Monday Night Murals: He thinks he'd blow our minds

I can usually take or leave Alex Ross's artwork, but one piece of his I really like—maybe I should say six pieces of his—is his mural (with Tony Harris) from Starman:

Starman #57-62 (September 1999-February 2000), art by Tony Harris and Alex Ross
(Click picture to Alcyone-size)

One of the strengths of James Robinson's Starman was its emphasis on the "legacy hero"—the proud dynasty of superheroes that have all been named the same and who follow in each other's footsteps. A Kid Flash or two aside, I'd never been much compelled by DC's legacy heroes, but Starman, with its father/son in conflict plot right from issue #0, nailed the essence of what I like about continuity in superhero comics. There's plentiful little gems for those versed in the history to pick up if you do know and recognize Starmen past: Ted Knight (moonlighting, no doubt, on his job working alongside Mary Tyler Moore and Ed Asner), Will Payton, David Knight, the short series of Prince Gavyn, alien Starman stories, even Starmen like Mikaal Tomas who only appeared previously for one single issue. Robinson spun their histories together at the same time he introduced my favorite Starman, Jack Knight. Jack's adventures discovering his history and his legacy are interspersed with "Times Past" stories that fill in the story from generations ago. At the same time Robinson created one of my favorite fictional metropolises (metropoli?) in the DC Universe, Opal City, and even rescued villain The Shade from the deep history of The Flash to give him a role as a mover, shaker, and plotter in, around, and behind the scenes.

The interconnection between the Starmen isn't just in the story: it's right up there on these covers featuring pretty much ever Starman (except Robert Hays), their supporting characters, and behind them, big-ass Starman of the Thiry-First Century (previously the Dream-Girl-wooin' Star Boy of The Legion of Super-Heroes, and now a member of the Justice Society of America...don't ask me how, I dunno, something to do with bad clams, I understand) against a star-spangled background of...hey, it's a huge star! Holy symbolism, Starman!

When I was puttin' 'em together with my original issues, scissors and Elmer's Glue (it's a messy job, but somebody's gotta do it!), I noticed that he Starman covers are somewhat unique among interconnecting, "mural" images: the tops of the lower tier overlap with the bottoms of the top tier, so you're actually getting a little cleaner fit to the image than you often do with these things. It's pretty impressive all put together like that even with the logos and UPC codes and the reminder that I spent fifteen clams on these comics. But take a look at the original artwork minus the logos:



Pretty cool, huh? Lucky for you 'n' me that DC Direct released that as a poster, so you can pink it up on your wall and listen to your Marillion albums all night long. Only thing that's missing? It ain't a black light poster.