Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Characters Case File #441: Stardust

So, I was thinking I’d do Air-Walker next for my Heralds of Galactus batch of entries in this series, but then somehow I instead looked up Stardust.

Maybe it was because I just remembered previous entry Stardust the Super Wizard.

I actually thought there’d be more to Stardust since the character did appear in a few contemporary cartoons.  Heck, Jimmy and I just finished one.  But really, as Heralds go, the most interesting thing about Stardust is creators got the character’s gender mixed up between appearances.

Stardust first appeared as a Herald of Galactus, and referred to as a male, in Stormbreaker: The Saga of Beta Ray Bill #1 from March of 2005, the creation of writers Michael Avon Oeming and Daniel Berman plus artist Andrea Di Vito.  Stardust was a member of the Ethereal race, a race of beings made of pure energy that, once imbued with the Power Cosmic, was actually immortal.  What set Stardust apart from most Heralds is that, unlike others, Stardust would prevent anyone from escaping a planet while Galactus fed, killing anyone attempting to flee.  It’s worth noting Galactus never told them to do that, but he didn’t tell them not to either.

Essentially, Beta Ray Bill was trying to escort his people to safety when he came to blows with Stardust.  Stardust at one point attempted to drop Bill through a portal to a dimension containing the most evil beings in the universe, but instead let one out.  Bill and Stardust ended up working together to take care of that evil thing, and it turned out one of Stardust’s more unique powers is the ability to create black holes.

Stardust would return as one of the Heralds working to stop the Annihilation Wave under Galactus’s orders, and during that appearance, the suggestion was made that Stardust might have been female.  Essentially, Stardust is a being of cosmic energy, so whether or not Stardust is male or female is more or less irrelevant.  It appears more subsequent appearances have tended to give Stardust a more feminine appearance and even the occasional reference to Stardust as a female.

That said, Stardust did appear in both The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and The Super Hero Squad Show.  Stardust was a silent construct created by Galactus on the former show, one of four sent to Earth to set up the planet-eaters until the Avengers, working with a lot of help from other heroes, took them all down.

That Stardust was silent.  The other one, from the Super Hero Squad Show, was a female character voiced by Cheryl Hinds.

And…that’s about all there is to Stardust.  There have probably been less active Heralds, but I honestly thought there’d be more to this one.  I would think there could be storytelling potential with a genderfluid character like Stardust, but it looks like the Silver Surfer took his old job back recently.  Maybe I can go with the original plan for the next column.

Chances are good there isn’t much to Air-Walker either, but I guess I can find out.