly following having a god complex, Ego sees himself as a god, and considers his species as gods as well. Following the reason that Quill is his son and that he is also a Celestial, he sees his son as a god-like being as himself.

He also disregarded his children and all the women he had impregnated since all of them are just tools for him to expand his own extensions into the galaxy. His ruthlessness also extends to the fact he is willing to kill any individual, no matter what the cost, whether it be his own children if they fail to inherit his Celestial power as well, or the impregnated women after they had given birth to his children or even the lifeforms inhabiting the planets he desires to control.

Despite his ruthless ego and god complex, he was genuinely starting to fall in love with Meredith Quill. He visited her three times. He started fearing these emotions and realized that he was becoming emotionally attached to her, thus was steering away from his original mission. To steer back to his mission, he reluctantly put a tumor in her brain.

Powers
"You own a planet that can destroy two dozen spaceships without a suit. What are you, exactly?" "I'm what's called a Celestial, sweetheart."

- Ego to Gamora

Celestial Physiology: Ego is a Celestial, a primordial race of humanoid god-like beings with incredible supernatural powers. He has displayed some of his abilities. "Death will remain a stranger to the both of us, as long as the light burns within the planet."

- Ego to Star-Lord

"Over millions of years, I learned to control the molecules around me. I grew smarter, and stronger. And I continued building from there, layer by layer, the very planet you walk on now."
 * Immortality: Ego, like his race, is immortal and ancient. While giving Star-Lord, Gamora and Drax a tour of his planet, he stated that he was millions of years old. He can only be truly killed if his true form, his brain, is destroyed.

- Ego to the Guardians of the Galaxy

"Peter, I have found meaning." "I..I can see it. Eternity."
 * Molecular Manipulation: Ego is able to manipulate matter to a molecular level thanks to his Celestial powers. While giving Star-Lord, Drax and Gamora a tour of his planet, he stated that it took him millions of years to master this ability. During the battle with his son, he created various melee weapons out of matter and even created a humanoid giant of himself.
 * Planetary Form: Ego was able to use his molecular manipulation to create a shell around himself which he later evolved into a planet. He can manipulate the planet on a molecular level. His brain is stored in the center of his planet's core.
 * Seedlings Creation: Ego is able to create alien seedlings in order to terraform the worlds across the universe into his own extensions. When activated, these seedlings begin to terraform the planet into extensions of Ego's power and consciousness.
 * Energy Manipulation: Ego, like other Celestials, can manipulate energy. He once projected energy beams from his fingers that are able to unlock handcuffs. He even taught his son, Peter Quill, how to manipulate energy.
 * Energy Tentacles: He is able to create massive energy tentacles to combat and restrain Peter Quill's allies.
 * Energy Blasts: He fired a few energy blasts from his planet which were powerful enough to destroy all of the Sovereign spaceships attacking The Guardians of the Galaxy.
 * Energy Form: He can also mold the energy to create a humanoid form for himself.
 * Superhuman Strength: As a Celestial, Ego's physical strength is at immense superhuman levels. It is also said by the Collector that these beings have such immense strength, that they can allegedly wield the Infinity Stones.
 * Superhuman Durability: In addition to his powerful strength, Ego also has superhuman durability which makes him almost impervious to physical attacks. His Avatars are also superhumanly durable. He was able to withstand his son's Celestial powers and attacks.

- Ego to Star-Lord

"I wanted to experience what it was to be human. So I created what I thought a biological being would be like."
 * Hypnosis Inducement: Ego has the ability to hypnotize beings including children into activating his seedlings. He does this with a touch to the person's forehead. However, if extremely angered, like Star-Lord was about Ego killing his mom, they can resist this power and snap out of its effects.

- Ego to Peter Quill


 * Biological Manipulation: Ego has also shown to be able to manipulate biological matter.
 * Tumor Inducement: Ego created a tumor inside Meredith Quill's genes in order to kill her.
 * Avatar Creation: In order to interact with the intelligent lifeforms that populates the universe, Ego created for himself an humanoid avatar who reflected his idea of a biological humanoid being. The body is provided with a digestive system, pain receptors and a reproductive system, as Ego explained to Drax that he "does indeed have a penis".
 * Reconstitution: The body can reconstitute itself when damaged, and rebuild from the ground when completely destroyed. When Star-Lord repeatedly shot Ego after hearing his confession, Ego's avatar began repairing itself almost immediately.
 * Shape-Shifting: Ego's feature can also be heavily altered, as he showed to his son Peter Quill when transforming himself into David Hasselhoff.
 * Flight:  When battling Quill, he has revealed his ability to fly in the air.

Abilities
"I had Yondu deliver some of them to me. It broke the Ravager code, but I compensated him generously."
 * Genius-Level Intelligence: Ego is a highly intelligent being, to the point of being so smart so he can even outsmart the Guardians into being friends with him. He stated that millions of years of learning has made him wiser and much more smarter.
 * Master Tactician: Ego is able to deal with situations of danger or conflict as he uses his incredible intelligence to handle those situations.
 * Master Strategist: In order to meet with the Guardians, Ego managed to make a move that would cause them to meet him by aiding them to defeat the drones.
 * Combatant: As a Celestial, Ego is a fierce warrior nearly from birth. He manages to fight and defeat his enemies easily because of his powers and planetary form.

- Ego to Star-Lord


 * Resources: Ego has also amassed vast amounts of Units and other resources, having been able to generously compensate Yondu and his Ravagers to deliver his children to him. It is also possible that he used his powers to generate the Units as well.

Family

 * Peter Quill/Star-Lord - Son and Atamptted Victim
 * Thousands of unnamed offspring † - Children and Victims

Allies

 * Meredith Quill † - Former Lover and Victim

Enemies

 * Ravagers
 * Kraglin Obfonteri - Former Employee turned Enemy
 * Guardians of the Galaxy
 * Yondu Udonta † - Former Employee turned Enemy
 * Gamora
 * Drax the Destroyer
 * Rocket Raccoon
 * Groot - Killer
 * Mantis - Former Ward turned Enemy
 * Nebula
 * Sovereign
 * Ayesha

Trivia

 * In the comics, Ego is not a Celestial, but rather an Elder of the Universe, like the Collector and the Grandmaster. He has been an enemy of Thor and the Nova Corps for a long time.
 * In the comics, Peter Quill's father was J'Son of Spartax, the Emperor of the Spartoi Empire.
 * Ego is the first Celestial of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to appear alive in present day time.
 * While Ego was on Earth, he drove an orange and teal convertible. The same colors would later be used by Peter for the Milano.

Behind the Scenes

 * Following the release of the first Guardians of the Galaxy film, only four people knew the identity of Peter Quill's father: James Gunn, Kevin Feige, Michael Rooker and Sean Gunn. James Gunn also confirmed that Jason of Spartax was not intended to be Peter Quill's father as in the comics.
 * James Gunn himself, at the San Diego Comic Con on July 23, 2016, revealed that Ego was Peter Quill's father.
 * owned the cinematic rights to Ego the Living Planet, and Marvel Studios, in order to use him in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, traded his right in order to change the powers of, who was later used in . Gunn was unaware that Marvel did not own the character, and was very lucky to have the deal work out: "When I first pitched Ego as Quill's father, I THOUGHT we owned the character. After I had worked out a very elaborate story with Ego the Living Planet as a very important part of the Marvel cosmic universe, I learned that we actually didn't own the character. I had no back up plan, and it would be nearly impossible to just drop another character in. Thank God Fox came to us and wanted to make a trade."
 * Coincidentally, both "Ego the Living Planet" and "Negasonic Teenage Warhead" are names of songs by the band.
 * was offered to portray the character before Kurt Russell, but he turned it down for  movie.