Jabroniville wrote: ↑Tue Apr 19, 2022 9:04 pm
Will, to me, indicated "Hero learning the ropes", albeit for a pretty long run (45 issues). What are his feats and accomplishments in terms of actual power and skill?
Okay, going through the issues I own, which is the Stern-era:
Issue 01:
- Will gains his powers. He's shown discovering his abilities slowly. A the time he learns he can fly, is superstrong, bulletproof, can change his appearance and voice, can generate light and heat,
- He's shown to be strong enough to casually deform metal, up to and including squeezing an I-Beam like it was made of clay. He could also toss around decently sized boulders like they were footballs.
- He's shown lifting a heavy piece of construction equipment that weighted in excess of 50 tons, but it was a strain for him to do so.
- He's shown to be bulletproof, with the bullets from a pistol causing him a little pain but no real damage.
Issue 02:
- He's shown capable of breaking the sound barrier while flying. He also first demonstrates that he doesn't need to breath.
- He's able to lift larger boulders bigger than he is for 20 minutes with no strain or exhaustion.
- He's able of generating a field of heat around him that can melt steel in seconds.
- He casually lifts a car of a kidnapper and tosses it a pretty decent distance away.
- He's again shown to be bulletproof, with machine gun fire from a machine-gun just bouncing off harmlessly.
- He radiates enough heat that the gun in the kidnappers hand melts and explodes while being a good distance from Starman.
Issue 03:
- Starman has his first fight with a supervillain. Bolt's various lightning blasts cause him pain, but don't overly injure him. He also survives a fall when Bolt blasts him out of the air with a sneak attack.
- Bolt displays some superstrength, but Starman pretty quickly overwhelms him and Bolt is forced to teleport away to avoid capture.
- In a rematch, Bolt has some power boosters and hits Starman with "a blast that would have blown an F-16 out of the sky" but Starman is only stunned for a moment.
- Bolt is able to hurt Starman by placing his power boosted wrists on Starman's head and unloading all of his power between them, trying to fry his brain. Starman responds by heating Bolt's wrist-boosters until they overheat and fail, then KO's Bolt with a punch.
Issue 04:
- Starman casually moves some heavy debris while saving some firefighters and makes it clear he doesn't need to breathe.
- He has his first fight with a team of villains, the Power Elite, who set a trap for him. The entire team (each of whom basically has one of his powers) lays in ambush, and actually pulls it off well, each of them keeping Starman on the defensive, hammering him while he's off balance from the initial sucker punch, and do a combo attack to weaken him for the shapeshifter to grow giant size and beat the tar out of him.
Issue 05:
- This issue is a tie-in to the Invasion crossover event. The aliens attempt to kidnap Starman from the institute that funds the Power Elite, but he escapes, taking out a Khund with a single kick.
- Starman teams up with Firestorm, Firehawk and Powergirl to aid the military against an alien invasion in the South Pacific. He's shown beating up Khund soldiers, destroying their weapons and weapon emplacements, is immune to Khund hand-held weapons, and while their bigger artillery hurts him a lot, it doesn't inflict a lot of damage on him. He doesn't actually use his energy powers during this fight, fighting more like a flying brick. He works with the soldiers and the other heroes and successfully drives the aliens off the island, and personally rescues Adam Strange.
Issue 06:
- Another Invasion tie-in.
- In this issue, he holds up the Sydney Opera House, preventing it from collapsing. However, the damage is such that it starts to fall apart in his hands, despite his strength, but Green Lantern and Powergirl show up to help out. He uses his heat powers to spot-weld some I-Beams in place to support the structure until it can be completely repaired.
- On a lighter note, Starman actually makes friends with Hal Jordan, Powergirl, the Atom and the Blue Beetle. It's kind of refreshing. He even specifically calls out Ted as being a great guy.
- Starman has a rematch with the Power Elite, and without the element of surprise he's able to hold his own against the entire team, right when the Gene-Bomb goes off. He dodges some rapid fire energy blasts, tanks a fire blast, melts through a bus that is dropped on him, and outmuscles the giant shapeshifter of the team.
Issue 07:
- In the time between issues 6 and 7, Starman takes part in the assault on the Invasion Aliens homeworld to gain the cure for the Gene-Bomb. While he does more alien punching, and demonstrates his first full on energy blast.
- Starman finds out he isn't technically human anymore, and vents his frustration on a rock formation, and breaks it up with his punches. When he does some similar venting on a metal dumpster, he destroys it with a punch.
Issue 08:
- Starman shows that his shapeshifting is sufficient to perfectly mimic people.
- He does some casual superhero stuff like having a crooks bullets bounce of his chest and using his heat powers to blow out the tires on the guys car.
Issue 09:
- Starman has a brief fight with Blockbuster, tackling him into a two-story building hard enough that the entire thing collapses. Starman is unharmed and Blockbuster shifts back to his human form to escape.
- Starman reveals he can reach flight speeds of Mach 2.
- Starman and Blockbuster re-match, and Blockbuster is definitely in one of his stronger incarnations. He's able to casually pick up a car and toss it at Starman, and the two smack each other around pretty hard, sending each other flying several city blocks away when they cut loose. Blockbuster gets his hands on Starman and throws him so hard he flies through several buildings, smashing his head into some heavy duty kitchen equipment and passing out.
Issue 10:
- Starman was out cold for about half an hour.
- Rematch with Blockbuster, with Starman fighting a bit smarter and getting an assist from Batman. He first uses his flight power to toss Blockbuster around a bit, and once Batman throws some gas bombs, Starman is able to just beat the tar out of Blockbuster and eventually put him down, capitalizing on the fact that he doesn't need to breathe while Blockbuster does.
Issue 11:
- Starman is shown lifting an entire exercise weight machine with one hand above his head.
- Starman generates his first energy blast within his own series. While testing out a new heat resistant ceramic, the heat from his blasts melts the steel stand the ceramic is on and fuses the sand around the ceramic into glass.
- Starman is tricked into helping the Power Elite, who have been comatose since the Gene-Bomb. The machine used to revive them is made of the same heat-proof ceramic he was testing earlier, and they use his energies to augment the Power Elite, improving their powers. Starman overloads the machine, his heat actually destroying the ceramic with enough effort and it explodes, killing one of the Power Elite who refused to leave the machine and was killed by the energy overload.
Issue 12:
- Re-rematch with the Power Elite. He forces himself to walk through the energy attack of the most powerful blaster on the team, he does a ground pound that sends everyone flying, he outmuscles the giant shapeshifter and the smaller strongwoman, all while working to save civilians. He melts debris the telekinetic throws at him and dodges the team blaster's shots. When the reactor powering the institute explodes, Starman is ground zero, but survives.
Issue 13:
- Starman has a brief fight with Dr. Kitty Faulkner in her Rampage persona. He's shown to be roughly her level strength-wise, but when he uses his solar power on her, she grows to about 20 feet tall, which surprises him enough that she's able to talk him down and end the fight.
- The Parasite absorbs Rampage's power, becoming giant-sized himself. He gets his hands on Starman and absorbs more solar energy from him, growing so big he can hold Starman in his hand like a G.I. Joe. Starman is able to break his grip, then on Kitty's suggestion, uses his power to overload Parasite, causing him to basically melt into a pile of green good.
Issue 14:
- Superman guest stars. Starman asks Superman for some lessons on being a hero, including some sparring. It's clear Superman is stronger and faster than Starman, both in reaction time and flight speed. Starman is able to dodge and block some of Superman's attacks, but it's clear Superman isn't going all out. Starman is able to use his shapeshifting to briefly catch Superman off guard (via assuming Superman's appearance and startling him) and throw him to the ground.
- The Parasite drains Superman of about half his power (by Superman's estimation). Starman and Parasite fight, and it's a pretty even back and forth slugfest. Starman takes the lessons Superman gave him and keeps it purely physical, never using his energy powers so that the Parasite might absorb said solar energy and re-charge Superman's powers. Parasite also finds that he can't drain Starman's energies, so Starman simply keeps trading punches with Parasite until Parasite wears himself out and burns out all of Superman's powers.
- Superman commented that it would take him days of sunlight exposure to regain his full power. Starman is able to generate enough concentrated solar energy to recharge him fully in a couple of hours.
Issue 15:
- Starman catches and safely lands a lear jet, albeit with some difficulty due to the whole "if I push too hard it'll rip itself in half" issue.
- Starman fights Deadline. He shrugs off a firebomb, melts his way through the floor to keep after Deadline, and when Deadline tries to cut Starman's throat with a knife, said knife does nothing. Deadline then phases his energy rifle's barrel halfway into Starman's chest and pulls the trigger, which causes the gun explodes. Deadline is sent fling backwards while Starman is briefly stunned and gives off an annoyed "OW". Deadline uses his phasing powers to escape.
Issue 16:
- No major feats this issue.
Issue 17:
- Starman has a very brief fight with Dr. Polaris, who is shown able to take out Power Girl (albeit a weaker Power Girl). Essentially, Polaris hits Starman with Power Girl's more durable body, and between the impacts and the fact that Polaris' magnetism affects Starman's thought process, Starman is taken out.
Issue 18:
- Dr. Polaris imprisons Starman and Power Girl in a machine that generates a magnetic field too strong for either of them to break. He uses his voice mimic power to try and use Polaris' voice to deactivate the machine, but can't guess the proper password. Starman destroys said machine by generating enough radiant heat to destroy the device, which causes Power Girl some damage.
- Re-match with Polaris. Polaris is able to restrain Starman with debris and zap Power Girl with raw magnetism, but Starman is able to melt his way free from the metal. He uses his shapeshifting power to take on Polaris' face and voice, and plays on Polaris' split personality issues, which causes Polaris to fly away in a panic and accidentally hit several power lines, taking himself out of the fight.
Issue 19:
- Starman fights a suit of 20 foot tall power armor called Artillery, which is piloted by a former soldier. Starman is hit with several hundred thousand volts of electricity, which is shown to be painful to him. When Artillery launches a barrage of missiles and bullets, Starman is able to dodge them and zap Artillery in return. Artillery responds with more artificial lightning, and Starman disrupts the attack with a punch before switching to his energy blast, which quickly causes the suit major damage. Artillery flies away at Mach 2, Starman is able to overhaul the robot, tackling it into the ground. He then rips off Artillery's arm and starts beating the suit with it, cracking the helmet seal. Starman realizes there's a person in the armor rather than it just being a remote piloted robot, and rips the helmet off before pulling the pilot out, ending the fight.
Issue 20:
- Starman visits S.T.A.R. Labs for some further testing. They find out that due to the energy nature of his body, Polaris' magnetic fields disrupted his thought process. However, his body was able to adapt to said fields so that he didn't suffer similar issues in the re-match. This implies that Starman's unique biology is rife for complications, but also adapts to certain things fairly quickly.
- Starman spends roughly an entire week without sleeping or eating fighting a massive forest fire, doing things like ripping off a bulldozer's shovel and plowing land himself, throwing around trees, dropping massive amounts of water on heavier parts of the fire, etc. While the physical bits are impressive, it's really the stamina part that's moreso, given he basically never stopped the entire time.
Issue 21:
- Minor superhero feats, crumpling a gun casually and when a criminal places the barrel of his gun right up against Starman's back and pulls the trigger, Starman is unharmed when the gun explodes and the backfire kills said criminal.
Issue 22:
- Minor superhero feats, using his powers as part of a movie production, doing things like lifting a car, punching through a brick wall, etc.
Issue 23:
- Minor superhero feats, again while part of a movie crew. Breaking through brick walls, ripping steel bars off of a wall, bending a tank barrel, etc.
Issue 24:
- No major feats.
Issue 25:
- Re-match with Deadline. Deadline goes full on 'Batman Prep-Time' on Starman, getting a hostage and rigging a battlefield in advance before Starman shows up. He rigs a fake building with a bomb that explodes, stunning Starman and covering him in a substance that contains some specially treated boron, which interferes with the nuclear fusion that powers Starman, weakening him somewhat. Deadline then sucker blasts Starman while the hero is checking on a hostage before pursuing Deadline.
The two trade blasts, Starman managing to tag Deadline when the criminal is solid via timing, only for Deadline to lead Starman through a canyon with several concealed missile launchers, which blast Starman out of the air. As he's falling, Starman blasts the Mr. Miracle-style flight disks Deadline has been using off of the guy's feet, causing him to crash. Deadline leads Starman into an abandoned mine, blasting Starman with his high powered energy rifle, explaining how the boron gel has been slowing him down and weakening him, and then sets his rifle to overload, which explodes, leveling the entire mine.
Deadline naturally phases through the explosion and the debris, and is savoring his victory . . . when the entire mine explodes, sending debris everywhere that Deadline barely phases through. Starman walks out of the mine, looking pissed, so Deadline goes for his last tactic. He phases a blade coated in cadmium into Starman's body, figuring that since that metal controls nuclear reactions, it'll potentially kill Starman.
Instead, energy comes pouring out of the hole Deadline just made in Starman's body, sending energy spilling everywhere, vaporizing the knife and knocking out Deadline. Starman calls Deadline an idiot because cadmium controls nuclear FISSION. Starman is powered by nuclear FUSSION. Luckily the wound quickly heals itself closed, preventing a massive radiation leak.
- Another example of how Starman's immune to some things, but is vulnerable to things that attack his nuclear processes directly. He's immune to the Parasite, but not chemistry.
Issue 26:
- Starman (Will for simplicity's sake) encounters David Knight, who has both the Cosmic Rod and the Cosmic Converter Belt. Ted Knight's old enemy, the Mist, arranges for the two to fight, with David blasting Will with a sucker shot, which blasts him two miles straight up into the air and briefly stuns him. David then traps Will in a bubble, who breaks out via a burst of energy. David shoots at Will, who dodges and then blinds David with a burst of light. David passes out, since the Mist has been manipulating things this entire time, using post-hypnotic suggestions to control David and gave David a command to fall asleep. Will brings David back to the ground, concerned that David is hurt. At which point the Mist steals David's cosmic converter belt, which interacts with his own powers, transforming him into 'Nimbus'.
Issue 27:
- Will attempts to fight Nimbus, who has grown to something like 100 feet tall. It turns out the point of this was to get Starman to unknowingly supercharge the belt, which in turn could supercharge Mist's powers, turning him into Nimbus. Nimbus is strong and fast enough to grab Will and hold him in place, and demonstrates vast weather control power. Will uses his heat powers to get Nimbus to let him go, but Nimbus is more annoyed that Will dared try to harm him. Nimbus throws Will through several skyscrapers, who recovers, swings back around and gets ready to keep fighting. Nimbus then hits Will with lightning compared to what the entire USA uses in a single year, which knocks Will out.
- Will and David have to pause in their fight with Nimbus to try and save people from the damage the wind, rain and lightning Nimbus has summoned caused. They find an oil tanker that a smaller ship has crashed into. Will has to give David (who is only now operating under his own free will) some guidance on being a superhero, since this is David's first outing. Under Will's direction, David uses his energy constructs to smother an oil fire and then use his wand to separate the oil from the water and transport it somewhere else. Meanwhile, Will tows the entire oil tanker to safety.
- David relates his backstory to Will, and Will notes that David is looking to Will like he's the old pro, even though he's only been Starman for less than a year. However, David does note how quick thinking Will is, and how he's really learned to adapt to these situations.
- Re-match with Nimbus. Will flies up with a large missile strapped to his back, which actually conceals David and a special magnetic resonance probe as a kind of Trojan Horse. Will flies through every bit of weather Nimbus can hit him with, until Nimbus detects the probes energy and uses lightning to blast the missile apart, revealing David. David protects himself with a force field, but Will takes the full brunt of the lightning. Will then uses his power to supercharge David's cosmic rod, and using the supercharged rod and the info he gained from the probe, David is able to draw the cosmic converter belt to within visual range of himself and Will. Together, the two melt the belt, which causes Nimbus to lose his powers and be torn apart on the winds, though he reforms later. The cosmic rod is also damaged due to the overcharge and the feedback from the belt, and while David is a gifted scientist, he doesn't know how to repair it since hid dad's notes are all in code. David decides to retire for now, but thinks his dad would be happy knowing someone like Will is keeping the Starman legacy alive.
Issue 28:
- No major power feats, though Starman is able to use his shapeshifting powers to fool Lex Luthor into thinking that he's Superman.
!?!