Starman #44 (1992)

Starman #44 (March, 1992)
“Star Shadows, Part Three: Dark of the Moon!”
Writer – Len Strazewski
Penciller – John Calimee
Inker – Roy Richardson
Letterer – Bob Pinaha
Colorist – Tom McCraw
Editor – Paul Kupperberg
Cover Price: $1.25

We’re officially past the midway point of the dark journey that is #BestEventEver… if you squint a bit, you might just be able to see some light at the end of that there tunnel…


All joking aside, this has been a really fun event to take part in.  I really want to (once again) extend my thanks to the community for allowing me in with their moon-faced reindeer games.


An updated listing of all the participants will be allllll the way at the bottom of this piece, and will be finalized once… well, everything’s final!


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Picking up where we left off, Lobo has soundly pounded Starman into the ground… and Eclipso has made his presence felt.  What he doesn’t realize is that he just made Lobo’s bounty-hunt all that much easier in the process!

Before we know it, we’ve got ourselves a three-way-dance.  Lobo cinches Eclipso in a headlock for a little while… Eclipso breaks free and diamond-zaps Starman.  It’s all quite riveting.  They briefly stop fighting and stare at one another… this would be the point in an indie wrestling match where the crowd would applaud.  Starman pleads with Bruce to fight the darkness… Lobo promises there will be some fraggin’ going on.

And the fight resumes.  Lobo continues to kick butt, because that’s kinda what Lobo does.  Eclipso is pelted into a crater, and Payton gives chase.  At this point, Bruce Gordon is briefly able to break through the darkness, and speak.  He reveals to Will that Eclipso has been manipulating the two of them to bring them together… as, if there powers combine… they can produce black light!  He also explains why Lobo might be after his hide.  It’s that Lords of Chaos thing from the Phantom Stranger mini (1988), but you already knew that.  Anyhoo, they decide to team-up against their common foe.

It’s not long before Gordon’s face returns to its mooney visage… and before Lobo comes a’calling.  It’s pretty neat… Lobo pulls a headlight off the ol’ spacehog to light the way.  Starman sucker punches him, then gives him the nyah-nyah treatment… showing just how ugly this character can be.  I mean, he’s downright homely.

Starman continues cheapshotting Lobo… knocking the headlamp out of his hands.  In the total darkness the combined forces of Will and Eclipso shine some light in Lobo’s direction.  Lobo calls Starman a “hippie”… and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a hippie with a mullet.  Maybe a leftover hippie who joined the work force or something… business in the front and all’at.

Starman and Lobo resume their tussle.  Will hurls a blast at Lobo, who sidesteps it!  The deflection causes the light to hit Eclipso… rendering him into a pile of smoking dust!  Welp, that’s good enough for Lobo, the turtle just wanted Eclipso offed.  The Main Man grabs the tatters of Eclipso’s tunic as proof and hops on his headlightless hog to claim his credits.

Once Lobo’s outta sight (dy-no-mite) Eclipso pops his head out of his hidey-hole.  Ya see, this was all a ruse to get Lobo gone.  Will naively suggests they take care of their initial business… and Eclipso’s all “stupid boy, don’t trust Eclipso”, because, duh.

He blasts Will with his diamond-eyes (you like dub-step?) before revealing his true intentions.  He is going back to Earth to, get this, get Kitty Faulkner?  Wha—?

The issue ends with Starman collecting himself and going Earth-bound himself… though, with a threat as big as Eclipso, he knows he’s going to need some powerful help.  Don’t look at the next cover lest the power-ful guest-star be spoiled.

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Welp, it was a fight scene.  Not much to discuss here, right?


Wron… er, no… that’s right, actually.  Just a fight.


I guess to differentiate it from, ya know, all other book-length battles, we can mention that Will and Eclipso had to briefly put their differences aside to take down a common foe.  Hmm, now that I read that back, that doesn’t really differentiate this from the rest.


Um, pulling a fast one making Eclipso appear to be dead was… a good idea, I guess.  Not mindbendingly original, but a good enough way to take the stupidly-powerful Lobo off the stage.  Can’t think of another way they could’ve done that.  1992 Lobo was not to be messed with… I don’t see him “doing the job” for Will Payton in the penultimate issue of his series.  Hey, I set up a sentence in such a way that I could use the word “penultimate“, how ’bout that?  Here’s hoping I used it right!


Um, other than that… Eclipso (duh) turns on Will.  Tsk, tsk… c’mon Will this is the, er… penultimate… issue of your series, you really oughta be smarter than that by now.  His plan of heading back to Earth… ehh, really feels like we’re taking the long way around here, though, I suppose he had to leave Earth in the first place to Eclipso-up.  I dunno, this whole thing feels a bit time-filly.


The art is back under the pencil of John Calimee… and it’s, ya know… pretty uneven.  It looks like he’s got a keen eye for Lobo… but his Starman and Eclipso feel a bit “off”.  Very flat.


Overall… it’s a fight scene.  If you like fight scenes (and Lobo) you’ll probably like this.  If not… this bugger’s safe to skip.


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Letters Page:

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The Darkness Continues…