First Issue Special #12 - March 1976

Writer and Editor: Gerry Conway
Artists: Mike Vosburg and Mike Royer

Cover price: 30� My copy: $3.00 at Fat Jack's Comicrypt in Oaklyn, NJ

Starman's headed for space with Mikaal, the blue guy, and this issue of "First" his first appearance. It's Conway, and we all saw what he did to the Justice League in the Vibe era. This book can't really stand on it's own, but it's pretty good in the context of the current Starman stuff. Conway introduces Mikaal as a very simple character: a rebel against an expansionist society. A sympathizer. He is emotional, and when his gal is vaporized in front of him, he reacts by going to Manhattan to warn and defend earth against his own people. The issue heats up just as Mikaal's boss sends a lackey down to bring Mikaal back, and they start to fight. The story is trite and unsatisfying, a simple origin story with very little drama.

The value of the book is the foundation of character that James Robinson twists up in the current Starman books. Mikaal is like an overaged burned-out seventies swinger, slowed by years of self-abuse at the hands of drugs. Robinson makes the new Mikaal very interesting, and now I read the old story with new eyes. In fact, I think the Conway stuff helps the Robinson stuff: Mikaal's naive heroism is corrupted by the decadence of his new surroundings. The Conway tale, which is hokey and uninspired, now crackles with a sense of "this is all going to turn out bad for him." It completes Mikaal's backstory, and really show's how great Robinson is, turning this sow's ear into a silk purse.

"We learned English so we could invade your planet -- not because our world is dying, but because my race requires conquest -- emotionally." A cool idea that I can't imagine was original, but incorporated nicely here, and even better by Robinson.

"It's some sort of orbital space shuttle -- the sort of thing NASA is trying to develop." NASA eventually did develop it. This is written three years before the maiden voyage of the space shuttle. Kind of neat to see it.

This book is worth three bucks max, so don't go hunting for it. If you see it and it's cheap, though, go for it. Then look for the blue guy in the current Starman.

Writer: Gardner Fox
Artists: Murphy Anderson
Editor: Julius Schwartz

Cover Price: 12�

My copy: $6.00 at Roger's Time Machine, W.14th in Manhattan

I may have gotten lucky with this book on the price. Wizard has it listed over eighty dollars and hot to boot, but you never know. The backstory for this book is that Robinson has written the pair sleeping together out of wedlock. Even looking at the cover with that in mind makes you wonder if Murphy Anderson didn't intend it to have happened. In the book, he kisses her on the cheek on page two. Not your normal scene for superheroes.

The story is straight up Gardner Fox. He doesn't seem to be able to get two heroes fighting at the same time. In this story, he gives Black Canary a miniature Cosmic Rod and has her become a sort-of "Starwoman". He also has Starman's own Cosmic Rod malfunction, forcing him to fight with his fists. The characters essentially swap powers. It's a fun enough story with some McGyverish problem solving, and some good campy lines and characters, but the real draw is the relevance to the current Starman. The scenes between Ted, Diana and Larry Lance, her husband, are terrifically loaded now, almost more fun than the action scenes. We see the Mist's obsession with Ted Knight, and know that they will one day share a grandson. The book is really brought to life by reading between the lines.

It's not worth buying to stand alone, but it is a must for a Starman fan. You'll really appreciate what James Robinson has done with the old mythos without changing it. He has a genuine respect for the original material, and this is a good, cheap place to look for it.

Writer: Roger Stern
Artists: Dave Hoover and Hannah
Editor: Katie Main

Cover Price: $1.00 each

My copies: $1.50 total at Roger's Time Machine, W.14th in Manhattan

First of all, just about any two DC comics are worth a total of $1.50. You may as well pick them up, because DC believes in its characters and sooner or later they get a good treatment. It may take fifty years, as in the case of Sandman, but they'll get there. In the case of Starman, I'm waiting to see what Robinson does with him. Will Payton's run in Starman is some of the worst comic reading I have ever done. These two issues, however, are at least worth two bucks.

This seems like a pair of issues specifically designed to bring in new readers. They really explain each member of the cast of characters, including Jayne Marie Payton, who is the Will Payton Starman's sister and in the current book, Jack Knight's girlfriend. Will thinks upon his one year tenure as Starman, and has a very Kyle Rayner-ish inner monologue. There is a new costume, and a nod to the history of Starman. That's where the fun and the trouble live.

Stern's history is slipshod. Will's mother wasn't old enough to remember Starman, but David Knight, Will's peer, was alive in the forties. They announce the death of Ted Knight, who is obviously very much alive. Stern refers to Starman as a minor hero. The Red Bee was a minor hero. Starman participated in many of the JLA/JSA team-ups through the years and simply was not minor. Stern gave him and his lineage a minor league treatment. Still, through it all, I got two bucks worth of Starman history, as flawed as it was, and I read more than enough of Will Payton for the sake of the current story.

Writer: Peter David
Artist: Esteban Maroto
Editor: Robert Greenberger

Cover price: $2.95 each

My copy: $7.00 for the whole set at Roger's Time Machine, W.14th in Manhattan

This whole series is wonderful. It has very little to do with Starman plotwise, in fact, I'd be curious to see what links someone could come up with. It is like Robinson's run on Starman in that it takes an old and familiar story and reinterprets it. It creates a new mythology that becomes the foundation for the first forty-eight issues of the current Aquaman series. It follows the protectors of the lost city through the generations. It even focuses on the scribe in the same way that Robinson considers the Shade's journal. It has an epic sweep and flawed heroes and sympathetic villains and grey areas similar to that in the current Starman. The main connection is that it is very well written and distinctively drawn, and I like it in the same way that I like Starman.

The joy of the series is the relationship between the Chronicler and the truth. Each book has a narrator, or Chronicler, that is one of the citizens of Atlantis whose job is to record the events of the day. In the first book, the story is of two rival brothers, King Orin and Shalaka. Orin believes in technology, Shalaka believes in magic. The chronicler is a follower of Shalaka, and skews his version of the history accordingly in the narration. The art and speech are supposedly of what actually happened, yet in the fifth book, we see a scene that is later implied to have happened quite differently. The result is a fresh perspective on the whole story, and even an understanding of how history is not an objective science but a subjective art.

Pretty heady stuff for a comic book. Don't let it put you off, though. The story is really fun to read. Lots of battles and characters dying and sex and treachery. I'm not familiar with Peter David's work on the Hulk, but I did enjoy his run on Aquaman, and this series shows of his skills in every way. His characters are distinct and complicated, and his stories are very well thought out. It is a rich and fulfilling work that I would compare to the Watchmen and Vonnegut in its scope. And best of all, it's dirt cheap, so what have you got to lose.

If you get it, get it all, or at least the first five issues which read as a set. One at a time or out of order is probably confusing and considerably less satisfying. My store had all seven in order hanging out in the Aquaman section.