Starman: Grand Guignol vs. Identity Crisis.

[joespam]

I'm a trade-waiter so forgive me if this has already been discussed in threads having to do with the OYL and other crisis stuff currently ongoing in DC. But last night I read the final arc of Starman for the first time since it was on the shelves and I noticed the old time story about how the Wonder Woman outed the JSA members to their wives/girlfriends in order to get each of their significant others to dress up like the counterparts and fight someone. The narrative is Ted Knight, the original Starman, lying in bed and remembering this grand adventure when the boys came in to save the day and everyone had a good laugh BEFORE DR FATE CAST A SPELL TO MAKE ALL THE WOMEN FORGET THE SECRET ID'S OF THEIR BOYFRIENDS (!)

It just really stuck out as a holy shit moment considering all the impact and fallout of a similar action in the last year in DC. Given how it's being used post ID-Crisis, I find it pretty wild that it's presented in Starman with no commentary on the ethics of it, even that Ted's gf (possibly wife by that point - it's not clear to me) eventually found out again and he didn't mind wipe her. Did he tell her that she used to know, at that point, I wonder?

And as a side note, it was sad to see the Elongated Man with his wife. The appearance here was a great spotlight on what at the time was an underused character. Knowing the events of Identity Crisis made the story a little sadder.

[Blandy vs Terrorism]

I didn't get to read all of the story when it first came out, but now I have all of the trades and I'll eventually get to it.....

I agree on Sue, though. When I first read ID Crisis, that was the first story I thought of featuring the two of them, and showing what great characters they were and their wonderful marriage.

[Gregory]

The narrative is Ted Knight, the original Starman, lying in bed and remembering this grand adventure when the boys came in to save the day and everyone had a good laugh BEFORE DR FATE CAST A SPELL TO MAKE ALL THE WOMEN FORGET THE SECRET ID'S OF THEIR BOYFRIENDS (!)

I recently reread the series.

This struck me as a throwback tale (oh what fun, the girls think they're heroes) with a typical '40s solution to the problem preserving the status quo. Identity Crisis might give it a new context, but Starman always felt like such a distinct title that it never seemed to gel with the rest of the DC hero universe, even during crossovers.

[Deej]

I recently reread the series.

This struck me as a throwback tale (oh what fun, the girls think they're heroes) with a typical '40s solution to the problem preserving the status quo. Identity Crisis might give it a new context, but Starman always felt like such a distinct title that it never seemed to gel with the rest of the DC hero universe, even during crossovers.

I think Starman needed to be in its own separate corner of the DC Universe in order for it to work so well. Jack was never the big hero, going out every night, fighting crime. At least, that's how I remembered him. This whole series was awesome, the only hiccup in my mind was the space saga...

[Gregory]

This whole series was awesome, the only hiccup in my mind was the space saga...

SPOILERS AHOY.

It does seem disjointed. I like Jack meeting Jor-El. That's a great moment to underscore the legacy theme of the series. But so much else feels odd: meeting Grundy on another planet, David talking to the alien Starman instead, the Space Cabbie issue, the rebirth of Ditko's Starman and his melding with the other, pre-David Starman, the cloning of Jack and the erasure of his tattoos, meeting the Legion, the prison break, the never-realized statement that Opal would be destroyed when Jack returns ... It's all over the place.

[J. R. Scherer]

SPOILERS AHOY.

It does seem disjointed. I like Jack meeting Jor-El. That's a great moment to underscore the legacy theme of the series. But so much else feels odd: meeting Grundy on another planet, David talking to the alien Starman instead, the Space Cabbie issue, the rebirth of Ditko's Starman and his melding with the other, pre-David Starman, the cloning of Jack and the erasure of his tattoos, meeting the Legion, the prison break, the never-realized statement that Opal would be destroyed when Jack returns ... It's all over the place.

And it's wonderful.

I loved it.

[Chinaski]

SPOILERS AHOY.

It does seem disjointed. I like Jack meeting Jor-El. That's a great moment to underscore the legacy theme of the series. But so much else feels odd: meeting Grundy on another planet, David talking to the alien Starman instead, the Space Cabbie issue, the rebirth of Ditko's Starman and his melding with the other, pre-David Starman, the cloning of Jack and the erasure of his tattoos, meeting the Legion, the prison break, the never-realized statement that Opal would be destroyed when Jack returns ... It's all over the place.

James Robinson made note about the Jack-in-space storyline being all over the place in the last issue letter column, farewell note. He mentioned that around the time of his writing the book Archie Goodwin had recently died and that he (Robinson) considered leaving the series. Then he met David Goyer and those 2 collaborated on the Stars my Destination story arc before JR became re-focused and finished the series about as well as any comic series has been wrapped up, in my opinion.

But I do agree that while those issues were coming out, they werent all that great, and especially the space cabbie story I was ready to just drop the book. That storyline is the only slight flaw in an otherwise perfect comic book series.

I wish DC would collect the Shade mini series and include the back up Shade stories from DC presents. Im missing 2 of the 3 back up stories and just can not find them anywhere, and that mini series was just beautiful and deserves to be collected as part of the Starman saga.

[J. R. Scherer]

Mindwipes have always been around.

[PhilipClark]

Love me some Starman.

[Ryan_ZOOM_Turner]

Starman is the best.