Now, the original Starman (the one who appeared in ADVENTURE COMICS and ALL-STAR COMICS beginning in 1941)had as his main distinction something called the Gravity Rod. This was a sceptre that charged up with starlight and converted it into useful energy. Anti-gravity, concussive blasts, heat rays (and the occasional rabbit-out-of-the-hat application) made Starman an upper-level super-hero able to hold his own with the heavy hitters in the Justice Society.
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Below is from ALL-STAR COMICS# 11, June-July 1942. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Starman is seized with the same intense patriotism as the other JSA members and they all enlist in their civilian identities. (Why not in costume? Maybe because they thought of their civilian identities as their true selves, who they really were and saw their super-hero guises as something of a game. Just as they wouldn't get married as Hawkman or the Atom, they wouldn't enlist that way.) Anyway, Ted Knight somehow brings his costume and weapon along with him anyway and soon finds himself attacking a huge concentration of Japanese forces. In fact, he ends up seizing Formosa by himself....!
The natural thought is, if he's this invincible against conventional fighter planes, why doesn't Starman go on to Tokyo or Berlin and just level those cities? For that matter, why only make one Gravity Rod? He repairs and replaces his gizmo a number of times, so it's not non-reproducible. Why isn't there a squad of Starmen in action? Is it just a case of "It's MY toy, I don't want anyone else to play with it?" Or that he fears the American military will misuse his technology? Wars don't last forever and when WW II ends, will America go on an imperialistic conquest using the Gravity Rod adventage? (In 1942, it would be an unusually perceptive person who worried about future possibilities like that.)
"Let's erect a gigantic rod..." "You Earthmen are so dirty."
A few months later, we find Starman on the planet Jupiter in a typically implausible Golden Age epic. Here he has the Jovians build an immense replica of his Gravity Rod and its power propels his ship back to Earth. Leaving the war aside, imagine the uses for a device like this. Engineering, construction, transportation, rescue work in disasters... it would provide a leap forward as big as the telephone or the electric light. But this never seems to occur to Ted Knight. The Gravity Rod is restricted to his personal use for fighting super-villains, alien invaders and bank robbers...
That reminds me. I need to get back to reading the Robinson run
I remember it being really good. He understood pacing and plot turns and build-up. My very minor dislike was that he emphasized odd words in his dialogue, maybe that was how he talked in real life.
Because is a comic.
You know the difference between a Watsonian explanation and a Doylean one, right?
>why doesn't the story end in 1 issue
>You know the difference between a Watsonian explanation and a Doylean one, right?
Because he was waiting in the sky
20 points for remembering Ziggy,
Because Hitler had the staff of destiny.
There were a couple of reasons. First, as mentioned, the Nazi possession of the Staff of Destiny prevented direct action by the JSA and other heroes on the European front.
Second, Ted Knight probably didn't trust his gravity rod technology to be given to the government. But he DID work on the Manhattan Project, and the result was that he spent years in a sanitarium due to the guilt he felt being partially responsible for Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
>In 1942, it would be an unusually perceptive person who worried about future possibilities like that.
More or less perceptive than creating technology like the gravity rod by himself in the 30s?
>More or less perceptive than creating technology like the gravity rod by himself in the 30s?
Yeah, there are different types of awareness and perception. Someone intelligent in a technologically inventive sense wouldn't necessarily have that same level as far as understanding politics and nationalism. Not many Americans at the time saw past the war other than realizing rivalry with the Soviets would be big. My impresion is that more people trusted the government to do the right thing... naive, unenlightened, however you want to word it.
>But he DID work on the Manhattan Project, and the result was that he spent years in a sanitarium due to the guilt he felt being partially responsible for Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
This is a huge topic that has been debated for many thousands of words on different forums, but that guilt is mostly a modern projection back into what we think they should have felt back then. The vast majority of Americans (Not to mention Chinese and other victims of Japan) were relieved and glad to see the war end, no matter what it took. Hundreds of thousands of US servicemen realized they weren't going to be kiled in the next year and would be going home (and their families and loved ones were glad too.)
Maybe I'm misremembering, but didn't the Spear of Destiny affect heroes with magical powers? Green Lantern, Dr Fate, Spectre, Wonder Woman? Starman's gravity rod was a science device.
The logistics of the Spear of Destiny were all over the place; IE it affected anyone with super powers (making them brainwashed Nazi thralls) but at the same time, it also affected people with powerful weapons/gimmick items like Starman and Green Lantern, yet heroes like Wildcat, Hawkman, and Sandman (who were normal folks with no powers) were immune to the Spear's mind control powers. Alongside people like Dr Midnite who had shitty powers such as the ability to see in the dark even though they were 100% blind in the daylight due to injuries inflicted upon their eyes that were no affected by the Spear.
TL;DR the Spear of Destiny was a poorly thought out plot device to explain why the JSA didn't just stop WW2 within a couple of months of American involvement.
The whole "Ted went insane Oppenheimer-style over making the A-Bomb" was a bullshit retcon to explain why he went away after WW2. The only reason it is still canon is Robinson wrote Golden Age and carried over portions of it to Starman even though Golden Age itself was an Elseworld book and no one really liked it, resulting in Robinson having to cave and go "OK, only PARTS of it are canon post-Zero Hour".
Interesting fanfic, that one. Now let’s focus on reality: you didn’t like the Golden Age, there’s no accounting for taste, but it doesn’t mean nobody liked i. The only aspect that carried over that story was Ted Knight’s breakdown, something I appreciate as it gives these ga characters some texture beyond the costumes. Now carry on.
>The only aspect that carried over that story was Ted Knight’s breakdown, something I appreciate as it gives these ga characters some texture beyond the costumes
I bet he hates Hourman being an addict too. It's reductive thinking like that that Earth 2 fans say because they lack taste
>TL;DR the Spear of Destiny was a poorly thought out plot device to explain why the JSA didn't just stop WW2 within a couple of months of American involvement.
...I'd agree with that. There really isn't a way to explain why the more powerful heroes didn't at least fight in Europe, if not end the war by themselves. It's probably a topic best not addressed within the comics themselves. In ALL-STAR COMICS# 11, all the Justice Society members enlisted (except the Spectre, him being dead and all). A phony sounding excuse was set up that led to them being registered as a special "Justice Battalion" for the duration and this was quickly forgotten.
>"OK, only PARTS of it are canon post-Zero Hour".
I have absolutely no idea what is official canon at this point and I doubt anyone at DC really does either. They've changed their history more than a drunk driver trying tol explain why they're parked in the middle of the street going the wrong way.
Golden Age was particularly galling to try and make canon as it just is not compatible with lore:
1. Ultra-Humanite is killed off in definitive fashion
2. Sportsmaster and Huntress/Tigress aren't a married couple (but Sportsmaster still has a kid) and Sportsmaster is killed off
3. Dan The Dyn-A-Mite's death
The first two just can't be incorporated into post-Zero Hour lore as both Sportsmaster and Ultra Humanite had major roles in JLA and Infinity Inc. Dan The Dyn-A-Mite also is alive/having appeared in a major arc in Young Justice written by Peter David.
Plus the fact that it gives mean spirited final fates to a bunch of Golden Age characters, most notably Golden Age Robotman.
I'm not really someone to try to convince about what's official lore or not. DC has destroyed its universe and hit the reset button quite a few times. Since I'm mostly a Golden Age and Silver Age, that doesn't bother me, Anything after the mid-1970s might be fun reading but it's not in my area of real interest.
I don't know if you're pretending to be an idiot, but no one has ever said that The Golden Age was canon. Just because they've utillised plot points like Hourmans addiction issues, Starman's bout in the sanatorium, Alan Scott's dilemma over the magnitude of his power, Hawkman's savagery in battle, Al Pratt's insecurity etc doesn't mean that the story itself is canon I know this because I've read the book several times.
No one has ever stated that, and repeat fact that you're annoyed that the more interesting aspects is rather strange.
>The whole "Ted went insane Oppenheimer-style over making the A-Bomb" was a bullshit retcon to explain why he went away after WW2. The only reason it is still canon is Robinson wrote Golden Age and carried over portions of it to Starman even though Golden Age itself was an Elseworld book and no one really liked it, resulting in Robinson having to cave and go "OK, only PARTS of it are canon post-Zero Hour
Bro, it's been canon since the Adams Flash run, #769 I believe. Also, I'm pretty sure Robinsons Golden Age is what lead to a revival in popularity for the JSA
Confusing shit.
Golden Age was a nothingburger when it was released; Wizard no-sold it and All Star Squadron fans were pissed at how it threw numerous characters under the bus and then some. Which in turn was why Mike Carlin gave the kill order to wipe out the JSA in Zero Hour.
Starman did better and boosted the profile of the JSA but it wasn't until Geoff took over JSA from Robinson after a couple of issues that the book took off like gangbusters.
>TL;DR the Spear of Destiny was a poorly thought out plot device to explain why the JSA didn't just stop WW2 within a couple of months of American involvement.
I disagree it was poorly thought out.
"Hitler has a magic thingamabob that prevents the Allied superfolk from fighting in German-controlled land" was about the best explanation anyone was going to come up with.
storytime some starman
This never made much sense. Starman can't charge the gravity rod during daytime because the stars "aren't out." But of course the stars didn't go anywhere! It's just light of the Sun on the atmosphere keeps us from seeing them.
But, the sun is a star. His weapon should overcharged at all times because of the proximity to it.
Is there an in universe reason as to why this doesn't work or is it that the 1940s writers weren't scientists?
It's the latter. Most people knew a lot less about science in `1942 than the averge person does today. Pluto had only been discovered in 1930. Almost nothing was known about conditions on other planets. Your average person wouldn't have been sure what a galaxy or comet was. The writer here (I'm not sure who he was, the art was by Jack Burnley) seemed to think that the stars disappeared during the daylight hours.
Isn't it just solar powered anyway?
Kind of the opposite. In the Golden Age, anyway. Starman said his gravity rod only worked at night in several stories and a few times it was specifically said he can't charge it during daytime because the Sun produces ultra-violet rays (why that matters, I don't know.)
Are you the same guy posting Superman clippings?
No. My tell sign is I capitalize the names of comics, novels and movies (an old habit).
wait, what?
His power always came off as pretty much the same thing as Green Lantern's for the longest time. I'm still not sure why Starman is considered so low powered compared these days.
Oddly enough, the Starman figures in one JSA story were redrawn to be Green Lantern. It didn't take much, the gravity rod did act a lot like the power ring.
In the 40s it seemed better than a GL ring. Alan only ever really used it to zap guns away and then he punched every bad guy he fought
Alan Scott and Ted Knight had a lot in common. They both preferred to punch crooks whenever possible. Both had weapons which were mostly for flying and protection against guns but, as time went on, they found more versatile uses. Alan brought the JSA through time with his ring and Ted used the gravity rod to generate oxygen or a cooling field around himself. Neither got as over-the-top as Silvder Age Hal Jordan though; HE shrank into micro-worlds, turned people into exact duplicates of himself, created air and water for an asteroid, stuff like that.
can someone storytime some golden age DC stuff?
nice art
Not as nice art as you, UwU~
Nazis usually end up having satan magic or something that prevents supers from supering