By Owen Craig
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Each column, Owen will talk about something he loves. He will go on for far too long about why he loves it, and share with you some of his favourite aspects of this comic series / character / movie adaptation / creator / whatever.
Those who know me are likely aware of my love for James Robinson’s Starman series. After all, I can at times be pretty vocal about it. You know, about the fact that it’s one of the greatest superhero comic series of all time. About the fact that it rivals Sandman as one of the most innovative and gripping series of the 90s. About the fact that it created Jack Knight, one of the greatest characters in the DC pantheon of characters, nay, in COMICS’ pantheon of characters. But what I’d like to do here is look at why, exactly, I love this comic oh so much.
One of the things that make the DC universe what it is, is their focus on the idea of legacy. Characters pass on the mantle to one another and (in theory) move on. This is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it means that the story of certain characters ends (again, in theory) as they move on, while new characters are allowed to grow and find themselves. It leads to a richer and more interesting universe to read about. On the other hand, it leads to situations where the ending seems forced and the new character feels shoe-horned in and editorially mandated. To put it in terms of examples: good legacy character – Flash III (Wally West), bad legacy character — Flash IV (Bart Allen). But they are the subject of another column, I’m sure, so I won’t get into this here.
Super-awesome, big-ass page if you click on the image.
What I’m trying to do, though, is set up the idea that, for better or worse, DC is a place where it is not unusual for one character to take over for another. This is relevant because there have been many versions of Starman’s character. What James Robinson understood when creating his new Starman series, though, is that to properly honour the idea of legacy, you have to pay tribute to the past while looking forward. So, while making Jack Knight his primary character, Robinson found a way to incorporate all the other Starmen into his series at some point. But enough about this, let’s get to the plot of the series.
Now, when I earlier implied that Starman enabled the creation of Jack Knight, this was slightly misleading. The character had appeared once before, in the pages of DC’s event comic Zero Hour. He showed up to egg on his brother David’s taking up of the Starman mantle. What’s this? Jack Knight isn’t Starman. Nope, with this three-panel first appearance in another book (overseen by Robinson, by the way) a few seeds of the story to come are planted. Jack and David’s father Ted Knight is the classic DC comic character Starman (a character from the Golden Age of comics), and while Jack has no interest in being a superhero, David is excited to become a hero just like their father. “Good luck, bro. I wouldn’t want that gig,” Jack says to David.
After that, comes the first issue of Starman, James Robinson and Tony Harris’ innovative new series, and it hits the ground running. Without getting too much into plot points (too late — I’m sorry, I’m just excited. I love talking about Starman), the first storyline sets up what we need to know about the series. One of the first things we see is David getting shot by an unknown assailant and falling to his death. Right from the get-go the stakes are high. Quickly we find out that this is due to an old vendetta from Ted Knight’s arch-nemesis, The Mist, who wants to take everything away from Ted. Ted is hospitalized and Jack is on the run, with nothing but some of his dad’s old tools to save him. Jack shows a knack for the superhero stuff and by the time The Mist is beaten at the end of the story arc, Ted is interested in having Jack take over the legacy that poor David has left empty. I’m rushing through this, but rest assured: what makes this intro to the story really work are the character moments in between. A bereaved father lashing out at his remaining son because he doesn’t want to deal with this grief, a son refusing to wear his father’s old costume because it looks silly by today’s standards or (one of my favourite moments) Jack fighting for his life in his antique shop and being concerned about all the stuff in it that he’s going to lose when it burns to the ground.
Needless to say, Jack eventually becomes Starman, but not because he wants to. In fact, he’d really rather not. But he strikes a deal with his dad. If Ted starts putting his brain to better use, in other words developing his “cosmic science” in better ways rather than for superhero stuff, Jack will go on patrol and fight crime as Starman — but not in the suit. And, hey, how about that new Starman costume (if you could call it that)? How awesome is that? A simple leather jacket, with a little toy sheriff pin, some fighter goggles (to help with the glare from the star rod) and a kickass new design for the star rod. As the series goes on you see Jack develop, and boy, does he ever develop. The character at the beginning of the series is barely recognizable as the character at the end, but it all happens so gradually that you’d never notice. By the end (and by the way, the series has a great ending) you feel like you’ve been on an epic journey with this guy.
I’m going to wrap this up soon (though there’s still so much more to say; if there’s the demand, maybe I’ll do a sequel Starman column someday), but there are a few more things about this series I’d love to mention.
And even better page is beneath this image.
Supporting characters are a big deal to me. Yes, Jack is great, but for my money it’s the supporting characters who really make a series sing. It’s the reason I love Buffy and Angel so much, it’s part of what makes Preacher so great, and it’s how Ed Brubaker turned me into a Captain America fan. And boy, does Starman have some great supporting characters. There’s Ted, Jack’s mentor/father, the O’Dares, a family of Irish cops who have a tentative partnership with Jack (a few of them with hidden secrets), a mysterious fortune teller, a former Starman from a distant war planet (who Robinson dug up from an old 70s comic), and my personal favourite supporting character — The Shade.
The Shade was on old Flash villain who first appeared in the Golden Age, but Robinson reimagines the character as less of a villain and more as someone with his own agenda. He’s polite, courteous, perpetually drinking absinthe, and reminiscing about the old days of the city. He has a hidden love of the Starman legacy and doesn’t take kindly to people jeopardizing his beloved Opal City. Possibly my favourite moment in the entire series comes when a villain is threatening to blow up a sizable section of Opal City and the normally stoic Shade stops him in a most horrible manner, screaming at him for daring to do such a thing and referring to the city as “my Opal”. It’s simultaneously eerie and touching to see that he cares for the city in this way. Robinson also manages to rectify the many different characterizations of The Shade over the years in a rather ingenious manner, but to reveal details would be unfair to any potential readers out there.
I have gone on long enough, and (shame on me) I haven’t even touched on Tony Harris’ gorgeous art yet. I suppose a sequel column will have to be in the works. In the meantime, if this column has intrigued any of you, I can’t recommend this book highly enough. There is an absolutely gorgeous omnibus edition out there (with Volume 2 set for February) which is printing the entire series in order, with all the trimmings (it’s supposed to be four volumes in total). It’s a bit pricey but well worth it. If you’re looking for something a little cheaper, there are trade paperback collections of the whole series; they’re missing a few issues here and there, but you get the whole story. I bought them and got everything, but needless to say, as a huge Starman fan I couldn’t resist the lure of the omnibus when it came out.
So, I hope you enjoyed this intro to Starman. I can’t believe I wrote this much, but hey, I love Starman.
