Note: If you’re reading Starman for the first time thanks to the recent Starman Omnibus V1, you may want to skip this entry. I guess it has spoilers for the entire series.
I’d like to think that today Jack Knight is enjoying a day in his San Francisco shop, with his son Ted and daughter Doris (at least that’s what I think her name is) and the love of his life Sadie helping out. It’s been seven yeas since he handed off his mantle, loaded everything into a station wagon and left Opal City. 2001 was three years before my own son had been born and since then, James Robinson’s Starman has taken on a whole new meaning for me.
When Starman #0 first showed up in 1993, it had a hero with attitude. Jack’s father may have been the golden age Starman but Jack wasn’t impressed. His old man and his older brother wanted to live in the past, recapturing the glory days of Starman and Jack wanted to live in the present or the future. Of course, the present for him was a shop where he only sold old patterned shirts and vintage tin lunch boxes but that didn’t matter because Jack was hip and he just didn’t care. When forced to though, he picked up Starman’s cosmic rod and fought just like his father and brother and, over time, Jack Knight became Starman. I like to think that the books I really like have taught me something or, at least, helped form me. I used to think Starman maybe only taught me how to be a hero but after a while, I realized that it taught me how to be a son.
And then, at the end of the series, Jack Knight became a father. It happened late and Jack didn’t have much time to be a father before the end but the last issue of the series deals with that, as Jack, having made the choice to leave Opal, has to say goodbye and make sure that Opal will be well watched. The issue is and it isn’t about Jack being a father. Jack’s choices are made because of his son Teddy and other related news he learns this issue but it’s about Jack’s last acts as Starman, as he checks in on everyone who’s helped him protect Opal City.
Early in the series, Jack was the son, learning how to be Starman from his father. In issue #81, he’s the father and it’s his turn to teach his on children. Jack’s lessons will be different than his father’s. Where his father had science, Jack has art, a choice that shows the passions of both men. It would be interesting to see where Jack’s children’s hearts lie.
Starman was a series about fathers and sons, about brothers and about family and that’s what the last issue continues to be about. Over the years, James Robinson and Tony Harris have hinted at an on-again/off-again Starman graphic novel and many fans have said that of all characters they wish would return that Jack Knight tops that list but, honestly, that’s something I hope to never see. The final image is a perfect ending to Jack’s story– essentially Jack driving off into the sunset. Robinson’s story shows how you can take a character and have him live, breathe and grow. It should be a template for all writers looking to do something different with a character because Robinson was able to do this under the confines of the DC Universe. He was able to play within the confines of an established universe while creating a main character as free and independent as you can find in any creator-owned book.
As I said earlier, Starman has had different meanings to me over the years, something I can’t say for most books. It usd to be about heroism and accepting fate or destiny, maybe about being a son to a father. When I look at the book now after the birth of my son, it’s about growing up and becoming a man and a father. It’s about what you go through as you make the transition from child to adult, a transition we usually think means becoming older and becoming and Adult (capital “A.”) In this last issue of Starman, we see that becoming an adult is accepting responsibility and accepting who you are. Jack doesn’t become an Adult but he does grow up and figures out who he is as a son and as a father.
Happy Father’s Day
Starman #81
“Arrivederci, Bon Voyage and Goodbye”
Written by: James Robinson
Drawn by: Peter Snejbjerg
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