Robinson's Starman: C/D

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So...I'm surprised to see so few mentions of Robinson's Starman. For me it's a complete classic from the begining till the end. I downloaded all the issues when I had dial up and spend weeks reading them and feeling amazed. Probably one of the best superhero works of the 90's.

But...for you?? Classic or Dud?.

― Amadeo (Amadeo G.), Friday, 21 October 2005 03:17 (twenty years ago)

I lost track after the first ten issues, but those were grrrreat. Has this fallen out of favor with the DCU powers that be?

― ng-unit, Friday, 21 October 2005 03:52 (twenty years ago)

Last time I saw him, he was writing horrible but waay better paid scripts for Hollywood

― iodine (iodine), Friday, 21 October 2005 03:53 (twenty years ago)

I've never read the whole series all the way through, and I doubt I'll ever bother to do so before I die. The parts of it I've read were OK, but maybe too serious for me to take them seriously (especially with the Shade and all that "the Opal" stuff-- trying too hard to ape The Sandman?). So, less than classic, but more than dud?

― Chris F. (servoret), Friday, 21 October 2005 04:06 (twenty years ago)

At the time Vic Fluro and I took the piss out of this mercilessly, despite this we bought the stupid thing until about issue #40. So "intriguing but irritating", maybe.

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 21 October 2005 07:20 (twenty years ago)

I read most of this and was eager to find out what happened next etc, but also found it quite irritating - especially the trip into space where every single starman in existence was tied together in a display of continuity fanwankery that would make Geoff Johns cream his dry goods. Also it was a mistake, I feel, to build up the lady Mist as the arch nemesis and then just have her as a minion of that stupid dwarf who had taken over the Shade.

I liked that '50s ratpack supervillain turned goody though - he was cool. ring a ding ding!

― Mark C (Markco), Friday, 21 October 2005 08:24 (twenty years ago)

Starman is the Stephen Dorff of comics.

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Friday, 21 October 2005 09:13 (twenty years ago)

He always drones on and on and on about old movies, with all his stresses in the wrong place like no human would speak.

It turned out when I got the first JSA trade for cheap that everyone apparently makes references to awful old films for no good reason in the DCU, though...

― Vic Fluro (Vic Fluro), Friday, 21 October 2005 14:16 (twenty years ago)

Yeah basically the problem was that Jack Knight was a prize cockfarmer.

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 21 October 2005 14:20 (twenty years ago)

Please note that James Robinson also had a hand in the fist 7+ issues of JSA (w/ Senor Johns). Please also note that David Goyer (AKA the Blade movie guy) co-wrote that space arc, & that Goyer took over for JR as co-writer on JSA.

I had no theoretical problem w/ the rampant nostalgia hootie hoo (both in what JK was jonesin', and the way the characters acted), but sometimes I just wish the story cut through that pretense and DID SOMETHING. Also, like Vic noted, there was something just a little off in the way folks talked. But it looked fantastic - Tony Harris 4evah. And I think it worked despite itself @ times - I'm thinking of the early issue where the New Mist layed out her master plan to mess w/ Jack Knight's mind. And, sure, bonus points for scope / scale / chutzpah. But, overall, it leaves me a little underwhelmed.

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 21 October 2005 14:32 (twenty years ago)

It wasn't really like that, the first six or seven JSA issues are written by James Robinson and David Goyer, then Robinson walks out, enter Geoff Johns and voila, the uncanny team of Johns & Goyer is born.

― iodine (iodine), Friday, 21 October 2005 15:39 (twenty years ago)

GAH! You're right, of course.

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 21 October 2005 15:41 (twenty years ago)

i read all of this last year. i think the two BIG arcs, the space one and 'grand guignol', suffer from just not really working, maybe in the pacing. i feel like the rampant nostalgia in the superhero past stuff needed to engage with the main character as hopeless collecter stuff, somehow. it all just didn't hold together maybe?

ted knight = super cool tho.

― tom west (thomp), Friday, 21 October 2005 15:44 (twenty years ago)

Yeah those too have a bit of the Kindly Ones about them, except that one of Robinson's schticks was that he did know how everything was supposed to go.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Friday, 21 October 2005 15:50 (twenty years ago)

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