Starman (vol.2) #0 (October, 1994)
"Sins of the Father, Part One: Falling Star, Rising Son"
Writer - James Robinson
Pencils - Tony Harris
Inks - Wayne Von Grawbadger
Letters - John E. Workman
Colors - Gregory Wright
Associate Editor - Jim Spivey
Editor - Archie Goodwin
Cover Price: $1.95
There's that odd mix of pumpkin and meat in the air... March of the Wooden Soldiers is on the tv... and my back and feet already ache. Why, that's gotta make today Thanksgiving, doesn't it?
Happiest of Thanksgivings to everyone... hope you all have a wonderful day (whether you celebrate or not).
Some friendly advice from your bloggy brother, there are two things you never discuss around the family dinner table... variant covers and decompressed storytelling. Family is forever, remember not to turn on each other over the small stuff!
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We open with a (somewhat syrupy) introduction to Opal City... which I'm sure I slurped up with a straw the first time I read this as a teen-agery type person. It's also here we meet... Starman, David Knight. He looks down upon Opal, and smiles with the knowledge that he is the only Starman. Will Payton is dead... and he assumes Mikaal Tomas is too. Dave triumphantly goes to fly...
... he does not make it far.
This takes us into flashback land. It's earlier that night, and David is arguing with his brother Jack about some "old stuff" Jack's trying to buy from him. Their father, Ted Knight (the Golden-Age Starman) stands by, and doesn't seem terribly enthralled by the conversation. The discussion shifts to David inheriting the mantle, to which Jack is all "I didn't want it anyway... oh, and also... you look stupid." This comment seems to have burrowed under Ted's skin, and so, he gives him the boot... til Sunday dinner, of course.
From here, we follow Jack as he goes about his business. He picks up a package from a dry cleaner, chats up a tattoo artist, and grabs some goods from a barber shop. It's revealed here that Jack's kind of an old soul... really stuck on "old things", so much so that he runs an old junk shop. He enters, and thinks to himself how much he loves the smell of "old things"... I feel like we comics enthusiasts can second that emotion.
Time passes, and Jack receives a phone call from his father... and learns that his brother David was killed. Ted warns his son to keep vigilant, just in case this was a sort of personal vendetta. He continues, saying that there is a Cosmic Rod, and also a Cosmic Belt (that used to belong to Sylvester Pemberton) among some documents he'd given to Jack for review. Jack argues that he doesn't want to use 'em...
Ted hangs up and heads out to the morgue to identify his son's body. No sooner does he leave, than his observatory explodes! During the blast, Ted is struck by a brick.
Back at Jack's Junk Shop, a strange man enters... and inquires about some precious stones. Jack doesn't have many, but can refer him to a dealer who might. He then asks about weapons... which triggers our fight scene.
The man starts blasting the hell out of the place. It looks like this particular pistol shoots both bullets... and fire? Okay. Anyhoo, as Jack attempts to flee to the back room (where that Cosmic Rod is supposed to be), he winds up taking a bullet in the back of the leg.
The strange man follows... and decides to keep the Cosmic Belt for himself. What's more... he recognizes it!
He then takes aim, and goes for the killing shot(s) on Jack. Fortunately, in the time it took for this weirdo to admire the Cosmic Belt, Jack was able to back-flip into the flames and procure the Rod.
The stranger decides to just go all-in... figuring there's no way Jack would survive the fire anyway... he drops a grenade in the shop.
Jack manages to get out just in the nick of time.
We shift scenes over to a brother and sister... they are Kyle (the weirdo from the store) and Nash, a young woman with a stutter. It's made plainly clear that these two are responsible for wrecking all'a the havoc on the Knight family this evening...
... and they are doing so on behalf of their father... (the Golden-Age villain) the Mist! They're sure both Knight boys are dead... but have not killed ol' Ted.
We wrap up with Jack trying to get his bearings. We can tell he's thrown for a loop, since he refers to his brother here as "Danny" instead of David. That's gotta be worth a "No-Prize", right?
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We've talked a time or two before about series' that... while they hold a special place in our hearts, they're somewhat difficult to return to. My mind immediately goes to something like Peter David's Young Justice when I think of that. Starman (vol.2) might be another.
I missed out on this the first time around, and so, when they started releasing trade paperback collections, I scooped 'em up, devoured 'em, and loved 'em! These were the sorta lousy "incomplete" trades before they added all of the niceties we have these days. I've tried time and again to return to them over the years, and for whatever reason, just can't get as into it. I usually only make it through the first trade, before putting Jack and Company back on the shelf.
That said, I had a really good time with this issue. Sure, it's a bit "purple" in places, though... I'm pretty sure that's due to who our narrator will eventually be revealed to be, so it makes sense. If that's not the case, and I'm remembering wrong... woof, this is a li'l bit o' preciousness in the narration here.
Let's talk about Jack. He's not entirely likable here, though it's somewhat easy to see his position. He's part of a family with an established "business", which he is reluctant to join. Nothing we haven't seen before, but done incredibly well. Jack's got his passions, and superheroics/superheroing are not among them.
As a person who is perhaps a bit too nostalgic for his own good (including things I wasn't even around for), I can identify with Jack... as, I'm sure, can many comics enthusiasts. He mentions the "smell" old things have... and, c'mon... what's more intoxicating than the smell of decomposing newsprint? If I could bottle it, I would. There's a certain magic to it... so much history, so much passion... it's really one of the best things ever.
I've often thought about when nostalgia became capital... we see Jack's Junk Store, and realize that people do make their livings helping people relive their past... or at least reclaim old treasures. I've solicited opinions on the subject from a bunch of people (and did a fair amount of reading as well), and one of the more popular points of view is that nostalgia became "a thing" around the time oldies stations popped up on the radio.
Never before were entire generations able to imbibe in the sweet taste of yesteryear with such ease. I think there might be something to that. I started this portion of the discussion be admitting to having difficulty revisiting books of either a certain vintage... or ones I discovered at a certain age. I cited Young Justice and this book... which, I'm almost positive I discovered around the same time. Nostalgia (good and bad) is a funny thing... can really skew your perceptions, and alter your point of view.
With the rise of digital everything... I shudder at the thought of the potential age of arrested development we might be on the cusp of entering! Why move forward when everything in the rear view was so much fun?
Okay, now I'm just babbling... when I ought to be basting (the turkey, that is). I'll just leave it there. This is a wonderful title that I'd recommend anyone and everyone pick up. I think I'm going to try and revisit a few more of these in the coming days... see how rose-colored my glasses might become! This series has been collected eight ways to Sunday (hell, it'll probably get a ridiculous and unnecessary DC Black Label branding soon enough... if it hasn't already), and is available digitally (for a buck!).
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Starman #2 (November, 1988)
"Field Testing"
Writer/Co-Creator - Roger Stern
Pencils/Co-Creator - Tom Lyle
Inks - Bob Smith
Letters - Bob Pinaha
Colors - Julianna Ferriter
Editor - Robert Greenberger
Cover Price: $1.00
If I were to guess how long ago it was that we discussed Starman #1... I'd probably say something like... it was six-months ago. Well... as it turns out, it's nearing on two-years and six-months ago.
Time is certainly a weird and cruel S.O.B., ain't it?
Well, let's get to it!
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We open with our man Will Payton revisiting the Rocky Mountain campsite where he was blasted with Starman-making-rays last issue. He is surprised to find that he's not the only interested party lurking the area. From here we get a quick and dirty retelling of some of the events of last issue. Will decides to leave, he's late meeting his sister as it is... and doesn't realize that one of the fellas on the ground noticed him... and even snapped a few pics.
He arrives a few moments later in the Arizona desert to meet his sis, Jayne. She runs him through a few tests of endurance to ensure he hadn't lost any of his Starmanniness. He hasn't! She goes to check his heartbeat... and, get this... dude doesn't have one! What's more, he hasn't had to go to the bathroom since the incident!
We hop up to Utah, and meet up with Dr. Melrose... that guy who's trying to create superhumans in a lab... the guy behind the satellite that inadvertently blasted Will while he was camping. He is handed the photo that was snapped a few pages back... and he's kinda ticked off. After all, all the power that Will sucked up was being reserved for his team. A staff member suggests hiring a freelancer to capture Starman.
We rejoin Will back in his Phoenix abode. He's flipping through the classifieds trying to find some work. On the front cover of the paper he learns that there is a killer on the run... and also that the local police are looking to question Starman about stuff that happened last issue... this gives him an idea. And so, a little while later, Starman pays a visit to the Phoenix P.D.
Captain Estevez busts in on the curious scene and pulls Starman aside. When asked what he wants, Starman simply says... he wants justice to be done. He suggests they team up to take down that on-the-run mass murderer. He then... makes his skin tone a fair amount darker so he could go "undercover". Hmm... okay. It looks like a coloring error... but, it's not.
Suddenly, over the police band... we learn that the baddie has been spotted coming out of Yuma. Before Phoenix's Finest know it, Starman's already headed thaddaway. I've been to Yuma once... ate at a KFC that had a buffet. Totally blew my mind.
Along the way, Starman comes upon a flipped over patrol car. A female officer is knelt before her downed partner and is calling in for backup. Will sets down to get a closer look... and the downed officer refers to him as "a brother". So, yeah... not a coloring error! Anyhoo, turns out... they were hot on the trail of the mass murderer, when he... get this... threw a grenade at them! Yeah, a friggin' grenade!
A ways up the road, the mass murderer (and his hostage) cross into Mexico. He then dumps her out on the ground... and prepares to shoot her in the head.
Lucky for her, Starman got there just in the nick of time!
The baddie unloads his gun into Starman's chest... which proves to be rather the futile endeavor. He goes to flee, but Will snatches him up... and delivers him back to Phoenix. We're going to assume he also returned the hostage to someplace safe too... but there's no evidence of this having occurred.
So Starman's a hero, and all that jazz. That doesn't mean Captain Estevez is quite ready to trust him though. Back home, Will's mom gets on his case about looking for a job... so, all's well that end's well.
We close out with Dr. Melrose meeting his new free-lancer. Are ya ready for this...? It's... waitforit... drumroll please... budda-budda-budda-budda-buddaaaaaaaaah......... Bolt?! Oh, c'mahhhn.
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Another fun issue with our "everyman hero", Will Payton.
It's probably not a terribly novel take to suggest that Starman is very much a Marvel-esque hero. Hell, I'm sure I've even made the "observation" a time or two before. Will is... a pretty normal fella... when he's not wearing his PB&J's, that is. Kind of a sad sack... still lives at home, can't find work... trying to make a name for himself (on two fronts). It's a pretty refreshing thing to see coming out of this era of DC Comics.
So, whadda we got here? It's kind of a "layer adding" issue. We learn a bit more about Will's condition... he doesn't have a heartbeat, and doesn't need to use the bathroom. We get a good look at Dr. Melrose... and a better understanding of why he and Will might be (unwittingly) at odds. Also, some Phoenicians are fleshed out. Good old-fashioned comics stuff. It was a good time.
There were a few "eh?" moments though. First... not sure why Will changed the color of his skin at the Police Station. I gotta figure it was just to remind the reader that he can. Still... came off as a bit weird. Then, he rescues the hostage, right? But... just leaves her standing in Mexico so he could fly the mass-murderer back to Phoenix? Poor gal.
Overall... this was really fun, and I'd recommend checking it out. Looks like this series has finally been made available digitally (which it wasn't back in 2016 when we covered #1)! We'll just assume that we had a lot to do with that. Ahem. Sure we did.
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Young All-Stars #1 (January, 1987)
"The Coming of the Young All-Stars"
Writers - Roy & Dann Thomas
Pencils - Michael Bair, Brian Murray & Vince Argondezzi
Inks - Malcolm Jones, III
Colors - Carl Gafford
Letters - David C. Weiss
Cover Price: $1.00
Here's a series I've wanted to look at for a long time... but, boy... it's kind of intimidating. There's a whole lot of lore in here... and retroactive-lore, at that! This is a post-Crisis series... whose roots are very much in the pre-Crisis DCU.
A while back, here on the blog, we looked at a very special issue of All-Star Squadron... one that started pre-Crisis... and ended post-Crisis. It was a wild story, featuring, of all things... the android from Fritz Lang's Metropolis holding back the effects of Crisis.
That issue featured the assembled All-Stars taking a photo for the President of the United States... and it was in that photo that we saw some of the alterations Crisis wrought. Characters like Superman, Batman, Aquaman and Wonder Woman were removed from ever having been part of the Golden Age... and so, "stand ins" were required.
Well, sorta-kinda required... they could've just brushed everything under the rug and moved forward... but, this is Roy Thomas, and he cares far more about making lore work than most. And bless him for it! Here is a clipping from Comics through Time: A History of Icon, Idols, and Ideas (2014) with some information about the All-Stars, young and old.
With that... we might just be ready to jump into the series that was once going to be known as The New All-Star Squadron!
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We open with the All-Star Squadron facing off with Mekanique! We at the blog met her back in the long ago, when she was holding back the effects of Crisis on Infinite Earths. Here, she is depicted as a giant... and she's having her way with the All-Stars. Despite the heroes' best efforts, she is able to shrug off... and even redirect... most of their attacks.
Mekanique appears to be wiping out All-Stars with every swat of her hands... even "heavy hitters" like Green Lantern and Spectre go down quick! It gets to the point where the last heroes standing are Liberty Belle and Johnny Quick... but, with a swat and a stomp... it looks like it's all she wrote for the good guys!
Only... it was just a dream! Here we meet Helena Kosmatos, the Fury... who is the stand-in for the Golden-Age Wonder Woman. She wakes with a shout!
Her Uncle Johnny and Aunt Libby rush into the room to see whats wrong... and so, she shares her nightmare. She imagined her Aunt and Uncle as Johnny Quick and Liberty Belle. They try keeping the ruse up, if only for a moment. Johnny, realizing the futility of it all, finally tips his hand... and spills the beans.
We learn a little bit about Helena's origin, including that she isn't a blood relative to either Libby or Johnny. She comes from "Fury" stock... which, I'm going to assume is a stand-in for the Amazons? I could very well be wrong, but that's my take-away. Liberty Belle and Johnny Quick decide that it might be time for Helena to meet the rest of the All-Star Squadron, in the flesh.
We jump to Santa Barbara, California... where Neptune Perkins plays in the surf. Perkins, a Golden-Age character himself, is the post-Crisis stand-in for the Golden-Age Aquaman.
In the distance, atop an outcropping of rock, he sees a woman... just standing there, dramatically posed. Turns out, this is Tsunami... a Japanese-American, driven to anti-American sentiment in light of World War II era fear and prejudice toward the Japanese. She watches as Perkins is overcome by a large wave... and dives into the drink to save him.
She loads him into a really strange-looking houseboat, and they have a chat. Neptune asks what she was even doing out there... after all, she could have died! She responds that, well... that's kinda what she wanted. Ya see, that wave was actually meant to take her out.
Then... it's story time. After battling the All-Star Squadron some time back, Tsunami headed home. Shortly, a pair of U.S. officials appeared on her family's doorstep to question... and perhaps "round up" her grandfather as a Japanese spy. Well, Miya ain't digging that... and so, she grabs one of the G-Men, and hurls him through the wall. She flees the scene, leaving her family to be taken into internment.
Miya then tells him her "final shame" (which isn't shared with we mere readers). Neptune tells her she needn't kill herself... and actually, he just might know someone who can help out... don't in Los Angeles. And so, they go!
We next join the Royal Canadian Air Force as they go through their procedures. As they do so, they come across a strange flying figure. It's the Flying Fox, and this is his first appearance. Fox is the stand-in for Batman during the Golden Age.
Next stop, Indian Creek, Colorado... where TNT and Dan the Dyna-Mite are dealing with some Nazi saboteurs who are trying to blow up a dam. They are spotted, and a fight breaks out. A few Ratzis hop into their hooptie and beeline it to the dam.
It just so happens that Iron Munro is having a picnic with a pretty young thing right around the dam! Now, Arn "Iron" Munro is a wildly interesting study. He is the stand-in for the Golden Age Superman and even has origins in the Philip Wylie Gladiator novel (1930), that many folks cite as the inspiration for Superman. Munro's father is Hugo Danner... the very "Gladiator" from the book. His grandfather, Abednego Danner... the scientist who finagled having a super-powered son! Really neat tie-in!
The picnic is interrupted by the Nazis driving through... and Arn stops them cold with his bare hands. Though, I gotta say... I was expecting the homage to Action Comics #1 here!
He hops over to check for casualties... and it turns out TNT didn't survive the encounter. Suddenly a Valkyrie, who introduces herself as Gudra appears. She's come to take TNT's soul back with her to Valhalla.
Iron ain't havin' it... and so, he lunges toward Gudra. She responds by blasting him with her power staff-thingie. After she vanishes, Arn realizes that Dyna-Mite still lives... he slings him over his shoulder and rushes off.
We follow Gudra, and close out with her checking in with her pals... the Axis Amerika! The final page is a really neat twisted callback to the cover of All-Star Squadron #1!
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A bit to unpack here... though, none of it is quite as interesting as all of the backstage maneuverings. I gotta hand it to Roy and Dann Thomas in their ability (and passion) for making everything "fit". It's a sure sign of a writer that cares about the properties... and everyone who contributed to the lore before them, when they reach so deep to make everything "matter". I only wish contemporary writers would take a lesson from the Thomases and consider those who came before when making sweeping (and unnecessary) changes to characters under their pen.
Really enjoyed this... though, the "stand-ins" are really no comparison to the originals. I mean, I couldn't imagine anyone preferring Neptune Perkins to Aquaman or Flying Fox to Batman... though, I suppose it is a big world. Still... gotta hand it to the Thomases for putting in the effort.
I think my only complaint (if we could even call it that) about this issue... is that it, like most of the Thomases "Earth-2" corner of the DCU... requires kind of a running start. These aren't light and breezy reads by any stretch of the imagination. There are so many tie-ins and allusions to Golden Age comics, real-world WWII era history, even film and literature... this is some dense stuff, and if you're not reading carefully, it's really easy to miss some stuff! Again, no fault of the book... but, kind of intimidating for someone like me who was too young to "be there" for this.
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