Starhawk (character)

This article is about the first Marvel Comics Starhawk. For the second Marvel Comics Starhawk, see Aleta Ogord. For other uses, see Starhawk (disambiguation).

Starhawk
Starhawk. Art by Clint Langley.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	The Defenders #27 (Sep 1975)
Created by	Steve Gerber Sal Buscema
In-story information
Alter ego	Stakar of the House of Ogord
Species	human/enhanced humanoid (raised as Arcturan)
Team affiliations	Guardians of the Galaxy Avengers
Notable aliases	"One Who Knows," "Giver of Light"
Abilities	Invulnerability Energy manipulation Flight Precognition

Starhawk (Stakar of the House of Ogord) is a fictional character created by Steve Gerber (writer) and Sal Buscema (artist). He is an antihero in the Earth-691 timeline of the Marvel Comics universe.

Stakar was fated to eventually re-inhabit his infant body, reliving his life over countless times. Because of the knowledge of things to come, he manipulated events to affect what he felt would be the best outcome, referring to himself as "One Who Knows". He made many enemies in doing so, but his tampering and guidance also led to the formation of the Guardians of the Galaxy in the 31st Century.

Upon receiving his power from the Hawk God, Starhawk identified himself and summarized his purpose by saying "I am the wisdom and the glory of your ancestors. I am the light and the giver of light. I am your heritage and your destiny! I am the POWER that was Arcturus!"

Fictional character biography

Origin

A male child was born to the superheroes Quasar and Kismet in the about the year 2002 of the Earth-691 timeline. As such, he was half human and half-artificially created being. Just as soon as he was born on the planet Vesper, he was kidnapped and deposited on the planet Arcturus IV. The baby was discovered by an Arcturian couple who were among the last of their planet's mutants; for much of his life, Stakar would believe that these mutants were his birth parents. The mutants were found and slain by the Reavers of Arcturus, Arcturian military cadres dedicated to eradicating the mutants of their race. The Reaver Ogord discovered the infant and, assuming him to be a normal Arcturian, adopted the child and raised it as his own with his wife Salaan, naming the boy Stakar.

Stakar cultivated an interest in science and archaeology and explored ruins containing the Hawk God. Around the year 2020, he and his adoptive sister Aleta Ogord reanimated the dormant deity and were physically transformed. They took turns occupying the same physical space, while the other stayed in a type of "limbo." They were given extraordinary power and left Arcturus IV for the stars; when dominant, Stakar adopted the costumed identity of Starhawk. Developing romantic feelings for one another, Stakar and Aleta petitioned the Hawk God to temporarily separate them. During this time, they had three children together: Sita, John and Tara.

Guardians of the Galaxy

As an adventurer and protector, Starhawk revealed himself to the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Defenders in the year 3014. He aided them in overthrowing the Badoon occupation of Earth. Starhawk joined the Guardians of the Galaxy in a space mission, and helped defeat the Topographical Man. It is later revealed he manipulated events to bring the Guardians together; for example, when Charlie-27 teleported from Jupiter to escape the Badoon, Starhawk caused him to be transported to Pluto where he met Martinex.

During this time, Stakar's three children were changed into energy vampires by Aleta's father and sent to kill Stakar. They died of accelerated old age. Aleta thereafter blamed Stakar (rather than her father) for the deaths of their children, and their relationship never recovered.

Starhawk teamed with the time-traveling Thor, and battled Korvac and his Minions of Menace. Starhawk later traveled to the 1970s alongside his fellow Guardians, and assisted the Avengers in battle against Korvac. Alongside the Guardians, the Fantastic Four, Dargo, and Keeper, Starhawk battled manifestations of Korvac's power in various eras.

In 3017, Starhawk accompanied the Guardians on a quest to find the lost shield of Captain America. He battled Taserface and the Stark, and was physically separated from Aleta in an accident. Aleta was the stronger of the pair, and Stakar forcibly reabsorbed her to sustain himself. The two struggled for dominance of their physical space, and Stakar metemorphosed into a 'dark' version of himself, projecting 'black light'.

Because of Stakar's assault on their teammate, the Guardians chose to expel him from the team. Eventually, Aleta became dominant, and reverted Stakar's body to an infant state. Aware of his destiny, she sent him back in time to begin his life cycle again.

Freed from rebirth

When the Guardians traveled back in time to the 20th century of Earth-616, their native timeline was altered - to the extent that Starhawk had lived his entire life over again and was waiting for their arrival. Stakar and Aleta had harsh words for each other, and the Hawk God appeared and intervened, attaching the two ex-lovers by bonding their fingers together. After being forced to work together for a time, the Hawk God again granted them audience, allowing them to plead their cases. He separated them, and allowed both to retain power.

Although Aleta chose to stay with the Guardians, the Hawk God told Stakar the truth about his heritage. He then went on a quest to learn more and found his mother Kismet, alive and living in a secluded religious retreat on the planet Vesper. At that, a creature who called himself Era, the son of Eon, revealed himself. It admitted having kidnapped Stakar at birth, along with other vile deeds.

With the encouragement of the Hawk God, Starhawk and Kismet dedicated themselves to locating and confronting Era.

Return

In the 21st century of the Earth-616 timeline, Starhawk met up with that era's equivalent of the Guardians of the Galaxy. His cause was unclear, but it has something to do with Vance Astro, aka Major Victory who was found by this new squad of Guardians. After a while Starhawk changed to a female form. She later sacrificed her life to save the Guardians.

Powers and abilities

The true extent of Starhawk's powers is unknown, but they are said to be immense in nature. He has an incredibly long lifespan, possibly inherited from his mother or due to his empowerment by the Hawk God.

Starhawk can manipulate light to create concussive force blasts of photonic energy, heat, and solid-light constructs. He can also fly at the speed of light by tapping anti-gravitons, and survive in the vacuum of space. By tapping into Aleta's powers (when merged with her), he can also generate solid constructs of light; it is unknown if he can do so since their separation. His natural senses, especially eyesight, are enhanced to a superhuman degree; in addition, his powers give him extrasensory sensitivity to energy patterns and fluctuations in his environment, and he can track energy trails across intergalactic distances.

He has superhuman strength and durability, and he can enhance these further by reinforcing his body with light energy; on one occasion, he was able to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the thunder god Thor. He has an immunity to most known diseases and radiation sickness.

He seemingly has precognition, designating himself as "One-Who-Knows", but this is actually an effect of remembering what happened in his previous life cycle. However, due to Starhawk's efforts to change events for the better in each cycle, as well as the manipulations of beings with greater understanding of the universe (such as Mephisto), these memories can become unreliable; the overall thrust of events may be the same, but vital details might differ from his previous incarnation.

When he forced Aleta to re-merge with him after their second separation, Starhawk's power changed from light to dark, and he was able to create constructs out of solid darkness, and fire blasts of shadowy force. Valentino had initially decided to call him Shadowhawk, but Tom DeFalco convinced him to save the name for a brand new character.

Stakar has knowledge of the archaeology of the planet Arcturus IV. He also has extensive knowledge of various civilizations throughout the Milky Way Galaxy.

His costume is made of alien materials, including a retracting transparent facemask and life support system, and retractable solar wind collector wings.

External links

• Starhawk Stakar Ogord at Marvel.com
• Stakar Ogord (Earth-691) at the Marvel Database
• Starhawk on ComicBookDB.com
• Starhawk on Comic Vine