Starfox (comics)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the fictional superhero from Marvel Comics. For other uses, including the video game, see Star Fox.
| Starfox | |
 Starfox |
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| Publication information | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Iron Man (vol. 1) #55 (February 1973) |
| Created by | Mike Friedrich (co-writer), Jim Starlin (artist and co-writer) |
| In story information | |
| Alter ego | Eros, originally Eron |
| Team affiliations | Eternals The Avengers |
| Abilities |
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Starfox (real name Eros) is a fictional superhero in Marvel Comics' shared universe, the Marvel Universe. He has operated as a member of the Avengers and is one of the Eternals of Titan. Where Eros serves as the superhero Starfox, he (and the universe) are opposed by his mad brother, the supervillain Thanos.
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[edit] Fictional character biography
Eros is a member of the Eternals, a genetic offshoot of humanity, that left for deep space from Earth years ago and settled on Saturn's moon of Titan. Eros is the youngest son of A'lars (also known as Mentor) and Sui-San, and he grew up to be a fun-loving, carefree womanizer in contrast to his brother Thanos, a power-hungry, nihilistic conqueror. Only when Thanos launched his first major attack against Titan did Eros begin to take life a bit more seriously.
Years later, in a subsequent campaign of terror by Thanos, Eros fought alongside Titan's handful of survivors. Eros then joined the alien Captain Mar-Vell and the Earth hero-team called the Avengers in the first major defeat of Thanos. No longer bound by duty on Titan, Eros left the war-torn moon, seeking out pleasure and recreation on humanoid-inhabited worlds.
Eros returned to Titan to help console his cancer-stricken friend Mar-Vell when he retreated to Titan to spend his final days of life. Just before he died, Mar-Vell made Eros promise to take care of his Titanian companion, Elysius, after he was gone. Eros honored his vow for several weeks, until Elysius, realizing his wanderlust, released him from his promise. Traveling to Earth, he sought out and joined The Avengers. They admitted him to their training program and gave him the name Starfox, since they felt Eros was an inappropriate code-name. He served the Avengers faithfully for several months, helping them vanquish such menaces as the Wizard, Terminus, and Maelstrom until leaving to pursue the space pirate Nebula, who claimed to be the granddaughter of Thanos.
Eros returned to a hedonistic life of adventure, preferring to wander space in search of romance and adventure. He would often return to help the Avengers in their adventures, serving during such cases as the Terminus crisis, Operation: Galactic Storm, and the Nemesis case involving the Infinity Gems and the so-called Ultraverse. When Thanos had gained the Infinity Gauntlet, one of the first things he did was capture Starfox and place him under various torments. Starfox was forced to witness various cosmic murders, power plays, the personal deaths of heroes he knew and other atrocities. He did attempt to charm Thanos out of his plan but had his mouth neutralized for his effort.
Starfox spent time with the son of Mar-Vell, Genis-Vell, and attempted on multiple occasions to assist him and steer him in the right direction. Once, he came up with a device that would block telepathic transmissions during sexual activity.
Starfox was part of a re-gathering of Avengers when Morgan LeFay attacked all current and ex- members. After an adventure in an alternate universe, Starfox left Earth with Tigra, planning to head towards a known pleasure planet.
Eros and his brother, Thanos, have a custom, where each Eternal year (Eternal year = 1000 Earth years) they bury the hatchet and convene at a neutral place, usually bearing gifts. This was an initiative of their father, who demanded that the two would meet every year as a reminder of the blood that runs through both their veins. The meeting is called The Truce and the two meet alone, although the hero Quasar was present at one of their meetings, and they refuse to fight one another.
[edit] Allegations of sexual assault
In the second volume of Marvel Comics' She-Hulk series (2005-current), Starfox was put on trial for sexual assault, accused of using his powers to seduce a happily married woman. He was defended by lawyer Jennifer Walters, the She-Hulk. The law firm which employed her, Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway, was contracted by Mentor to defend his son from the allegations. In the course of the trial, Ms. Walters came to suspect that Starfox had used his powers on her during their time in the Avengers, resulting in a brief sexual interaction. By this time, Starfox had been banned from the courtroom after it was determined that he was using his special abilities to influence the witnesses. When Jennifer Walters confronted Starfox with her suspicions via closed-circuit video link, he evaded her questions and then cut the video feed. Walters angrily charged out of the courtroom, transformed into the She-Hulk, and caught Starfox as he was attempting to escape from Earth. The She-Hulk dealt Starfox a savage beating, giving him no chance to defend his actions, and knocked him unconscious to ensure that he could not use his "charm" abilities to elude punishment. However, Mentor, Starfox's father, effected his son's release by teleporting Starfox away to Titan.
This She-Hulk storyline explored the issue of non-consensual sexual relationships. Although the evidence indicated that Starfox's use of his psionic abilities was usually automatic, this point of the story determined that Starfox was fully conscious of his power's effects on others, and had no moral compunction about taking advantage of affected women. It was explicitly likened to a date-rape drug.
Mentor eventually staged a native Titanian trial in the hopes of clearing his son's name. The Living Tribunal, interested in the equity of the process, called on the She-Hulk as prosecuting attorney. Jennifer Walters, in an attempt to get to the bottom of the matter, agreed to a mindprobe of both Starfox and herself. She discovered that Starfox did not use his abilities to influence her decision to sleep with him, but that he was deliberately responsible for her sudden infatuation with and marriage to John Jameson. An enraged She-Hulk once more lashed out at Starfox for toying with her life, bringing the legal proceedings to a halt.
Thanos now appeared at the trial, and testified that his brother Starfox inspired his obsession with Death when they were children, when attempting to make young Thanos accept the death of an animal he had involuntarily killed with his enormous strength. By Titanian law Eros would thus take full responsibility for all the genocides Thanos had later committed. In the following issue it was revealed that this was a false memory that Thanos implanted into Starfox's mind, and shared by a Thanos clone whom the real Thanos sent. Thanos' implantation of the memory is what caused Starfox to briefly become mentally unbalanced, and use his power in this manner for the first time. Starfox agreed to have Moondragon shut them off completely rather than risk hurting more people.[1]
It is unknown if Starfox is still considered a fugitive from justice by New York State and the Federal Government.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Starfox is a member of the offshoot of humanity known as the Eternals. His body has been enhanced by cosmic energy to the point that it ages far more slowly than most humanoids and is superhumanly strong and resistant to harm. He can harness his cosmic powers to enable himself to fly, and generate a personal forcefield (allowing space and underwater travel).
Starfox can stimulate the pleasure centers in people's brains, making them calm and open to suggestion using his persuasion skill. It has been suggested that when in physical contact, and there is direct line of sight between the subject and the target, Starfox can use this euphoria effect to cause a person or persons to become infatuated with him, objects, or people of his choosing. Notably, the euphoria power does not work on his brother Thanos. In the series Captain Marvel, Starfox also showed the ability to manipulate gravity, simulating psychokinesis. Starfox can speak 500 extraterrestrial languages.
For reasons yet unrevealed (but which may have to do with the regeneration chambers on planet Earth), the Titanian Eternals are not as powerful as those of Earth, being less able to channel cosmic energy in most instances, and have demonstrated a greatly lessened physical durability compared to their counterparts; several amongst their number have been killed over the years by "simple" assaults that the Earthbound Eternals have proven to survive with ease (i.e., Thanos being able to kill his mother, Sui-San, by mundane methods, and his own death years later at the hands of Drax the Destroyer when his heart was removed.
In addition, Titanian Eternals have thus far proven unable to form a Uni-Mind.
[edit] References
- ^ She-Hulk vol.4, #6-13 (2006)
