History YMMV / Starman

** The soundtrack composed by Jack Nitzsche is beautiful, especially with songs like "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nip7k0m08PM Starman Leaves (End Theme)]]".

* AwardSnub: Refreshingly averted by Creator/JeffBridges getting nominated for Best Actor, escaping the SciFiGhetto....but why wasn't Creator/KarenAllen nominated for Best Actress?

* SpecialEffectFailure: Though impressive at the time, Starman's transformation hasn't held up over time in a world where digital morphing is now possible. While the puppet effects by Creator/RickBaker and Creator/StanWinston still hold up well enough, the main issue lies in the transition effect from puppet to actor courtesy of Dick Smith, which looks very much like a bad StopMotion effect.

* SpecialEffectFailure: While impressive at the time, Starman's transformation hasn't held up over time in a world where digital morphing is now possible. While the puppet effects by Creator/RickBaker and Creator/StanWinston still hold up well enough, the main issue lies in the transition effect from puppet to actor courtesy of Dick Smith, which looks very much like a bad StopMotion effect.

* SpecialEffectFailure: While impressive at the time, Starman's transformation hasn't held up over time in a world where digital morphing is now possible. While the puppet effects by Creator/RickBaker and Creator/StanWinston still hold up well enough, the main issue lies in the transition effect from puppet to actor, which looks very much like a bad StopMotion effect.

* NightmareFuel: Starman's [[RapidAging accelerated growth]] from infant to adult. The infant stage at the beginning and segments of the transformation invoke [[UncannyValley an eerily similar yet subtly off feel]].

!!The comic
* CompleteMonster:
** The first Ragdoll, Peter Merkel, was once just a two-bit thief whose gimmick was being triple jointed. [[FromNobodyToNightmare Tired of being a joke]], he decided to reinvent himself as a mass-murdering cult leader. Gathering together the lost, the homeless, the addicts together to fuel his growing ego, Merkel decided to revenge himself upon the world and directed multiple murders, making the streets of Opal City run red with blood, with Merkel indiscriminately targeting the innocent, intending to target the innocent families of his enemies. Merkel took advantage of his hold over his cult to take sexual advantage of the women, and hideously abused the resulting children. His son, Peter Merkel Jr., was hideously scarred by his attempts to surgically alter his body to be like his father, and he went so far as to have himself castrated since they "got in the way", only to be rejected by his father anyway. His daughter Alex--eventually the supervillain [[ComicBook/SecretSix Junior]]--suffered worse. Having desired a little girl, Merkel [[AbusiveParents subjected her to horrible sexual, mental and physical abuse]]. Merkel became [[EvenEvilHasStandards despised until his death by the rest of the supervillain community]] for his treachery and depravity and stands as a unique icon of a former HarmlessVillain becoming a genuine terror.
** ''Grand Guignol'' arc: [[ArcVillain Simon Culp]] is the [[ArchEnemy nemesis]] of Richard Swift, The Shade. Consumed with wishing to hurt the Shade [[EvilIsPetty for little reason]], Culp, already [[SerialKiller having murdered 20 people]], found himself in the Shade's body, occasionally stealing control from him. Going on [[SpreeKiller killing sprees]], trying to end the world, and committing other crimes, Culp initiates a process called "The Rite", where he contains Opal City in a shadow dome, unleashing other villains to kill and wreak havoc with intention of killing Opal and all who live within to take away the city The Shade loves the most.
** "[[YMMV/SandmanMysteryTheatre The Face]]". See that page for details.
* EnsembleDarkhorse: The Shade and Mikaal Tomas.
* GeniusBonus: In the first issue, the Mist's line ''"I could be tell you how I murdered a prostitute, cut out her kidneys, fried and ate one, and mailed the other to you,"'' is a reference to the Jack the Ripper murders. After the initial killing spree in 1888, the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee received a package containing [[{{Squick}} half of a human kidney]], along with a letter from someone who claimed responsibility for the murders, and boasted about [[ImAHumanitarian frying and eating the victim's other kidney]].
* MagnificentBastard: Richard Swift, the ComicBook/{{Shade}}, became immortal and an avatar of the Darklands in the 1800s. Becoming a genius thief and assassin to enrich and excite himself, Swift would also wipe out the Ludlow assassin family out, having many adventures before settling in Opal City. Acting as enemy and eventually friend to the new Starman Jack Knight, Swift fights to save Opal City, outwitting his opponents with signature flair before finally managing to defeat his nemesis Simon Culp as Culp seeks to utterly annihilate Opal City to spite Swift.
* MyRealDaddy: James Robinson was obviously this for Jack, but more impressively, most people regard him as the true father of ''all'' the Starmen, even the ones he didn't create, because he did such an impressive job giving them CharacterDevelopment and ArcWelding their divergent mythos together.
* NightmareFuel: Etrigan delivers a cold serving of it to Ted Knight in ''Starman #42''.
-->'''Starman''': You honestly claim to be a demon? That's... no. I can't believe it.
-->'''Etrigan''': ''You assume I care one jot,\\
if you believe I am or not.\\
You want the proof, I'll give it here,\\
you'll know true Hell within a year.\\
The toy you helped men conceive,\\
its fiery breath will live and breathe,\\
but you will feel so far from proud,\\
at that o mighty mushroom cloud.\\
You'll lie crazed in a sickly bed,\\
the Hell I speak of in your head.''
* OlderThanTheyThink: If you're a fan of ''Literature/HarryPotter'', you could be forgiven for assuming that the O'Dares are based on the Weasleys. Like the Weasleys, they're a benevolent family of redheads who serve as {{the Hero}}'s allies, and their members include the love interests of two of the main characters, as well as a BlackSheep who falls in with the bad guys before having a HeelFaceTurn. Alas, ''Starman'' came out around three years before ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'' did. Both families seem to have been based on the popular stereotype about red-headed Irish Catholics having tons of children.

* AwardSnub: Refreshingly averted by Creator/JeffBridges getting nominated for Best Actor, escaping the SciFiGhetto.... but why wasn't Karen Allen nominated for Best Actress?

* ClicheStorm: After the interesting science fiction setup, the road trip romance plot is rather by the numbers.

* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: The ending is a textbook example of this trope being done correctly. When [[spoiler:Starman leaves Earth,]] we don't actually see [[spoiler:him go]]; the camera stays on [[spoiler:Jenny as she watches him leave.]] The final shot of [[spoiler:Karen Allen looking directly into the camera as the camera rises]] is ''far'' more powerful than any special effects could have been.
* RetroactiveRecognition: M.C. Gainey (years before finding fame on ''Lost'') is one of the cops who tail Jenny and Starman at the hotel.

** ''Grand Guignol'' arc: [[ArcVillain Simon Culp]] is the [[ArchEnemy nemesis]] of Richard Swift, The Shade. Consumed with wishing to hurt the Shade [[EvilIsPetty for little reason]], Culp, already [[SerialKiller having murdered 20 people]], found himself in the Shade's body, occasionally stealing control from him. Going on killing sprees, trying to end the world, and committing other crimes, Culp initiates a process called "The Rite", where he contains Opal City in a shadow dome, unleashing other villains to kill and wreak havoc with intention of killing Opal and all who live within to take away the city The Shade loves the most.