Red Star
27 years ago - Leonid Kovar is born in Norilsk, Russia.
11 years ago - 16-year-old Leonid explores a crashed alien spaceship near the Yenesi River with his archaeologist father, and is caught in it's explosion. Empowered with alien energy, he offers his services to Russia as Red Star, and is named a member of the government-sanctioned organization The People's Heroes.
8 years ago - 19-year-old Leonid and The People's Heroes attempt to stop Ivan Illyich Gort from defecting. He focuses on keeping bystanders safe, and takes control of the team in the aftermath of the death of Ivan to keep everyone alive.
6 years ago - 21-year-old Leonid stops an invasion from the aliens who's ship had empowered him. He begins using one of their ships as his mobile base. He is appointed Protector of the State.
4 years ago - 23-year-old Leonid joins the Global Guardians after Scott Sawyer goes rogue and injures Dmitri Pushkin.
3 years ago - 24-year-old Leonid leads several former members of The People's Heroes to stop mad scientist Alexi Nicolai from creating a nuclear apocalypse.
now - 27-year-old Leonid begins a relationship with Celia Forrestal.
Red Star is a really great example of a particular type of DC hero. He's not actually at the forefront of any particular narrative, but he has a surprisingly complete internal story all his own. The more you follow him, it's like there's a completely functioning standalone series for this character that is clearly being published in an alternate timeline.
|
Red Star's Comic HistoryLeonid appeared for the first time VERY early in the original Teen Titans series. Issue #18 happened in 1968, only two years after the Titans themselves debuted. While Mal and Lilith were the first original Titans to join the lineup, a very real argument could be made that, while Leonid didn't actually become a Titan until way later, he definitely *literally* appeared well before anyone else.
A character from the Soviet Union in 1968 is a pretty revolutionary idea, and the story he comes from totally lives up to it. He shows up (his name is Starfire at that time, which... is confusing) and is meant to assist the Teen Titans in finding a particular bad guy, but what we really see is the tension between them. Particularly with Kid Flash, who for a number of years was depicted as a "conservative", back when that was a viable thing for a good guy to be. Eventually, of course, they all learned to work together, and we all learned a valuable lesson. Leonid would return later in the New Teen Titans, now called Red Star, since the real Starfire had now shown up. He would eventually become a regular member of the Titans, where he became part of a particularly fun family unit with fellow Titan Panthra and her adopted child Baby Wildebeest. These relationships were systematically picked apart during the mid 2000s push to make sure nothing was fun anymore. |
Our Red Star StoryRed Star may have come about in the pages of Teen Titans and had most of his appearances there, but I would argue that he actually has way more utility as a standalone character. The idea of a teenage superhero becoming the official Russian Protector of the State and defeating an alien invasion for his country just feels cool. Despite the fact that he seems to be specifically built out of pure main character energy, He for some reason hasn't ever been given a spotlight of his own.
Given that we have a particular world of Russian heroes and their evolution over time, we have an interesting opportunity to make Red Star a particular point of interest there. Leonid joins late in the original run of the team, still a very young hero. During that team's final moments, when they are basically picked apart by the defecting Steel Wolf, Leonid focuses on keeping everyone safe. It's a moment specifically meant to highlight the particular heroism of this young man. When the People's Heroes reform later, they do so under his leadership. We've also made him part of the Global Guardians, where he gets to assert himself as a natural leader. We've deliberately created an element in the story where, contrary to the antagonism between their nations, Leonid begins a relationship with the American representative Celia Forrestal. There's something fantastic and yet completely human about that, and we love it. |
|