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From SCIFIPEDIA
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Star Boy is a fictional comic book superhero owned by DC Comics, and part of the 31st century superhero team, The Legion of Super-Heroes. Recently, as Starman, he has joined the Justice Society of America in the present day.
Star Boy started (during the Silver Age of Comics) in a purple costume with a white cape and a yellow star on his chest. Later on, in the Bronze Age of Comics, Star Boy grows a beard and takes on a costume with no cape that is essentially a star field. This is the costume he wears in Kindom Come (1996) and in the current run of the Justice Society of America comic. In his post-Zero Hour incarnation, he had a black and white costume (sans cape) with a yellow star on his chest again.
Character Origin
A thousand years from now, Thom Kallor is born in an astronomical observatory orbiting the planet Xanthu, a world where astronomy is a very highly regarded field. Something about his orbital birth (it was first postulated that it was his constant exposure to starlight) gives him the ability to transfer mass from the stars into any other object, effectively giving him the ability to make things very heavy. In the Silver Age of Comics version of the tale, Star Boy gets even more powers when he flies through a comet while innocently joy riding through space. In a scene reminicent of the Silver Age Superboy, his parents set him up as the superhero "Star Boy" while keeping his real identity a secret. In The Bronze Age of Comics, his updated origin was not so rosy. According to Who's Who in the Legion of Super-Heroes #6 (1988), when his mass transferring powers manifests he accidently wrecks the space station on which he was born. His parents then bring him down to Xanthu for medical examination. There he undergoes a long battery of painful tests for years.
Finally, having had enough, he escapes the hospital and his planet in a space cruiser. During his escape, he flies through the tail of a comet and temporarily receives powers equivalent to a native of Krypton. He flees to Earth. In both versions, Thom applies to the Legion with his array of powers using the code name Star Boy, and is accepted. When his Superboy-like powers fade, he is in the middle of a quelling a prison riot on Takron Takron-Galtos, and gets seriously hurt. He spends months in the hospital recovering. When he gets out he finds that his original power to affect mass and density remains, so he continues as a member in good standing in the Legion. He begins a romantic relationship with Dream Girl, who was then a member of the Legion of Substitute Heroes, an organization of teens who had applied for Legion membership but had been rejected. Dream Girl’s power is to predict the future.
Character History
His most famous storyline comes in Adventure Comics #342 (1966). Thom finds himself in a situation where he is driven to kill Kenz Nuhor, a rejected suitor of Dream Girl’s, in self-defense. While the science police clear him, the Legion has a strong code against killing, and this is a very serious matter. Star Boy explains that he had to shoot him with the ray gun, as Nuhor had a shield that reflected his mass adding power back to him when Thom tried to make the crazed criminal super-heavy. With Brainiac 5 as prosecutor and Superboy as defense council, a trial is held with the entire Legion watching, either in person or by “tele-viewer”. Brainiac 5 demonstrates that Thom could have used his power by firing over the shield at the tree behind Nuhor, making the tree so heavy that it would have fallen on him, probably stopping him without killing him. Even Superboy admits that Thom could have done this if he had thought of it. The entire Legion votes. The result is that the vote goes against him, and Star Boy is expelled. Afterwards, he joins the Substitute Legion to be near Dream Girl.
Some time later, in Adventure Comics #351 (1966) Star Boy and Dream Girl help the Legion disguised as Sir Prize and Miss Terious, who are taken after being vouched for by Superboy and Supergirl. When their identities are revealed, Star Boy is allowed to rejoin, along with Dream Girl for the first time.
Star Boy becomes The New Starman
Much later, Thom encounters the Starman (Jack Knight) from the 21st century. During this encounter he learns that he is destined to become the next Starman of the 21st century after Jack retires. It is also reported that he is also destined to die in this role.
As Starman, Thom appears in the critically acclaimed Elseworlds series Kingdom Come (1996) by Mark Waid and Alex Ross. It was later revealed that this story took place on a parallel earth called Earth-22, as described in the maxi-series 52 (2006). In Justice Society of America #6 (2007) we learn that Thom had traveled there accidentally on his way to our 21st Century Earth. The Legion had traveled back in time just at the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths for a secret mission, the nature of which is revealed in Justice League of America #10 (2007). We also find out that Thom had always suffered from a form of schizophrenia, and that, with the benefit of 31st century medicine, he has had it completely under control.
When he arrived finally on our Earth his memory was confused, and, deprived of whatever treatment he was getting in his own time, the schizophrenia began to manifest itself again. So, it is a very confused Thom that, as Starman, joins the Justice Society of America. Fortunately for him, the Justice Society has a tradition of heroes with the name “Starman” and a policy of taking on young and troubled heroes.
Thom is reunited with Dream Girl and his fellow Legionnaires for the conclusion of their 21st century mission, but chooses to remain in the 21st century with the Justice Society for now to fulfill his destiny. Fellow Legionnaire Karate Kid and Duo Damsel remains behind with him.
2008, SCI FI. All rights reserved.
