STARHAWK

 

STARHAWK

Real Names: Stakar and Aleta Ogord

First Appearances: Defenders (Vol. 1) #28, October 1975 (Stakar); Defenders (Vol. 1) #29, November 1975 (Aleta)

Powers: Stakar is the son of the Avenger Quasar and the artificial woman known as Her, born in the future of the parallel reality designated Earth-691. He was left in the care of Arcturian Mutants, a poverty-stricken caste of malformed humanoids on the planet Arcturus. When another group of Arcturians, the Reavers, slaughtered the Mutants, one Reaver named Ogord found the human-looking baby Stakar, and adopted him as his own son, raising Stakar alongside his biological daughter, Aleta. Upon reaching early adulthood, Stakar and Aleta journeyed into a ruined city to the Temple of the Hawk-God, where they found a giant "statue" of the Hawk-God. In a fit of anger, Aleta threw a brainwave helmet to the ground, and when it exploded it consumed her physical body and her living essence was transferred into the "statue". It turned out that the statue was the actual the Hawk-God, a rogue cosmic entity of vast power who was sentenced to stand there immobile on Arcturus for all eternity by the Living Tribunal and the Cosmic Congress. Aleta had accidentally reanimated him, and he went on a rampage through Arcturus. Stakar tried to use the brainwave helmet to communicate with Aleta's consciousness inside the Hawk-God, but only managed to get his essence absorbed in as well. The Hawk-God was eventually calmed and restored his rescuers to a new form of life as gratitude, making them a composite energy being.

As Starhawk, Stakar and Aleta are a photonic entity that perfectly mimics the actions and appearance of a human being. They are sustained by a self-regenerating energy matrix, and so do not require food, water, air, or sleep in order to survive. They can operate in the vacuum of space or any number of extreme environments. Also, Aleta (and presumably Stakar) can become intangible and pass through solid objects as pure energy. Only one of them was active at a single time, with whichever one was conscious capable of willing the change into their counterpart, "morphing" their photonic state to become the other one. The inactive partner would mentally reside in a "void", unaware of what was going on in reality while the other was in charge of their body. Aleta was the source of the pair's light energy, generating it within their shared body. She could then shape her light energy in a number of ways: Aleta could produce illumination as a soft glow or blinding flash, create solid photon battering rams, construct protective shields or domes to prevent people or objects from coming to harm, form ramps, bridges, cages, rings, etc. She could not fly on her own, but produced platforms or small disks under her feet which she then levitated and propelled through air or space for transportation. Stakar tapped into the light energy Aleta generated and manipulated it to various effects. He could reinforce the photonic energy of his own body, effectively increasing his density at will to augment his physical strength and durability to the point where he could battle Thor hand-to-hand.

Stakar could sense energy emissions across the electromagnetic spectrum, registering the presence of energy phenomena, powerful beings or technology, and mentally detecting a variety of transmissions signals and the like. He could produce light energy and alter it to produce blinding light, penetrating laser beams, concussive or explosive blasts, intense heat, and even expressing it as "living light" in order to heal the injuries of other people, restoring even critically wounded allies to full health. Stakar could fly, by generating his solar sails (a set of energy streamers extending out from his back). He could accelerate to the speed of light in under 10 seconds, and could even fly that fast in atmospheres since he was made of energy and not matter, so he wouldn't cause environmental problems by moving at supersonic speeds. Stakar was also the self-styled “One-Who-Knows”. At some point in his future, Stakar was destined to be killed and his consciousness projected back in time to possess his own infant body not long before the Reavers attacked the Mutants and Ogord adopted him. Thus, he would relive his own lifeline up until his consciousness was projected back in time again, starting the whole process over in a perpetual loop. From his perspective, our Stakar has lived his own life countless times already. In the past, he has tried altering the events of his life, but has found that it is virtually impossible for him to change his destiny. By this lifetime, Stakar has become almost depressingly resigned to his fate, living through an existence he has already completed countless times. This was until Mephisto manipulated events in this timeline, causing Stakar to shift into an alternate reality where his knowledge of all events became less undeniably true. Stakar and Aleta were destined to separate from another, but Mephisto arranged for it to happen earlier in the timeline than Stakar expected it to happen. During battle with the Stark, they were blasted with a high-energy weapon in the middle of their transformation, causing the two to split into two autonomous beings again. Stakar was troubled by this turn of events, as for once he no longer knew where he was going in life. Additionally, he could not survive being separated from Aleta: Without her constant supply of generating light to sustain him, Stakar was becoming more and more insubstantial as time went by. In a panic, he forcibly rejoined with Aleta, which triggered their Dark Metamorphosis. The two remained insubstantial energy until Stakar was able to exert his control over their combined form.

As Dark Starhawk, Stakar was now the primary mind and body in control of their existence, and they no longer regularly switched back and forth. He commanded dark-light energy, which he could manipulate in all the ways that both he and Aleta could previously manipulate light. Aleta was no longer oblivious in the "void", she could see, hear, and experience everything that was going on in the real world through Stakar's senses. With concentration, she could also cause him psychic pain and assume control over the body, speaking through his mouth and directing their actions. Eventually, Aleta reasserted her control and became Starhawk II as the sole mind in the body. She commanded light energy now, in all the ways Stakar and she had used it in the past. Stakar was separated from her, but eventually returned and reclaimed his half of their shared power. Aleta was reduced to an upgraded version of her original powers: She could generate hard-light constructs, fire battering laser pulses, fly under her own power at light-speeds, and possessed a type of proximity sense which alerted her to matter and energy in her environment as it moved through and disrupted ambient light patterns. She adopted the new practice of shaping hard light body armor on portions of her costume for additional protection.