Star: Birth of a Dragon by author Kelly Thompson and Illustrator Javier Pina
Star: Birth of a Dragon is the last comic book I read before I decided to take a break from comics altogether. That’s probably a good indicator of how much I recommend it. I’ve been struggling with the DC and Marvel reading lists for a while now. I’ve found myself reading a ton of filler and hardly anything worth getting excited about.
I picked up this miniseries because of author Kelly Thompson, I’ve loved her previous work on Jessica Jones and Kate Bishop Hawkeye so I figured this one might be a throwaway but at least a fun one. It’s mostly just okay and unremarkable.
Star, Ripley, is a new Captain Marvel rip off who has somehow become fused with the reality stone, one of the stones that Thanos so famously steals. She has the power of the stone inside of her but has no idea how to use it to its potential or even how to not destroy reality accidentally. She goes a little power crazy with suddenly being granted this god level gift and starts making some big mistakes.
Star waffles between hero and villain with the author herself also seeming unsure of where to place her. Since her defining characteristics are reckless and incompetent it’s hard to respect her as a hero but also hard to fear her as a villain. She’s not competent enough to be either.
This could have been an interesting character study into someone who has ultimate power but no goals for it. Instead, it just became a frustrating experiment in circular logic. There is no reason for this character to exist. It starts to feel like she was created just to have another female in the Marvel lineup. I do appreciate them creating a new character instead of just feminizing an existing one but why is this so hard for them to get right?!
After reading Star: Birth of a Dragon I decided to take a break. Maybe I don’t need to read comic books every night just to pass the time before bed. Maybe I can just read ones that come recommended for a while. I also might not need to read every issue ever published for a character I like. It’s okay to take a step back and reevaluate.
So I haven’t read a comic book in a few weeks and I don’t really miss falling asleep on the boring ones every night. I’ll get back into it when I really feel ready again and hopefully with a character more memorable than Star.
3/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐
Instead of Star you might want to try Ms Marvel
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Buy it here: Star: Birth Of A Dragon (Star (2020))
that is one bad ass cover