Reviewer: Jesse Baker
Story Title: La Fraternite De Justice Et Liberte
Written by: James Robinson
Penciled by: Dusty Abell
Inked by: Dexter Vines & Norman Lee
Colored by: Noelle Giddings
Lettered by: Quakley/NJQ
Editor: Archie Goodwin
Publisher: DC Comics
Intro, Intro, Intro…. Where do I begin? I have really mixed feelings about Starman. On one hand I feel that the book is EXTREMELY overrated and that the book is not as good as most critics say it is. On the other hand, the series does have some good quality moments in-between James Robinson’s constant urges to needlessly retcon things that don’t need retconning, and heavy-handed attempts to make Jack Knight come off as being a too-cool-for-school character.
The book featured the first real attempt to present a super-hero who wore a costume consisting of normal people’s clothing rather than spandex bodysuits as well as James Robinson revamping several obscure Golden Age characters (Mist, Shade, and Ragdoll) and made them into three-dimensional and very dangerous villains. He also created a complex world of characters in Opal City and crafted a backstory involving murder, conspiracy, and manipulation through the run of the series that made Opal City a much richer place when compared to Metropolis or Gotham City.
And most importantly, Robinson gave us one of the most intriguing new villain of the 1990s in the form of Mist III. The daughter of the Golden Age Mist, Mist III took her father’s mantle after her brother’s death at the hands of Jack Knight. Vowing revenge, Mist III vowed to become the best villain she could be and began honing her craft. After kidnapping Jack and committing female rape upon him, Mist ended up pregnant with Jack’s rape-baby. Taking a hiatus from training, she gave birth to her son and resumed her training to become the most dangerous villain ever to walk the earth.
Which leads us to this issue. In this issue, Nash kills three, count them three super-heroes just because she can. Starman #38 created a massive stir when it first came out and was singled out by Wizard Magazine (back when they still had a shred of credibility) as being a must read issue of the series. Granted the dead heroes are obscure, fourth string heroes and one of them (Blue Devil) has since been resurrected, but the issue helped give publicity to Starman as well as introduced Mist to new readers who had never read Starman before hearing about this issue.
The book begins with Mist and her son on an unrevealed Greek Island as Mist gives the readers exposition to set up the issue. She reveals that Jack is the father of her child and that she’s just got back from France where she killed some heroes. After talking about how her son is going to grow up to be evil and disgrace the Knight family name by becoming the next Mist, we cut to France and the tale of Mist’s most recent evil deed.
We cut to France and the first meeting of the all-new, all-different Justice League Europe. In the wake of the Big Seven reforming and taking over running the Justice League from the fourth and fifth string heroes previously in charge of running the league, several of these fourth/fifth string heroes have moved to France to reform the JLE and not go quietly into limbo. The roster for the new JLE consists of:
Crimson Fox: French vigilante who’s gimmick was that two blonde French twins took turns using the costume to fight evil alongside the original JLE. One of the twins was killed in the dying days of the Justice League America series and now the surviving sister is spearheading the revival of the JLE franchise under her leadership.
Firestorm: Once one of DC’s hottest new characters during the early 1980s, Firestorm fell from grace when his book underwent a change of direction and became a badly written parody of Swamp Thing, with the nonsensical revelation that Firestorm was the Earth’s Fire Elemental. Disappearing off the face of the Earth end of his series, Firestorm had his continuity “cleaned up” in the pages of Extreme Justice and became a generic mutant character who could rearrange matter.
Amazing Man II: A modern day version of the Golden Age Amazing Man (a character created by Roy Thomas for his Golden Age retro-series All-Star Squadron), Amazing Man II’s powers are that he can become whatever substance he touches.
Blue Devil: Blue Devil was a former stuntman who got zapped with demonic energy while wearing an electronic demon costume, which effectively trapped him inside the suit forever. He was one of a slew of one-note characters created and launched into their own book during the mid-1980s before falling off the face of the Earth when his book got cancelled after two and a half years. Blue Devil made a comeback of sorts during the mid-90s, joining the Justice League and was turned into a real demon by Mark Waid during the “Underworld Unleashed” mini-series.
Icemaiden: A convoluted character to say the least, Icemaiden was a replacement for longtime JLA favorite Ice after she was killed during a battle with the villainous super-group Cadre. Essentially Icemaiden was a whiney coward who always was crying at how she was too scared to be a hero and how Ice was a much better hero than she was.
Anyway, the new JLE has been hired to guard a newly opened museum protect some diamonds they have on display. We soon get inside the group dynamic as Robinson has the new JLE mock and badmouth the Big Seven JLA, which includes a hilarious bit where Blue Devil mocks Kyle Raynor as being a third-rate Green Lantern not worthy to be considered part of the Big Seven JLA roster. We also get a good conversation from between Blue Devil and Firestorm, where Firestorm goes off on an “old man” rant about how heroes today are too grim and dark, adventures not getting resolved in a matter of days, and how you can’t turn around without having two-to-three of your friends die while your back was turned on them. Meanwhile Amazing Man and Crimson Fox flirt with each other as Amazing Man goes on a rant about how France has a history of accepting African-American superstars and how he hopes he can use his time in France to become a famous super-hero and not worry about Judd Winick turning him into a deadbeat dad who kills people at a drop of a hat like he did with Black Lightning.
Soon the issue kicks into high gear as Crimson Fox gets a bomb-threat notice and sends Firestorm out to investigate. As Crimson Fox hunts down an MIA Icemaiden, she finds a dead security guard and Icemaiden’s clothing. We then see the Mist, who reveals that she blackmailed Icemaiden into going away so that she could impersonate her and infiltrate the new JLE for the purpose of stealing the diamonds. Crimson Fox asks why she didn’t just steal the jewels and be done with it but Robinson has Mist give a cheesy fake French accent “Where’s the fun in that?” response that immediately kills the growing tension in this scene. Mist then reveals that while they’ve been talking, she’s been using her powers to produce lethal mist that causes Crimson Fox’s brown/black costume to turn red and ultimately kill her dead.
We then cut to Mist and Amazing Man in what has to be my favorite Starman moment in the series. A description can’t possibly describe this scene, so I’ll just share it with you in all of its glory in the form of a transcript:
Amazing Man: Who are you?
Mist: I’m the chick who just put a crimp in your love life handsome. I just killed your girl.
Amazing Man: YOU KILLED FOX????? YOU BITCH!!!!!! YOU KILLED FOX!!!!!! I’LL KILL…..
Mist: You’ll what? With my super-strength and super-flight, I’ll decimate you!
Amazing Man: I’ll absorb the power of this wall and I’ll show you…..
Amazing Man turns into glass.
Mist: When I possed as Icemaiden, I added a veneer to everything in this room. It looks like stone. It isn’t. It’s dyed glass. Which makes you “Amazingly” Brittle Man.
Amazing Man looks on like a deer caught in the headlights of a car when Mist pulls out a gun.
Mist: Oh, and did I say I had super-strenght? What I meant to say was that I had a SUPER BIG GUN!
Mist fires and shatters Amazing Man into a million pieces.
Finally Blue Devil shows up and Mist reveals to him the whole purpose of today’s excursion: Mist wanted to kill some super-heroes to prove that it can be done to her fellow villains. She explains how she lured Firestorm out of the museum do to the fact that he is the strongest member of the JLE and that she purposely left Blue Devil for last so that he would get angry enough to unleash his staff’s hellfire blast at her. And wouldn’t you know it, that’s exactly what Mist wanted as the hellfire triggers the sprinklers, resulting in a spray of holy water to pour down onto Blue Devil, burning him alive. Mist fades away but not before explaining how she’s left a parting gift to eliminate all traces of her involvement. Firestorm returns to find Blue Devil reduced to a horribly burnt skeleton form. With his final breath, Blue Devil screams “bomb”, which allows Firestorm to protect himself from an exploding bomb that destroys the entire museum. The issue ends with Mist taking her son out to sit in the sun as she announces that she’s feeling like taking her son back to the states to meet his daddy. Cue ominous music as the issue ends…
Overall a cool story with tons of death and violence for your buck. There are some minor flaws with the artwork (Crimson Fox’s death comes off too vague and sanitized) but the dark humor of the Mist III killing these “Morts of the Month” characters and getting away with it makes up for it.
