Will Payton
Will Payton is a male comic superhero who features in DC Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
William Payton was a male human who was born in the modern age. He had a red haired sister by the name of Jayne Payton. (Starman v1 #1)
When he was 11 years old, he was noted to had gone for a muscle building course. (Starman v1 #1)
By the time he was 25 years old, he was travelling in the Colorado Rockies where he was struck by an energy beam from the Stellaron-5 experiment. The beam left him unconscious and he appeared dead leading to him being taken to a morgue where he regained consciousness only to find he gained superhuman abilities. He later returned to his home town where he was reunited with his sister and told her the truth about his new abilities. She became amazed at her brother and kept his secret from their mother as Will returned to the family home. During this time, Jayne attempted to convince her brother into using his newfound abilities to become a superhero but he simply wanted to have a quiet life rather then be involved in such activities. An incident was later shown on the news where a work crew at a construction site were pinned down leading to Will taking a newly sown superhero costume made by his sister which he used to save the workers. He used his powers to fashion a disguise to keep his secret identity as the media sighted him and came to label him as Starman. (Starman v1 #1) Payton began to test his abilities and afterwards he heard reports of a serial killer on the loose where as Starman he offered his services to the authorities. After hearing a report of the suspect heading to Mexico, he intercepted the criminal and saved a hostage where he apprended the killer who was left with the police. Thus, the newspapers began to praise the efforts of Starman with Payton feeling that the path of being a superhero was his calling. (Starman v1 #2) As Starman, he visited a police officer in the hospital who had been wounded in pursuit of the killer. Afterwards, as Payton, he received a job offer as a part-time editor in San Antonio where he went to attend the interview. Whilst flying, he was ambushed by the supervillain mercenary Bolt who had been hired to capture Starman. Bolt could not hurt his foe and retreated with Payton continuing his journey to attend the interview with him being offered the job and able to do it remotely from his home in Phoenix. It was then that Bolt was trying to track him again with Will becoming Starman where he defeated the supervillain who was arrested and taken into custody. (Starman v1 #3) He later came to struggle with his sense of identity due to nightmares he experienced but was reassured by his sister. Payton then read of a laboratory asking for the aid of Starman in testing a new heat shield with him volunteering to help. As Starman, he flew towards the laboratory but noticed an accident on the road with a child claiming that her parents were trapped in an overturned vehicle. Whilst assisting them, he was attacked by the people in the car revealing the entire incident was part of a carefully crafted ambush by the Power Elite. They managed to overpower Starman and took him into custody where the sought to take his power for themselves. (Starman v1 #4) He was then taken to the Hutchinson Institute for study and kept in an unconscious state as the scientists sought to find a means of harvesting his powers. At that moment, the Earth was attacked by the Dominators Alien Alliance where a Durlan infiltrator looked to take Starman to his superiors for study. A Khund took Starman on his ship but Payton regained consciousness where he was attacked by the alien pilot who he easily defeated. He was then met by Power Girl, Firestorm and Firehawk who revealed to him about the invasion. They requested his aid as they were moving to Australia to fight the alien foothold in the area where Starman was instrumental in helping secure the location. (Starman v1 #5)
Post-Flashpoint
Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events. Will Payton was an ordinary human who in 1988 was struck by a portion of the Totality fragmented through time where he became empowered by its cosmic energy to operate as the superhero Starman. During his career, he was attacked by a time travelling Lex Luthor who abducted him and studied his altered physiology for information on the Totality that had manifested in the present. Through this study, he was able to uncover information about the hidden seven cosmic forces of creation. (Justice League v4 #8) After the Legion of Doom's plot was stopped, the Justice League were visited by Starman who manifested through a Boom Tube into the Hall of Justice where he stated that he had revelations from the past but it required the death of three members of the superhero team. (Justice League v4 #7)
With the power of the Totality, he transported the rest of the Justice League to Thanagar Prime to help resolve the conflict with Shayera Hol. He then transplanted the splintered fragment of Shiera Sanders's soul from Shayera and placed it within Kendra Saunders thus restoring herself whole. Payton then urged for Shayera to remain free so that she could continue to help rebuild the Thanagarian civilization. (Justice League v4 #16) With a clear mind, he came to realise his purpose as bearer of the power of the Totality namely to repair the Source Wall. Thus, he called upon the aid of the New Gods, Green Lantern Corps and Thanagarians with recovering the remaining Omega Titans whose purpose was defending the Wall. With them gathered, he asked Kendra to take the place of the slain Entropy Titan which she agreed as she believed it to be her destiny. Starman then used his power to begin the process of repairing the Source Wall but the process was interrupted by Brainiac alongside the Legion of Doom who sought to take his power. Brainiac hijacked Starman's power and redirected from repairing the Source Wall to freeing the primordial cosmic being known as Perpetua who had been locked away by ancient forces. Upon her release, Payton lost access to his cosmic powers as the Source Wall was shattered thus exposing the Multiverse to the void as it slowly faced destruction. (Justice League Annual v4 #1)
In a desperate plot to stop Perpetua, Starman suggested that they recover the other pieces of the Totality that could be used to imprison the renegade supercelestial. Thus, he would use his powers to open doorways to the past and future to where two pieces of the cosmic power resided. (Justice League v4 #30)
Overview
Personality and attributes
He had a younger sister named Jayne Marie Payton.(Starman v1 #4)
Powers and abilities
As a result of being struck by a cosmic beam, he was empowered with superhuman abilities including the power of flight, superstrength, superhuman endurance and similar such traits. (Starman v1 #2) The power of flight was actually achieved through a kind of gravity-wave propulsion. (Starman v1 #3) He was shown as being incredibly resilient as he was able to survive an electrical discharge that would kill a rhinoceros. (Starman v1 #4) He also developed the ability of using the energy to mask his true appearance by crafting a different facial structure and even change his voice so that people could not recognise his true identity. (Starman v1 #1) After being exposed to the beam that empowered him, Payton lost many aspects of a normal human body as he had no heart beat and he had no need to go to the toilet to relieve himself. (Starman v1 #2) The experiment was said to had transformed him into a new lifeform with a fusion reaction in his body that made him into a living star. (Starman v1 #5)
This could see him illuminating his entire body in bright light that could temporarily blind people with this also able to generate intense heat. (Starman v1 #1) His heat shield only took seconds to reach the melting point of steel and could harm people around him though left his own costume undamaged. (Starman v1 #2)
Payton's abilities allowed him to glimpse into the heart of Hypertime itself that was the cosmic flow of timelines and histories that governed reality. With this power, he could foresee events that occurred across days allowing him to see and respond to dangers. (Justice League v4 #30)
Notes
- The Will Payton Starman was created by Roger Stern and Tom Lyle where he made his first appearance in Starman v1 #1 (October, 1988).
Appearances
- Starman v1:
- Eclipso: The Darkness Within v1:
- Justice League v4:
- Justice League Annual v4:
External Links
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