Profile: Dawnstar

Dawnstar
First appearance: Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #226. Her name derives from the planet Venus as the “morning star”. She’s a native of the planet Starhaven in the 30th century.

Current status: since Zero Hour, everything is uncertain, although she seems to have turned up again in Justice Society of America #2(?).

Was subjected to the following acts of discrimination: some time after Crisis on Infinite Earths, she was possessed by an evil entity called Bounty, who cut off her wings and forced her to use her tracking power as an assassin. She was later freed of the villain’s control. However, this was never even resolved, and Dawnstar was erased from history during Zero Hour.

What’s wrong with how this was done? Taking away her gift of flying with her legendary wings was terrible. As for ZH, that was one of the worst company wide crossovers DC ever made that served little purpose other than to kill off characters whom the company apparently had no interest in developing.

Was there anything good to come out of this? Almost. It seems that she reappeared in the recent JLS/JSA story called “the Lightning Saga”. But this story is so awful and muddled, not to mention that it may have made some insulting implications about how they may be depicting her now, that it’s clear that any starting attempt to bring her back is a disaster.

Profile: Firestar

Angelica Jones, Firestar
First appearance: when Angelica first appeared, it was as a cartoon character in Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends in 1981. She made her debut as a comic book character in 1985 in Uncanny X-Men #193, and even got her own miniseries about a year afterwards. There may only be a handful of characters out there who went from cartoon to comic, but of all those to make the transition, Firestar was probably the most successfully developed. She’s been a member of the Hellions, New Warriors, Avengers, and was even the paramour of Vance Astrovik (Marvel Boy, Justice).

Current status: it seems that she’s quit superheroing?

Was subjected to the following act of discrimination: Civil War says it all. As if it weren’t bad enough that her relationship with Vance appears to be over, she retired from crimefighting because she didn’t want to be subject to the Superhuman Registration Act.

What’s wrong with how this was done? No true development as a heroine came out of this for her, instead, there was only tossing her into limbo. I can’t say I’m happy with how her love affair with Vance ended either.

That she would retire from being a superheroine is just symbolic of the defeatism evident in Civil War.