Starman: Sins of the Father (1994)
May 28th, 2008 by MartinI enjoyed this, the first Starman TPB penciled by Tony Harris who also penciled Ex Machina, but not nearly as much as I enjoy Ex Machina. I’ll admit it, that’s secretly what I was hoping for. There are certain parallels, you’ve got to admit. Both heroes don leather jackets, and have a sort of “bad boy” look about them; but in Ex Machina, there is this rich and undiscovered back-story. In starman, we have a long (and to me also undiscovered) back-story, but it seems anything but rich. In fact, it seems rather cliché and possibly quite lame. At first I was intrigued by Opal city, until I realized it was just like every other city with superheroes protecting it. Sure, they went on about how it had been cleaner than the cities Batman and Superman protect (thus landing it square in the DC universe), but I didn’t really buy it. After all, I’m guessing the old Starman had to fight someone back in the day. And of course we find out at least one person he fought in the course of reading this book.
We also get the whole “the good son who doesn’t live up to his father’s expectations because he doesn’t follow in his footsteps” story, with an added bonus “other son who tries to follow in those footsteps but ultimately fails because he has no originality” side story.
Worth reading, but only just. I might pick up more of the trade paperbacks, if only because I found the last story reprinted here to be ever-so-slightly more interesting than the rest.
October 11th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Wow This was only one of the best comics (the entire run) ever. Especially for DC during the beginning of Vertigo. It absolutely had the Vertigo feel, while not being a Vertigo title. The shop I managed at the time saw sales of Starman surpassing X-men by about 2-3% and consistently sold as a back issue. Of course once the trades started we would have to re-order from DC on a weekly basis. Granted we were two blocks away from the Univ of Wa so our clientele was more interested in Vertigo type books (we sold Sandman and Transmet equally as well) to the dismay of Marvel/X-men Zombies but still quality rises to the top. Just my two cents worth.