Starbreaker

:"This article is about the DC Comics supervillain. For the science fiction weapons of the same name, see Xeelee. For the song by Judas Priest, see Sin After Sin. For the band go to Starbreaker (band).

Starbreaker is a fictional villain created by DC Comics, first appearing in "Justice League of America" #96, cover-dated February 1972. He was an enemy of the Justice League and Adam Strange. He is known in Thanagar as "Luciphage" ("light-eater", using Latin and Greek) and often called "The Cosmic Vampire".

Origins

Starbreaker is an ancient cosmic vampire that feeds on the energies of entire planets and stars as well as people. He attempts to do the latter on various members of the Justice League when they try to stop one of his feedings. In his early appearances, he was a humanoid with red skin, dark hair and red pupils. After the loss of his corporeal form, he took on a more skeletal shadowy form.

Starbreaker versus the Justice League

His first battle with the League took place on the planet Rann. With the help of Rann's planetary defender, Adam Strange, the League manages to drive Starbreaker away from the planet.

Later, he would come to Earth to take revenge but was once more defeated by the JLA. The Guardians of the Universe then imprison him.

He manages to escape many years later, taking over the planet Almerac, home of the superhuman alien Maxima, with the intent of absorbing its energy. He manages to defeat the JLA team that had come to Almerac's aid and took them prisoner. Through an illusion of Bloodwynd (or rather, of the Martian Manhunter operating under this identity) the League was able to free themselves. Blue Beetle then manipulates the Booster Gold armor into absorbing Starbreaker's energy instead of feeding it to him. Starbreaker, being an energy-based creature, appears to simply disperse -- with only his clothing remaining. After that conflict Maxima decided to join the JLA, with whom she stays for a short time.

Starbreaker's return

In the Adam Strange epic, Planet Heist, a Thanagarian death-cultist named Sh'ri Valkyr rescues the incorporeal form of Starbreaker, feeding him dissidents to keep him alive and his hunger sated. Valkyr devises a plan wherein she would steal Rann's teleportation technology, the Zeta-Beam, and use it to convert the entire universe into energy that would feed her master, allowing her to rule by his side in the new universe to come after all was obliterated.

Starbreaker was later defeated by Adam Strange, the Omega Men and the L.E.G.I.O.N. The last of the Darkstars sacrifice themselves in setting the trap that would strand Starbreaker in an empty universe devoid of energy. In a final act of malice, Sh'ri Valkyr teleports Rann to Polaris, home system of the planet Thanagar. Here she knew the Thanagarians would see the sudden arrival of their hated enemies as hostile and attack. Thus began the Rann-Thanagar War.

Valkyr did not live long enough to enjoy her revenge, however, as she was shot in the back by Adam Strange's wife, Alanna.

External links

* [http://www.sequart.com/columns/index.php?col=10&column=814 Article on the Planet Heist saga, briefly describes Starbreaker's early appearances]