Starshine

History

Unlike some of the other alter egos, Starshine’s imaginary history has never been discussed. For a contrasting example, Jumpin’ Jack Flash believes himself to be a hero whose secret identity is a lawyer and that he’s from an alternate dimension where comic-book superheroes are commonplace.

Meadows seldom manifests this alter ego due to Starshine’s tendency toward precipitous action. One particular incident involved Starshine spending his hour of existence decimating construction crews that were razing the Amazon Rain Forests.

At the end of the hour, Mark was left in the middle of a trashed construction site with pissed troops from the Brazilian Army closing in. It took him a week to get home, and he didn’t let Starshine out again for months.

Meadows used the Starshine persona to break Dr. Tachyon out of government lock-up previous to their trip to Takis. On Takis, Starshine assisted the House of Ilkazam in repelling the soldiers of the Network, an interstellar commerce federation allied with a rival House.

During the battle Starshine defeated a Ly’Barr cyborg in single combat. He was the first person to ever do so. However, he suffered such massive injuries in the process that he died soon afterward.

Meadows is unable to manifest Starshine anymore, and even lost the power of speech for some time after Justin’s death.

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Description

Starshine is a tall, muscular, square-jawed Caucasian Adonis with wavy blond hair and sparkling green eyes. Justin would probably be considered attractive if not for his continuous expression of contempt.

He wears a skin-tight pale yellow bodysuit with green buccaneer gloves, trunks, and fold-over boots and an orange starburst on the center of his chest; he is completely oblivious to what a fashion disaster he is.

Personality

Starshine is a dedicated activist, endlessly droning about environmentalism, feminism, and other important progressive causes. Simply put, he is endlessly opinionated about EVERYTHING. He tends to look down on everyone that does not live up to his ideals, which is everyone.

When Dr. Tachyon’s mind was transferred into a teenage girl’s body and he was then made pregnant after being raped by his evil grandson, Starshine berated Tachyon for not taking advantage of the opportunity to experience the world from a woman’s perspective.

Starshine’s constant haranguing of everyone around him makes him an unbearable presence in most social settings.

To make matters worse, Justin prefers to express himself through poetry or dramatic oration whenever he has the opportunity. His monologues are so over the top that they’re painful to hear, and he often has to be dragged back on-task when he gets on a roll.

A classic example was when he was summoned to fight the Ly’Bahr and immediately began a monologue on the evils of war as the battle was starting.

Quotes

“Don’t you have any Perrier ?”

“I’ve composed a poem on the subject. Would you like to hear it ?”

DC Universe History

See the Captain Trips write-up for Starshine’s DC History in conjunction with Mark Meadows.

For a DCU history incorporating Starshine as an independant entity, Justin could be a Cadmus experiment related to Superboy.

Instead of emphasizing Superman’s telekinetic abilities as was done with Superboy, Starshine’s abilities come from an attempt to adapt Superman’s ability to store and process solar radiation. Interestingly enough, his ability to transform into light foreshadows Superman’s later transformation into an energy being.

Starshine’s personality programming was rather primitive, resulting in over-the-top stereotypic “hero” behavior.

Starshine was accidentally released at the same time as Superboy and took up an independent career. He was one of the heroes targeted by the White Martians during their invasion due to his heat- and light-related abilities and perished during the battle with Mageddon.

In the latter case, his uniform colors should be altered to reflect the standard blue-and-red Superman motif, retaining the gold starburst on the chest. Or, if you like, give Starshine’s costume a green-and-red motif with starburst like the inhabitants of Krypton.

By Kansas Jim and Roy Cowan.

Source of Character: Wild Cards series (novels, comics), character created by Victor Milan.

Helper(s): GURPS Wild Cards, Paul ’Z‘ Ewande, Richard Lyon, Phil Dixon, Brain Mendus, Sean MacDonald, Nubbin.