Starborn 1

So Stan the Man is still trying to re-create Marvel of the early sixties. Why? All I can think of is that he has been treated as badly as he has treated other creators (mostly Kirby) over the decades and he’s trying to set up a financial legacy. Well, hopefully that’ll all come out in the wash when he has to depose under oath at the Kirby trial over in California. Meanwhile…

…Starborn 1: Supposedly created by Lee, though actually written by Chris Roberson whose work I’ve been a fan of since I read Paragaea, his throw back ERB-type novel. How much of Starborn is Lee and how much is Roberson I have mo idea. Chris does a sterling job of trying to breathe life into the already hackneyed idea of a writer of fiction writing about a far-flung space war that is in fact a repressed memory –YAWN– and now he has be flung into the midst of some battle or whatnot.

There’s an old saying concerning silk purses and sow’s ears that would be apt in this case. Probably in the hands of someone with a little more experience this would be a little more passable than it currently is ( Mark Waid has done that over at Traveler 1).

Khary Randolph has done some nice work with the art, though it gets a bit scrappy in places, but the cartoony style he has chosen for this suits it perfectly; whether he was influenced by Humberto Ramos and the Cliffhanger crew I don’t know. I have the version with the wonderful cover by my old mucker Gene Ha. Excellent eye-grabbing stuff from Gene that cries “Buy Me!” and probably made a lot of people buy it.

But I’ll give Starborn one more issue and then if it really doesn’t grab me then it shall go the way of the hot potato.