RED STAR

Real Name: Leonid Kovar

Class: Human mutate

Occupation: National hero

Group Affiliation: formerly New Titans

Known Relatives: unnamed father

Aliases: Starfire 

Base of Operations: U.S.S.R.

First Appearance: Teen Titans I #18 (November-December, 1968)

Powers: Red Star possessed superhuman strength, speed, invulnerability, and could absorb certain types of energy and channel them back at their source.

History: (Teen Titans vol. 1 #18)-Young Leonid Kovar accompanied his archaeologist father on an expedition to investigate a mysterious spacecraft that crashed in Russia's Yenesi River. Leonid foolishly touched a control panel in the ship and was irradiated with incredible energy that mutated his body. He soon manifested super-powers and was taken in by the Soviet State. They trained him to become Starfire, a national superhero faithfully serving the interests of the Soviet Union. Starfire had his first contact with the western world when he was asked to team up with the Teen Titans to guard the Crown Jewels of Sweden from jewel-thief Andre Le Blanc.

(New Teen Titans vol. 1 #18)-Starfire's loyalty was tested when he had to imprison his fiancée, who had been infected with a fatal and contagious disease. Starfire was renamed Red Star, further tying him to the Kremlin.

(New Teen Titans vol. 2 #48-49)-Mikhail Gorbachev sent Red Star to S.T.A.R. Labs in America as part of an exchange program to further world knowledge of superhuman powers. Soviet dissidents wanted to present Red Star from being studied, so Hammer and Sickle of the People's Heroes were sent to assassinate him. Red Star was rescued by the New Teen Titans. Red Star felt betrayed, and accepted political asylum in the U.S.

Red Star participated in the Soviet rebuilding of Cyborg I, a victim of an attack that shook the Titans to their core. Upon completion of this project Red Star was invited to join the New Titans, and fought by their side for some time.

(Showcase '93 #1, 2) - Cyborg's body was rebuilt by Russian scientists after he was blown up by the Wildebeest Society, but his memory was gone, and he responded only to programmed instructions. S.T.A.R. Labs, Dr. Sarah Charles, and Red Star attempted to restore Cyborg's mind. Red Star was ostensibly there to protect the Russian tech needed to rebuild Cyborg, but he secretly wated to be there for his friend. Cyborg's body responded to the Labs probes, and went into combat mode. Red Star tried to stop his friend, but was subdued, and Cyborg left for the Adirondack mountains to enter his father's upstate cabin. Silas was worried about hat would happen if his son's mind died but his armor survived, and had his feelings and memories transmitted to a computer in the cabin that backed them up. The computer activated when Cyborg went brain dead, and it hooked itself up to Cyborg, attempting to restore his humanity. Red Star had followed his friend, followed closely by Sarah, and they were overjoyed to see him once again in his right mind. The joy was short lived, their arrived triggered a self-destruct sequence in Silas' cabin, which also uploaded a virus into Cyborg's mind. Silas feared his work falling into the wrong hands, but his actions had doomed his son, whose mind was once again lost. Red Star refused to accept that his friend was gone, but Sarah told him that Cyborg was now little more than a mindless machine.

(Damage #5) - The governor of Georgia called in some favors in Washington to get Red Star and the New Titans to reunite and come to his state to deal with an outbreak of superhuman violence. The Titans interrupted a battle between Damage and Steelhawk and told Damage they were there to stop his rampage across Georgia. They didn’t realize he was new to his destructive powers and had been forced to use them to defend himself against supervillains. They didn’t realize he was new to his destructive powers and had been forced to use them to defend himself against supervillains. Iron Munro convinced them he was a hero and they all turned their attention to Steelhawk. The fight ended when Munro, Damage and Steelhawk were caught in a temporal distortion field caused by Zero Hour and sent into the past. The Titans still functioned poorly as a team, and decided to stay disbanded.

(Titans I #20) - Wildebeest threw a temper tantrum when Red Star told him to do his homework. He prepared to smash Red Star with a piece of heavy machinery while Pantha berated Red Star's parenting skills. Crisis was averted when Nightwing and Cyborg arrived in Science City, distracting Wildebeest, who went to greet them. Science City scientists had grown a cloned human body for Cyborg, and Red Star and Pantha watched as the scientists performed an operation to transfer Cyborg's essence into the body.

(Teen Titans III #32) - Superboy Prime confronted Superboy because he wanted to take his place, and was willing to kill him to do it. Red Star and other Titans reservists were in to combat Prime. There were casualties, and Superboy threw a tantrum and killed Pantha and Wildebeest, causing Red Star to go berserk seeing his family die in front of his eyes. Flash Jay Garrick, Flash and Kid Flash took Prime out of action by running him into the Speed Force.

(Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Superman-Prime #1) - An army of Earth's heroes, including Red Star, who'd responded to the Teen Titans emergency signal, appeared to take Superboy-Prime down during the Sinestro Corps invasion of Earth. The heroes focused on wrecking his armor, because after a year on Oa, and away from a yellow sun his Kryptonian body still wasn't at full strength, and his armor collected sunlight. Superboy bragged that once the sun rose on Earth he'd be at full power. Red Star tried his hardest to beat Superboy, still infuriated by the loss of his family at Superboy’s hands, but his best wasn’t good enough. Superboy was battered by Wonder Girl and Wonder Woman, who blamed him for Superboy's death, as well as Supergirl and Power Girl, who blamed him for the death of the Superman of Earth-2. As the fight went against him, Superboy broke down in tears. He tried to wipe them away, saying that it was impossible for boys to cry, and then whining that no one ever thanked him for sacrificing his Earth to save the multiverse. The battle lasted until dawn, and he flew into the sunrise. As he achieved full power he declared himself the one, true Superman. The Guardians arrived with Sodam Yat, the new Ion, and pitted him against Superboy-Prime.

(Titans II #2) - Trigon was bent on destroying every Titan, past and present, and the Titans asked their mentors for help. Wonder Woman saved Red Star from being killed by Trigon’s minions.

(Blackest Night: Titans #1) - During Heroe's Day, a remembrance of fallen heroes, Red Star sat at home getting drunk, and confronting his grief over the loss of Pantha and Wildebeest.

Comments: Created by Bill Draut, Len Wein & Marv Wolfman

Red Star received profiles in Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #19 ad Who’s Who in the DC Universe #11.

Red Star had cameos in Damage #0 and Titans II #21.

All characters mentioned or pictured are ™  and © DC Comics, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Please visit The Official DC Comics Site at: http://www.batman.com