But first, a disclaimer of sorts. Two things have kept me from updating this Starman collection retrospective of mine. First, I dropped my external hard drive a while back, and it contained ALL of my digital pictures, including my comic cover pics and original artwork pics. I'm almost done retaking all of the cover pics, but I haven't done the artwork yet. Second, I've started selling off my "NEVER SELL OFF" comic collection, which consists solely of Joe Hill comics and Starman appearances. Because of that, I may have sold some of the comics I had when I began this little endeavor. I definitely haven't bought anything new. So we'll see how this ends up looking. I'll post pics of covers I have, and I'll still include my "Have List," but my "Want List" is now out of date, and I'll be totally scrapping it until I'm in a place to start rebuilding my collection. Right now I'm thinking it'll be five years or so? Who knows.
So, my first exposure to the Will Payton Starman was through the Superman storyline, "Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite." First off, I get why they misspelled Krisis and Krimson, but there is NO WAY that spelling would fly today. Other than that, though, it's a good, quick story that ran through all three Superman titles of the time and quickly crossed over into Payton's 1988 Starman series. the gist of the storyline was that Lex Luthor used a piece of red kryptonite (supplied by Mr. Mxyzptlx) to make himself as strong as Superman, but the twist was instead of making Lex super human, it took away all of Superman's powers. Since Superman gets his powers from our sun charging his cells (or some scientific gobbledygook like that), Starman was brought in first to give Supes a super-charged dose of solar radiation (which should have killed him, right?) and then impersonating him (Will could alter his appearance somehow...I never actually read his entire series) until he could figure out a different solution when that failed. Honestly, Starman didn't really make an impression on me. The only time I actually bought an issue of his comic, it was a crossover from a bigger storyline (War of the Gods...it was War of the Gods).
If there were any die-hard Will Payton (testify in the comments if you're reading this!), I wonder what they thought about Will's return from the dead in Robinson's Starman series. Were they happy that he was back but upset because it was retconned that Will actually died in his first issue and was actually just Prince Gavyn with Will's essence? I'd probably be pissed.
In the New 52 post-Rebirth DC universe, there was no Starman...until this month's (Sept. 2018) issue of Justice League. Payton shows up, with Jack Knight's cosmic rod! Are we finally seeing the rebirth of the Starman dynasty? One can only hope.Have List
Action Comics Vol. 1 (1938 series) #622, 644-645, 659, 675, Annual 3Adventures of Superman #472, 482, Annual 4
Armageddon 2001 #1-2, 1 (2nd Print), 1 (3rd Print)
Blasters Special #1
Doom Patrol Vol. 2 (1987 series) #17
Eclipso: The Darkness Within #2
Firestorm the Nuclear Man #80-81
Green Lantern Vol. 3 (1990 series) Annual 1
Invasion #2-3
JLA in Crisis Secret Files #1
Justice League America #42, Annual 6
Justice League International Vol. 1 (1987 series) #24
Justice League Quarterly #5
New Titans Annual 7Quasar #14
Starman Vol. 1 (1988 series) #1-45
Starman Vol. 2 (1994 series) #3, 36, 48, 58-60, 67, 71-73, 76
Starman Secret Files #1
Superman Vol. 2 (1987 series) #27, 50, 65-66, Annual 4
Superman: The Man of Steel #10, Annual 1
War of the Gods #1-4
Who's Who Update '88 #3
Wonder Woman Vol. 2 (1987 series) #61
Want List
Cover Run: The DC Comics Art of Adam Hughes
Justice League Vol. 4 (2018 series) #7
Who's Who in the DC Universe #2
Aaaaaand once again I forgot to post the pic album. Here you go.
Aaaaaand once again I forgot to post the pic album. Here you go.
Starman (Will Payton)
