Starman 101: Remember The Stars, Oh How They Shone

Everyone has something they obsess over. Some people have Star Trek. Or Star Wars. Some people have a band, where they have to obtain everything they ever created. Or Ninja Turtles. Or even something like The Munsters.

My obsession? That would have to be the comic book series STARMAN by James Robinson.

Starman tells the tale of a young man named Jack Knight, a collectibles/antique store owner. He also happens to be the son of the superhero Starman, Ted Knight. His father is past his prime, as he operated as Starman in the 1940's/1950's, a period known in comics as The Golden Age.
He needed a successor, so he passed his Starman costume and Cosmic Rod (Starman's trademark weapon) to his other son David, as Jack wanted nothing to do with the legacy.

That is, until David is murdered a week into his career by the son of Ted's old nemesis, The Mist.

As the city is being destroyed in a wave of crime, it's up to the unheroic Jack to take up the mantle and become the newest Starman. Jack is unlike any other superhero: He is self-centered, a punk, and has a strong conviction not to die above everything else. His costume is unique, too:
A leather jacket and flare goggles over his clothes.

Over the course of the story, Jack has to grow up from black sheep to favorite son, and mature into a hero. The book is brilliant in it's way of having Jack grow up through the series. Another great thing about this series is that everything happens for a reason, and that the characterization is unlike anything in almost any other book. Even the smallest of characters you care about.

Another unique thing about the comic is the city. Opal City becomes a character in itself, a living breathing metropolis that seems as real as Seattle or New York, though it's fictional like Gotham City.
next blog, i'll go over in greater detail the cast of characters (the good, and the bad). See ya then.