La Zona Muerta

If you knew me in what we call the elusive and increasingly laughable “real life,” you probably wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the 1994 DC Comics series Starman means one hell of a lot to me.

An example of what I would call my “$30 at a convention table” style. Tony Harris used to photo ref himself to draw Jack Knight, so I, too, used a photo of Tony to cheat this one out a bit

For those unfamiliar, Starman was a comic book series that ran from 1994 to 2001, created by James Robinson and Tony Harris. Once Harris moved on, the back half of the series was drawn by the underrated Peter Snejbjerg. It was a celebration of Times Past, a look at history, legacy, duty and the relationships between fathers and sons. Jack Knight, a self professed “dealer of junk,” through a series of tragic acts is forced to don the mantle of “Starman,” defender of beautiful Opal City, the superheroic identity created by his father Ted. Through his adventures he fights demons, circus weirdos, outer space schmucks, swamp creatures and an arch enemy as deadly and personal as any character ever seen in modern comics. He befriends villains, cops, fortune tellers, other people who were called Starman (a name that had bounced around no less than five other characters at that point), women with tentacles for limbs and many more besides and, most importantly he always, ALWAYS had time to think about Julie Newmar’s nude scene in “MacKenna’s Gold,” the cost of ViewMaster reels and how to haggle for old kamehameha shirts.

DC, with a stronger trade paperback game than Marvel in the mid 90s, knew that, even if Starman wasn’t a smash hit force on the newsstands, it was a critical hit and the kind of prestige title that would be a perennial seller in the stores, so they rushed collections out immediately. I think by the time the book was about a year old, a collection of the first seven issues was already available, a relative rarity in 1995. I purchased the zero issue (the book was launched during the Zero Hour hullabaloo and was probably the only title that ended up meaning anything) off of the racks, and while my spending power didn’t let me follow the book on a monthly basis quite yet (I seem to recall Starman was always slightly more expensive than the average book), I bought that trade (and the next couple of subsequent ones) as soon as I saw it and, around issue twenty nine or thirty, I became a monthly follower all the way to the bittersweet end of the book at issue eighty. It would not be overly dramatic to say I grew up with the title; starting reading around the age of fifteen. It was one of the VERY EXCLUSIVE number of comics to ever make me shed a tear (issue 73, IYKYK). I fought with my local comic book store to make me a deal (just like Jack Knight would have wanted; I HAGGLED) when I bought all the back issues I didn’t have at once. My haggling was not as sharp as Jack’s; they only cut me a small deal, but, by Opal, I TALKED THEM DOWN. For such a modest book that was never a huge sales hit, it received annuals, one shots, spin off mini series and even a prestigious crossover with Batman and HELLBOY, of all characters. They launched JSA (which WAS the big success they were looking for) off of the back of Starman! One of the first DC Direct action figures was Jack with a light up cosmic rod! They published a DC Archives of original 1940s Starman adventures SOLELY due to this book. There was a LOT of promotional support behind this title, clearly beloved in the halls of 666 Fifth Avenue.

Starman came to a definitive end in issue eighty, with the main character having (mostly) a happy ending, growing up substantially throughout the run and driving off into the sunset with his infant child. Surprisingly, there was a time where DC would let books come to an end, and out of respect to Robinson, they let this book do just that, never bringing back Jack for a dumb crossover or any sort of nonsense like that. To be fair, they did revisit the book slightly with a special issue 81 during DC’s Blackest Night crossover, but honestly, it was largely just an excuse to catch up with a couple members of the supporting cast and had ZERO effect on the ending or the character of Jack Knight.

So of course, while the announcement isn’t official yet, the news came out this weekend that Robinson and Harris are reuniting to revisit Jack Knight in a mature readers Starman series probably sometime next year.

Sigh.

DC LOVES doing this, especially over the last ten years or so. Fables came to an end? Here’s a variety of spinoffs and Hell, we’ll even lure the original creative team back for one more year of stories. Sandman’s done? Commission Sandman: Overture. 100 Bullets came to a VERY DEFINITIVE end? Here’s a Lono spinoff. And sure, from the beancounter end, I get it. Another trade to sell and heck, maybe you can repackage the older books and sell them again. I’ve bought Sandman at least three different ways (maybe four). Same with Starman.

There are a couple of issues with resurrecting Starman, however. One big part of the creative team and probably the number one reason the book was so well regarded and promoted in the halls of DC was the editorial stewardship of Archie Goodwin. He knew this was a special title and treated it as such. When Archie passed, Tony Harris pretty much hit a wall on the book and didn’t want to continue it any longer, citing creative differences. James Robinson hit a similar wall by his own admission as well, and eventually took on a co writer to help him get to the finish line on the title. I can’t blame them for such a human reason for both of the main creators losing their interest. However…

This is the part where my “lukewarm takes” become a bit more uncharitable. I hate being the angry, cynical fanboy, but I’m just going to come out and say it.

I followed James Robinson for YEARS after Starman*. Something important went out of him when Archie died. I followed him to Detective Comics, Superman and then his DISASTROUS run on Justice League. The work at DC lasted another year or two before it dried up and then he largely vanished.

I am BEGGING you to not make me explain this but suffice to say it involves smack and a dead cat

And when he came back? he gave us the overly meta, highly bizarre and mildly transphobic Airboy, a weird blend of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, some frankly GROSS views of transwomen and a out of place, cipherous Golden Age character all smushed together into a blender of yuck. He has bounced around since then, picking up work at both Marvel and DC, some stuff for Top Cow and some other bits and bobs. I can genuinely say, in the last twenty years, James Robinson has not produced much work I would consider to be particularly enjoyable, and CERTAINLY nothing the caliber of Starman.

Tony Harris has had some great successes after Starman (the biggest and most high profile amongst them probably being the book Ex Machina) but on the other side of the coin, he also has had a number of projects left burning on the side of the road, including a controversial Kickstarter that never came to fruition after taking money for it.

None of this fills me with hope that Robinson and Harris reuniting will be a good thing. In the canon of the book itself, a fortune teller did tell Jack that there may (or may not) be another time where he had to don the mantle of Starman once more, and long time readers know that there was a particular story Robinson never got to tell, Jack’s journey to the Far East. It’s certainly possibly this reuniting could be that; a story that doesn’t disturb Jack’s happy ending, a tale of Times Past…. but even so, I have so little creative trust in DC and and none banked with the principles behind the book. I can only hope that their commitment to the story is driven by love for their co creation and the readers who embraced it, and isn’t just DC’s latest attempt to cash in on nostalgia.

*which is not to say he was a one hit wonder; Firearm was a terrific book under his stewardship. The Golden Age. The much missed Leave it to Chance. A number of wonderful stories for Legends of the Dark Knight and Legends of the DC Universe and plenty more besides