Star Boy

Star Boy is a character formed from the recycled scraps of an older hero called Marsboy. Marsboy made three appearances beginning with Superboy #14 (May/June 1951). Star Boy and Marsboy both obtained super-powers from passing space objects.

Marsboy's final appearance, Adventure Comics #195 (Dec. 1953), was repackaged almost entirely to become the origin story for Star Boy. In both, the heroes came to Earth in pursuit of native criminals, needed Superboy's help because their x-ray vision could not penetrate copper, and were blackmailed by Lana Lang into helping to make Superboy jealous.

Both Marsboy and Star Boy even used a futuristic loom to make a dress for Lana. And Marsboy's world had speaking "para-puppies" while on Xanthu, Superboy encountered a talking "parakat."

Original Star Boy

Thom Kallor calls himself the unluckiest Legionnaire. Certainly he's had his share of misfortune, starting with his birth on an astronomical research station orbiting Xanthu. His parents, Fryd and Myra, were doing research on stellar objects' properties, and the data-gathering machines gathered more than just information, they gathered radiations that made baby Thom a mutant, with the ability to draw matter from the stars and add it to the mass of any object, making it heavier. This was first discovered when he used this power on the space station itself, upsetting its orbit, and forcing his family planet-side.

But Thom never saw his power as a gift; to him it was a curse. It made him a freak, a curiosity for every scientist on Xanthu. He was poked, probed and prodded by hundreds of researchers by the time he reached his teens. Finally he decided he had enough, stole his parents' space-speeder and ran away. But he failed to get very far; he was intercepted by a comet's tail and turned back around toward Xanthu. The craft crashed, but fortunately for Thom, the comet imbued him with powers like those of a Daxamite: super-strength, speed, electrical vision, flight and invulnerability, the last of which saved his life. Instead of sticking around for more doctors to figure out what makes him tick this time, he took off for Earth, where, as Star Boy, he joined the Legion of Super-Heroes. (Adventure #282)

He had only been with the Legion a short while when he was assigned to put down a prisoners' revolt on Takron-Galtos, then a police training camp with a small prison attached. He arrived there, faking weakness so that the prisoners would not think he was super-powered... but when he was ready to make his move, he found that his powers had deserted him. In desperation, he used his mass-shifting power to collapse the roof of the prison upon both the prisoners and himself, quelling the uprising and putting himself into intensive care. His powers, it seemed, came and went cyclically; as he recovered, he enlisted the help of Brainiac 5 in channeling the energy of the comet toward better control of his mass-shifting ability. (Legion vol. 2 #306)

When he was able to rejoin the Legion, he met its newest applicant, the beautiful Nura Nal (Dream Girl) and fell in love instantly. (Adventure #317) He continued to see her even after she left the Legion to hone her powers, and she loved him as well. She was present when a suitor she had jilted in Thom's favor, Kenz Nuhor, approached Thom with murder in his eyes. Thom tried to use his powers to defend himself, but Nuhor, anticipating this, had a special shield which reflected his power back at him. Thom was pinned to the ground, and it looked like he would die... when he spotted a blaster dropped by a previous victim. He saved his life by taking Kenz Nuhor's. But although he acted in self-defense, and was innocent of murder in the eyes of the law, the Legion constitution said that if there were another way for one to save his life, the killing was not justifiable. Brainiac 5 proved that there was another way, and Star Boy was expelled from the Legion. At Dream Girl's urging, he joined the Legion of Substitute Heroes, where their romance grew. (Adventure #342)

Star Boy and Dream Girl soon returned to the Legion disguised as "Sir Prize" and "Miss Terious." When they were unmasked, they were allowed back into the Legion. (Adventure #351) For the next several years, he and Nura enjoyed a successful tenure. But things changed when Nura became the Legion leader in 2984, the couple began seeing less of each other. (Legion vol. 2 #291) His interest in fun clashed with her responsibilities as the Legion's leader to the point where Thom felt rejected, especially when she decided that she wanted another term as leader.

Glorith Reality (Legion vol. 4)

Nura eventually introduced Thom to Yvyya Val, a woman who owned a "batball" team, the Naltor Dreamers. Thom was a great fan of the sport, and he and Yvyya hit it off. They were eventually married and she named him to manage the team despite his lack of batball experience. The gamble paid off for the Dreamers, who won a pennant under his guidance (despite the illegal interference of racketeer, Starfinger). (Legion vol. 4 #37)

Retroboot: Starman and the Justice Society

In "Retroboot" continuity, the original Legion was more-or-less restored to existence, but without the events of Legion vol. 4. This means that Thom Kallor never married Yvvya Val.

When the Legion Rejects—calling themselves the Justice League of Earth—took over planet, the Legionnaires were forced into hiding. One group undertook a mission into the 21st century to save the heroes who'd inspired them. (JSA: Kingdom Come Special: Magog) Brainiac 5 refused to give medical clearance to Star Boy. But when he heard that the mission involved an "unsettling" task (to exhume Superboy), Star Boy switched places with Colossal Boy at the last minute. Brainiac 5 fitted them with mental blocks in order to shield the mission from Saturn Girl, and most took up new, secret lives in the past. Somehow Star Boy crossed over to an alternate Earth—Earth-22—where he became known as Starman. (Justice League of America vol. 2 #8-9, Justice Society of America vol. 3 #5-6)

On Earth-22, Thom found himself in the middle of a war of heroes. (Kingdom Come #2) When the United Nations detonated a nuclear bomb over its metahumans, Starman's special uniform triggered a trans-universal jump. Both he and Earth-22's Superman were transported to Earth-0 (but at different points in time). Kallor was schizophrenic and 21st century medicine could not treat him adequately. Thus he became incoherent, took up residence in Sunshine Sanitarium in Opal City, and adopted the alias "Danny Blaine." (#4, Action #864, Justice Society of America vol. 3 #22) Word of this strange "Starman" eventually made its way to the Justice Society, whose Stargirl and Dr. Mid-Nite visited Thom and invited him to join the Justice Society. (Justice Society of America #1) Thom's behavior was often incoherent and he obsessed over indiscernible events. (#2)

One one of his earliest JSA missions, Starman created a black hole to stop an explosion, and in doing so brought the Superman of Earth-22 to Earth-0. (#9)

When it finally came time to enact the Legionnaires plan, the 21st century Legionnaires were awakened by post-hypnotic suggestion. Thom and the others took up positions across the globe, with lightning rods in their hands, to await a particular lightning strike. All were prepared to sacrifice their lives for the return of the Flash, Wally West. At the last fraction of a second, Karate Kid maneuvered himself out of the lightning's way and evaded its fury. After completing this mission, Starman remained in the past because he had yet another crucial mission to complete. (Justice League of America vol. 2 #10)

Meanwhile the JSA became embroiled with the godlike Gog, who cured Starman's dementia. (#17) Thom thus remembered his original mission (Justice Society #19) and said goodbye to Sunshine Sanitarium in Opal City to embark upon it. (JSA Kingdom Come Special: Magog #1) When Gog was defeated, Starman and Superman took him to the Source Wall for eternal imprisonment. Starman then opened a portal to send Superman home to Earth-22. (#22)

Starman's time with the Justice Society came to an end after applying for a job as a gravedigger in Metropolis. (JSA Kingdom Come Special: The Kingdom) This gave him access to Superboy's grave. (#23) He exhumed the body and placed it inside a Kryptonian regeneration chrysalis, which he placed that inside Superman's Fortress of Solitude. The plan was for Brainiac 5 to retrieve this chrysalis in one thousand years, when Superboy was whole again. (Legion of Three Worlds #4)

Going Home

After his mission was complete, Dream Girl was sent to retrieve her lover. Brainiac 5 immediately set about restoring Thom's sanity by draining multiversal energy from his suit and body. (Legion vol. 6 #11) Brainiac 5 begins curing Starman by draining the multiversal energy from his suit. (#12) Dream Girl had ominous dreams about Thom, dreams suggesting his imminent demise. (#13-14)

When Dream Girl and Brainy were kidnapped by the Dominion, Legion leader Mon-El refused to sanction a mission to rescue them. (because it would break a treaty). Star Boy was enraged and resigned. (Legion vol. 7 #9) He managed to find the captive Legionnaires and Dream Girl bade Star Boy to push his powers past all limits to create the gravity of a star. (#12) He returned to Legion duty (#16) right in the midst of a massive galaxy-wide attack from the Fatal Five. Star Boy (as he'd again been called) and other Legionnaires were stranded on Earth when their headquarters began to collapse. As it fell, Brainiac 5 managed to launch a ship, but Star Boy did not make it on-board. (#18) After the Fatal Five were defeated, Dream Girl confirmed that Star Boy had died that day. (#23)

This timeline may no longer exist after the DC reboot called the "New 52." Legion vol. 7 was a part of the New 52, but in its last issue, writer Paul Levitz suggested that the events of that series might have happened on a parallel Earth.

Notes

Jim Shooter on Star Boy: "A big fullback of a guy, he is slow, steady. faithful, honorable, reliable, loyal, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. And dumb. And probably hung like a horse, which will be the deciding factor in Dream Girl's settling down with him in that isolated observatory." —Interlac (1976)

Tom and Mary Bierbaum on Star Boy: "Maybe not as bright or as deep as most of his teammates, but Thom is a good man who really believes in the Legion way. And he's determined and earnest enough to make it work. Initially, he and Dream Girl were a good match, but as Nura matured, she came to overshadow him in virtually all areas except simple strength of character, and that's left a gap in Nura's life since they split." —Interlac (2000)

 

The idea of Thom Kallor in the 21st century, and his alias "Danny Blaine," was first propagated by Mark Waid in Kingdom Come #2. Notes from the Kingdom Come collected edition confirmed that this was Kallor, displaced from the 30th century.

In the Starman series, James Robinson expanded on Waid's idea of a 21st century Star Boy. Further, Robinson made Thom Kallor the reincarnation of Matt O'Dare (who was himself a reincarnation of Matt Savage, Scalphunter). (Starman vol. 2 #73)

In Starman vol. 2 #80, a hooded mystery Starman said to Jack Knight, "For all I know in other possible futures, Thom Kallor died serving in the Legion ... Or ... he doesn't return to the past to become Starman. But in the future that's mine, I did." This is apropos given what happened in DC continuity. At this point in DC's continuity, Jack Knight met the Star Boy of Earth-247. This was the post-Zero Hour timeline. All that changed with Infinite Crisis, which restored the original Legion as the mainstream DCU's future.

The rift between Thom and Nura became irreparable, and Nura began secretly seeing other men. And so, when Xanthu's champion Atmos disappeared, Star Boy resigned from the Legion and returned home to become Xanthu's protector. (Legion vol. 3 #28)

After Atmos was freed from his kidnapper, he chose to pursue Legion membership — and Dream Girl's love. (Legion vol. 3 #43-46) When he finally decided to return, Atmos received all the cheers... and had Nura at his side, though Thom still loved her. Eventually, Nura realized that Atmos had mind-control powers and was forcing her to be with him, and for a moment it seemed to Thom that he would have her back. But he could see in her eyes that his love no longer excited her. And so he told her that he would be seeking companionship elsewhere. (Legion vol. 3 Annual #4)

Powers

All incarnations of Star Boy have the ability to draw matter from the stars and add it to the mass of any object, making it heavier.

Starman also once had an encounter with a comet that left him with powers akin to Superman's: super-strength, speed, electrical vision, flight and invulnerability. These wore off quite soon and never returned. Currently, Thom appears to also be able to reverse the flow of his inborn powers, removing mass from objects, making them lighter.

Appearances + References