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    David Knight

    Character » David Knight appears in 44 issues.

    David Knight was the oldest son of the original Starman Ted Knight and brother to Jack Knight. He briefly took the mantle of Starman before being abruptly shot and killed.

    Short summary describing this character.

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    This page is for David Knight, also known as "Starman". For other characters to use the name Starman, see: Ted Knight, Jack Knight, Mikaal Tomas, Prince Gavyn, Will Payton and Thom Kallor.

    Origin

    David Knight was the eldest son of the original Golden Age Starman Ted Knight. Always looking up to his father and wanting to be just like him, he was eager to impress his family and take on the mantle of Starman, although it was his brother Jack that his father really wanted to carry on his legacy. When meeting the then Starman Will Payton, David succumbed to the idea that he was not good enough to be Starman.

    Creation

    David Knight originally appeared in the first Starman volume in issue #26 (dated September 1990) from writer Roger Stern and artist Dave Hoover.

    Major Story Arcs

    Death

    Sadly, in death he was happier than ever in life. A magical spell long prepared beforehand by the first Doctor Fate, coupled with the magical ambience around Opal City, allowed him to travel back in time, to 1951. It was an era when he knew his father, Ted Knight, had not been Starman; indeed, he had broken down due to his unwitting role in the creation of the H-bomb and the murder of his longtime girlfriend, Doris Lee, shortly after she discovered about Ted's costumed persona. He, not knowing of this, flew into Opal and stumbled upon the mysterious Starman of that year, who was none other than Doctor Midnite, his father's old teammate from the All-Star Squadron. He argued and convinced McNider of his fantastic story, and when eventually Midnite's town needed him back, David agreed to step up and assume the name himself, wielding Robotman's modified Starman equipment and the Red Torpedo-designed Star Craft.

    His surprise was immense when he one day, patrolling Opal in pursuit of his father's old enemy, the Mist, he found his time travelling brother Jack, wielding the Cosmic Rod and acting as Starman. He then took him to his base and explained the Mist's MO; he was blowing up laboratories related to the development of atomic warfare. He took Jack into Tyler Laboratories, where the Mist's men were poised to strike. There, they were joined unexpectedly by the older hero Hourman, and all three battled the Mist's men. Jack ended up poisoned by the Mist's hallucinogenic concoction, and David and Hourman took him to the Knight residence to heal him. When interrogating the single henchman captured during the raid, David was called aside by Jack, who told him of how, to him, he had died, and explained all the events of the series up to then to him. Taking the news like a true hero, he decided to take the fight to the Mist and defeat him as his last act as a hero.

    Post-Death

    Jack and David were paired to find the Mist's hallucinogenic gas' target, a crowded cinema. Narrowly avoiding the maddened crowd's assaults, they barely managed to resist until Hourman filled the cinema with the Sandman's sleep gas. After this adventure finished, the brothers retreated to their base, where David, after helping Jack find the last solution to the last enigma, faded from existence and started a new one as a ghost. He made friends with Kent and Inza Nelson, the mages who had woven the time travel spell, and Kyle, son of the Mist, his own assassin, who he eventually forgave for his act of killing. And when the time came, he returned to his brother in a dream. Both brothers battled in a dream cemetery, both unleashing powerful Cosmic Rod blasts until they realized the damage they were wreaking upon holy ground. Both worked together to repair the graveyard and finally David admitted how much he had always envied Jack for his individuality, rather than his own dependency. He then commented that he would return, once a year, to talk to him.

    The following dream took them to a pirate fantasy, where Jack and David, as pirates, attacked a phantom ship and defeated its skeletal crew with their own. David commented he was "preparing" Jack and later on the dream took him to visit their beloved mother. Next year, he took him to a dinner with several deceased heroes: the first Black Canary, Zatara, the first Atom, the first Mister Terrific, the Red Bee and Hourman. The next two years, he visited Jack's close friend Mikaal Tomas, aiding him when a malevolent Solomon Grundy attacked him in outer space and during the storms of the Grand Guignol in Opal. The last time he met Jack, it wasn't alone: his father was now there to greet Jack as well. They hailed Jack as a champion of Starmen, and gave their blessings to him in his final role as a father and a husband. With this in place, they even got Jack to forgive David's killer, Kyle, son of the Mist. In the end, father and son finally dissolved, allowing their souls eternal rest.

    Blackest Knight

    Unfortunately David couldn't find permanent peace in death as he was resurrected as a Black Lantern, he kills many Opal City police officers (Clarence O'Dare among them) until The Shade arrives to stop him, David threatens Hope O'Dare and the rest of Opal City's inhabitants as well as his brother Jack until manages to get the upper hand and removes Shade's heart but this doesn't stop him and his shadowy heart envelops David in shadow matter and takes him to the Shadowlands until the Blackest Night is over.

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