Starman #24
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeStarman #24 occupies a structurally crucial position in Robinson's run: it simultaneously closes out the Eisner Award-winning 'Sand and Stars' arc (issues #20–23, winner of the 1997 Eisner for Best Serialized Story) and fires the opening salvo of the 'Hell and Back' arc, making it both a grace note and a gateway. Its emotional core — Jack Knight returning a WWI Cross of Valor to a senile, imprisoned Mist as an act of deliberate decency — crystallises one of Robinson's defining themes: that the measure of a hero is what he does when no one is watching and nothing tactical is at stake. The issue also introduces Hamilton Drew in a cameo flashback, expanding the series' deep mythology of Opal City's forgotten defenders, and draws Etrigan the Demon and Johnny Peril into the story's supernatural orbit, demonstrating Robinson's sustained project of weaving DC's entire history into a single, living tapestry.
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The issue was written by James Robinson and edited by Archie Goodwin, with Chuck Kim as assistant editor — the same editorial partnership that oversaw the entire critically celebrated run. Interior pencils were handled by guest artist Chris Sprouse rather than regular penciller Tony Harris, who was kept on cover duties; inkers Wade Von Grawbadger and Ray Snyder completed the interior art, while Gregory Wright provided coloring and Bill Oakley lettering. The Grand Comics Database records this as the final issue to carry a letter column personally written by Robinson, marking a quiet editorial milestone within the series. The cover of #24 is part of a three-issue triptych (with #25 and #26), all rendered by Tony Harris.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published September 4, 1996; cover-dated November 1996. Written by James Robinson; interior pencils by Chris Sprouse; inks by Wade Von Grawbadger and Ray Snyder; edited by Archie Goodwin.
- The issue serves dual narrative duty — titled 'Sand and Stars: An Epilogue / Hell and Back: A Prologue' — bridging the Eisner Award-winning 'Sand and Stars' story arc (issues #20–23) and the 'Hell and Back' arc (issues #24–26).
- The preceding 'Sand and Stars' arc (Starman #20–23) won the 1997 Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story, awarded to Robinson, Harris, Guy Davis, and Von Grawbadger — making this epilogue issue part of the same celebrated story unit.
- Hamilton Drew, an occult detective character woven into Opal City's Golden Age mythology, receives his introductory cameo appearance in a flashback sequence in this issue, alongside a cameo flashback appearance by Johnny Peril.
- The issue reveals the backstory of the original Mist's WWI Cross of Valor — the war medal Jack Knight returns to the imprisoned, senile villain as an act of compassion that explicitly defines Jack's character against Nash.
- Etrigan the Demon (and his human host Jason Blood) and the Mad Hatter (Jervis Tetch) appear in this issue, part of the supernatural ensemble gathered for the 'Hell and Back' storyline to follow.
- The covers of issues #24, #25, and #26 form a single continuous triptych image, all painted by Tony Harris, a design choice reflecting the thematic unity of the 'Hell and Back' arc.
- The issue was reprinted in the trade paperback Starman: A Wicked Inclination (DC, 1998) and subsequently in both The Starman Omnibus Vol. 2 (DC, 2009) and its reprint edition (2012).
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Reprinted in Starman #3 (1998), The Starman Omnibus #2 (2009)
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