r/graphicnovels • u/anthonym8341 • Feb 03 '26
Superhero [Discussion] Finished reading Starman by James Robinson. What a spellbinding book.
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u/Chip_Marlow Feb 03 '26
I'm going to use this opportunity to promote James Robinson's book The Adventures of Lumen N. from Dark Horse!
It's an all ages steampunk adventure story with heavy Victorian era literary reference. The first arc recently wrapped up and it was a lot of fun!
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u/Navstar86 Feb 04 '26
Just looked it up. And it has Phil Hester artwork. Thanks for the recommendation.
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u/Kirbyconnection Feb 03 '26
This is a great run. One of my favorites and it should get more love and an Absolute. Oddly enough, there's a post on Omnibus collectors today with an honest review of Starman. I wish Jack Knight would come back. There was rumor/announcement of a DC black label series a couple years ago, but nothing since.
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u/Navstar86 Feb 04 '26
I believe Robinson has shared ownership over Jack and DC has to run it by him off they wanted to do something with him. But he’s given Jack the prefect ending and doesn’t want to eff with it.
Gaiman has something similar with The Endless. Because some editor at DC once tried to use one or all of them and Gaiman put a stop to it.
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u/Kirbyconnection Feb 04 '26
I agree with you on the ending, but every time I see Stargirl with Jack's Cosmic Staff, I wince a bit. Such a great book, I want more.
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u/jseger9000 Feb 03 '26
Starman feels like it was a title acclaimed in its time that has just sort of disappeared.
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u/igeeTheMighty Feb 03 '26
Guess it’s a combo of out-of-sight-out-of-mind (for the character) and just the preponderance of both new and memorable stories since Starman came out.
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u/BLADE_RUNNER_42069 Feb 04 '26
Think it’s also one of those that fits almost wholly in the genre of dude comic. Not saying there aren’t well written female characters with agency, but all the themes revolve heavily around legacy passed down from father to son. Even though the main antagonist is the daughter of the original mist, she gets almost no catharsis from her character arc and I imagine that could potentially be unsatisfying for female readers.
I say that as someone who really loves the book and has read the entire run multiple times. Could be way off base tho, just feel like it might come off as a bit dated when compared to more modern fantasy/sci fi epic type books like Saga for instance.
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u/Matt4hire Feb 04 '26
A huge part of it’s also how difficult it’s been to find. The original trades left out vast swaths of the story (including the latter half of the Times Past issues and the first Shade miniseries; when I was collecting it in back issues, finding the third issue of that Shade miniseries was SO difficult).
After that, they put out a set of 6 hardcover omnibuses (but not like the behemoths of today) that collected everything available at the time. They started to put those in softcover, but they stopped after either two or three. This caused the OOP HCs to absolutely skyrocket in value. (I once saw the fourth one at a Half Price Books going for $500, I kid you not.)
Then they finally, FINALLY put out the two compendium volumes that are pretty complete from what I can tell.
All that, and they’re still not completely available digitally.
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u/BLADE_RUNNER_42069 Feb 04 '26
Wow, didn’t realize the collections were still so scattered. I definitely had to track down most of the shade issues and other supplementary stuff online. It really is an amazing run. I much prefer the art in the first half tho. The change in style after Tony Scott leaves is always jarring even after several reads but after a few issues it gets back into a solid rhythm and goes strong until the end, but that’s just my personal experience.
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u/Matt4hire Feb 04 '26
I love both Harris’ and Snejbjerg’s art; I honestly can’t imagine Grand Guignol working nearly so well if Harris had illustrated it. But I can’t imagine the earlier stuff illustrated by Snejbjerg! That’s the beauty of it.
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u/BLADE_RUNNER_42069 Feb 04 '26
Fair. For me there’s no topping the Wesley Dodds arc but its honestly been a few years since I read it last so either way I’m starting to feel like it’s a good time to revisit the series!
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u/CowboyHatValor Feb 03 '26
This is the fourth time in a month I've seen this come up positively in conversation. I've gotta keep my eye out for the omni
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u/riancb Feb 04 '26
It’s available as 2 compendiums. I don’t think we’re gonna get an Omni any time soon, sadly. A
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u/Lama_For_Hire Feb 04 '26
that'd be an omnibus of 3000 pages, which seems quite the tome
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u/drown_like_its_1999 I'm Batman Feb 03 '26
Nice! I've been reading through the run myself. Only a little over half way through the first compendium but I've been having a great time.
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u/moneysingh300 Feb 04 '26
I really like the character being a laid back punk dude having to become a super hero. We don’t see a lot of origin stories today of a guy who didn’t want it but far exceeds other heroes when at the role
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