Starman: Legacy

Starman: Legacy

• Jack Knight walked alone through the streets of Opal City, the weight of his father's cosmic staff pressing heavily against his shoulder. The staff's familiar glow, once a beacon of hope and heroism, now felt like a reminder of a mantle he could never truly live up to. Jack remembered Ted Knight's sacrifice—the moment his father chose death to free him from a concentration camp with the JSA. Jack had sworn to honor Ted’s legacy. But each time he donned the name Starman, doubt always crept in.

• At his latest patrol, Jack’s efforts were fruitless as the others. Small-time criminals robbing a laundry mat slipped through his fingers. By day, he was tired and unfocused, the legacy he bore eating away at him. He didn’t feel like a hero; just a man with a weapon that didn’t belong in his hands.

• One night, as he soared through the skies, the city beneath him bathed in starlight, he spotted chaos in progress—Mist, a notorious villain known for her deadly concoctions of gaseous toxins, was causing a panic downtown. Jack swooped in, aiming to be the hero his father would have wanted, only to find himself outmatched. Mist, with her waifish figure and eyes like shards of glass, eluded him effortlessly, melting into vapor and reappearing yards away. Her laughter rang out, manic and unhinged. “Come on, Starman! Isn’t this what heroes do? Try and fail?” She taunted before vanishing into a cloud of mist, leaving Jack coughing and defeated.

• Jack felt like he had enough and made it his personal mission to search for Mist, hoping to redeem himself. One day he found her terrorizing a law office but what he saw surprised him. While wreaking havoc, she was yelling about the crooked lawyers setting criminals free. She said, “no innocents will pay, all the unjust will fall!” Tried to use the gravitational power of the cosmic staff but struggled to contain her gaseous form. Jack overhear her mutter about “saving” the city, convinced she was guided by some higher calling. This made Jack curious about her motivations so he asked her who was pulling the strings. She told him that a powerful leader calling himself Uncle Sam was putting a team together in order to make America just and right with no corruption. Jack was intrigued by this, he thought this could finally be his opportunity to live up to his dad’s legacy. Mist provoked him by saying it was super exclusive and Uncle Sam would reach out if he could help beat the bad guys. She then faded out of the air vent, vanishing. Jack was left dumbfounded and hungry for a purpose.

• Under a bridge, we see Mist talking to Uncle Sam about Jack. She tells him that he seems like he can help and join their cause. Uncle Sam speaks with a commanding voice, telling her that if he proves his might, he will join the fight. They continue to talk but we see Jack had followed Mist to her location under the bridge. Jack flies down to Mist and asks to hear her out about their cause. Mist calls Jack silly and he can just ask Uncle Sam himself, gesturing towards Sam. Jack looks confused and asks if Sam is behind the pillar. Mist gets mad and insists that Uncle Sam is standing there right in front of him! Jack then realizes Mist wasn’t a vigilante with a cause or villain; she was tormented, unmoored from reality. Jack tried his best to tell Mist that Sam wasn’t real, that he was all in her head. Mist freaked out on Jack, calling him part of the problem if he won’t help them. She transformed into her gaseous form and clouded Jack’s head, attempting to suffocate him. Jack panicked but managed to get away, flying off with the cosmic staff.

• Over time, Jack and Mist crossed paths repeatedly, their encounters growing less hostile. He saw glimpses of humanity beneath her fractured psyche. Conversations stretched longer as he tried to help her see reality, and Jack found himself drawn to her. She spoke of visions and voices, of wanting to be a hero but failing again and again. In her vulnerability, Jack saw a reflection of himself. Against all better judgment, they grew close. No matter how many times Jack faced her, she somehow always seemed to get away.

• One evening Jack was prevented her from attacking a police holding cell, when Mist took Jack’s hand and whispered, “Uncle Sam says you can make me whole.” Her eyes were wild, but Jack, desperate to believe in their connection, ignored the warning signs. Their relationship deepened, driven by equal parts longing and fragility. But Mist’s grip on reality crumbled faster than Jack could repair it. Jack says he thinks every time she entered her gas form, her mind was torn apart a little more. All of a sudden, the moment was interrupted as a caped figure wooshed into the rooftop. It was Sandman, with his ever-present gas mask and knockout gun. He yelled for Jack to hold her steady but Jack stood like a deer in headlights, looking into Mist’s eyes as she faded away. Sandman berated Jack for letting Mist get away and told him that was his first chance to actually get her, with his help. Jack looked confused but Sandman went on to explain that he was watching Jack from a distance, letting him build his capabilities as a hero, but now it’s time to take the training wheels off and take her down. Jack tries to explain that Mist isn’t evil and she just needs someone to help her become the hero she is thinks she is. Sandman doesn’t want to hear this from Jack because he knows what a real hero looks like, his dad, the real Starman. Jack feels a pit in his stomach. Sandman gives Jack one last warning, “She’s beyond saving, Jack. Whatever bond you think you share, it’s dangerous.” Sandman then leaves to track her down himself.

• Late one night in his apartment, Jack awoke to his limp body lying paralyzed by a fog of potent gas. Mist stood over him, her touch gentle yet possessive. “Uncle Sam says it’s time,” she murmured, her words both terrifying and desperate. The violation of Jack that followed shattered his trust, leaving him broken in ways he could not fully comprehend. Once she was done with him Mist vanished, leaving only confusion, pain, and a twisted sense of love in her wake.

• Time passed and weeks blurred into months. Jack avoided the cosmic staff, his father's voice a distant memory. He barely held himself together until a familiar figure stepped into his dimly lit apartment, never hearing from or seeing Mist the entire time.

• One night, Jack heard a knock on his apartment door. He fearfully yelled, asking who it was. A muffled voice answered back, “a chance to make something of your sorry self.” Jack opened the door and Sandman entered. Jack gave Sandman credit for not just sneaking in through the window. Sandman explains that he doesn’t do that to civilians and questions if that’s all Jack is now. If he has given up trying to do some good? Jack doesn’t answer. Sandman continues and says he lost track of Mist entirely a number of months ago but just found her resurfacing again. Sandman tells Jack the address that she has been staying and he has 24 hours to prove himself as a hero and bring her in before Sandman does it himself. Jack says he isn’t the guy to do that and Sandy should just do it himself. Sandman says Jack has 24 hours to prove himself wrong and exits onto a fire escape out the window.

• Jack lays in his bed, unable to sleep, staring at the closet where he hid his father’s cosmic staff. He feels the weight of his father’s legacy on his conscious, knowing he can bring Mist to justice but afraid to be in her presence again. Unable to suppress his guilt any longer, Jack gets out of bed and flies to Mist’s location. Jack stands outside a run-down house, peeking through the window. Mist is up late, working in the kitchen. Standing at the door, Jack takes a shallow breath before he kicks in the door, holding the glowing cosmic staff at the ready. Mist drops a glass, shattering it on the tiles, as Jack peers onward in shock, noticing her maternal pregnant figure before his eyes. Before Jack can say anything, she explains that she was going to tell him, but only after she could prove herself. Jack tells her to explain and Mist goes on to say that he was right, every time she turned to gas, she was harming her psyche. She hasn’t used her powers at all since the last time they saw each other. She hasn’t even seen Sam in weeks but claims he helped her see that if she can give Jack and herself something to keep them whole, their emptiness will go away and they will find their purpose. Conflicted, Jack exclaims, “by raping me?!” Mist begins to cry. 

• As Mist falls to the floor crying, Jack hears something move from the other room. Jack looks up as a cloaked figure steps out of the shadows, lunging towards Mist with a knockout gun drawn. Before Sandman gets a chance, Jack instinctively catches Sandman with the cosmic staff, freezing him motionless in the air. Mist looks up at Sandman then glances back at Jack yelling, “you brought him here!” Jack tries to explain that he came alone but Mist refuses to hear it and continues whaling hysterically. Sandman demands Jack let him go before they lose her again. Jack refuses and tells Mist to get out of there. Sandman calls him just as crazy as here if he lets her get away again. Suddenly, Mist looks into the distance, seeing Uncle Sam again. She grows visibly angry and hostile towards Jack as she says, “I won’t let you trick me like this ever again, Sam says you must die!” Jack pleads with her to stop. Who knows what will happen to the baby if she uses her powers now. Sandman yells, “Stop this lunatic, now!” Mist can’t hold it anymore, she vaporizes toward Sandman with murderous intent. As her body sublimates bit by bit from solid to gas, her form dissipates, leaving a nearly mature fetal infant to fall to the floor. In an instant, Jack cuts lose his grip on Sandman and catches his vulnerable child. Mist clouds Sandman’s face but Sandman taunts her ineffectual attack since he always adorns a gas mask. In a flurry of conflicting emotions, Jack pulls the child into his arms, where they take their first breath and begin to cry. Jack stoops to the ground, a father with his child in his arms. Mist sees this and resolidifies moving towards the two, but just as she reforms, Sandman administers his signature knockout gas on the now-solid Mist. Jack sees this and says nothing. Sandman approaches Jack and asks what he wants him to do with “it”. Jack says, “Him.” “What?” Sandman replies. Jack says, “my baby is a boy, don’t call him an it.” Sandman asks if he is seriously going to keep him. Jack feels adamant that he does, just as he demands that Sandman doesn’t take Mist to jail. Sandman argues back thinking that Jack has lost it but Jack convinces Sandman that she is a danger to herself more than anyone, she needs help. Reluctantly, Sandman agrees and delivers her to Arkham Asylum.

• Jack goes home relinquished the cosmic staff, leaving Starman behind. His father’s legacy was too heavy, too tainted by his own actions. Instead, he dedicated himself to raising his child, a final act of love and responsibility. Though no longer Starman, Jack vowed to teach his child the values his father held dear—courage, compassion, and the hope that they might one day become the hero he could not be.