There's a Starman ... - Starman #5

 Don't You Know There's a War On?

Starman #5

Cover Date: Holiday 1988

Released: 25th October 1988

⋅ Writers: Roger Stern ⋅ Pencilers: Tom Lyle ⋅  

⋅ Inkers: Bob Smith ⋅ Colourists: Julianna Ferriter ⋅

⋅ Letterers: Bob Pinaha ⋅ Editors: Robert Greenberger ⋅ 

Continued from Firestorm #80 (sorta).

We start before the previous issue picked up with Starman having been captured by a group of government-created single-powered heroes called the Power Elite. The vaguely military supes have some very Aliens-tinged conversations where we pick up the single character trait that each of them has. Alas, the only power the only female trooper seems to have is to just be around as the token female.

One of the Power Elite however is an alien shapeshifter apparently placed there before the Invasion! began. They contact the Khund commander, our aliens for the issue (apart from a one-panel appearance of the Dominators) and arrange to take our titular hero away from this base and into the alien's possessions. The alien abduction goes poorly with the shapeshifter being captured and the band holding Starman immovable being damaged. The Khund pilot is knocked unconscious just before the previous comic catches up with this one. What happens to the alien we don't find out as we never see what happens with them before the shuttle is destroyed.

We get a few of the scenes in the shuttle including the other side of the conversation Starman has with his sister before he makes a little faux pas asking about Pee Gee's family. She seems properly sad that she's an orphan, seeing as for her this has happened only a few months or years ago. She then makes a comment about found family making up for this, which is great as this includes Super even if she's not Kryptonian right at this moment. Filling in the background of the invasion is also the last we really get from Firestorm, and Firehawk gets even less. I can't tell if it's out of respect for another writer's character, or a dislike of Firestorm, the comment about the two being overly aggressive tends to tip me towards the latter than the former, but I can't make up my mind either way.

Anyway, the shuttle explosion is quickly dealt with by the fact that all other heroes can fly, which the comic gleefully lampshades and we get an extended fight scene with the heroes fighting the Khunds with the soldier from the Firestorm issue, who we find out our the (late) 20th century Easy Company (from DC's war comics, it was a thing). Here the focus is put firmly on the interactions with Pee Gee and Starman. He seems to respect that she's still trying not to overly hurt the alien invaders, whilst the other two are a little more gun-ho.

The Khunds were apparently holding Adam Strange here, he was captured in the Invasion! comics itself, and is released from his bounds by Power Girl and Starman and then the fight is over and we're told that the Pacific front is now safe and they should go to Washington for a team-up meeting with the other heroes.

Finally, we get Kara encouraging Starman that he's a hero and he should embrace his destiny and do all that heroic stuff, it's something that has been playing out through the part of the story that the two have been together.

I don't plan these things out but this has the final lost future for Power Girl, that of a compassionate capable leader, something she shares in common with her not!cousin supes. When she does shortly join a team for a longer basis she'll take on the role of a follower, and we'll see a lot less of that compassion.

Not having read any of Starman before I was pleasantly surprised by this one, especially as the focus is on him and Power Girl. If you're here for Firestorm you would be sorely disappointed, he barely gets anything to do here apart from being the muscle for the team, even Frehawk gets more to do here than him. I'm looking forward to seeing how this all ends!