Starfox (comics)

Starfox (Eros of Titan) is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. 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) is opposed by his mad brother, the supervillain Thanos.

Publication history

Starfox first appeared in Iron Man #55 (February 1973), scripted by Mike Friedrich with story and illustration by Jim Starlin.

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 on Titan to be a fun-loving, carefree womanizer and adventurer in contrast to his brother Thanos, a power-hungry, nihilistic conqueror. Only when Thanos launched his first major attack on 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 joined the alien Captain Mar-Vell in battling Thanos's minions.^[1] Eros was held captive by Thanos, who revealed that he had killed their mother.^[2] Eros was freed from captivity and met Iron Man and Moondragon, and assisted Mar-Vell and the Earth hero-team called the Avengers in the first major defeat of Thanos.^[3] Eros later met Pip the Troll, and his relationship with Heater Delight was revealed.^[4] Eros was later held captive by ISAAC,^[5] but was eventually freed.^[6] 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. Just before he died, Mar-Vell made Eros promise to take care of his Titanian companion, Elysius, after he was gone.^[7] Eros honored his vow for several weeks, until Elysius, realizing his wanderlust, released him from his promise. He left Titan and Elysius for Earth.^[8] He arrived on Earth,^[9] where he sought out and joined the Avengers as a trainee. They admitted him to their training program and the Wasp gave him the name Starfox, since they felt Eros was an inappropriate code-name. He then went on his first mission with the team, against Annihilus.^[10] He helped the Avengers vanquish the Wizard.^[11] He helped resuscitate the Vision with the help of ISAAC,^[12] and was later made a full Avenger.^[13] While on the team he had his first meeting with the Earth Eternals.^[14] Eventually, he revealed his pleasure-stimulating powers to the assembled Avengers,^[15] and helped them defeat Maelstrom.^[16] He traveled to another dimension with Spider-Man.^[17] He then helped the Avengers defeat Terminus.^[18] He battled the space pirate Nebula, and learned of her claim to be the granddaughter of Thanos.^[19] He left the Avengers with Firelord to pursue Nebula.^[20] He eventually encountered and was defeated by the Xandarian villain Supernova who blamed Nebula for the destruction of his homeworld.^[21] Eventually he found Nebula.^[22] He was held captive by Nebula, but freed himself,^[23] and assisted the Avengers and the Stranger against Nebula.^[24]

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.^[25]

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.

Allegations of sexual assault

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 She-Hulk, and caught Starfox as he was attempting to escape from Earth. She-Hulk dealt Starfox a savage beating, giving him no chance to defend his actions, knocked him unconscious, finally duct-taping his mouth shut to ensure that he could not use his abilities to elude punishment. However, Mentor, Starfox's father, effected his son's release by teleporting Starfox away to Titan.^[26]

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 She-Hulk as prosecuting attorney. Jennifer Walters, in an attempt to get to the bottom of the matter, agreed to a mind probe of both Starfox and herself. She discovered that Starfox did not use his abilities to influence her decision to have sex 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 which 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.^[27]

Return

Starfox is later seen living on Titan again, with his abilities restored. He is shown flirting with a number of women, but states that he will not use his powers to woo them. Ultron soon attacks Titan and assimilates the entire population (including Mentor) via a robotic virus, transforming the moon into Planet Ultron. Starfox flees to Earth and meets with the current team of Avengers (now led by the new Captain America), and teams up with them to liberate his world. He plays a key role in the Avengers' victory, using his powers on the half-organic Ultron to force the villain to have an emotional breakdown.^[28]

Powers and abilities

Starfox is a member of the long-lived 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 and immune to terrestrial diseases. He can withstand impacts, such as falling from several stories or being repeatedly struck with superhuman force, that would severely injure or kill an ordinary human being with little to no injury to himself. However, he is far from invulnerable and can be injured by weapons, such as bullets or knives, composed of conventional materials. His overall resistance to injury is somewhat lower than that of the average Eternal but, like any Eternal, he possesses exceptional healing capabilities and, as previously mentioned, an immunity against any terrestrial diseases. He can harness his cosmic powers to enable himself to fly at subsonic speed and through to the gravimetric potential of his body, related to his ability to fly, a tiny shell of air constantly clings to his body and while he needs to breathe like a normal human, however with a somewhat reduced need of oxygen and the capability to hold his breath for quite some time, enables him to survive the rigors of open space and underwater travel otherwise unaided.^[10]

Starfox can psionically stimulate the pleasure centers in nearby 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 or simply to make others feel good while in his presence. Notably, the euphoria power does not work on his brother Thanos. His psionic powers are possessed to some degree by all Eternals, but he developed them in his own unique manner. Starfox's mental powers do not work on beings whose brains do not have pleasure centers. These powers were later shut off at Eros' request to prevent them from being abused.

In the series Captain Marvel, Starfox also showed the ability to manipulate gravity, simulating psychokinesis. Starfox has limited mastery of 500 extraterrestrial languages.

Though an Eternal, Starfox isn't as powerful as his Earthborn cousins because the original Titanian Eternals separated from their Earth brethren before Kronos' experiments augmented the Eternals' energies. Starfox, at least, can join an existing Uni-Mind with the other Eternals,^[29] even though Titanian Eternals have thus far proven unable to form their own.

Other versions

Marvel Zombies

A zombified Starfox appears in Marvel Zombies vs. The Army Of Darkness, alongside Hercules, She-Hulk, and Firestar, each of them infected. He is actually infected by the zombie Avengers when they sent out a bogus "Avengers Assemble" message and he is unaware it was really a trap.

References

External links

• Starfox at Marvel.com
• Starfox at the Marvel Database