Starman #2

"Mercy"
Sins of the Father, Part Three
written by James Robinson
pencils by Tony Harris
inks by Wade Von Grawbadger

"Is it me, then, growing old?  Or do all the costumed do-gooders begin to blur into one annoying mess after a while" (Starman #2: 5), the aging Mist quips to the ageless Shade.  He might as well be talking about the entirely ordinary Theo and David Knight, but Jack Knight is proving to be something different, a reluctant superhero with a fondness for antique trinkets and an eye for practicality, less dogmatic and more feeling than his predecessors.  Jack is beginning to find his way as a superhero.  Or at least his costume...and his cosmic staff.

But "Mercy" is mostly about two women:  the Mist's stammering daughter Nash and the mysterious new fortune teller Charity, culled from her own early-70s DC title Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion and clever enough to verbally spar with Jack.  Nash, however, proves the more tantalizing prospect, more poetic in her metaphors and hostage to their fathers' self-perpetuating feud.  She lets Jack go, against her knowledge of her father's wishes and even though she has him easily trapped on a rooftop.  She is—among all the loud, self-important men running around Opal City, swelling their egos and verbally fortifying their self-identities, and bashing one another where it hurts—a quiet, soft spot, not exactly vulnerable but susceptible to other rules and an idea of another world, neither war nor opera, much better than the one the men are playing out.

If Starman had a puppetmaster, it would be the Shade, who after seemingly allying himself with the Mist to annihilate the Knight clan, promises instead their safety.  For unknown reasons, he seems invested in Jack Knight becoming a hero.  And, by force of circumstance and not a little temperamental inclination, Jack is well on his way to doing so.

[December 1994]

Note:  Although release date and interior copyright dates read accurately "December 1994," the cover incorrectly lists Starman #2 as December 1995.