0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Stars my Journey, May 15 2008
By Steve Fuson "comics geek" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Starman VOL 07: A Starry Knight (Paperback)
Jack Knight, the current Starman, is on a journey to the stars accompanied by Mikaal Tomas, a former Starman, in search of Will Payton, another former Starman. Jack's father Ted, the original Starman, has installed a mother box into Jack's ship with his own personality programmed into it.
Jack's journey doesn's just take him into space, but through time as well. They travel to the future and they meet Starboy of the Legion of Superheroes. They fight a not-so-mysterious black mass and there's a revelation about Starboy's future (hint: it comes true in JSA: The Next Age and JLA: The Lightning Saga).
On the return trip to the present, the gang overshoots and ends up on Krypton (before it blows up, of course). There's an encounter on a strange blue world. Mikaal has an out-of-body experience and takes Jack's place in the annual encounter with Jack's dead brother. Then Jack and company make a stop on Rann and join Adam Strange in fighting one of Mikaal's old villains.
The writing by James Robinson and David Goyer isn't as poetic as the first few volumes, but the concepts are good and some of the fights are more dramatic. The artwork by Peter Snejberg isn't as beautiful as Tony Harris' but then whose is? There are weak moments, like a significant lack of backgrounds, but there are some illustrations that are gallery worthy.
All in all I enjoyed this volume. Some of the stories seemed a bit short, but if they were longer then that would have been more issues of the monthly book where Jack was in space. Also, it was disappointing that they didn't find Will Payton, but this collection is about the journey, and the next is about the destination.
4 of 13 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Sadly Lame and Unnecessary, Oct 31 2004
By G. Morris "wickedawsomelad" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Starman VOL 07: A Starry Knight (Paperback)
And I like Robinson's Starman.
Mind you, the whole run is sold more on its enjoyable, endearing vibe and not so much on its well-crafted and action packed story telling. Actual stories are often quite dull and formulaic (how many times does Jack get beaten up or knocked out and miraculously saved by a third party?), but it's the characters and their interactions, not to mention the revisiting of some of DC's more fogotten corners, that make Robinson's Starman a rare comic treat.
With that said, this book is lame and unnecessary (see, not just a clever title). We start with Jack, Mikaal and a Mother-Box projection of Ted (if you have to ask, then you shouldn't be reading this in the first place) on their space voyage to find a fallen Starman. After that, it all pretty much goes to pot.
I understand that space flight takes a long, long time even with the alien technological enchantments one can gain in the DCU, but this book plods on without point and only succeeds in pushing the "finding Will Payton" story (the reason most of us bought it) back to yet another Graphic Novel . We visit an interstellar Solomon Grundy, Rann, and, thanks to time travel, a pre-destruction Krpton and the Starman of the 30th Century. None of which have enough time to develop into solid yarns, so the entire book reverts down to nerd shout-outs and anti-climax. The only thing that has any use whatsoever is the Rann connection which will carry on into the next book (Stars My Destination, which is awesome and everything you hoped this book was going to be), but even the Rann thread doesn't justify an entire book of conveniently stumbling on to familiar characters with in a realm of infinity.
Oh, and for bonus fun, Jack is killed, then cloned and has his soul put into the cloned body. Try to let that plot point slide.
All in all, the one, singular let down of an otherwise great comic run.