Red Star (comics)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Red Star | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
Red Star (a.k.a. Leonid Konstantinovitch Kovar) is a fictional Russian comic book superhero in the DC universe. A former member of the Teen Titans, he first appeared under the name Starfire in Teen Titans (1st series), #18 (Dec. 1968). He is not to be confused with the female DC character Starfire.
Contents |
[edit] History
Leonid's father, Konstantin, was an archeologist, and when the two investigated a spaceship that had crashed into the Yenesi River, the ship exploded. It imbued Leonid with energy, and gave him powers of superstrength, speed,and pyrokinesis. Being a Russian patriot who believed in socialism, he offered his services to his country and became the first official Russian superhero in the DC universe, taking the name Starfire. He would not reappear until New Teen Titans #18 in 1982. A new character named Starfire was on the team at this point, and so Leonid changed his codename to Red Star.
In New Titans #76 (1991), Red Star joined the Teen Titans. After two years, Red Star left the Titans with Pantha and Baby Wildebeest, forming a unique and somewhat dysfunctional family unit (New Titans #114, 1994). He was not seen again until the JLA/Titans miniseries in 1999. He made a few minor appearances over the next few years and was mosty recently seen in Infinite Crisis #4, in which he was frozen solid by Superboy-Prime after witnessing the brutal murder of Pantha and Baby Wildebeest.
He had, apparently, joined the Titans durring the one year jump, but left the team for unknown reasons. He recently helped them in their search for Raven. Since his last appearance he had stopped an invasion of Russia by the aliens from his origin, and been appointed State Protector. He is now based in a ship similar to the one that exploded, hovering over Moscow.
[edit] Teen Titans animated series
Red Star appeared in the Teen Titans animated series episode Snowblind. He assisted Starfire during a mission in Russia and quickly became an ally to her and the Titans. His powers are similar to Starfire's, since he has super strength, and can fire red energy beams, but his powers -unlike hers- are fuelled by intense and dangerous radiation.
In the cartoon show, Red Star's powers were the results of scientific experiments performed by the Soviet government and Professor Chang, in the hopes of producing a new super-soldier (similar to Marvel's Captain America).
Unfortunately, Red Star lost control of his powers and the energy within him burst out and exploded, causing mass destruction. Fearing that he could lose control of his powers again, Red Star locked himself away in an abandoned nuclear power plant, releasing his excess energy into canisters to regulate his powers. But when bacteria mutated from a nuclear radiation leak began to attack the Titans and a nearby town, Red Star courageously defeats the monster. At that point, he begins to lose control of his powers again and told Starfire to take him far away. She took him to the void of space where he disappeared in a massive explosion.
He made a surprise reappearance in "Titans Together", and participated in the battle against the Brotherhood of Evil. He helps by stopping Steamroller from tackling Beast Boy. This origin of Red Star was made up by Story Editor/Writer Rob Hoegee.
Red Star was voiced by Jason Marsden.
