Star Brand (later slightly renamed to The Star Brand) is a 1986 comic book series published by the New Universe imprint of Marvel Comics.
Ken Connell, a mechanic from Pittsburgh, encounters a disguised, dying alien (the Old Man) and is gifted the titular Star Brand, which grants him vast cosmic powers. After clashing with another alien, he initially attempts to become a genuine superhero, but discovers that’s going to be much more complicated than he expected.
The series was one of eight titles launched to introduce the New Universe, a shared world unrelated to the existing Marvel Universe. It was initially billed as “the world outside your window”, a setting which only diverged from the real world when a single Mass Empowering Event - a huge flash in the sky referred to as the White Event - granted some people superpowers.
Star Brand, with its aliens and transferable powers, didn't initially fit well with those guidelines, so later stories revisited the events of early issues to show them in a very different light. The Old Man and his inhuman pursuers weren't actually aliens, and were manipulating Ken. As for the Star Brand itself, it didn’t follow the same rules as other powers bestowed by the White Event because it wasn’t a result of that event. Instead, the Star Brand was the thing that caused the White Event, a twist that reinforced Ken's role as the most powerful paranormal on Earth.
Faced with such a huge responsibility, Ken eventually decides to get rid of his powers and lead a normal life. However, his attempt to do so goes horribly wrong, resulting in the "Black Event” - a second world-changing Mass Empowering Event, but this time with tragic, devastating consequences.
After the Black Event, the Star Brand was passed on to other wielders and the comic's storylines no longer focused on Ken. The final arc revisited Ken, the Old Man and the Star Brand's history, revealing what was really going on and bringing the saga to a definite conclusion.
The series lasted for 19 issues, from October, 1986 to May, 1989.
A one-shot Untold Tales of the New Universe: Star Brand comic was published in 2006, as part of an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the New Universe.
Several different Starbrand Legacy Characters also appeared in the newuniversal reboot of the New Universe concept, with the modern day version closely based on the original Ken Connell.
Another Starbrand, Kevin Conner, appeared in Jonathan Hickman's run on The Avengers and then went on to co-star in Starbrand & Nightmask.
Star Brand includes the following tropes:
- Alternate Company Equivalent: Star Brand's more-than-passing resemblance to Green Lantern was noted almost immediately, and became the topic of several parodies and critiques of the New Universe. After its cancellation, Jim Shooter admitted in an interview that the earliest concept behind the New Universe was to do the DC universe "Marvel-style", but it mutated along the way; by the time the books reached the stands only Star Brand — the Green Lantern expy — remained from that original idea.
- And Your Reward Is Infancy: Ken Connell is reborn as a Star Child a la 2001.
- Angst Nuke: The Star Brand wielder has this as one of their powers.
- Apocalypse How: Ken accidentally obliterates Pittsburgh when trying to neutralise the Star Brand itself. The crater is 15 miles deep and 50 miles across - and everything within it was utterly annihilated. Beyond that line, there's still massive destruction from the blast itself, plus some nasty long-term effects from the Star Brand's unique energy.
- Armed with Canon: When John Byrne took over the series back in The '80s, he proceeded to launch one Take That! after another at the departing figure of ousted Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Jim Shooter. Star Brand was one of the Shooter-initiated The New Universe titles, and was the one that Shooter himself wrote personally. Byrne not only took ad hominem shots at Shooter personally, but had exposition characters hang lampshades on how implausible the events of Shooter's run was, and how stupid the protagonist Ken Connell had been. Early on in Byrne's run, Connell's girlfriend (a major cast member) got killed off; Connell later broke down and tried to get rid of his powers, destroying Pittsburgh (the hometown of both Connell and Shooter) in the process.
- The Baby Trap: Ken clearly wrongly accuses his girlfriend Debbie of this.
- Betty and Veronica: Star Brand had this, with Jerkass Ken Connell mainly concerned with who he was attracted to more; mom Barbara and The Ditz Debbie "Duck" Fix. He eventually goes with the Duck, because she seems to be blindly devoted to him due to apparent self-esteem issues whereas Barbara and her kids would be in danger from the Star Brand (one of which seems to already have been altered by a Star-Brand powered Mind Screw). To be fair, Connell cements his Jerkass status by being temporarily attracted to Barbara's 15-year-old babysitter and sleeping with anyone.
- Capepunk: Ken Connell briefly tried to be a traditional superhero, but it didn't work; in one memorable scene, he met an Author Avatar of writer John Byrne, who explained to him that it would be easy for someone to learn his Secret Identity.
- Chest Burster: Debbie goes into labor and then her baby, a Fetus Terrible empowered by the Star Brand, effectively punches his way out through her stomach, killing her.
- Clingy MacGuffin: The Star Brand, an energy source that can do anything the user wants to. However, even if you do find a way to get rid of it, a piece of it will still live on in you and recharge itself.
- Comic-Book Time: Averted, as with other New Universe books. Some events are given a specific date and time - and data pages give Ken's date of birth and date of paranormality.
- Cruel Mercy: Gladiator is strong enough to hurt Ken despite the Star Brand, seems to be completely invulnerable, and is determined to march into Moscow and kill the Soviet leadership, potentially starting World War III. As the Star Brand grants the power of flight and Gladiator can't fly, Ken lifts him into orbit and considers throwing him into the sun - but then decides he doesn't want to kill him, so throws him into deep space instead.
- Dark Messiah: Ken Connell slips into insanity after the destruction of Pittsburgh. Two months later he's ranting about how he's the messiah and the chosen one, able to remake the world.
- Deflector Shields: This was explicitly the defense of Star Brand, but he can control how far out it extends or turn it off, which meant he didn't have any problem getting his hair cut, or need a special costume.
- Future Self Reveal: The Old Man who gave Ken Connell the titular Star Brand likewise lied about being a centuries-old Dutch trader, and was later revealed to be a version of Ken who was thrown back in time 500 years.
- Genre Savvy: Demonstrated by a comic book writer attending a convention along with Star Brand (who was at the time attempting to be a masked hero in the traditional mold). The writer methodically dismantled all the comic book tropes that Connell was depending on to demonstrate why comic book-style heroes were unrealistic and unworkable. In particular, he showed just how much identifying information he could get from physically seeing the cowled Star Brand (height, build, eye color, skin color, and the approximate size and shape of Connell's nose, among other details), which he pointed out could then be used to significantly narrow down a search of, say, driver's license records.
- Giving the Sword to a Noob: Ken Connell repeatedly screws up with the Star Brand and then tries to get rid of it, with horrible consequences.
- Hurl It into the Sun: Ken very nearly does this to Well-Intentioned Extremist Gladiator, who's even stronger than he is, and seems totally invulnerable, but can't fly. In the end he opts for Cruel Mercy and throws him towards deep space instead.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Ken "Star Brand" Connell.
- Imagination-Based Superpower: The Star Brand easily fits this trope. It can do just about anything the user wants, from flying to immortality. However, it has a tons of downsides to it, including being unable to be fully rid of the power (passing it leaves you with 10% of the power and you can drain it completely, but there's the possibility that you'll get it back or accidentally pass it on) and it can only be held by living beings. Ken Connell was severely lacking in imagination and functioned mostly as a Flying Brick.
- Implied Rape: Two months after the destruction of Pittsburgh, Connell's become a delusional Dark Messiah. He also has a captive, a traumatised woman in ragged clothing, and he claims he saved her from a "fate worse than death" at the hands of looters. When she desperately pleads for her freedom, saying that he hasn't let her rest for three days, she says that she's already thanked him for the rescue, and then adds that she's thanked him in "every way" she could.
- Jerkass: Kenneth Connell.
- Magnetic Plot Device: The Star Brand is a Weirdness Magnet and a weirdness generator all in one, it's the Meta Origin of Paranormals... And it blows up cities if you mishandle it.
- New Season, New Title: A minor one, but the series shifts from Star Brand to The Star Brand at the start of Johm Byrne's run.
- Person of Mass Destruction: Ken Connell accidentally annihilates the city of Pittsburgh by trying to transfer the Star Brand to an inanimate object while ten miles above over the city.
- Power Tattoo: The Star Brand, literally. It's basically a Cosmic Cube in tattoo form.
- Regional Redecoration: Ken Connell accidentally obliterates Pittsburgh and everything 50 miles across trying to get rid of the Star Brand. This leaves behind a huge Forbidden Zone known as The Pitt. It's made especially notable due to the mutagen-like "Pitt Juice" and the seven mile-high "Mt. Pittsburgh" volcano.
- Resurrective Immortality: Anyone with the Star Brand (including the former wielders who've kept a percentage of the power) will keep coming back from the dead, temporarily adopting a monstrous form while they regenerate. The Old Man, Connell and Burnley all do this at least once during the series. The Old Man is also centuries old, suggesting that they won't age much, if at all.
- Retcon: Used to explain away the aliens in Star Brand, which were originally intended to be taken at face value.
- Secret Identity: Attempted briefly by Ken Connell as Star Brand, until a comic book writer he met at an SF convention demonstrated how unrealistic the standard comic book version was.
- Said comic book writer was John Byrne, who wrote that story and the title's final story-arc.
- Self-Insert Fic: John Byrne inserted himself in an issue, when Starbrand attended a comic-con Byrne was in. Check Genre Savvy and Take That! entries below for details.
- Soul Fragment: Anyone who has the Star Brand transferred to them or is healed by the current wielder of the Brand will eventually have it completely manifest in them.
- Special Odd Hand: The Star Brand initially manifests as a mark on the palm of Ken's hand.
- Stable Time Loop: It is revealed that the Old Man is an older Ken Connell, who was thrown back in time and, thanks to the power of the Star Brand, lived for centuries before accidentally initiating the White Event and giving his younger self the Brand.
- Story-Breaker Power: The Star Brand, a mysterious power that can do anything, can regenerate from virtually nothing and has the potential to do bad things when mishandled.
- Super-Empowering: Each user of the Star Brand can pass the Brand on to anyone or anything else, while still retaining a portion of the power. (Passing it into an inanimate object is... not recommended.) The Brand is also responsible for giving all the powers to all the Paranormals on Earth.
- Super-Power Meltdown: Jacob Burnley depowers Philip Nolan Voigt, who copies the powers of other paranormals, by forcing him to trigger a huge number of contradictory paranormal abilities, overloading him.
- Take That!: When John Byrne took over the series back in the '80s, he proceeded to launch one Take That! after another at the departing figure of ousted Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Jim Shooter. Star Brand was one of the Shooter-initiated "New Universe" titles, and was the one that Shooter himself wrote personally. Byrne not only took ad hominem shots at Shooter personally, but had exposition characters hang some on how implausible the events of Shooter's run was, and how stupid the hero had been. Early on in Byrne's run, the hero's girlfriend got Stuffed in the Fridge; the hero later broke down and passed the titular Brand onto some other poor schmuck, destroying Pittsburgh in the process". Not coincidentally, the book's original hero bore a physical resemblance to Shooter.
- There Are No Therapists: Averted as Ken is friends with a therapist, but constantly ignores or runs away from his sound advice.
- Up, Up and Away!: Ken Connell subverts this once or twice. Once while depressed he flew while in a classic moping pose, legs crossed as if sitting 'indian style', elbows on his knees and his cheeks resting on his hands.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Gladiator intends to end the Cold War by walking to Moscow and killing the Soviet leadership - as well as any Soviet troops who try to stop him. By the time Ken intervenes, there have already been two attempts to stop him with tactical nuclear weapons, raising tensions between the USSR and the West.
- Wham Episode: Star Brand #12, which ends with the destruction of Pittsburgh.
