Contributed by Ronald Byrd
Art by Tony Harris
Mikaal Tomas (AKA Michael Thomas), a pacifist among a blue-skinned alien warrior race, came to Earth over two decades ago to defend our world against invasion. In this capacity, he becomes known as Starman, and later information indicates that he was the third super-hero to use that name. When his race’s efforts are finally thwarted, Mikaal relocates to Opal City and is drawn into an empty life of drugs and disco until he is confronted by the alien Komak, who claims that he and Mikaal are the last survivors of their race. Fighting Komak to the death, Mikaal is abducted that same night by unidentified parties. His fate thereafter is largely unknown until he surfaced in a Turk County freak show, his memory and voice gone.
Rescued by Jack Knight, the current Starman, Mikaal eventually regains his faculties and becomes the hero’s ally both in Opal City and in their outerspace adventure. He also falls in love with an African-American man named Tony. Mikaal had previously been involved with a woman of his race named Lyysa Jurndaal, a fellow pacifist slain prior to his arrival on Earth, indicating that his sexual orientation is bisexual or, perhaps more accurately, simply alien.
Art by Tony Harris
Writer James Robinson revealed in the Starman series that Mikaal’s home world is Talok III, a sister planet to Talok VIII, the home world of Shadow Lass of the Legion of Super Heroes.
Mikaal most recently appeared in the first issue of the “Justice League: Cry For Justice” mini series, written by James Robinson. Mikaal is shown arriving at a funeral home at night. He has come to see off his beloved Tony, who was killed while visiting his parents in New York during an attack on STAR Labs that involved passersby. After paying his respects, Mikaal tries to vent his anger and hurt by unleashing his power that destroys a parked car. Updates will be made with future developments.
Starman III possesses invulnerability, limited flight, and the ability to fire sonic blasts due to the “sonic crystal” imbedded in his chest. During his initial career on Earth, he wore the crystal as a medallion, in which capacity it also served as a warning system against danger, and used “flier-pods” on his gloves to enable him to fly.
Writer James Robinson returned to Mikaal Tomas in 2009′s Justice League: Cry For Justice mini-series. Following the events in that storyline, Robinson incorporated the character as a Justice League member in issue #43 (2010). If memory serves, the writer at C2E2 made an offhand commet about giving Tomas a boyfriend.
Some of the information in this entry came from the Encyclopedia of Super-Heroes, by Jeff Rovin.
Mikaal debuted in First Issue Special #12 (1976). Mikaal and Tony are shown as lovers in Starman #45.© and ® of DC Comics. Used without permission.
I guess we will eventually reach the point where you will have to dig for a staight hero in comics outside of the ‘Big guns’ of the 2 major companies. And to be honest, I can see them ‘outing’ (turning) Cap or one of the League into a homosexual for shock value. I know everyone wasts to be sooooo liberal that I could vomit, but create gay characters and stop trying to force feed us all these “Hey, guys…I woke up gay today” transformations.
Thanks,
‘Straight to the point’
Dear Straight to the point,
Thanks for sharing your opinion, which you are certainly entitled to have, and it won’t come as a surprise that I disagree with it to some large degree.
Comics are hardly at the point where LGBT characters outnumber straight characters, and the number of characters who are “formerly straight” and revealed as LGBT is a tiny fraction of the whole. I’ve known a number of men who have married and created loving families and really are not straight, but felt pressured to conform to heterosexual norms, and have read over years many similar stories about other men and women. Often these people “one day” suddenly stop being straight. OMG! Shock value! No surprise in that I don’t have an issue when a writer outs (or “turns” as you use) a character to be gay, lesbian, bi or even transgendered or transsexual. My opinion will rest on how well the writer tells the story. How many of these “I woke up gay” transformations” are there and how many is too many for you?
As for Captain America, you should read this http://www.gayleague.com/wordpress/2009/05/31/steve-rogers-former-sissy-boy/ and then maybe go find the back issue. But what about the other issue your Cap comment subtly addresses: Why can’t a patriotic character like Captain America be gay? Do you think only straight male characters can be viewed as patriotic?
Truth is, Cap and most of the big name characters from Marvel and DC will never be anything but straight for the foreseeable future. So you can rest a bit easier, Godwell. That’s simply because having Batman “wake up gay one day” would jeopardize the lucrative licensing that Warner Bros brings in from contracts each year. American moms aren’t going to buy Batman underoos for little Tyler or Zach if Batman suddenly has a boyfriend.
Regarding “everyone” wanting to be so liberal….Let me point out that you’re apparently in good company, relatively speaking when it comes to voters voting against gay marriage in California and Maine, and you might feel at home with the American Family Association.
I prefer to think of it in a humanist view. It wasn’t so long ago that some Americans were saying similar comments about African Americans. Are you aware that homosexuals were involved in the Civil Rights movement of the 60s? Probably not, and I doubt it would make a difference in your outlook to point you to documentation or accounts.
That’s okay. Some group of people always has to be at the bottom of the ladder/ barrel in America, so let’s keep all the gays down there, right?
Curious how and why you even came to this site since you must have risked vomiting, even just a little bit in your mouth. Maybe you came across a link somewhere else because this Starman entry is buried pretty deep, and if you didn’t link to this page, then you must’ve become fairly nauseous going through entries.
I’ll sign off as “happily bent”.
Joe
People don’t wake up gay. They realize they are gay after years of avoiding the possibility because of attitudes like Godwell’s. Or they stop hiding it.
Most gay parents, men and women, have not adopted or used artificial insemination, or surrogates. They have children from a previous heterosexual marriage. Hundreds of thousands of examples of this. No, millions.
If some comic characters come to the same realization, which btw is far more realistic by any definition than super powers, suck it up.
Oh never mind, go ahead and vomit.
Not taking into account Godwell’s apparent lack of knowledge on how one arrives at being gay, there seems to be one other thing that was lost on him. Mikaal has been in a seemingly same sex relationship for almost 12 years. Where were you when this may have been a relevant complaint? At this point, the character has been “gay” for the majority of the time he’s been portrayed in comics. And if you want to be technical, Mikaal is actually bi. Considering the time when the character was created I don’t see this as a far stretch.
All the salient points are probably lost on Godwell. He may have only intended to write a “hit and run” comment anyway.
I have to agree – leave the established characters alone if you’re just going to “out” them for shock value.
If well-written gay characters were what the majority of comic reading audiences wanted, they’d still be around and not shunted to the back of the proverbial bus whenever a writer came onto a book that didn’t like them. Northstar wouldn’t always be on-again, off-again in the X-Books, Shatterstar’s “coming out fire” wouldn’t have gone out as quickly as it flamed to light, Extrano wouldn’t have been so easily forgotten, Blue Jay would have been a major player, not a major pain.
The overall truth is, scantily-clad women and heterosexual men lusting after them sells comics, not muscular men groping other muscular men while fighting the bad guy. Sure, there are “pockets” of tights-clad, “out” heroes – those mentioned in the previous posts, as well as, Hector from the Pantheon, Terry Berg and Apollo and Midnighter but I think its going to be “Straight-Talk” in comics for a while.
And Joe, you know I like you, but is it any wonder that “Straight” didn’t hang around after the trouncing he got for sharing his opinion?
Christian, yes, I know you like me, as I do you.
Chances are that Godwell had no intention of hanging around for any reason at all, trouncing or not. His comment is the online equivalent of driving through a gay area in a large city and shouting “fag” through the window while his friend hits the gas pedal. And if he was interested in discussion, he’d have probably couched his comments entirely differently or he should write them to publishers since they’re the ones in charge of character development.
So, just for updates sake, Starman is now a member of the JLA.
Bren,
Yes, I was blanking on the issue number, and I believe it’s #43. The entry is finally updated to reflect that now.
Thanks!
Joe
Yes, I believe that’s it. There’s also a text piece in one of the Cry For Justice issues where Robinson said that Tony would be far more important as a dead character than he ever was alive, since his death is ultimately what lead to Mikaal joining the League.
Right, I seem to remember reading that too. At least skimming it and being skeptical. Tony didn’t appear very often, but maybe he deserves his own little profile, too.
Thanks, Bren!
Joe