Starfall

So it comes to an end.

After 80 issues, DC’s Starman has wrapped up its tent and is moving into comic book history. It’s been a long, but successful road for both DC Comics and Starman‘s writer, James Robinson. With the closing of this title, DC loses yet another excellently written comic and the four-color world loses a little more of its brightness.

When the series began nearly seven years ago, no one really knew what to expect. At the time, old Golden Age heroes weren’t particularly in vogue, and it was hard to believe that a superhero comic without a brightly clad hero in tights would be popular. But, in truth, Starman was exactly what the superhero genre needed at that time (and still needs): good stories told and drawn well. Such a combination is rare at any time during comic history but even more so as the industry continues to shrink and fragment.

Starman served as a revival in so many different ways that it is difficult to describe them all. There is, of course, the obvious connection in that the popularity of Starman led to the revival of many Golden Age characters and titles like JSA and even the short-lived STARS AND S.T.R.I.P.E. But, there was more working behind the scenes than anyone could have foreseen.

Starman heralded a revival of superhero characterization away from the dark, ‘grim and gritty’ legacy and back to the root concept of heroism. It helped redefine the idea of modern superheroes with its strong grounding in DC history and modern sensibilities. Along the way, there were the old characters that many had forgotten (or tried to forget — the Red Bee . . . the Red Bee, for crying out loud, given a level of dignity and respect that no one ever thought possible). They were brought back in fresh, new ways, proving that it is not the material that is sometimes old and stale, but the creators themselves, especially when we hear the complaint that nothing could be done with Hero ‘Z’.

And now it’s over.

. . . Although it could be argued that it ended several issues ago with the death of the original Starman, Ted Knight, and his funeral. But DC and Robinson provided the type of closure seldom seen in comics. Robinson used the remaining issues to tie up several loose ends such as the identity of the 1951 Starman, Jack Knight’sdealing with the death of his father, his own sudden launch into fatherhood, and the fates of the supporting characters. It was the kind of ending that long-time readers needed and for which both Robinson and DC should be commended. Just as with Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, DC has shown a unique commitment to the writer and creators by ending the series when they were finished. In many cases, the publishers would simply have assigned another writer to the series and continued with business as usual. In both titles, the series began with rebirths, deaths of main characters near its conclusion, and more rebirths before the final curtain. Both Sandman and Starman proved what comic books can aspire to by showing the way. But Starman was especially unique in that it found value where so many, for so long, had claimed there was none.

It is hard to suspend reality and believe in a world where superpowered people spend most of their time clobbering one another. James Robinson sidestepped all this tomfoolery by focusing on the characters and creating what was essentially an 80-issue novel. Through the series, we see the main characters change and evolve. Jack Knight, the Starman of the title, goes from a brash, disrespectful brat to a responsible, caring adult and protector of a city. We see his growth and, more importantly, the development of a true relationship with his father, Ted Knight (the original Starman) as both of them come to accept, respect, and love each other for the person that they are. If the series has been about anything, it has been about this relationship, making the issues covering Ted’s courageous death so emotional and powerful. To some, it was his nobility. To others, like his Justice Society teammate, Wildcat, it was his toughness and ability to handle himself in a scrape. But, in each case there was a sadness and sense of loss that leapt off the page and made the issue one of the best and most painful in the series. Would that other writers could make us care about all comic book characters so deeply and strongly.

And now the time has come to say goodbye to Jack Knight and all his friends. To bid adieu to the city of Opal. To the enigmatic and quizzical Shade. To the gallant O’Dares. To the alien Starman, Mik. To the many characters, places, and events that made Starman unique and one of the few titles that I actually couldn’t wait to receive every month. After all, it is not often when one has been present for the creation of a new mythology. In the film Excaliber, Merlin quiets the celebratory knights who have brought all England under Arthur’s rule with a shout and a demand for respect as one day they will be able to tell their children that “they were there… with Arthur . . . on that day.” We were here with James and Jack and Ted and David and Solomon Grundy and Shade and all the rest. And even though we might not boast of it to our children, we can feel a bit of that pride knowing that we were a part of something special. Would that it happened more often.