My association with Starman goes back to 1974. I remember reading both “The Case of the Camera Curse!” (Adventure Comics #66) and “The Menace of the Invisible Raiders” (#67, first appearance of Starman’s arch-villain The Mist) reprinted in two of those “100-Page Super-Spectaculars.” Unfortunately, Starman became one of those characters (along with Doll Man, Kid Eternity and Blackhawk) whose stories I would read only once as a kid. I didn’t think too much (or too often) about Starman for the next two decades, not until James Robinson’s post-Zero Hour series.
A couple of years after that series began, I responded to an ad in Comics Buyer’s Guide from a seller looking to get rid of a book I wanted. When I got in touch with him and discovered he lived only a half hour or so away, we decided to meet in person. He was in his 70s and was a big fan of the Justice Society of America having read their adventures in All-Star Comics during his boyhood. He was aware of Starman’s new popularity, but was unwilling to concede that there was anything special or overlooked in the Golden Age stories.
A couple of years later, DC released the first (of two) Golden Age Starman archives and I was able to read for myself that his assessment was correct. The stories were very well-drawn (by artist Jack Burnley), but they were deadly slow-moving, almost like drawing room dramas with a brightly-clad super-hero. Starman wasn’t given much of an origin in his first story (Adventure Comics #61), just a single page (a single panel, really) in which he reveals: “For thousands of years, man have spoken of the mysterious powers of the stars — but I am the first to discover that radiated starlight can be harnessed and used scientifically.” Starman’s complete origin story would not to be told until All-Star Squadron #41, but honestly, there’s nothing there that an imaginative kid of the ‘40s (or adult of any decade) couldn’t have figured out for himself.
In his introduction to Golden Age Starman Archives v1, even Jack Burnley admitted: “I hope comics readers will give him a better reception in 2000 than he got from the kids nearly 60 years ago. The many followers of the ‘new’ Starman series can now see how he got his start.” My favorite stories of Ted Knight, the original Starman, are his three team-ups with the Black Canary (the third of which was revealed decades after the fact).
The first two were presented in The Brave & the Bold #61 and #62 (1965) by Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson. Inspired by the new series, I bought the first of these as a backissue sometime between 1994 and 1997. [I didn’t notice until yesterday that B&B #61 incorporated the exact same origin panel from Adventure Comics #61.] Even though both characters were married at the time, it wasn’t too much of a reach to extrapolate that Starman and Black Canary were having sex “off panel.” My suspicions were confirmed in Starman Annual #2 (1997) … although how Jack Knight found out about it I have no idea.
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Tony Isabella just put up a 1976 pitch for a solo Star Boy book on his blog. It's interesting stuff.
"Expelled from the LEGION, alienated from the Science Police and the United Planet, STAR BOY stands alone to mete out galactic justice to villains who can topple worlds.
Will he succeed? Can one single hero outwit the underground empire and survive against such immensely powerful forces? If any one hero can win this seemingly endless war, that person is...
STAR BOY"
Hmmm. I can see why it wouldn't fly as it would affect the Legion too much but to this day, I'm surprised that no one ever thought to give Star Boy his original powers back, especially after Superboy was erased from the future.
But a 1976 Star Boy series? 1st Issue Special #12 (Ma'76) already had Gerry Conway's blue-skinned Starman that failed to find an audience and the Star Spangled Kid was a big part of All Star Comics.
Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod) said:
I find it interesting how many Starmrb DC has has over the years. The legacy ones like the Knights make sense, but also giving it to unrelated guys like Mikaal Tomas and Will Payton. Was the name just too tempting to abandon? Was it done for trademark reasons? Now I'm curious.
I always assumed it was trademark reasons, Randy, but I don't know that for a fact.
Two other minor names DC keeps resurrecting are Huntress and Manhunter. Neither has as many uses as Starman, but they're up there.
Lately I’ve been doing these “legacy” discussions (Sandmen, Hawkmen), so rest assured I’ll be getting to all those other “Starmen” sooner or later.
About a year and a half later, actually...
STARMAN OF 1951 (Bruce Wayne/Charles McNider/David Knight):
Pre-Crisis Earth One:
Post-Zero Hour:
After Charles McNider (Dr. Mid-Nite) was forced into retirement by the U.S. govenment, he almost immediately began missing the life of a costumed "mystery man" and, with the help of Bob Crane (Robot Man), used the technology of Ted Knight (the original Starman) to create a new heroic identity. Other members of the JSA, such as Hourman, would occasionally come out of their enforced "retirement" if the situation warranted. Ted Knight was mentally unfit to do so at the time, having suffered a breakdown due to his role in the development of the atomic bomb. McNider continued in the role of Starman for eleven months, until another Starman, David Knight from the future, arrived in December of 1951 and took over the role for the last month of the hero's tenure. Three days before history recorded that the Starman of 1951 disappeared, yet another Starman from the future, David's brother Jack, arrives and facilitates their father's meeting with their future mother as well as Ted's return to his heroic identity.
I don't think we have actually seen that happen on panel, but wasn't it said that Thom Kallor (Starboy of the LSH) would suceed David in that role as well?
Thom Kallor is next on my list!
In Roy Thomas's work there were sometimes stealth homages. I've not read All-Star Squadron #41, so I can't guess whether it's a case. The Crimson Avenger origin from Secret Origins is based on a Golden Age Flash story.
I take it the villain on the cover lower left is Dr Doog. The net tells me Burnley wrote he was originally meant to be called Dr Doom. My guess is his name was changed because of the Dr Doom from Fox's Weird Comics.
STAR BOY (Thom Kallor):
Although he's from the future (the 30th century to be precise), Star Boy first arrived in the Smallville of Earth One (or the Smallville of the "Pocket Universe" if you prefer) in 1961 (Adventure Comics #282), so that puts him next in sequence. At that time, his powers (which included flight, invulnerability and "electric" vision) were said to have been acquired by flying his spaceship through the tail of a comet whenn he was a teenager.
But Legion of Super-Heroes #306 clarified that he had gravity-altering powers since birth, and that flying through the comet's tail granted him those other powers only temporarily. As Star Boy and Wildfire await the results of the latest Legion leader election, Star Boy relates his history to his friend. Highlights include his first official solo mission after Adventure Comics #282 (which also explained why he had been seen for a while following his first appearance), his expulsion from the LSH for the killing of Kenz Nuhor (Adventure Comics #343) and how he came to be readmitted to the Legion (Adventure Comics #350).
I don't think we have actually seen that happen on panel, but wasn't it said that Thom Kallor (Starboy of the LSH) would suceed David in that role as well?
It was said in 2001, but didn't actually happen until 2006.
It was Thom Kallor, as Starman, who rescued Jack Knight from 1951 and returned him to 2001. At that point, Jack retired to spend more time with his son and gave his cosmic rod, goggles and jacket to his chosen successor (more on her anon). Some of the events I am about to relate are open to interpretation, but here is how I think it happened. At some point, Thom Kallor journeys to the present and becomes the Starman of the newly reformed Justice Society of America. We learn that he is borderline schizophenic and has been ever since his abilities manifested. He had always been able to manage his condition with 30/31st century medicine, but 21st century medicine is incapable of checking his illness. the god-like being Gog eventually restores his sanity, and soon after that he return to the 31st century to rejoin the LSH.
Man, that 1951 business is confusing.
And I always felt that dragging Thom Kallor from the 30th century into the Starman legacy was a reach. But I guess Robinson wanted to run the table, since dragging in Will Payton, Mikaal Tomas and Prince Gavyn were stretches, too. None of them had any association with Ted Knight or his familty either, until Robinson created one.
Not that it prevented me from enjoying Starman. It just left me a little confused by the end! Hopefully, this thread will straighten it all out.
Except the nagging feeling that we're going to miss one. That "The Man Who Ended Batman's Career" isn't a story I'd have remembered for this thread, and I wonder how many more one-shot Starmen there are out there.
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