Peter Starr

**Real Name**: Peter Starr

**Identity/Class**: Extra-terrestrial / human hybrid

**Occupation**: Astronomer

**Affiliations**: Knights of Justice

**Enemies**: Rokko, Professor Panic

**Known Relatives**: "Alex Starr" (father, deceased), unidentified mother (deceased)

**Aliases**: None

**Base of Operations**: Constellation City, Earth-B

**First Appearance**: Big Bang Comics #1 (Big Bang, Spring 1994)

**Powers/Abilities**: Able to fly and to levitate others. Protective costume defends against ray guns and allows survival in space.

**History**: Dr Stellar's origin began on Earth B, sometime during the early 20th century, when an alien police officer from the planet Xenon "crash landed on Earth while in pursuit of space criminals". Able to pass for human, the policeman adopted the alias "Alex Starr". With his knowledge of outer space, he was able to get a job as an astonomer in "a small, isolated space observatory in Montana" while waiting to be rescued by his own people. He fell in love with an Earth woman, who married him despite knowing of his alien origins. Starr's wife died giving birth to their son Peter, a sickly child, possibly due to the unusual mixture of his genes. Alex Starr built a magnetic telescope to draw "fluorescent radio waves" from his (unnamed) home star. Peter was exposed to these life giving cosmic rays while he slept, growing up healthy and strong. An unexpected bonus was that he could defy gravity and fly like a bird! (He could even levitate other objects, appearing to travel about in a flying car or on a flying bike). Alex told Peter all about Xenon and together they rebuilt the damaged spaceship. Peter underwent rigourous training in preparation for joining the Stellar Police, as well as earning a PhD in Astronomy. Upon his return from college, Peter found his father dying, mortally wounded by his old enemy Rokko, who he had been in pursuit of 20 years earlier. Rokko had stolen the spaceship and was using it to flee Earth. Donning his father's star-spangled Stellar Police uniform (which was impervious to ray-guns), Peter flew off in pursuit of the spaceship, ripped open the cockpit, tore out the control panel and sent the terrified Rokko screaming into space. Peter Starr vowed at his father's grave to fight evil, not as a member of the Stellar Police, but as Dr Stellar! (He did have a PhD after all).

Setting up home in Constellation City, Peter earned a reputation as an astronomer and inventor in his own right, developing the "solar light enhancer" as a targeting and navigation system for US warplanes (to end the war earlier and save lives). As Dr Starr, he won the heart of the lovely Diana Devon, Professor of Sociology, while as Dr Stellar, he prevented the theft of his invention by the illusionist, Professor Panic. Dr Stellar had the honour of replacing the Knight Watchman in the Knights of Justice.

**Comments**: Dr Stellar first appeared on the back cover of BIG BANG # 1 (Caliber series) on what was supposedly a reproduction of the cover of "RED HOT COMICS # 14". (This cover also appears on the back of BB # 2 and as a b/w full page inside BB # 0). This totally fictional comic starred The Badge and his rookies, with Dr Stellar, Robo-Hood and Vita-Man as the back up features. (A fouth feature, Stars 'N' Stripes" has never appeared since). These heroes may have been intended as a joke, but Big Bang readers wanted to see them. Dr Stellar did better than Robo-Hood or Vita-Man, in that he only had to wait until BIG BANG # 4 (Image series) before he appeared in an actual story. However, he is only a new member of the Knights of Justice, hearing the groups origin related to him by the other members in a series of flashbacks. Dr Stellar's origin is told in a text feature in BB #27 and like Vita-Man, he had to wait until the one-shot WORLD CLASS COMICS # 1 in August 2002 to get his first solo story.

Visually, Dr Stellar looks a lot like DC's Golden Age hero, the Star-Spangled Kid. Like Captain America (whom he also resembles), he seems to have great, but not super-human strength. The Golden Age Shield (the first red, white and blue patriotic super hero) also gained his powers in part due to a ray treatment invented by his father. Dr Stellar's gravity powers are similar to those that astronomer Ted Knight, the Golden Age Starman, gained from his "gravity rod". His "costume" actually being an alien police "uniform" is similar to the Siver Age versions of Hawkman and Green Lantern. The fact that his real name "Dr Starr" would be fitting for a super hero is similar to the Silver Age hero, "Dr Solar - Man of the Atom". Finally, his extra-terrastrial origins and limited powers remind one of the Golden Age Superman.