Starman (Ted Knight)
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Ted Knight, a.k.a. Starman, is a fictional comic book superhero in the DC Comics universe, and a member of the Justice Society of America. Created by Gardner Fox and Jack Burnley, he first appeared in Adventure Comics #61 (1941).
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[edit] Fictional character history
As Starman, Ted wore a costume of red and green tights, with a helmet with a fin on the top. He used a gravity rod (later cosmic rod) which allowed him to fly and to manipulate energy, at times in a manner similar to Green Lantern's power ring. As Ted Knight, he was an astronomer and an expert scientist, having developed the rods himself.
Initially intending them for use as a possible power source, Ted was convinced by his cousin, Sandra Knight, the Phantom Lady, to use his invention to become a costumed crime fighter. As Starman, he became the defender of Opal City and a frequent ally of the FBI. He was a member of the Justice Society of America for much of the 1940s and, like other mystery men of the time, served in the war-time All-Star Squadron.
At this time, the love of Ted's life was a woman named Doris Lee, who often chastised her layabout playboy boyfriend, unaware of Ted's costumed persona. Doris was tragically murdered in the late 40s and this event, combined with Ted's role in the creation of the atom bomb, caused him to suffer a nervous breakdown. He was confined to a mental institution for a number of years as a result.
In the modern Starman series, it was revealed that Ted was motivated to return to active duty in part by his own time-traveling son, Jack. Additionally, it was revealed in a 1990's retcon that Ted Knight had a brief affair with the first Black Canary (Dinah Drake) in the 1960s, both events filling in blank spots in the hero's past.
Like the rest of the Justice Society, Starman spent many years in retirement following the end of the Golden Age of heroes but returned to help mentor the team's spiritual successors the Justice League of America. During his years as a civilian, Ted Knight had married a woman named Adele Doris Drew and had two children, Jack and David. David idolized his father while Jack disdained the silliness of superhero life and his father's perceived focus on costumed adventure over family.
Starman was finally sidelined from hero work permanently by the events of the Zero Hour miniseries. Previously kept virile by the effects of an early JSA mission, Ted Knight was restored to his natural age by the temporal villain Extant. He subsequently hung up the costume and concentrated on his original love-- science.
Following Ted's retirement, David inherited his mantle as Starman, but was killed early in his career by the son of one of his father's old enemies. Jack then inherited the title, although not without grievances. The retired Ted Knight sometimes advised Jack and over time, the two estranged Starmen reforged the bond of father and son. In exchange for Jack taking up the defense of Opal City, Ted agreed to use his cosmic-powered inventions for the benefit of mankind rather than simply costumed adventuring.
Ted eventually died in battle with his old enemy, The Mist. With a variant of his gravity rod, he transported them both into the stratosphere where The Mist's doomsday bomb could detonate without harming the city.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Ted Knight had no natural superhuman powers. His abilities stemmed from the use of his inventions, the gravity rod and the cosmic rod. These devices channeled an unknown form of stellar radiation which Ted was able to manipulate through mental connection to the rod. As Starman, he possessed the ability to fly, project bursts of stellar energy, light, and heat, create force fields, levitate objects, and occasionally manipulate energy in a manner similar to his teammate Green Lantern. Extended use of the cosmic rod created a bond between it and Ted, allowing him to mentally summon the rod when separated from it.
Ted possessed a brilliant intellect, mastery of several sciences, and a gift for invention. In addition to the gravity and cosmic rods, Ted created the cosmic staff used by his son Jack and the cosmic converter belt worn by his JSA teammates the Star-Spangled Kid and Stargirl.
[edit] Other Versions
In JLA: Age of Wonder, Starman is portrayed as a fellow inventor alongside of Superman, Thomas Edison, and Nikola Tesla, who invents his cosmic rod with technology gleaned from the rocket ship which brought Superman to Earth.
In JSA: The Unholy Three, Starman is an intelligence agent working at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and is code-named Star.
[edit] Earth-2 Version
What follows is an account of Starman's history as it existed on the world of Earth-2, prior to the consolidating of DC Comics' alternate Earths in the Crisis on Infinite Earths miniseries. Much of this can still be considered canon where it does not contradict later established information.
1940s Spring 1941: Theodore Knight was called by some the "playboy of the western hemisphere," he was a wealthy resident of New York and spent his money and time on his hobbies - which included astronomy and inventing. He enjoyed visiting Gotham City for he was fascinated by her mystery-men: Green Lantern and the Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder. One night, while at the Club Casablanca with Ms. Doris Lee, he was involved in a robbery that was interrupted by the Caped Crusader. Ted actually helped in the scuffle but received no kind words from the Batman, nor any recognition from Ms. Lee.
Later he visited his cousin, Sandra Knight, at her family mansion in Washington D.C. She showed him her "little workshop" which contained dynamos, technical devices and blueprints - all given over to Senator Knight by Professor Abraham Davis, who was currently missing. Sandra had been fiddling with a device that emitted black light, she hoped to develop a defensive weapon in case the troubles in Europe spilled over into America. Ted had no interest in this, instead he took with him a so-called gravity rod and its blueprints.
Once at his own estate, which included a personal observatory, he experimented on the rod. He used his newest telescope (designed to his own technical specifications) and focused unclassified cosmic radiation into the rod. The experiment was a success and the rod, previously without a power source, was now imbued with energy from the stars. Through trial and error Ted learned to control it. That same night he discovered that Sandra had saved her father from an abduction and that she resolved to become a Phantom Lady. Ted, too, decided to become a Starman.
Several days later he went into action as Starman when the Brotherhood of the Electron began siphoning off electricity from New York City, endangering everyone. With guidance from the F.B.I. he found the headquarters of the Brotherhood, led by Dr. Doog. He also discovered an imprisoned Professor Davis. In the battle he saved the Professor, he destroyed the hide-out, and it appeared that Dr. Doog perished. (A*S 41)
Not long after, however, Ted heard rumors that Dr. Doog survived and was living in the south. He traveled to Hot Springs, Georgia, and on June 28 found and again defeated the villain. In the process he also saved a nearly-electrocuted Hourman. When Starman joined the JSAers and a few others to fight Ian Karkull (the man who had hired Dr. Doog and others to commit various crimes) they were all bathed in rays of darkness which emanated from Karkull's shadow form. These rays were chronal and would extend considerably the lives of the heroes and keep them from aging for decades to come. After this case Hourman left the JSA and within a short time the Starman took his place in the Justice Society of America. (A*S Ann 3)
During the summer Professor Able took the name Dr. Elba and went on a crime spree under the subliminal direction of the Brain Wave. Dr. Elba was stopped by the Starman and his fellow JSAers, but after the case was over each were implanted with their own subliminal directives to obey the Brain Wave. (A*S 20)
In November 1941 the Starman was invited by a group of America's most brilliant scientists working for the US War Department to travel to the 25th century and bring back the components needed to create a force beam. He and his fellow JSAers did so and returned, and the bomb defense machine was built and successfully tested. Secondary tests were sabotaged, however, by Per Degaton (assistant to Dr. Everson) and development of the defensive force field was discontinued.
In the first week of December 1941 members of the JSA, including Starman, were abducted by agents working for a time-traveling Per Degaton (who had come from 1947). They were ultimately saved by some new mystery-men on December 8. The JSA and the newcomers joined to form the All-Star Squadron but even as they did so, due to time paradoxes, the team lost memory of the details of their imprisonment and rescue. Too late to have helped prevent the attack of Pearl Harbor, the mystery-men nonetheless traveled there to help however they could. (All-Star Squadron 1-5)
Shortly after Pearl Harbor the JSA disbanded for the duration and by December 22 Ted Knight had joined the US Army and was in flight training at Fort Randolph, Texas. (A*S 7)
Only weeks later Airman Knight found himself piloting a B-17 bomber over San Francisco, California en route to Hickam Field, Hawaii. The bombers were attacked by the eye-shaped flying ship controlled by Hath-Set (in his incarnation as Dr. Anton Hastor). Donning his Starman uniform, Ted protected the planes. (A*S 10)
In Jan/Feb 1942 Ted Knight was abducted by the Brain Wave, along with other JSAers. They were all placed in a dream-state planned to cause their death. They, and imprisoned members of the All-Star Squadron, were saved by the Green Lantern. After this event the ex-JSA members accepted the invitation by the U.S. War Department to join together as the Justice Battalion; their first mission was to ferret out and defeat a group of Japanese saboteurs known as the Black Dragon Society. (A*S 21, 25)
Before the first mission of the Justice Battalion could commence, however, the world was shocked by the interdimensional arrival of Kulak - a cataclysm stopped only by the Justice Battalion, the All-Star Squadron and Sargon the Sorcerer. These mystery-men also battled a possessed Spectre who was being controlled by Kulak. (A*S 27-28)
Feb 16-19, 1942: The Justice Battalion was given orders to retrieve eight stolen military weapons, and subdue the agents of the Black Dragon Society who had orchestrated the thefts. The Starman took on a huge dirigible which acted as a flying aircraft carrier and the planes it housed. The Society, loyal to Imperial Japan, was to use the planes to attack an American city but this was prevented. Through the bumbling of Johnny Thunder the whole Battalion was transported to the American HQ of the Black Dragon Society and, after a quick fight and a call to the US Army, the threat posed by the Black Dragons was over. (A*S 30)
Feb 22, 1942: Starman was present for the first General Meeting of the full roster of the All-Star Squadron, 48 mystery-men, most from the east coast of America. Momentous in and of itself, it was made more so by the appearance of Uncle Sam and his announcement that he had discovered a parallel Earth which he dubbed Earth-X. Whereas six mystery-men chose to join Uncle Sam in fighting the Nazis on that Earth, Starman elected to join a squad of All-Stars in investigating Japanese espionage in California on his own Earth. While defending oil refineries near Santa Barbara from sabotage, the team also encountered a new super-powered Japanese agent: Tsunami. (A*S 31-35)
The first week of March Starman found himself patrolling the skies above Hawaii. He stopped a second attack of Pearl Harbor but nearly died in the effort. The Imperial military had devised a machine that could create an invisiblity field around small and large objects, they used it to fly in two experimental long-range bombers from Japan. Starman destroyed one of the planes while forcing the other to abandon its mission (it later crash-landed); an unconscious Starman then was taken to All-Star HQ by the gravity rod. Only a day later the Perisphere was attacked by Japanese agents led by Prince Daka - their goal was to procure the gravity rod for service of the Empire. This plan failed and two of the enemy agents - Tsunami and the Samurai - left the service of the Imperial forces. (A*S42-43)
On April 1 a special meeting of the Justice Battalion was called but at that meeting the members, including Starman, were knocked out and abducted. The Nazi scientist Gootsden put the ex-JSAers into strange Nazi rockets and blasted them into space. However, due to the unexpected arrival of Harbinger into this era's space/time continuum the rockets entered hyperspace instead. Starman landed on a parallel Jupiter inhabited by human-like beings encased in metal bodies. After aiding them they sent him back into hyperspace. (A*S 50, 57)
Through the mystic powers of the Spectre and Johnny Thunder's Thunderbolt, the ex-JSAers returned to normal space and to Earth. It was still only the middle of April, 1942. The team captured Gootsden and left the Nazi spies in the hands of the F.B.I. (A*S 60)
1960s
June 1962 saw Earth-2's public re-emergence of Vandal Savage. He briefly terrorized a handful of important U.S. cities and was able to attack and incapacitate various members of the retired JSA. Though Ted Knight was not one of the heroes pulled into the "Vengeance of the Immortal Villain" (Flash 137, 6.63) he surely heard about the reforming of the JSA from his old friends. Though Ted's decision to come out of retirement is not recorded, one of the early adventures of his second outing as Starman is.
September 1965 saw Ted visiting his close friends Larry and Dinah Lance in Park City along the Atlantic coast. Ted dropped in at the Drake Flower Shoppe owned and operated by the lovely Mrs. Lance.
At this time a series of mysterious robberies had been baffling the Park City Police Department. Though Dinah Lance was secretly the Black Canary, she was also "semi-retired from the investigating business" and left her husband, as head of his private detective agency, to begin investigating the crimes. Ted was in town not due to the robberies, but in order to look over some of his business interests and do some celestial research. At this time Ted Knight was a famous amateur astronomer, well-known to those in the field, and easily gained admittance to the Park City Astronomical Observatory – his current research being the study of quasars and how they could add to his effectiveness as the Astral Avenger called Starman.
By accident Ted intercepted a hypnotic sound wave calling for a crime to be committed, not affected by the command he nonetheless went into action as Starman. He was beaten down by a sonic attack of one of the hoodlums. The crime boss was none other than The Mist – master of the inviso-solution that enables him to make any object with which it is coated invisible, even his cloak is coated with it, with this solution he had also learned to transmit hypnotic influences.
Unbeknownst to anyone, the Mist had bugged Dinah's floral shop and was using her customer list and her flowers to coordinate his robberies. In fact, he was hypnotizing Dinah Lance into giving him the info he needed. While her husband Larry and Starman were in the floral shop the Mist hypnotized Dinah, the two men caught on and afterward briefed Dinah. They devised a plan to stop the upcoming robberies and in doing so they discovered the crime boss to be the Mist – Starman is quite surprised. Starman had just completed a miniature cosmic rod built specially for quasar energy and lent it to the Black Canary – in the end the Mist and his men were defeated and handed over to the police. Starman went home with both his regular rod and the miniature quasar-powered rod. (Brave & Bold 61, 9.65)
1970s
During the early to mid 1970s Starman was not a member of the JSA. After the return of the Star-Spangled Kid (from a time-warp) he loaned his cosmic rod to the still-youthful hero. Later Ted would make a cosmic converter belt and would give that to the "Kid."
At the end of 1977 the JSA held a reunion of past and present members and Ted was there in full regalia. (All Star Comics 70)
A short time later Ted Knight again put on the uniform to combat strange monsters and their leader, the Master Summoner. He joined with his ex-teammates in defeating the villain. (All Star Comics 74)
Before the end of the decade the Crime Syndicate from Earth-3 traveled to Earth-2. The JSA, including Starman, and the JLA from Earth-1 banded together to defeat and imprison the Crime Syndicate in a dimensional barrier outside normal time/space. (cf JLA 207)
1980s Starman was again a member of the JSA and participated in the annual reunions with the JLA. In October 1982 some of the JSA were involved in a case of time-tampering by Per Degaton that included Earth-2 and Earth-Prime, but the JSA and JLA of the 1980s with the All-Star Squadron of the 1940s successfully defeated Per Degaton and the Crime Syndicate who had been working with him. As a result of their success, the events never occurred and all involved lost any memory of it. (A*S 14-15, JLA 207-209)
Sometime in the summer of 1983 the JSA and the JLA of Earth-1 imprisoned the Secret Society of Super-Villains in the same limbo as they had done to the Crime Syndicate. (cf Infinity Inc. 1)
Christmas Eve 1983: Starman was present at a specially called meeting of the JSA; they were to discuss why the supposedly imprisoned Secret Society could not be called forth out of limbo. It was at this meeting that the children and proteges of some JSA members interrupted and asked for admission, admission was denied and later they would become Infinity Inc. (Infinity Inc 1) In the wee hours of Christmas day, an evil Superman called out five other JSAers and "drowned" them in the river Koehaha. During the next few days these five and Superman would terrorize the United States and the world. Starman flew into space and fought an evil Green Lantern but Starman was beaten and nearly killed. Luckily for Ted the children of Green Lantern saved him. (Infinity Inc. 9)
July 1985: The Crisis on Infinite Earths brought waves of anti-matter, shadow demons and complete and utter destruction. In it all the JSA fought the purveyors of death, including Theodore Knight, the Starman. Starman did battle beside his fellow JSA members and those of Infinity Inc. in the so-called Villain Wars during the Crisis. He did not travel to the dawn of time, however, and so did not survive the death/merging of Earth-2 at the conclusion of the Crisis. The Ted Knight who emerged in the consolidated history after 1985 was a different man. (cf Crisis 4, 9, 11; Infinity Inc. 20)
