Whenever people talk about Star Sapphire, they’re usually referring to Carol Ferris, the most iconic version of the character who debuted in the early Silver Age and has since spread across all forms of media. Carol first appeared in Showcase #22 in 1959, the same issue that introduced the world to Hal Jordan and the concept of a science fiction version of Green Lantern. Carol would become Star Sapphire for the first time three years later, in 1962’s Green Lantern #16. The alien Zamarons chose Carol to become their queen, so they gave her the Star Sapphire gem, an object that made her incredibly powerful, while also overwriting her personality. This allowed writers to add in a few new layers of complexity to the standard superhero love triangle…Hal loved Carol, but Carol loved Green Lantern, and didn’t know Green Lantern was Hal. Now on top of that, Carol was Star Sapphire, enemy of Green Lantern, but Carol didn’t know she was Star Sapphire, but Hal knows she is and doesn’t tell her.
…and when most people think about Star Sapphire, they think about this. They think about this bizarre love triangle that’s endured for decades. But not a lot of people know that Carol Ferris was not the original Star Sapphire. Just like how Hal Jordan is the Silver Age reimagining of the Golden Age Green Lantern concept, there was a Golden Age Star Sapphire back in the 1940’s.
Originally conceived as a villain for the Golden Age Flash, Jay Garrick, the mysterious woman known only as Star Sapphire launched an attack on the Earth from her home in the seventh dimension. Her plan was to conquer the third dimension, but first she had to deal with any potential resistance, so she began removing all of the oxygen from the Earth. Flash was able to destroy the machine draining away all of Earth’s oxygen, and believed Star Sapphire to have died in the explosion…but she wasn’t done yet. Star Sapphire came back to menace the Flash again, this time trapping every man on Earth in another dimension so she could rule a planet of nothing but women. Flash manages to return all the captured men, and then thanks to some trademark Flash time travel nonsense, traps Star Sapphire in a time loop, making it as though her attack on Earth never happened.
These were the only two Golden Age appearances of the original Star Sapphire. They happened in the pages of All-Flash #32, and Comic Cavalcade #29, both of which released in 1948. Star Sapphire’s powers were really vague, and nothing like you’d expect if you’ve encountered any other character using that name. She had the means to do things like travel between dimensions and cast vivid illusions, levitate people and throw explosions…none of it felt like this was a well thought out character…any ability or gadget they gave her was there either for plot convenience, or just at random.
Now this character would appear one more time, in the year 2000, in the pages of Flash & Green Lantern: The Brave and the Bold #6. Here, an attempt was made to retcon the Golden Age Star Sapphire so she’d make sense in the context of her Silver Age counterpart, Carol Ferris. According to this story, she used to be Queen of the Zamarons, just like Carol, only she failed in her duties and was thus exiled to the seventh dimension. The Zamarons took away her Star Sapphire gem, and left her with an inferior replica that had just enough power to help her survive, thus explaining why she and Carol have such wildly different abilities. This story also establishes that the reason the Golden Age Star Sapphire attempted to remove all the men from Earth before trying to conquer it is because she has an intense fear of men, and that this is what caused the Zamarons to cast her out, as the Queen of a society of warrior women can’t be running scared whenever a man is around. And while I do understand how they connected those dots, the whole thing feels a little sloppy. It’s really strange to bring back a character this obscure, only to portray them as even less of a threat than they used to be. Her inclusion in this issue was a good idea, since both Green Lantern and Flash have history dealing with seemingly unrelated women calling themselves Star Sapphire, so it makes sense to tell a story connecting those characters…but that connection didn’t serve any purpose, and then the Golden Age Star Sapphire was quickly forgotten again.
That said, it’s kind of amazing how much of the Golden Age Star Sapphire concept is still around today. The idea of Star Sapphire being the Queen of a planet of nothing but women would help define the Silver Age version, and persist into the modern day. And just look at the costume…they only made minor adjustments when coming up with the Silver Age version, and it speaks the the strength of the design, especially considering the drastic changes that were made to characters like Flash and Green Lantern when it came time to reimagine them. So many Golden Age characters needed a complete overhaul to modernize them for a new audience…but with Star Sapphire, most of what was presented in 1948 stuck around, and all the Silver Age version had to do was fill in some of the gaps that the Golden Age version never attempted to address. The biggest thing she was missing was…a character. I haven’t called her by her name because she doesn’t have one. She was basically just used as a plot device back in 1948, and what little backstory she does have was quickly added on in 2000. And while that retcon might be a little shaky, it does explain how her Golden Age lore fits into the world of modern day Green Lantern. For that matter, the end of that Brave and the Bold issue clearly shows her trapped inside of Carol’s Star Sapphire gem, meaning she’s ready and waiting for any writer to come along with a good idea for a story that will finally do this character justice.
If there’s one thing I associate with DC comics more than any other publisher in the industry, it’s legacy characters…sure, they stumble sometimes, but the heart and soul of the DC Universe is following the multi-generational exploits of these families of characters, these dynasties that are going strong today and stretch all the way back to the 1940s. History and legacy make these concepts stronger, with every new generation adding to the whole and making it greater. I think it’s long past time someone explore the Golden Age roots of the Star Sapphire, because what began as a mad plot to steal the world’s supply of oxygen has become one of the largest and most powerful forces for good in the universe, and bringing the original back now would open up entire dimensions of possibility.
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