Who's Who: Star Boy

Star Boy
by Russell & Siskoid

Real Name: Thom Kallor

Super-Power(s): Super-strength, super-speed, super-invulnerability, various super vision powers, etc.
Planet of Origin: Xanthu

Legion Seniority: Star Boy first appeared to Superboy in Smallville, as several other Legionnaires did and will. He was shown to have joined sometime after Chameleon Boy, who appeared with him in a flashback. However, he did not re-appear for two more years, well after members Ultra Boy, Shrinking Violet, Sun Boy, Bouncing Boy, Mon-El, and Matter-Eater Lad were introduced. Paul Levitz in his Star Boy origin tale (Legion of Super-Heroes #306) established that although Star Boy had joined earlier, he was injured and placed on extended leave. In this story, he is identified as Legionnaire #13. This causes another time paradox, however, as Ultra Boy is said to have joined before Star Boy, even though Ultra Boy was not introduced (chronologically) until a year after Star Boy. 

Legion Log 
Star Boy made his debut in Adventure Comics #252 in 1961. In his debut appearance he was a teenager who was "taking a spin" in the family space-mobile when he passed through a comet. Somehow he was granted super-strength, invulnerability, flight, and infra-red vision. He was shown on the splash page and covers of Adventure Comics #310 and #311, but did not participate in any Legion adventure until Adventure Comics #317. In this story he introduces himself to Dream Girl (and to the readers) by telling us that he has the ability to induce super-mass or weight on any object. There is no mention of him going through a comet's tail and having other super abilities until his "spotlight" issue of Legion of Super-Heroes #306. In that story, he admits he had mass-inducing powers because he was born on an orbiting stellar observatory, outside the normal gravity of Xanthu. Then he gained super-powers from the comet that would turn out to be temporary. According to this story, Star Boy went on a solo mission to Takron-Galtos to foil an attempted escape, but his temporary super-powers faded away. He has no choice but to use his mass-inducing powers to bring its whole arsenal down on him to prevent the convicts from using them. When he recovered from his injuries, he worked to perfect his mass-inducing powers, and then-leader Saturn Girl allowed him to stay. 

Star Boy's membership with the Legion was otherwise uneventful until one fateful day, when he  was challenged by Kenz Nuhor, a jilted lover of Dream Girl, who intended to kill him. His powers were reflected back on him, and seemed to render him powerless. To save his life, he picked up a discarded blaster and killed Nuhor. Although he was cleared by the Science Police (self-defense), he was put on trial for violating the Legion Code and expelled. He joined Dream Girl in the Legion of Substitute-Heroes. 

When Superboy and Supergirl were forced to quit the Legion because a green kryptonite cloud surrounded Earth's atmosphere, they named their own replacements: masked characters calling themselves Sir Prize and Miss Terious. After two issues, these were revealed to be Star Boy and Dream Girl, who were allowed to rejoin. 

The rest of Star Boy's membership was uneventful, serving as Dream Girl's unofficial Deputy Leader during her term as Leader, but not wanting the responsibility that comes with the job. In Year 15, Star Boy is called back to his home planet of Xanthu when its permanent champion, Atmos, goes missing. Star Boy honors his planet's request and takes over for Atmos, resigning from the Legion. Even after Atmos returns, Star Boy chooses to stay on Xanthu. Only during the Magic Wars does he rejoin his friends in the Legion. 

Star Boy's friends included his girlfriend Dream Girl, Sun Boy (with whom he often played Dungeons & Dragons), Colossal Boy, Element Lad, the original Invisible Kid, Chemical King, and Light Lass, who often worked with him as a type of "tag team" on their missions together.

Star Boy rejoined the Legion following the Magic Wars, but only served for a short time. With the Legion falling on dark times, Thom returned once again to Xanthu. He fell in love with and married Yvyya, the owner of the Naltorian Dreamers batball team, retiring from heroics to be their coach. With his timeline collapsing, Star Boy joined his past teammates in helping to rescue Cosmic Boy and ultimately sacrificed himself to reboot the universe.

Zero Hour created a brief blip that was responsible for an SW6 version of Star Boy who soon thereafter merged with his older self as the timeline collapsed.

After the Reboot, Star Boy joined the Legion following the death of Kid Quantum, Xanthu's original Legion representative. He did not get along with Leviathan, partly because Leviathan blamed himself for Kid Quantum's death and saw his replacement as a reminder of his failure as a leader. In addition to his mass increasing powers, Star Boy temporarily gained several new powers following a spaceship accident, including Kryptonian-like powers (as in pre-Crisis history) and fire-breathing, but found these abilities difficult to control. As in previous continuity, her had a relationship with Dream Girl.

After the Threeboot, Star Boy is black rather than Caucasian (like Xanthu's other hero, Kid Quantum), and is Cosmic Boy's right-hand man.

After Infinite Crisis, Star Boy's original history has more or less been reestablished. Following the Magic Wars, Star Boy rejoined the team and was one of several Legionnaires who assisted Brainiac 5 on a covert mission to the 21st century, where he became unhinged and came to reside on Earth-22, becoming the Starman seen in Kingdom Come. Returning to New Earth, he discovered the era's  medicine wasn't enough to keep his schizophrenia in check and had to cope with his mental illness. This made him lucid enough that he forgot his initial mission, instead taking on the name "Danny Blaine" from a Xanthu pulp hero and becoming the defender of Opal City like many Starmen before him. It was also suggested that he was the reincarnation of both Opal City police officer Matt O'Dare and western hero Scalphunter. Homeless, he was quickly taken in by Opal's Sunshine Sanitarium to help with his mental confusion, where he fell in love... with sloppy joes; and was shortly thereafter recruited by the Justice Society of America. (Note: All of this, and his death, had been prophesied during the Reboot continuity.)

During his stay with the JSA, Star Boy (now Starman) demonstrated the ability to travel (or send others) between alternate universes using a combination of his mass controlling powers and his uniform, which was made into a map of the Multiverse by three versions of Brainiac 5. In the Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds mini-series, it is revealed that Starman's long-mysterious mission was to exhume the body of Superboy (which had made him take a job as a gravedigger in Opal City) ad rejuvenate it with technology from the Fortress of Solitude, a process taking 1000 years. Starman does not return to the 31st century at the end of the series, as per the wishes of R.J. Brande in his last will and testament.

After Flashpoint, Star Boy is once again in the 31st-century, and for some as-yet unrevealed reason, is wheelchair-bound.  He later quits the team in order to rescue Dream Girl after she and Brainiac 5 are kidnapped by the Dominators. Star Boy apparently perished when Legion HQ collapsed during the Fatal Five's latest attack.

Star Boy has appeared in the Legion of Super-Heroes animated series, where he joined the Substitutes and had the power to both make things heavier and lighter. He was voiced by Bumper Robinson.

Important Star Boy Stories: 

Adventure Comics  #282

(reprinted in Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol. 1)

 Star Boy makes his debut, already a member of the Legion

Adventure Comics #310

 (reprinted in Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol. 2)

Star Boy first appears with the rest of the Legion (but still not in action)

Adventure Comics #317

 (reprinted in Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol. 2)

Star Boy returns to active duty, and meets Dream Girl

Adventure Comics #342

 (reprinted in Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol. 5)

 Star Boy is expelled from the Legion for killing

Adventure Comics #343

 (reprinted in Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol. 5)

 Was it bad luck that caused Star Boy's expulsion?

Adventure Comics #351

 (reprinted in Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol. 6)

Star Boy re-joins the Legion

Action Comics  #385
(reprinted in Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol. 9)

 

Star Boy leads a group to his home planet of Xanthu
where he meets the brother of the man he killed 

Superboy/Legion of Super-Heroes #199

 (reprinted in Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol. 10)

Star Boy gets his stellar Dave Cockrum-designed suit

Superboy/Legion of Super-Heroes #C-55

Star Boy gets a v-collar on his uniform

Legion of Super-Heroes (v2) #260

Star Boy's "v-neck" appears in the mainstream Legion series for the first time

Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #1 (1982)

Star Boy loses his "v-neck" and gains a beard

Legion of Super-Heroes (v2) #306

 Spotlight on Star Boy where we finally get the "true story"

Legion of Super-Heroes (v3) #28

Star Boy resigns from the Legion to remain on Xanthu

Legion of Super-Heroes (v3) #55

Atmos returns to Xanthu, creating drama for Star Boy

Legion of Super-Heroes (v3) #63

Star Boy returns to the Legion with Dream Girl

Legion of Super-Heroes (v4) #37

5 years after the Magic Wars, Star Boy manages a baseball team

 Legionnaires #0

In the Reboot era, Xanthu picks Kid Quantum over Star Boy and Atmos for Legion membership

 

Legionnaires #16

The short-lived SW6 version of Star Boy created by the evens of Zero Hour

Legion of Super-Heroes (v4) #76

After Kid Quantum's death, Star Boy is finally assigned to the Legion

Legionnaires #43

Star Boy meets and falls for Dream Girl

Legion of Super-Heroes (v4) #102

The heroes of Xanthu fight for their world

Legends of the Legion #4

Star Boy's origin story

Starman (v2) #50

Reboot Star Boy meets Starman Jack Knight and learns of his 21st-century destiny

 

Legion Worlds #4

Star Boy defends Xanthu from Robotica

Legion of Super-Heroes (v5) #2

The Threeboot Star Boy gets a cover spotlight

Action Comics #864

After Infinite Crisis, a mad Retroboot Star Boy becomes Starman Danny Blaine,

following the Reboot Star Boy's destiny

 

Justice Society of America (v3) #17

As a member of the JSA, Starman's mental illness is cure by Gog

Justice Society of America (v3) #20

It is revealed that Starman's uniform is an accessible map of the Multiverse

Justice Society of America (v3) #22

Starman sends the Kingdom Come Superman back to Earth-22

Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds #4

Starman completes his mission in the 21st century: Securing Kon-El's body

so he can return to fight Superboy-Prime 1000 years hence

Adventure Comics (v2) #8

Starman is part of team assembled to help Superman during the Last Stand on Krypton

Legion of Super-Heroes (v7) #18

After Flashpoint, a crippled Star Boy is back in 31st century and is

seemingly killed when Legion HQ collapses down on him  

Legion of Super-Heroes (2006)

Star Boy, voiced by Bumper Robinson