Starfire (Teen Titans)

For the swordswoman superhero, see Starfire (DC Comics).

Starfire (Koriand'r)
File:Talesofthenewteentitans4starfire.jpg Cover to Tales of the New Teen Titans #4 (September 1982). Art by George Pérez.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	DC Comics Presents #26 (October 1980)
Created by	Marv Wolfman (writer) George Pérez (artist)
In-story information
Alter ego	Koriand'r
Species	Tamaranean
Place of origin	Tamaran
Team affiliations	Teen Titans Outsiders Justice League R.E.B.E.L.S. Red Hood and The Outlaws
Notable aliases	Kory Anders
Abilities	Superhuman strength, stamina, and durability Flight Energy projection Linguistic assimilation

Starfire is the name of several fictional comic book characters published by DC Comics. The most prominent Starfire is Koriand'r, the third character to use that name. She debuted in a special insert in DC Comics Presents #26 (October 1980), and was created by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez.

Publication history

The design of the character (Koriand'r) incorporated aspects of many existing characters, artist George Pérez talking about the creation of the character noted that:

...I figured based on the description, was Red Sonja in outer space, so she ended up having a visual cue from that. When Joe Orlando passed by and saw the character sketches he suggested that maybe her hair should be longer. That I took to the ninth degree and gave her the Mighty Mouse contrail.

Fictional character biography

Koriand'r, Starfire's real name, is a princess of the fictional planet Tamaran in the Vegan system, and was in line to rule the planet as Queen. Komand'r ("commander", also known as Blackfire), her older sister, developed a bitter rivalry with her after suffering a disease in infancy that robbed her of the ability to harness solar energy to allow her to fly, and by extension, her right to the throne. This rivalry continued and intensified when the siblings were sent for warrior training with the Warlords of Okaara. Things came to a head during a sparring exercise in which Komand'r attempted to kill her sister. As a result, Komand'r was expelled and she swore vengeance.

That revenge came in a plot where Komand'r betrayed her planet by supplying detailed information about Tamaran's defenses to their enemies, the Citadel. They conquered Tamaran with ease, and the surrender conditions included the enslavement of Koriand'r, who was never permitted to return, since that would mean the Citadel would devastate the planet for abrogating the treaty. To Kory's horror, she learned that Komand'r was her master; Koriand'r's older sister made the most of her sibling's bondage with years of horrific servitude, torture and unprevented sexual exploitation at the hands of others. When Koriand'r killed one of her captors who had previously raped her, Komand'r decided to execute her as punishment, but the sisters were attacked and captured by the Psions. Psions, a group of sadistic alien scientists, performed a deadly experiment on both sisters to see how much energy their Tamaranean bodies could absorb before exploding from the overload. During the procedure, Komand'r's forces attacked the Psion ship to retrieve her. While the Psions were distracted, Kory broke free using her starbolts - destructive blasts of solar energy - which were a result of the experimentation. Against her better judgment, she decided to free Komand'r, who was still absorbing energy. However, far from grateful, Komand'r struck her sister down with the same, but more intense, power, and had her restrained for later execution.

Kory escaped by stealing a spacecraft to flee to the nearest planet, Earth, where she met the first Robin and his compatriots; she joined them in forming the Teen Titans. She became a charter member of this team and remained a member for years; during this time she was frequently romantically involved with Robin.

Marriage

Koriand'r has been married twice, both times to Tamaranean men: once to the prince Karras to seal a peace treaty; and once to General Phy'zzon out of duty. Karras died in battle, while Phy'zzon died trying to defend new Tamaran against the Sun Eater.

In between these, she nearly married Dick Grayson, but their wedding was interrupted by Raven (who was evil at the time). Raven murdered the priest before he could pronounce Dick and Kory husband and wife. The relationship was already on unsteady ground, with Kory fearing that Dick was rushing into marriage and also concerned about the anti-alien sentiments that sprang up in response to the news of the impending nuptials.

In the Titans of Tomorrow storyline, Batwoman said that Starfire would have a wonderful future with Nightwing. The half-blood Mar'i Grayson was born from their union in the Kingdom Come timeline. However, during Infinite Crisis, an image from the Titans Tomorrow timeline shows a gravestone implied to belong to a deceased Dick Grayson.

Infinite Crisis

Main article: Infinite Crisis

During Infinite Crisis, Starfire joined Donna's New Cronus Team that went to investigate a hole in the universe that was found during the Rann-Thanagar War. They arrived at the reset center of the universe and with the help of assorted heroes aided in the defeat of Alexander Luthor, who was attempting to recreate the multiverse and build a perfect Earth from it. She is reported missing at the end of the crisis.

52

Main article: 52 (comics)

On the seventh day of the fifth week of 52, Starfire is shown to be stranded on a paradise-like planet with Animal Man and Adam Strange. In the same issue, it was revealed that energy ripples caused by Alexander Luthor, Jr., altered the Zeta Ray Beams the space heroes were going to use to return home; among other things, it caused the trio to be teleported together to the planet.

A week and some time later, Starfire is seen eating an odd narcotic native fruit. Luckily, Adam's tough love seems to snap her out of it, or at least make her stop eating the fruit. Two days later, Devilance, a being whose presence Buddy had sensed earlier, appears to Starfire. A week, two days, and two nights later, Adam and Buddy go looking for her. Unfortunately, they find her caught in a large net, hanging from above. Just as Buddy realizes it is a trap, he and Adam get caught in a similar net, with Devilance staring at them. Three days and two nights later, Starfire awakens and works together with her comrades to distract Devilance. She pays Devilance back for capturing her by stealing his staff and striking him with it before catching up with Buddy and Adam. As the trio head back to the ship, hoping to use the staff as a power source, Devilance broods, bound by the same vines he had used to restrain his captives.

At the end of week 16, the repairs on the ship are completed and the trio take off for Earth. Devilance later suddenly attacks the ship and takes back his lance. Just as Devilance is about to destroy the ship, he is torn apart by Lobo. Believing he is going to attack them next, Starfire convinces Lobo to help the trio by offering payment, but not before he rips her top off. She returns to the ship to explain the situation to her companions while Lobo hitches the ship to his space bike. They follow Lobo in his new stronghold in Sector 3500, a sector of space mysteriously ravaged, and ruled by Lobo acting as religious man. To save him, and the inhabitants, from a swarm of strange creatures, Starfire is forced to use the Emerald Eye of Ekron, alerting Ekron himself. The ragtag team is then forced to flee, with Lobo acting as their guide, gaining Ekron's help and discovering their real enemy, Lady Styx, bringing havoc and mayhem in the entire Galaxy. Starfire agrees to fight her, and she is brought as a prisoner of the galactic villainess by Lobo, in an attempt to foil her defences. The attempt succeeds, but Buddy is seemingly killed, and Lobo leaves.

Starfire and Adam are left alone in space, their ship slowly breaking apart, still pursued by angry Lady Styx followers. Starfire is badly injured, and a blind Adam Strange, who is reliant on machinery which is no longer useful, cannot do anything to help her. Just as they are going to crash into a sun, however, Mogo and a rookie Green Lantern come to their rescue. Cured, but still recovering, she travels to Earth in order to return Buddy's jacket back to his wife Ellen, unaware that Buddy was resurrected and arrived on Earth shortly before her. Upon her return, she manages to destroy two of Lady Styx's followers who were attacking Buddy and his wife. She then returns Buddy's jacket to his wife, before passing out from exhaustion and is left in the care of the Baker Family.

Countdown to Adventure

Main article: Countdown to Final Crisis

Starfire, Adam Strange, and Animal Man are fated to join forces again in the coming Countdown to Adventure eight-issue miniseries. In issue one of the series, Starfire discovers her powers have gone but decides to make an attempt at a normal life. Buddy invites her to stay with the family as an after-school sitter despite Ellen's discomfort with how close Buddy and Starfire seem. This worsens when Buddy's son attacks Kory whilst under the effects of Lady Styx's virus. Animal Man's decision to follow Starfire rather than watch over his son in the hospital leads Ellen to ask if he is in love with her, to which Buddy does not reply. Despite the loss of her powers, Starfire demonstrates her combat abilities as she and Animal Man fight off crowds of people infected by the virus.

They are later trapped in San Diego with the infectees where they are joined by the Teen Titans who are trying to break through a force field to get to the Healers ship. After Buddy is captured, Ellen joins Starfire to save Animal Man from dissection. They are then interrupted by more victims of the Lady Styx virus. Alanna and Adam Strange arrive at the scene via the Zeta Beam and meet up with Starfire and Ellen Baker. They then save Buddy and teleport with the aid of the Zeta Beam to Rann to restore Starfire's powers. After being teleported to Rann, Starfire recharges her powers and rids Rann of the Lady Styx virus.

The team finds out that the sterilization is taking place in San Diego. Starfire uses her powers to heal the people, and is later seen leaving the Baker household for parts unknown. Starfire, Animal Man, Ellen, and Adam Strange are teleported by a broken Zeta Beam to Earth. Starfire attempts to rid the disease but is soon tackled by Champ Hazard into the ground. Adam Strange blasts Champ off Kory and she cures San Diego of the Lady Styx virus. She then leaves the Baker's household to return to the Titans.

Rann-Thanagar Holy War

Main article: Rann-Thanagar War

The trio again join forces in the Rann-Thanagar Holy war. After a meeting at Titans Tower, Adam Strange Zeta Beams Starfire and Animal Man to Rann. Apparently the belief of Lady Styx still remained even after the virus has been eliminated. Their plan is to use a telepath to show the horror of Lady Styx.

Titans Together

After the apparent defeat of Lady Styx, Starfire once again returned to Animal Man's home. One afternoon, she and Animal Man's son were attacked by a water demon in Buddy's swimming pool. Meanwhile, her old Titan teammates had also been attacked by assorted demonic entities. This led to Starfire, Nightwing, Troia, Cyborg, Beast Boy, Raven, Flash, and Red Arrow, to reassemble as a team, when they realized that the attacks are the result of a resurrected Trigon and his newly discovered three sons. While investigating, the Titans began to experience unexplained mood-shifts. Starfire and Nightwing were overwhelmed by lust, and ended up having abrupt sex in the middle of their investigation.

Soon after, the team met up in New York's Central Park, where they attempted to recover from these mood-shifts and realize that each shift coincided with one of the seven deadly sins. The team was then approached by the Sons of Trigon. They battled the villainous prodigy, and drove them away. Starfire and Nightwing then discuss their actions while under the influence of Trigon's sons. While Nightwing shows hints at wanting to renew their relationship, Starfire questions his commitment to the relationship and goes so far as to ask Nightwing whether or not he truly still loves her. Nightwing to his own surprise and reluctance admits he does not, leading to them for now leaving their reunion in doubt.

Most recently, she has been captured and turned into a Justifier, as seen in Final Crisis: Resist. She has since been freed, although the loss of control she gathered from the Justifier helmet distressed her severely. She was more than happy to destroy a warehouse full of them when Mister Terrific offered her and Cyborg to destroy them.

Blackest Night

During Hero's Day, a time when the heroes of the DC Universe join together in remembrance of dead comrades, Starfire and the Titans were attacked by Black Lantern versions of their fallen teammates. During the battle, Starfire and Cyborg were subjected to a psychic attack by the Black Lantern Omen, putting them both in a euphoric state as they experienced their greatest desires (for Starfire, marrying Dick Grayson). Both she and Cyborg were rescued by Beast Boy.

Justice League

Following the dissolution of the current JLA after Blackest Night, Starfire is invited by Donna to join Kimiyo Hoshi's new Justice League. After a short time with the team, Starfire quit the team and left a note to Dick explaining why. She then returns to where Tamaran used to be, to find that it had mysteriously returned.

Red Hood and the Outlaws

Starfire joins with Jason Todd, who is once again using the Red Hood moniker, and Roy Harper, who retakes the mantle of Arsenal. Tamaraens in the DCNU, are said to have very short term memory, due to not caring much about Earth, they also really only see humans as nothing more than sights and smells this is used as the reason for Starfire having forgotten all of the Teen Titans.

Powers and abilities

Like all Tamaraneans (and somewhat similar to Superman), Starfire's alien physiology constantly absorbs ultraviolet radiation and converts it to energy for flight, which leaves a distinctive energy contrail behind, looking as if it is coming directly from her hair. The solar absorption experiments performed on her by the alien Psions granted her the ability to channel and project that same energy into destructive blasts called "starbolts". As shown in the "Insiders" crossover story arc (Teen Titans and Outsiders), Starfire can also release nearly all of her stored energy as a powerful omni-directional explosive burst, many times more powerful than her standard blasts. The released energy leaves her in a weakened state.

Starfire possesses superhuman strength, which combined with her superior fighting-skills (and conventions of the medium), has enabled her to win about two out of three times against the much stronger Donna Troy (as the latter was in the early 1980s) during purely hand-to-hand training matches. The uppermost level of her strength is not known, but early promotional materials referred to her as having the strength of "eight men".

Starfire is also capable of assimilating other languages through physical contact with another person. When she attempts to do so with males, she usually kisses them because it is more fun for her. She is extremely proficient in armed and unarmed combat, having been trained in those arts by the Warlords of Okaara.

Other versions

• In Amalgam Comics, Starfire (Kory) was combined with Shatterstar from Marvel Comics to create Shatterstarfire.
• In the alternate timeline of the Flashpoint event, Starfire joins with the Amazons' Furies. She intends to burn the city ground. Starfire then went after circus members Dick Grayson and Boston Brand for Doctor Fate's Helm of Nabu. Starfire and the Amazons with her were killed in a gasoline explosion caused by Dick.

In other media

Teen Titans animated series

File:Starfrie3.png

Starfire in the Teen Titans episode "Apprentice, Part 2".

Starfire appears in the Teen Titans animated series, voiced by Hynden Walch. Elements of her storyline appear in different episodes spread across the show's five seasons, in which she deals with her arch-foe and sister, Blackfire (also voiced by Walch), the responsibilities of being a princess, and her insecurities about being an alien on Earth.

Starfire was born and raised on the distant planet Tamaran before arriving on Earth and joining the Teen Titans. Her race, the Tamaraneans, are an emotional race who see feelings as the force that drives their very livelihood. Their emotions fuel their natural abilities of flight and superhuman strength, as well as Starfire's energy blasts, called starbolts. Her race is also highly resilient to radiation and the cold (though the longer she is outside, and the more exhausted she is, the more susceptible she is to sub-zero temperatures). The animated Starfire also has the ability to travel faster-than-light without a ship, as well as the ability to survive in the vacuum of outer space for long periods of time. However, she cannot breathe underwater. Sometimes her powers act beyond her control, such as releasing explosive energy blasts when she sneezes, as well as her strength accidentally bending a street light down to the ground. She can absorb knowledge of basic language through a kiss.

Starfire's Titans character bears some similarities with her comic version. In the flashback episode "Go!", which tells of the founding of the Titans in their animated continuity, just before meeting the Titans, Starfire is shown being held prisoner as a "prize" by a group of Gordanian slave masters, working for an interstellar power known as the Citadel. Eventually, she manages to escape and flees to the closest planet, which happens to be Earth. Starfire runs into Robin and the other soon-to-be Titans, but after being mistreated for so long, she is aggressive, antagonistic and does not trust the Titans or any one else for that matter. After Robin aids her in taking off the "space cuffs" that bind her wrists, the Gordanians whom she escaped from show up looking for her and the Titans help her fight them off. After winning and driving off her jailers, Starfire elects to stay on Earth with the four heroes and quickly develops feelings for Robin.

Starfire is inherently the most sensitive of the Titans. This version of Starfire is naive, innocent, and somewhat insecure; but it is this trait that endears her to others, especially to Robin. An alien and an outsider, she is still new to Earth and its customs, which serves as a recurring source of comic relief. She also insists on sharing her own customs with other members of the team. Presumably because English is not her first language, Starfire speaks without contractions and misuses idioms. Additionally, she uses several Tamaranean nouns.

Starfire has a pet giant moth larva named "Silkie" in the series, given to her by Beast Boy. Starfire takes friendship very seriously, and is easily distressed when others, especially her friends, argue or fight. Although her naive and slightly overly friendly yet kind nature can sometimes clash with Raven's more secretive one, she has shown a closeness to her.

Reflecting the comic books, the series hints at a potential relationship between Starfire and Robin. At the Teen Titans panel at Comicon 2005 in San Diego, Sam Register asked story editor Rob Hoegee if Robin and Starfire would ever kiss. "Pretty safe bet. But we're not saying for sure," Rob replied. In the season 5 episode "Go!", Robin and Starfire's first kiss is shown; however (as in the comics), this was for the purpose of assimilating the English language. In the movie Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo, moments are shared between the two. Finally, Robin and Starfire share the "actual" kiss after the Ink Monster is defeated.

Teen Titans Go!

In Teen Titans Go! #46 (a comic book spin-off from the TV series), it is revealed that Starfire has a younger brother named Wildfire. When the Gordanians attack Tamaran, her parents set up a ship to save him by launching him to another planet. Afterwards, Blackfire, in an attempt to make a treaty between the Tamarans and Gordanians, gives them Starfire as a slave (setting up her appearance in the episode "Go!"). As a result of Starfire and Wildfire's absence, their parents die of a broken heart. Wildfire seemingly comes to Earth to meet up with his sister, but he is revealed to be the shapeshifting Madame Rouge, who was aided in the deception by Blackfire. Discovering this, Starfire closes off all ties with Blackfire (stating that they are no longer sisters), and states that she will find her lost brother.

Video games

• Starfire is a playable character in the Teen Titans video game.
• Starfire appears in DC Universe Online, voiced by Adrienne Mischler.

Other Starfires

Red Star

Main article: Red Star (comics)

The first DC Comics character to use the name Starfire was Leonid Kovar, a Russian national. After his second appearance (New Teen Titans #18, April 1982) he changed his name to "Red Star" in acknowledgment of Koriand'r's appropriation of the title.

Starfire

The second DC Comics character to use the name Starfire was a foe of Supergirl, who first appeared in Adventure Comics #402 (February 1971). She created a pill that frequently negated Supergirl's powers for several months, causing the Girl of Steel to wear an exo-skeleton that simulated many of her normal abilities. She has not been seen post-Crisis.

Sornaii Champion

Main article: Starfire (DC Comics)

The third DC Comics character to use the name Starfire was a dark haired woman. The character's series first appeared in 1976, running for 8 issues and took place on a strange alien world called Pytharia.

External links

• Starfire at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
• DCU Guide: Starfire I
• DCU Guide: Starfire II
• DCU Guide: Starfire III
• DC Comics: Starfire III secret origin
• Titans Tower: Starfire III biography
• Template:Imdb character