Space Ranger

Origin

Rick Starr lives in the Earth of the 22nd Century. He is the son of multi-millionaire Thaddeus Starr, who owns Allied Solar Enterprises. Rick is a business executive in the company, but is also known as the Space Ranger.

As the Space Ranger, Rick is the guardian of Earth's Solar System, and his main base is a satellite that orbits somewhere between Jupiter and Mars. His base contains a well equipped laboratory where he docks his starship, the Solar King.

Creation

Space Ranger first appeared in Showcase #15, July 1958. he was created by writers Edmond Hamilton and Gardner Fox along with artist Bob Brown. He is seemingly based upon the children's science fiction series character David Starr, Space Ranger by Isaac Asimov.

Character Evolution

Silver Age

Space Ranger has two main allies: Myra Mason , who is his girlfriend and who knows his secret identity. Myra is also Rick's secretary at Allied, so she can provide the perfect cover for him.

His other ally is the alien Cryll - a shape changer, who watches over the asteroid base in Starr's absence, and accompanies him on his adventures. Rick found Cryll stranded and frozen on an asteroid when his spaceship malfunctioned. Thanks to Cryll's alien biology Starr was able to revive him and they became good friends. Space Ranger also has a base hidden on Earth. Here,he develops the many weapons he may need on his space adventures.

The Thermoblaze gun, which he uses to melt things; the explosi-discs (which explode); the Dissolveriser (which dissolves things); his anti gravity gun, and his numbing gun (which gives out paralyzing rings of energy).

New 52

In Threshold #1, Space Ranger is re-imagined as Rikane "Ric" Starr, a former member of a group named the Space Rangers and now on the run as a fugitive.

Major Story Arc

Green Lantern

Hal Jordan is lost in time and ends up on Earth of the 22nd century, but due to the Time Scoope mind wahing ablities he doesn't remember who he is or where he came from. Space Ranger reconizes the logo on his chest and takes him to his stash of weapons. He then shows him a Power Battery he found, but before it can jog Hal's memory the Gordanians attack and take Space Ranger, Cryll and Hal by surprise. Once back on the Gordanians ship Cryll escapes and frees Space Ranger, and with the help of Hal Jordon and Myra they destroy the Gordanians main battle ship making the rest of the fleet leave earth alone, for a while.

The Hunted

In the New 52 series Threshold, Ric Starr is one of the fugitives on the run in the "Glimmernet" game show "The Hunted" .