Rising Stars #Prelude, 0, ½, 1-24
Published by: Image/Top Cow – 1999
Written by: J. Michael Straczynski
When J. Michael Straczynski’s 24 issue Image/Top Cow series Rising Stars first debuted in 1999 it was compared favorably to The Watchmen if only due to a similar initial premise: someone is going around killing superheroes. The rest of the story, however, is quite different but likewise has precedents in other series: a split-personality antagonist only one personality of which possesses the necessary super-powers to wreak havoc resulting in the decimation of a major city—think of Alan Moore’s run on Miracleman—and the subsequent banding together of superheroes to improve the world in more concrete and lasting ways than merely to beat up on other super-powered individuals—think of the first Squadron Supreme miniseries from 1985.
It should be mentioned though, that, as used above, the term “superheroes” is a bit misleading in this context. Some of the characters—“Patriot,” “Ravenclaw,” and “Matthew Bright”—are genuine superheroes whom fight crime and protect the innocent, but there are many more characters with powers whom want nothing more than to live normal lives. They are super, but they are not heroes.
Rising Stars begins with a mysterious flash in the sky over Pederson, Illinois, that grants every child in utero at the moment of the flash—113 in total—superhuman abilities which manifest during childhood. The abilities vary from person to person, ranging from flight to super strength to invulnerability to telekinesis and more. As stories of their remarkable abilities become publically known, the government intervenes to assess the threat they may currently or someday represent and corrals them into a school designed specifically for the “Specials,” as they come to be called. Rising Stars then follows the Specials into adulthood focusing on the clashes that develop among themselves, and their clashes with a government intent on exercising control over them, which play out over several decades. The story is divided into three arcs of eight issues apiece.
In addition, Rising Stars tackles the political and social implications of a world inhabited by super-powered individuals and the moral and societal obligations those individuals possess by virtue of having such powers.
The art in Rising Stars varies in both style and quality. The series had at least four pencillers: Keu Cha, Ken Lashley, Christian Zanier, and Brent Anderson. Though much of the art during the first two story arcs is reminiscent of artists such as David Finch or Marc Silvestri, in general it has their flash without their substance; it borrows a façade but is ultimately hollow. However, Brent Anderson brings a very different feel to the end of the series—a less angular, less dynamic, approach to the characters, eschewing flashiness and sharp inks and hatching for instead a looser, softer, more pencil-driven style. This, however, is also a departure from the precision of the previous artists—meaning Anderson’s art can, at times, seem sloppy; in some instances this is a virtue, in others, it is not. These changes in the art can be seen as changes not only in visual style, but also as mirroring changes in the tone of the writing. The style changes are appropriate as the characters are humanized during the final story arc—which is less “action-oriented” than its predecessors—and these characters come to be defined less by their powers and more by their identities as humans.
Rising Stars is mostly appropriate for a general audience. There is no nudity, almost no sexual content, and the violence is neither graphic nor gratuitous. Rising Stars, though, is not without depictions of, or references to, death or murder, meaning, if it were a movie, it would garner at least a PG-13 rating.
Recommendations:
Rising Stars calls to mind the long-running comic book series Astro City (formerly published by Image, currently by Vertigo/DC)—written by Kurt Busiek, and usually drawn by Brent Anderson—and not just because they share Anderson’s pencils. Astro City is named after a fictional American city overrun by super-powered heroes and villains whose constant battles are everyday occurrences that the civilians simply learn to live with. Astro City is also notable for its focus on the “man-on-the-street”—not only on the nearly inexhaustible cast of heroes—each with their own lives and stories.
One of the main traits Astro City shares with Rising Stars—one of their best qualities—is the inventive use of new superpowers and the new uses found for classic powers. A good example found in Rising Stars is one character whom can telekinetically manipulate only tiny objects—a seemingly useless power until she becomes an assassin whom can, untraceably, telekinetically pinch an artery leading to the brain of her target, depriving it of blood-flow and thereby neutralizing the target.
Likewise, though both Rising Stars and Astro City could be considered deconstructions of the superhero genre, they actually come off as sincere homages to the comics that came before them. Astro City is firmly in the Silver Age, whereas Rising Stars is more closely tied to the Bronze Age and the beginnings of truly deconstructionist superheroes.
In addition to the core 24 issues, Rising Stars also includes a prelude issue, and issues numbered 0 and ½, which flesh out certain characters and plot details but are not critical to the understanding or enjoyment of the series. Rising Stars also spawned several spinoff miniseries which focus on particular characters. It should be noted, though, that none of these spinoffs are written by Straczynski.
If Rising Stars piques your interest, one of Straczynski’s other superhero series—this one from Marvel in 2008—the aptly titled twelve-issue miniseries The Twelve, is worth a look. It follows twelve obscure Golden Age, Marvel heroes whom were cryogenically frozen and forgotten during the Second World War whom are thawed and brought back to the world in the present day experiencing culture shock and attempting to rebuild their lives around their former identities as costumed and super-powered heroes.
Straczynski is probably best known for creating, writing, and producing the television series Babylon 5, but the comics discussed herein are only a fraction of his output in the medium.
Brian Bigelow
May 3, 2017
