[Meeting…] Starro

Since the creation of the Justice Society of America (JSA), it is quite common to encounter heroes who come together to face a common enemy that they could not take care of separately. That is why the creation of new, increasingly powerful enemies is an imperative in group collections.

Most of these characters are still stereotypical to a greater or lesser extent. However, there are some exceptions within those major villains, such as one of my favorites in that field: Starro the Conqueror

Starro's first appearance dates back to The Brave and the Bold #26 (1960) and the first consequence was that the most famous heroes of the moment had to unite to defeat him, thus forming the Justice League of America (JLA) which was still the new version of the already mentioned JSA.

THE POWER OF THE MIND

Just by taking a look at his design we see why Starro is different from most powerful enemies in American comics, since It's just a giant starfish.. I am sure that many will laugh at the design of this powerful being and think that it is not serious enough, but taking into account the name and appearance of many of the enemies of this type of comics, I think that seriousness and respect are something purely personal.

I love its design, especially for breaking the stereotype of the enemy with a humanoid shape (despite being of extraterrestrial, robotic or magical origin) who also tends to be as muscular and wear clothes as striking as the heroes he fights. Starro reminds us of something as simple as that Any sufficiently powerful organism could be a fearsome enemy, without needing to have a human form, especially if it is extraterrestrial, as in this case.

Starro is an entity that comes from outer space and his nickname “the conqueror” was obtained by enslaving the population of entire planets, nullifying any resistance that was put in front of him, whether by physically crushing it, eliminating it through his energy rays or using the fearsome Starrophites so that the population stops being a problem.

Starrophites are small starfish that Starro himself releases by the thousands and your mission is to hit someone in the face (similarly to how a facehugger from the saga would do Alien) to take full control of his body and use it for whatever purpose Starro desires. The reliability of the Starrophites varies depending on the being they control, but in general they are usually capable of even controlling superheroes, thus causing the most powerful heroes to defect to Starro's side.

His role as a villain means that he is defeated at the end of the stories, but in the case of this being that situation is only a temporary excuse for him to appear again in a new event where he has surely taken advantage of his mind control abilities to sow discord before being publicly seen.

Although on many occasions he is represented with an attitude similar to that of any villain (even going so far as to forge alliances with several of them) the general concept of life on Earth for Starro is that of insignificant beings and they all serve their purposes equally. It is therefore not strange that Starro does not feel any regret when it comes to also controlling the superheroes' enemies so that they are the ones who weaken the planet's resistance.

Starro's more than half a century of existence has caused some scriptwriters to use him in very different ways and offer diverse explanations about his origin and source of power. In general, it is considered that Starro is not a single entity, but rather that there is a great variety of this alien race and therefore, not all attacks come from the same giant starfish.

On some occasions, beings possessed by a Starrophite have been seen acting under the name of Starro, without being very clear if that specific starfish has the power to control the host, if both live in a symbiosis or if there is an older Starro planning another of his master plays.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Despite fulfilling the cliché of the alien invader, Starro is unique in several ways and his unique appearance has made him an icon in the world of superhero comics. The fact that be the first enemy of the Justice League It gives him a medal that many others would like and makes him one of the most suitable beings to bring the team back together in case of separation or restart of the collection.

Now that we are in the midst of the superhero movie craze, I would love to see Starro as the main villain of a future Justice League movie, but I don't think anyone at Warner Bros. has the guts to use this character, unless some director or screenwriter uses their best arguments to convince them.

Starro has appeared in many collections of the Justice League en sus diversas etapas así como en las colecciones propias de algunos de los personajes que forman el equipo. También podéis encontrar a esta estrella de mar gigante en el crossover JLA/Vengadores y en varias series de animación como Justice League either Batman Brave and the Bold.