Starman #0


Starman #0 Writer: James Robinson
Pencils: Tony Harris
Inks: Wade Von Grawbadger
Letters: John E. Workman
Colors: Gregory Wright
Associate Editor: Jim Spivey
Editor: Archie Goodwin

#0, October 1994
Falling Star, Rising Son (Sins of the Father: Part One)

We open on a view of Opal City and it’s new champion, David Knight, as he stands heroically and gazes down upon his city. He looks strong and heroic; a true traditional superhero… at least until a sniper’s bullet goes through his chest and he falls several stories into an alley. This may be considered symbolic of the direction of the series. We are given the image of a typical superhero who is immediately killed so that we may focus on a most unusual character. Simiarly, Robinson put up the front of a typical superhero book and then changed it into something unique.

We cut to earlier in the day and see Jack Knight and Ted Knight for the first time.

David is shot

It is made obvious immediately that the relationship between Jack and the rest of the family is quite strained. The two brothers are arguing over a set of old books Jack wants to buy from David. Ted stops the fight and tells Jack not to bother David with something so trivial since David “has a lot on his mind now” with the new role of Starman he has just taken up. Jack mocks David, notes he’s amazed he can go out in public in costume and wonders how many people are laughing at David besides him. Ted tells Jack to leave, which he does after insuring that he can still come over for Sunday dinner.


We then follow Jack as he goes through the Alleys of Oldtown. He picks up some shirts at a Chinese Laundry, stops by his shop of tattoo artist Morris (who we see throughout the series), passes by the barbershop of Zeke (who we will also see again later) and notices a new shop called ‘Fortunes and Forbidden Tales’. Making a mental note to check it later, Jack enters his shop and does some work for three hours. He unexpectedly starts shivering around the start of the second hour, which he finds out later was the time David was shot.


Jack escapes from a bomb

After the third hour, Jack gets a call from Ted who tells him about the assassin. Ted says he is going to the morgue to officially identify the body. He tells Jack that he put a spare cosmic rod and a cosmic belt in a box full of papers he asked Jack to keep for him. Ted tells Jack he did this in case Jack ever needed protection from a Starman enemy looking for revenge. Ted is leaving the house, when it suddenly explodes behind him. Ted is hit in the head by a flying brick, as a woman watches from the shadows.

Back at Jack’s shop, a man enters asking for old jade. Jack immediately senses something wrong and tries to get the man to leave. The man pulls a gun, noting that it’s the gun that killed Starman. A fight ensues, Jack holding his own (we learn that Jack has some martial arts training) until he tries to run and get the rod. He’s shot in the right leg and then in the right arm, and the man leaves, taking the Cosmic Belt with him. He then drops a bomb which blows up the store, but not before Jack finds the spare rod and uses it to escape.


The Mist meets with his children

Cut to the hideout of The Mist, long time enemy of Starman as he is greeted by the man and woman from before. We find that these two people are his children: Nash and Kyle. Nash reports that she blew up Ted Knight’s house and that he was injured but fine. Nash seems very nervous and stutters. Kyle reports that he shot David Knight from afar and that Jack was burned up in his shop. (It is worth noting, ironically, that despite being a family of criminals, The Mist and his children seem to have much more stable relationships than Ted and his children)

The issue closes with a wounded Jack, limping through the streets of Opal, dazed and thinking that he must find his father.


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