Starman Annual #1

In Country radio we have a phrase that describes the shelf-life or longevity of a song. I'm sure this is a common phrase to other formats, but my experience has mostly been in Country radio, so that's my point of reference. The word is "Burn". The phrase is "Burn factor". That describes the point at which you and I get sick of hearing a song. There's a list of songs that people never ever in a million years want to ever hear certain songs ever again. Dolly Parton's 9 to 5 is on that list along with Billy Ray Cyrus' Achy Breaky Heart. These two songs peaked quickly, and were played well past their burn factor, so now, no one wants to even hear the titles mentioned. In fact, I've probably already lost you. You've gone surfing the news or forums. It's important to know a song's burn factor, because if you want to keep listeners, or attract new listeners, you want to string the best songs together back to back to back and not have a stinker in there, to avaid any channel surfing. This theory is true of anything. I'm sure different formats use this theory. Most of my experience has been in Country radio. Now, If you're looking to break into the business of comics, you want to have your best stuff out in front in your portfolio to show off at a Con review.
 
This came to mind while I was reading the Legends of the Dead Earth Starman Annual from '96. Wondering why annuals were so few and far between anymore. Annuals were pretty - well, annual. Regular. Like clock-work. Wolfman and Perez used them to wrap up a long storyline. Like the Judas Contract. Then DC started getting creative, and developed the Elseworlds, Legends of the Dead Earth (Elseworlds), and Year One Annuals. I'm no rocket scientist or brain surgeon, but I would kinda guess that these were high burn factor concepts that peaked the annual and kind of killed the idea. Now, the annual is as rare as the unicorn. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say-no-more, say-no-more, know-what-I-mean?

Here, though, James Robinson uses the idea to his advantage. He takes a tool that we are all familiar with, the Tales of Times Past, and works it within the Legends of the Dead Earth. Accepting that The Shade is immortal, and will long outlive the other Starman characters, and will then continue to pass on the legacy, is brilliant. Genius. This issue what I wished his Dr. Fate and The Shade team-up had been. An annual or a regular issue rather than two eight-pagers with a cliffhanger over in Showcase. Too bad The Brave and the Bold wasn't around.

Here, The Shade shares the brief story of how Prince Gavyn met his end during the Crisis on Infinite Earths. He did so with courage, and honor, dignity and love for his people and his princess. The story if full of what we all wish DC Comics stories still had. A bitter-sweet story with a not so happy ending, but more than anything else - a point. Relevance. There is something to Prince Gavyn's life and death, it has meaning, because he died for a reason. Superboy-Prime didn't go on some wanton rampage and pop his head off or use heat-vision on him. Yeah, I'm looking at you Infinite Crisis. Turn back around and face the corner. If you liked Infinite Crisis and the return of the Multiverse, a blessing on you and yer whole house. I think this is the only Tale of Times Past that focused on Prince Gavyn. Although, future issues would further reveal his fate...  

The other story is from Ted Knight's time as Starman. Almost makes me wish that James Robinson had managed to spin off a re-telling of Ted's exploits. The highlights are nice, but after reading some of James' stories about Ted's Golden Age, I'm hungry for more. 

I won't gush over the art, although it is incredible. If you've read it, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, you need to track a copy down to bask in it and appreciate it. When good writing and good "art" - pencilling, inking, coloring and inking come together it's like magic. Magic is/was pretty common in the pages of Starman...