#4, February 1995
A Day in the Opal

We start with the odd story of Harry Ajax; an artist/mystic who became famous for his odd art in the early 1930’s. His was most famous for his painted Hawaiian shirts. Several years later, he said that he was going to combine his talents and paint a gateway to Heaven on the back of one of his shirts. He was laughed at, but he was never seen again after he completed the shirt. We then cut to a mansion in Switzerland, where wealthy Albert Bekker sends a man named Sands to pick up this same shirt from a shop they believe it is in. Guess whose?

We get a brief interlude where a woman named Rachel Foster is pulled into a poster by a demon and then a man takes the poster and walks off. (This man is Merritt and we will learn much more about him later.)

We then go to Jack’s apartment, where he is busily working on constructing his new custom rod: a staff design with a spear head shape on the top. The Shade appears, causing Jack to immediately raise the staff in defense. To his dismay, Shade does not feel threatened. Shade says it was because Jack innately knew that he wasn’t a threat and sense he was coming even though he gave no warning. Shade then asks if Jack has any memories of a past life where he was a Native American. Jack says no and asks about the weird question. Shade explains that there was once a lawman in Opal about 100 years before, a white man raised by Native Americans. He had a quality that Shade sees in Jack; something that made him think Jack was this man reincarnated.

The Shade then presents Jack with his two gifts. The first is one of Shade’s journals. He tells Jack that as the city’s hero, he must know about it’s past and that reading his journals will help. He then presents Jack with the second gift. It is the object Shade found in the rubble of the museum (back in Starman#1): A plaque reading "Adele Doris Knight: Dedicated 1959". It is then that Jack notices that the journal Shade gave him is dated in the 1800’s. Shade says, in a dismissive tone, "I’ve been around a while." He then leaves, reminding Jack that he is the only one who can be Starman.

After a quick montage where we see Jack making some deals for more collectibles and getting some color added to a tattoo, we cut back to his shop. Sands arrives, and tries to threaten Jack for the shirt. Jack says that he has no interest in the shirt but he is not going to just sit by and let himself be robbed. There is a brief stand off as each man examines the other, the two finally agreeing on a simple purchase of the shirt. The issue ends with Bekker getting the shirt and then with us being told that he disappeared off the face of the Earth.