THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #28 (1960)
by Gardner Fox & Mike Sekowsky
The first Justice League villain is appropriately from their very first story.
That’s a VERY iconic cover, of course, but some of it bugs me.
I get Aquaman trying to free himself from the tentacle with his hands, but Martial Manhunter has like 15 other more useful powers for that.
And am I the only one infuriated by the fact that Green Lantern is not hitting the center of Starro’s eye even when it’s a giant target!?
I do enjoy Wonder Woman’s expression, though.
“This is not even the kinkiest thing I’ve fought this week”.
We begin with Aquaman being told by his friend that a giant alien starfish has landed on Earth.
In modern stories Starro is shown to spawn tinier versions of itself, but in the original story it actually turns ordinary starfishes into giant monsters.
Even if this is the first Justice League story they don’t have an origin yet, they’re just there.
Despite being a member Superman won’t actually show up in the story, because he’s busy preventing a meteor shower from hitting the Earth.
That DOES sound legit, for once. Batman’s excuse, however… not so much.
Even if “the world’s greatest detective” isn’t available, fish intelligence provides enough information to track the three Starro henchfish.
Aaaand they’ve already sidelined Aquaman, what are the odds.
This is a staple of the Gardner Fox formula: the majority of his Justice League stories split up the team into smaller sub-groups for most of the story.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, and it’s used well here, but later it will get extremely predictable.
Starro might look a bit silly, but it is THE original DC Comics Kaiju.
Don’t believe me? IT EATS RADIATION.
See what I meant about the cover? All it takes is ONE hit on the target and the henchfish dies!
Okay, that was admittedly AWESOME.
The second henchfish stealing a science lab (???) to kidnap some scientists in suspended animation (???) in order to eventually absorb their knowledge… not so much.
Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter manage to save the science lab…
…by the martian BLOWING METEORS OUT OF SPACE.
That was… decidedly less awesome, but still pretty cool. All things considered things have been pretty good so far!
And then the story grinds to a screeching halt thanks to… *sigh*… Snapper Carr.
Snapper is frustrating because I KNOW this kind of character can be written well!
And I’m not talking about Rick Jones on the Avengers, which… okay Rick starts off in pretty much the same exact role Snapper has here, but done millions of times better.
But more modern stories with Snapper Carr have used him to great effect: he CAN be a good character!
But HERE… he beats Jimmy Olsen in the “most punchable person on the planet” contest.
You thought Stan Lee’s attempts to write teenage slang was cringe?
That was nothing compared to Gardner Fox.
God is he insufferable in this!!!
Snapper hangs around Flash because he’s the only person in his small town that doesn’t fall under Starro’s mind control. No clue why he’s still in his car, though.
With all the three henchfish destroyed, we are left with the big guy. Who apparently has been using the henchfish to get more powerful and to learn how to do mind control (because that’s something you can understand from hibernating scientists, that’s just common knowledge!).
Starro wants to force humans to detonate all nuclear weapons to absorb radiation (!!!!). Pretty impressive considering he’s a rookie.
Aaaand the bad guy is already immune to Green Lantern’s power, what are the odds.
He’s useful to figure out why Snapper is immune from Starro’s powers, in a way that makes WAY too much sense for the Silver Age.
That above is the full extent of Aquaman’s contribution to the fight, by the way. He did inform the team about Starro in the first place, sure, but that’s still underwhelming.
And so Starro is defeated (killed?) by covering it in lime.
Superman and Batman show up to congratulate Snapper for being a member of the team… kinda.
Historical significance: 10/10
The story itself is not referenced often: Starro itself won’t appear again for SEVENTEEN YEARS (!!!), returning in Adventure Comics #451. In an Aquaman story, fittingly.
But as the introduction of the Justice League, I can’t in good conscience give it anything less than a 10 considering the impact.
Silver Age-ness: 4/10
There’s SOME attempt at scientific realism. And it even works here and there!
Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
If you manage to make Snapper less insufferable, this still works fine. The Green Lantern and Flash fights still hold pretty well, but that whole Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter fight really needs some work to be published today.
Ridiculous Flash feat of the day 
Martian Manhunter power of the day
How close is this to the modern character?: 7/10
Modern interpretations focus more on its monstrous nature and especially its mind-control powers; while the ingredients are all there from the start, there’s still some way to go.
Starro appearances are shockingly rare in the Silver Age! After his return in 1977 he will fight the Justice League in a two-parter in 1981. That’s only four Starro stories in pre-Crisis, and even post-Crisis he won’t be re-introduced until 1991.
And of course let’s not forget that Starro is one of the very best villains in a superhero movie.
