Source (purchased/given/borrowed/the wife's): the wife's (but I bought the original series run back in the day)
Date Purchased: N/A
Original Review: N/A
Thoughts/Memories/ Remembrances:What do I remember about Starman? Well, I was sold on Starman even before it arrived on the stands. Spinning off (sort-of) from Zero Hour back in 1994, Starman was one of a handful of titles DC was launching with #0 issues. I don't remember if each of the new series were given 4-page previews in, erm, the Previews catalogue, but Starman for certain did, and within the first four pages of the zero issue, the new Starman, David Knight, was shot dead out of the sky! It was such a huge and dramatic moment, that I was invested immediately in knowing why, and how a book would carry on when it's lead character is killed. Beyond that Starman delivered something altogether different, seemingly a collaborative project between writer James Robinson and artist Tony Harris, both invested themselves immensely into the book and it's lead, Jack Knight, and in doing so becoming two of my favourite creators, following them obsessively for some time. Over the next 40 or so issues, Starman proved itself not a book about superheroes, but a book about Legacies and families, about feuds, reconciliation and redemption. It turned the concept of heroes and villains from stark black and white to abstract colours and shades that spoke to the humanity with which Robinson and Harris imbued their characters. I got frustrated with Starman about the time he took to the stars on an inter-galactic adventure in search of his titular namesake, the thought-deceased Starman Will Payton and although I haven't read the title since the series ended, my affinity for it hasn't wavered. Like Robinson's The Golden Age, and unlike most other '90's books, I had no doubt that Starman would hold up.
Re-Review: The "Sins of the Father" trade paperback consists of issues zero through five of the ongoing series, and by the end of the first chapter it's evident exactly how special this series would become. David Knight is shot dead, Ted Knight, the original Starman (and star of TV's "Too Close For Comfort"), suffers a concussion when his home and lab are destroyed, and Jack Knight, collectibles shop owner, finds himself staring down the barrell of a gun as his livelihood goes up in flames. The Knights have been targeted and the gloriously art-deco Opal City (introduced in this series) they protect is meant to suffer. It all happens at the hands of Starman's golden-age nemesis, the Mist, and his chip-off-the-old-psychopathic-block children.
Date Purchased: N/A
Original Review: N/A
Thoughts/Memories/ Remembrances:What do I remember about Starman? Well, I was sold on Starman even before it arrived on the stands. Spinning off (sort-of) from Zero Hour back in 1994, Starman was one of a handful of titles DC was launching with #0 issues. I don't remember if each of the new series were given 4-page previews in, erm, the Previews catalogue, but Starman for certain did, and within the first four pages of the zero issue, the new Starman, David Knight, was shot dead out of the sky! It was such a huge and dramatic moment, that I was invested immediately in knowing why, and how a book would carry on when it's lead character is killed. Beyond that Starman delivered something altogether different, seemingly a collaborative project between writer James Robinson and artist Tony Harris, both invested themselves immensely into the book and it's lead, Jack Knight, and in doing so becoming two of my favourite creators, following them obsessively for some time. Over the next 40 or so issues, Starman proved itself not a book about superheroes, but a book about Legacies and families, about feuds, reconciliation and redemption. It turned the concept of heroes and villains from stark black and white to abstract colours and shades that spoke to the humanity with which Robinson and Harris imbued their characters. I got frustrated with Starman about the time he took to the stars on an inter-galactic adventure in search of his titular namesake, the thought-deceased Starman Will Payton and although I haven't read the title since the series ended, my affinity for it hasn't wavered. Like Robinson's The Golden Age, and unlike most other '90's books, I had no doubt that Starman would hold up.
Re-Review: The "Sins of the Father" trade paperback consists of issues zero through five of the ongoing series, and by the end of the first chapter it's evident exactly how special this series would become. David Knight is shot dead, Ted Knight, the original Starman (and star of TV's "Too Close For Comfort"), suffers a concussion when his home and lab are destroyed, and Jack Knight, collectibles shop owner, finds himself staring down the barrell of a gun as his livelihood goes up in flames. The Knights have been targeted and the gloriously art-deco Opal City (introduced in this series) they protect is meant to suffer. It all happens at the hands of Starman's golden-age nemesis, the Mist, and his chip-off-the-old-psychopathic-block children.
Jack's relationship with David was a strained one... equally so with his father. David strove to follow in his father's footsteps, embracing science and the whole superhero thing, Jack on the other hand is an independent figure, always more interested in pop- and counter-culture, his collectibles and maintaining a pastiche, an attitude, a style than really caring what his family thought of him. But with his brother dead, his father's life threatened, and the city he loves under siege, he sees something in himself and his family that calls him to duty and perhaps to his own death.
Jack isn't what you'd call "combat-ready". Some martial arts training in his past gives him a bit of scrappiness but he's only surviving by luck and the skin of his teeth in fighting even the lowest of villain. But it's his mouth, more than fists, that gets him out of trouble with bad guys (and in trouble with his family and people trying to help him), making he quite the different hero. And by and large, Starman as a title and as Jack Knight's character is intentionally about being different, about non-conformity. James Robinson didn't want to churn out your standard superhero project, and he didn't want Jack to be your average newbie superhero. Here, he wants Jack to be an avatar for himself, someone through whom he can share his excitement over collectibles with the audience, someone who can stare in awe at the majesty of "real" superheroes like a slack-jawed child reading comics, or someone that can express what it really might be like to fly through the sky or battle someone truly evil. Jack Knight is the epitome of the reluctant hero, enjoying aspect of it, but more treating it as a hated job that he dare not leave.
The handling of the relationships and the characters in Starman is still utterly surprising and fresh as it was 14 years ago when it first appeared on the stand. The evil Mist turns out to be a delusional, feeble old man, and another potentially dangerous enemy, the Shade, is cast in an entirely different light. The supporting cast is padded out with a family of Opal City cops, the O'Dares, who share a history with Ted Knight and play an important role in series to come and the themes Robinson builds upon. Jack befriends a fortune teller who, mid-way through the first story, provides the map for what would prove to be the bulk of the stories Robinson tells in the series. Ted and Jack's relationship remains especially strained, though there's a mutual respect and a reserved pride that neither can seem to acknowledge. It's an honest family dynamic and the honour-thy-father adage does come in to play. Finally, there's Jack and David's relationships, two siblings like Knight and Day, constantly harassing one another as youths and antagonizing each other as adults, refusing to grow past. But David, though dead, refuses to stop playing a part in Jack's life, and this collection closes with the first of the annual "Talking With David" stories.
All these complex interpersonal dynamics in the unique environment of Opal City is brought to life by Tony Harris and Wade Von Grawbadger. Compared to his current work on Ex Machina Harris' artwork here is downright primitive, but even still it's full of brilliantly executed sequences (The Shade's disappearance into his shadow stand out as a highlight) and some gorgeous layouts. Harris' realization of Opal City is as integral as his characterizations, and all are distinct and unique personalities with their own body language and aesthetic. There are moments of stiffness, the fight sequence between the sons of Starman and the Mist is choppy in both the storytelling and visual execution, but overall the artwork give the reader a welcome invitation into the world. Working with the awesome colors of Greg Wright, the art team is formidable and strives at presenting unique panel layouts (themselves occasionally reflecting a deco style) or representing a story with different visual means (notably the "Talking With David" meetings are starkly greyed out with only David's Starman costume popping with colour).
The first three chapters of "Sins of the Father" are densely packed and unbelievably engrossing, the fourth providing a surprising and decidedly different resolution than I anticipated, even after having read it before. The fifth chapter, "A Day In Opal City" explores the new environment Robinson has created, with rich, narrative prose enveloping the reader in the feel and texture of the place. The side plot comes and goes in an irreverent fashion, once again exploiting the atypicalness readers would come to expect from the series, and proves actually to be a set up for a future storyline, if memory serves me right. The final talking with David I recall as a surprise back in the day, but by the end of this first one, something both uncomfortable and touching, as well as sweetly anticipated.
If you're going to dip into the series, the trades are available, and I believe deluxe hardcover or "Absolute" editions will be forthcoming later this year, but the original issues are definitely the best way to read them, with some highly entertaining lettercolumns in which fans and Robinson exchange memories on collecting and even work a few trades, although I do believe the trades collect the prose excerpts from The Shade's journal which further enhance the book's environment. Despite having a firm fist gripping onto the history of the DCUniverse, prior knowledge is non-essential, and doesn't greatly diminish the series in any respect. Starman proves itself alternative-, outsider- and fan-friendly, which is an amazing accomplishment if you think about the appeal of most superhero comics. But then, it never was most superhero comics...
Rating (sell/keep/undecided): keep (but we have an extra set of the entire series run available for sale).
Jack isn't what you'd call "combat-ready". Some martial arts training in his past gives him a bit of scrappiness but he's only surviving by luck and the skin of his teeth in fighting even the lowest of villain. But it's his mouth, more than fists, that gets him out of trouble with bad guys (and in trouble with his family and people trying to help him), making he quite the different hero. And by and large, Starman as a title and as Jack Knight's character is intentionally about being different, about non-conformity. James Robinson didn't want to churn out your standard superhero project, and he didn't want Jack to be your average newbie superhero. Here, he wants Jack to be an avatar for himself, someone through whom he can share his excitement over collectibles with the audience, someone who can stare in awe at the majesty of "real" superheroes like a slack-jawed child reading comics, or someone that can express what it really might be like to fly through the sky or battle someone truly evil. Jack Knight is the epitome of the reluctant hero, enjoying aspect of it, but more treating it as a hated job that he dare not leave.
The handling of the relationships and the characters in Starman is still utterly surprising and fresh as it was 14 years ago when it first appeared on the stand. The evil Mist turns out to be a delusional, feeble old man, and another potentially dangerous enemy, the Shade, is cast in an entirely different light. The supporting cast is padded out with a family of Opal City cops, the O'Dares, who share a history with Ted Knight and play an important role in series to come and the themes Robinson builds upon. Jack befriends a fortune teller who, mid-way through the first story, provides the map for what would prove to be the bulk of the stories Robinson tells in the series. Ted and Jack's relationship remains especially strained, though there's a mutual respect and a reserved pride that neither can seem to acknowledge. It's an honest family dynamic and the honour-thy-father adage does come in to play. Finally, there's Jack and David's relationships, two siblings like Knight and Day, constantly harassing one another as youths and antagonizing each other as adults, refusing to grow past. But David, though dead, refuses to stop playing a part in Jack's life, and this collection closes with the first of the annual "Talking With David" stories.
All these complex interpersonal dynamics in the unique environment of Opal City is brought to life by Tony Harris and Wade Von Grawbadger. Compared to his current work on Ex Machina Harris' artwork here is downright primitive, but even still it's full of brilliantly executed sequences (The Shade's disappearance into his shadow stand out as a highlight) and some gorgeous layouts. Harris' realization of Opal City is as integral as his characterizations, and all are distinct and unique personalities with their own body language and aesthetic. There are moments of stiffness, the fight sequence between the sons of Starman and the Mist is choppy in both the storytelling and visual execution, but overall the artwork give the reader a welcome invitation into the world. Working with the awesome colors of Greg Wright, the art team is formidable and strives at presenting unique panel layouts (themselves occasionally reflecting a deco style) or representing a story with different visual means (notably the "Talking With David" meetings are starkly greyed out with only David's Starman costume popping with colour).
The first three chapters of "Sins of the Father" are densely packed and unbelievably engrossing, the fourth providing a surprising and decidedly different resolution than I anticipated, even after having read it before. The fifth chapter, "A Day In Opal City" explores the new environment Robinson has created, with rich, narrative prose enveloping the reader in the feel and texture of the place. The side plot comes and goes in an irreverent fashion, once again exploiting the atypicalness readers would come to expect from the series, and proves actually to be a set up for a future storyline, if memory serves me right. The final talking with David I recall as a surprise back in the day, but by the end of this first one, something both uncomfortable and touching, as well as sweetly anticipated.
If you're going to dip into the series, the trades are available, and I believe deluxe hardcover or "Absolute" editions will be forthcoming later this year, but the original issues are definitely the best way to read them, with some highly entertaining lettercolumns in which fans and Robinson exchange memories on collecting and even work a few trades, although I do believe the trades collect the prose excerpts from The Shade's journal which further enhance the book's environment. Despite having a firm fist gripping onto the history of the DCUniverse, prior knowledge is non-essential, and doesn't greatly diminish the series in any respect. Starman proves itself alternative-, outsider- and fan-friendly, which is an amazing accomplishment if you think about the appeal of most superhero comics. But then, it never was most superhero comics...
Rating (sell/keep/undecided): keep (but we have an extra set of the entire series run available for sale).