WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Old Man Quill #10, by Ethan Sacks, Robert Gill, Rachelle Rosenberg and VC's Joe Caramagna, on sale now.
Old Man Quill has painted Peter Quill (aka Star Lord) into quite a corner. Following the revelation that the Guardians of the Galaxy were all dead and he was merely hallucinating them, Star Lord lost it and, while wielding a Hulkbuster in this universe's Baxter Building, went after the Imperial Guard with murderous intent.
After all, he has no choice if he's to attain the Ultimate Nullifier and exact revenge on Galactus and his Universal Church of Truth. In a desperate move, though, Quill detonated a space-time bomb that took the Guard out. But in the process he lost the Nullifier, which led to him being rescued by Viv Vision and her Resistance. However, hope is not lost as Quill embarks on a time-travel quest similar to that seen in Avengers: Endgame.
Star Lord is heartbroken as he doesn't think he can find a way to avenge his family and the Guardians. Even the victory over the Guard doesn't sit well because all he wants to do is bring the Devourer of Worlds down. Thankfully, H.E.R.B.I.E. reminds him and Viv that the weapon can be found 55 years in the past, and Viv decides to offer Quill what he needs to pull off a time heist. It's similar to the Avengers' plan to traipse around the timestream to undo Thanos' Decimation in Avengers: Endgame.
Much like that film, Quill has a few rules to follow. He doesn't possess Pym Particles but Viv fits him with tech that allows him to traverse the temporal gateway to the Baxter Building and nowhere else. It's up to Quill to steal the Nullifier without being noticed so as to not break the timestream.
Eventually, Quill -- with a special time-traveling hazmat suit (hey, it's a far cry from the sleek ones from the Marvel Cinematic Universe) -- heads to the past. And while he finds a period where he can steal the Nullifier, just like Chris Evans' Cap, Quill gets exposed as he drops right in on the Fantastic Four when they're working on their own time sled.
They're fighting Red Skull and Loki, and when Star Lord tries to steal the weapon, Reed and Sue attack him, not believing him when he says who he is. He does have H.E.R.B.I.E. with him and the past version of the 'bot does acknowledge this is really himself from the future, but before any resolution can be offered, Kang attacks.
He takes out Reed and Sue, throwing them into the timestream, which means that they've all altered the future. We know Endgame had multiple excuses for this and how branches of time appeared once the past was changed. Here, Quill starts losing his mind because he doesn't know how the ripple effects would resonate down the line.
Simultaneously, Doom and Madame Masque send Doombots to attack Viv's camp. While this happens, Kang takes out Quill's robot in the past. Quill's way home was tied to its temporal tech, so now he has no way back. Even after Quill beats Kang, he realizes the portal is closed and he's lost in time. This is made even worse by Doom's legion razing Viv's army and on the verge of total genocide. Quill's at a loss as to how he'll get home but he does have the past version of H.E.R.B.I.E., so that might be a Hail Mary.
As for Reed and Sue, fans are speculating they could be Doom and Masque in the future. That would mean this is a closed loop with the pair needing to assault Viv's camp so events will lead to Quill returning with the Nullifier. It remains to be seen how the story will conclude, but one thing's for sure -- like Endgame, the present and future have been tampered with all in the name of justice.
Old Man Quill #11 goes on sale Oct. 14.
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