Identity/Class: Human mutate
Occupation: Supervillain, guardian of fundamental
aspect of the universe;
formerly bartender, reporter
Group Membership: The Infinity Watch
(Apex/Otherone, Phil Coulson, Multitude/Ward,
Overtime/Hector
Bautista, Colleen Wing) (nominally);
formerly Hydra, Thunderbolts
(Ampere, Batroc the Leaper/Georges Batroc, Figment,
Foolkiller/Greg Salinger, Grizzly/Maxwell Markham, Man-Bull/William
Taurens, Mister
Fear/Larry
Cranston, Mister
Hyde/Calvin
Zabo, Rhino/Aleksei Sytsevich, Snakehead, Taskmaster/Tony
Masters), the Roosevelt Island resistance
(Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers, Hazmat/Jennifer Takeda, Echo/Maya Lopez,
Rogue/Anna Marie, She-Hulk/Jennifer Walters, Som, Spider-Woman/Jessica
Drew, many unidentified others), Ms.
magazine
Affiliations: Formerly Black Cat (Felicia Hardy), Doctor
Minerva (Minn-Erva), Kingpin (Wilson Fisk), Scarlet Witch (Wanda
Maximoff), Tater Tot;
Earth-45869
natives: Carol Danvers, Harry Osborn, Peter Parker
Enemies: The
Apeiron (Dire Ghast, Dregs, Inflict, Seeker, Star Slayer, Verisimilitude
- see comments),
Black Cat (Felicia Hardy), the Black Order (Black Dwarf, Black Swan/Yabbat Ummon Tarru, Corvus Glaive, Ebony
Maw, Proxima Midnight), Captain Marvel (Carol
Danvers), Mike Delladova, Lacey Fisher, Nick Fury, Jr., Green Goblin
(Norman Osborn of Earth-45869), Hazmat (Jennifer Takeda), Jessica Jones,
Knull, Loki (Loki Laufeyson), Nighthawk (Kyle Richmond of Earth-31916),
Nuclear Man
(Mahkizmo of Earth-74101), Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Spider-Woman
(Jessica Drew), Thanos, Titania (Mary MacPherran), Avery Zavala
Known Relatives: Roberta Anne Ryan (mother,
deceased)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Mobile, potentially
universe-wide;
formerly New York City, New York, USA; the Infinity
Watch's secret island base in the Pacific Ocean
First Appearance: (as Ripley Ryan) Captain Marvel
XI#1 (January, 2019);
(as Star) Captain Marvel X#8 (July, 2019)
Powers/Abilities: Star is the host of the Reality
Stone, one of the Infinity Stones that are the embodiments of several
fundamental aspects of the universe. Through her connection to the
Stone, Star can alter reality with a simple thought or spoken word, with
the only constraints seemingly being her own imagination, the speed of
her thought processes and her ability to precisely conceive the exact
changes she wishes to enact. Perhaps for this reason, much of her use of
the Stone is to produce fairly "routine" superpowers like the ones she
briefly stole from Captain Marvel (flight, super-strength,
super-durability, energy projection and the like) and she often does not
use her powers to solve predicaments in the most efficient way. However,
she has also changed size, copied Spider-Man's web-shooting, controlled
people's behaviors, transported people and objects instantly over
interplanetary distances, altered the reality of the entire Earth (and
possibly the universe), learned to speak and understand Swedish, and
many other things. The effects on reality are temporary, though anything
affected by the changes remains affected (a person killed by a weapon
she created would still be dead even after that weapon dissipated, for
example). Her powers increase exponentially when she is in the presence
of the hosts of the other Infinity Stone hosts.
Star can fly single-engine WWII-era
aircraft.
Star's biology has been altered to be
partially Kree. Prior to hosting the Reality Stone, she briefly had the
same powers as Captain Marvel, acquired via a device made by the Kree
scientist Minn-Erva.
Early in her time with the Reality Stone, Star suffered from recurring trauma flashbacks and panic attacks revolving around her death at Captain Marvel's hands and would often pass out from exertion when calling upon the Stone too much. These limitations seem to have lessened with time, though she is still prone to exhaustion. During the Infinity Watch's time together, Colleen Wing used the Mind Stone to inhibit Star from using her powers to do anything of which Wing did not approve. It is unclear whether this is still the case.
Before acquiring her powers, Ripley Ryan wore glasses and occasionally still does when out of costume. It is unrevealed whether she wears contacts the rest of the time, though presumably she could alter reality to have perfect vision.
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 148 lbs
Eyes: Green (glowing red when using powers)
Hair: Blonde
History:
(Star I#5 (fb) / Amazing
Spider-Man Annual V#2/1 (fb)) - Ripley Ryan grew up in poverty with an
abusive mother, who instilled in her a lifelong inferiority complex that
was only reinforced by the bullying she received throughout her
childhood, including at Midtown High School in Queens, New York, and it
led to her thinking of herself primarily as a victim, suffering through
a series of unhealthy relationships both personal and professional.
(Captain Marvel XI#1 (fb) - BTS) - As a adult, Ryan
eventually found a job as a reporter for Ms. magazine.
(Captain Marvel XI#1) - Danvers encountered the Kraken as
it rampaged through lower Manhattan near Wall Street and defeated it
with the aid of Spider-Woman but in the process, she was infected with
Minn-Erva's virus.
Tony Stark arranged for Ripley Ryan to
interview Carol Danvers for Ms magazine in an attempt to
reintroduce her Captain Marvel identity to the public after a lengthy
trip to space with the Guardians of the Galaxy. Confusion about
scheduling led Ryan to interrupt Danvers at dinner with James Rhodes and
as the two started to hash out the details of Ryan's story, a second
interruption took place in the form of the Earth-74101 super-misogynist
Nuclear Man. Although Danvers and, eventually, the Avengers were able to
battle Nuclear Man to a standstill, he escaped through a teleportation
gate, taking Ryan as a hostage, followed by Captain Marvel.
(Captain Marvel
XI#2) - The portal transported Ryan, Nuclear Man and Danvers to
Roosevelt Island, which was surrounded by a barrier that both repelled
any males who tried to enter and accelerated time within itself. Danvers
and Nuclear Man continued their fight but the tides turned when
Spider-Woman, Hazmat and Echo arrived from Earth-616 to help. Ryan and
Danvers were shocked to learn that, in the short time the barrier had
been erected and they were inside it, two months had passed from an
outside perspective, long enough for a resistance movement against
Nuclear Man to have arisen. When the group arrived at the resistance
headquarters, Drew took Ryan away to receive medical attention for her
minor injuries.
(Captain Marvel XI#3) - After a battle between the
resistance and Nuclear Man's robotic "Metal Men" forces, Ryan joined in
with the training and preparations to launch an attack on the villain's
Citadel base, specifically being taught to fly one of the WWII fighters
the resistance had brought into fighting condition.
(Captain Marvel XI#2-5 - BTS/Captain
Marvel XI#11 (fb)) - During the weeks they spent trapped on the
island, Ryan woke up "every night...in terror."
(Star I#3 (fb)) - Ryan began to resent Captain Marvel for
dragging her into the chaos of her life and putting her in mortal
danger, believing that because Captain Marvel was invulnerable, she
never thought of what it was like to be vulnerable.
(Captain Marvel XI#4) - Ryan commanded the Air Team in the
attack on the Citadel.
(Captain Marvel XI#5) - Ryan continued to lead the air
forces of the resistance as the tide turned against Nuclear Man and his
troops, and despite the deployment of Nuclear Man's son Som as a living
bomb, the heroes eventually triumphed. After the elimination of the time
barrier, all the stranded women returned to normal time and space and
Ryan thanked Danvers for saving her, remarking that she had more than
enough material for a story, albeit one very different from the profile
Ms. had originally assigned her to write.
(Captain Marvel XI#11 - BTS/Captain Marvel XI#10 (fb)) -
Reflecting on her experiences on Roosevelt Island, Ryan became
increasingly scared by the dangers of the world, which reminded her of
the terror of her childhood and she became convinced the only way to be
safe was to have superpowers like Captain Marvel's.
(Captain Marvel XI#10 (fb)) -
Minn-Erva implanted the receiver for the power-draining virus into
Ryan and, having learned about Danvers' Kree heritage, undertook a
plan to destroy Ryan's life so Minn-Erva's subsequent offer to work
together to save the Kree would be the only place she could turn. As
part of the plan, Minn-Erva developed the new identity of "Star" for
Ryan. For her own part, Ryan's experiences on Roosevelt Island had
reinforced her belief that only someone with powers could possibly be
safe from the dangers of the world and she became obsessed with
gaining them at Danvers' expense or at anyone else's.
(Captain Marvel XI#5) - Two days later, Ryan's article was
released but on the front page of The Daily Bugle, not in Ms.
The headline was "I Spent a Month With Captain Marvel - We're
Doomed."
(Star I#4
(fb)) - Despite the best efforts of the doctors at the Raft, Ryan died
from her massive chest wound, only to awaken in a body bag in the morgue
when the newly-self-aware Reality Stone, granted a soul and free will by
Adam Warlock, bonded to and resurrected her. Neither the doctors nor Ryan
herself knew why she had come back to life so she ended up fitted with an
inhibitor collar and locked up. Shortly thereafter, the stone made itself
known to her and she intuitively learned what it was and what it could do.
(Star I#3) - Ripley awoke in
Jessica Jones' office. The Scarlet Witch explained that Ryan herself was
the one that had created the cave and the creatures, unconsciously,
because she didn't like the questions about herself the Witch had been
asking. Ryan countered that she had no idea how to do that, to which the
Scarlet Witch replied that fact was just more evidence that she needed her
help to control her dangerous powers. Ryan confessed that the "dragon"
hadn't been a dragon at all but rather, a vision of a monstrous, demonic
incarnation of Ryan herself, but that she didn't know what that meant.
(King in Black:
Thunderbolts I#1 (fb)) - Star and the rest of the villains Kingpin had
selected - Ampere, Batroc, Incendiary, Mister Fear, Rhino, Snakehead, and
Taskmaster - attended a meeting in the Blue Room at City Hall. The Kingpin
announced that the assembled villains had been operating in his city
without permission and so to avoid prosecution, they were going to carry
out a plan to stop Knull for him. Incendiary declined, saying he'd rather
take his chances in prison. Kingpin acknowledged his decision and sent him
out of the room with a pair of guards, who then killed Incendiary, as
Kingpin put it, "while trying to escape custody." This convinced the rest
of them to join up. Kingpin then gave them information explaining that
they would be going to find Norman Osborn in the Ravencroft Institute and
told Mister Fear that Star was the only one who could kill Knull and that
the rest of the team were there to keep her alive until she could. He then
instructed them to unmask because he had outlawed masked vigilantes and
sent them out into the symbiote-covered streets of Midtown Manhattan.(King in Black: Thunderbolts I#2 (fb)) - While Taskmaster
and Osborn updated Kingpin over a video chat, Star, Batroc and Mister
Fear debated the merits of freeing some of Ravencroft's incarcerated
patients to bolster their ranks. When the disagreement escalated to a
physical altercation between Batroc and Fear, Star declined to save
Fear's life if Batroc crushed his trachea, an event that had no
opportunity to occur because one of Knull's dragons hurled itself to its
death at the Institute's roof, collapsing it and allowing the symbiote
mass it carried to start infecting the inmates. Taskmaster, present and
in charge again, told everyone to mask up and get ready to fight; only
Star saw no reason to give the Kingpin something to be mad at her about
and left hers off. While Osborn left to secure the rest of the building,
the Thunderbolts squared off against the mob of symbiote patients, with
Star obliterating the Night Scrubber. She then insisted on freeing some
of the remaining symbiote-free patients, including Figment, Foolkiller,
Grizzly, Man-Bull and Mister Hyde. The reinforced Thunderbolts then
fought their way to a Ravencroft bus and escaped from the Institute
grounds.
Aboard the bus, Taskmaster explained
Osborn's plan to Star, starting with her using her powers to locate the
Sentry (Robert Reynolds), who had been torn apart and discarded by Knull
in the opening stages of the invasion. He then threw her out of the back
of the bus to get to work doing it. With great effort, Star was able to
locate Sentry's energies, as well as catching the bus in mid-air and
saving the team when a bickering Mister Fear drove them off the edge of
a collapsed bridge. Although this once again left her weakened, she was
still able to lead them to Jones Beach State Park and the Sentry - or
rather the lower half of the Sentry's body, which had for unrevealed
reasons not regenerated from his apparent death. As the team expressed a
mix of disgust and resignation to defeat, Taskmaster declared that the
plan had always been to use the significant residual energies in
Sentry's body as a bomb.
(King
in Black: Thunderbolts I#3 (fb)) - Star was sent into the ocean to find
the other half of the Sentry, losing Mister Fear $10,000 to Taskmaster
and Batroc for betting against her when she surfaced carrying the
seaweed-covered half a corpse. She repeatedly expressed her opinion that
the whole situation was unbelievably gross. Fortunately, Fear, being
fairly gross himself, eagerly accepted the job of bandaging the two
halves back together and soon, the team was back aboard their bus,
headed into the city again, now prepared to destroy the spherical
symbiote spire Knull had erected atop the Empire State Building - or
"Knull's house," as they called it. Taskmaster planned to leave the
Ravencroft escapees aboard the bus once it broke down from too many
collisions with the symbiotes swarming the streets but Star insisted on
letting them come along, both to save their lives and so someone could
carry the Sentry. Taskmaster grudgingly deputized them (even Hyde, who
pointed out that he'd already been a Thunderbolt in the past) and the
expanded team set off for Midtown via the Brooklyn Bridge.
As they fought off Knull's symbiotes on
the way to the bridge, Foolkiller was caught and Taskmaster dropped back
to rescue him, only to discover Foolkiller had already been taken over.
Taskmaster himself then fell under the weight of numbers but Star led
the rest of the team back to save him in turn, easily destroying his
assailants. When Taskmaster insisted that they shouldn't have come back
for him, she replied "We're Thunderbolts. #@$% everyone else." She then
hit the enormous amount of other symbiotes that had surrounded them with
a blast that killed many and blew the rest right off their hosts.
Exhausted, she needed Taskmaster and Batroc to help her along until they
made it to the bridge. Taskmaster told Star that the energy in Sentry's
body might kill Knull but it wouldn't hurt her. They then climbed one of
the towers in order to get Star as close to Knull's spire as possible.
Taskmaster urged the others up, declaring that he'd stay behind to hold
the symbiotes off, and then immediately hid, leaving the door
undefended. He contacted Kingpin and told him the rest of the team -
Kingpin's "martyrs" - were about to try to carry out the plan.
Meanwhile, atop the tower, Mister Fear
duct-taped the Sentry to Star and she rocketed off toward the spire.
Just as the symbiotes began to break out from the stairwell onto the top
of the tower, Taskmaster reappeared, having fought his way up to stop
Star from detonating the Sentry. In reality, the explosion might have
killed Knull but would have also definitely killed Star and everybody
else for miles around, including the rest of the Thunderbolts. Fear told
him Star was already gone so Batroc, in one last desperate act, used the
electrical powers of Ampere's equipment to super-leap (off Hyde's face)
through the air and symbiote dragons to reach Star and stop her. Batroc
caught Star and prevented her from blowing up the Sentry and everything
else, and the Thunderbolts came up with a plan to use Figment's powers
to make it appear as though they had detonated the Sentry,
without harm to Knull's spire. Kingpin saw the illusory explosion from
the roof of his office and headed inside to quickly produce a memorial
broadcast lauding the Thunderbolts as heroes and martyrs.
(King in Black: Thunderbolts I#3) - The Thunderbolts burst
into the room, still toting the Sentry's body, and confronted Kingpin
over sending them on a suicide mission. When he asked if they planned to
kill him in revenge, they explained that as far as the world knew,
Kingpin really had sent them to try to save the world. They then
blackmailed Kingpin into keeping them on the payroll and told him,
assuming some "real 'heroes'" actually did save the world, they were
ready to go to work.
(Amazing Spider-Man Annual V#2/1 (fb)) - The Thunderbolts
stayed together long enough to keep up the fight against Knull and his
symbiotes before eventually disbanding for unrevealed reasons. They took
a lot of Polaroids together.
(Captain America
Annual III#1/2 - BTS) - Captain America told Nick Fury Jr. that Star
was "on the run."
(Amazing
Spider-Man Annual V#2/1) - Ryan was seeing a a therapist in New York to
deal with her feelings of emptiness after the fun and satisfaction of
being a "hero" in the Thunderbolts, though she ultimately flew into a
rage at him when he ended one of their sessions and asked for her
co-pay. Determined to fill the void within herself, she went to Queens
and used her powers to convince numerous people to give her everything
she wanted, including an army of pet dogs (most prominently Tater Tot
the corgi), the entire contents of a jewelry store and every book in a
bookstore (except for Infinite Jest). One of the people she
passed as she strolled along was Peter Parker, who, affected by her
powers like everyone else, was delighted by her dogs. Once she passed,
he realized a reality-manipulator had been in the area and that said
reality-manipulator had stolen his ice cream.
While Parker was mentally going through
his list of reality-warpers who could have been responsible, Star had
returned to her current apartment and was lounging around surrounded by
jewelry, books and dogs, only to realize that having accumulated a pile
of diamonds had failed to give her life meaning and that what she really
wanted was revenge against anyone who had ever wronged her. She set off
for Midtown High School, making everybody there believe she was one of
their current fellow students and that they all loved her and thought
she was cool, popular and smarter than all of them. She also made the
principal agree to help her find all the former students who she felt
had wronged her, only to discover one of her tormentors, Mike Delladova,
was now the school's gym teacher. She forced him to relive all the
things he'd done to her and he apologized profusely, saying he'd always
regretted the way they'd treated her and that thinking about it tore him
apart - leading her to tear him apart and stuff him into a locker in
three separate pieces. She then set out to track down the rest of the
people on her list.
Midtown teacher Devon Lawson called his
former classmate Parker, hoping he could use his newspaper connections
to break the story that the school was trying to cover up the death of a
teacher and that he believed former student Ripley Ryan was to blame.
Lawson also found the copy of Ryan's list the principal had and this
allowed Parker - in his guise as Spider-Man - to intercept Star before
she could kill her next target, a woman named Lacey Fisher. He tried to
talk her into giving up on her quest for revenge, commiserating about
being bullied and not fitting in and explaining that people could change
for the better. After a short running battle over several blocks, Star
teleported away, declaring she wanted to go "home."
Where she actually went was Forest Hills Cemetery, the graveyard in
which her mother was buried, where she briefly altered reality so that
she was at her still-living mother's house and her mother was pleased to
see her, apologized for how bad a mother she'd been,and told Star she
loved her - calling her "Star" in the process, which pulled her out of
her fantasy long enough for Spider-Man, who had learned that this was
the resting place of her only family, to regain her attention. She
attacked him in a rage, turning into a monstrous stone form and sending
Spider-Man underground but by the time she tried to sweep him away in a
monsoon, she found she'd overextended her powers and nothing happened.
Spider-Man again tried to reach Star, telling her he had "regrets"
buried in this cemetery as well but that trying to remake reality never
helped because it didn't change the past of their experiences and that
the only way to fix things was to break the cycle of violence and
mistakes. Star quietly said she felt like if she could be a hero it
would give her a purpose even if she sucked and then declared that she'd
turn her life around and become a hero that instant. When Spider-Man
said she was going to jail for being a murderer, Star's entire demeanor
changed immediately and she told him that she didn't feel bad about it
and had used the time he spent giving his pep talk to recharge her
powers, then vanished, leaving behind an abusive message on a tombstone
(which relayed that she was keeping Tater Tot).
(Miles Morales: Spider-Man Annual I#1/2) - Star stormed
out of a Bar With No Name, accusing Anaconda of having cheated in their
card game. She was confronted by Earth-31916's Nighthawk, who planned to
acquire all the Infinity Stones in order to recreate his lost universe.
Although she was far too powerful for Nighthawk to take down by force,
he had brainwashed Nick Fury, Jr. into working with him as his sidekick
Falcon and set him up in a sniper's position with an electrical stun
weapon. He incapacitated Star and then revealed to Nighthawk that he'd
broken free of the brainwashing
(Avengers Annual IV#1/2) - Fury drove Nighthawk away,
taking the unconscious Star for himself. He placed her into a
technological "coffin" that kept her in stasis as he prepared to hunt
down the rest of the Stone bearers.
(Black Cat II#8) - Needing Star's powers in order to cure
her mother's cancer, Black Cat found the location of Star's stasis
coffin in a nondescript warehouse and broke in, successfully fighting
off Fury to steal it. Taking it back to her hideout, she and her team
cracked it open.
(Black Cat II#9) - Star regained consciousness to find
herself on a couch in Black Cat's fancy apartment hideout. Black Cat was
waiting for her with breakfast and a charm offensive, leading her to
believe that she needed Star's powers to cure former AIM scientist
Monica Rappacini on behalf of Victor von Doom. In return, she offered
Star safety from Nick Fury, Jr. in the form of a pendant that would
cloak her from the detector Nighthawk and Fury had used to track her
down in the first place. Star denied she had the power to permanently
cure cancer and that there was nothing keeping her from just leaving
with the device anyway, at which point Black Cat had her muscle Bruno
Grainger shoot the champagne flute out of Star's hand and assure her
that she'd never know when the next bullet might be coming. She also
said she knew of a way to boost Star's powers. Seeing no alternative,
Star agreed to the deal but also used her powers to eavesdrop on Black
Cat telling Grainger and Dr. Boris Korpse that Star's powers would
increase geometrically if she were in proximity to other Infinity Stone
bearers and that she knew where two of them, the fugitives Quantum and
Overtime, could be found.
(Black Cat II#10) - Star continued to eavesdrop on Black
Cat's conversations about the job but did not learn the truth about what
she wanted Star's powers for.
(Giant-Sized Black Cat: Infinity Score I#1 (fb)) - The
night before the caper, Star feigned ignorance of how Black Cat intended
to enhance her powers.
(Giant-Sized Black Cat: Infinity Score I#1) - Star and
Black Cat strolled into the hospital in which Black Cat's mother was
being treated disguised as doctors with forged identification, reaching
her room with no trouble. Meanwhile, the equally-recruited Overtime and
Quantum used their respective powers to sneak in on the floors directly
above and below Star, respectively. Their proximity caused Star's powers
to surge and along with them, her confidence and ambition. She casually
cured who she believed to be Monica Rappacini, telling her to tell
Doctor Doom he owed her a favor, then turned on Black Cat, revealing
that she knew that it was the other stone bearers who had increased her
powers. She then told the Cat that she was going to help Star find the
rest of the stone bearers because she was considering becoming God.
The circumstances changed abruptly when
the patient turned out to be Black Cat's mother, triggering a betrayed
Star to blast Black Cat out of the room and advance on her. Before she
could exact her revenge, however, they were surrounded by a troop of
armed doctors and nurses, who were in reality mercenaries hired by Nick
Fury, Jr., as he helpfully informed them over the hospital intercom. The
whole thing had been a trap laid when Fury realized why Black Cat wanted
Star's powers. However, Black Cat activated the pendant she'd given
Star, which was actually a flashbang that disoriented Star and everyone
else in the room, and the situation dissolved into chaos, with everyone
involved out for themselves, including Nighthawk, whom nobody including
Fury knew would be there. Nighthawk cornered Black Cat and demanded his
Infinity Stone detector back. Star reappeared (perforated with
ineffective tranquilizer darts) and prepared to finish exacting her
revenge on Black Cat, only to notice Nighthawk, at whom she was even
angrier, and she flew at him in a rage, smashing him through the
hospital wall and out into the night sky, leaving Black Cat to be
captured by Fury.
(Spider-Woman
VIII#6) - Having lost the augmented powers she had when brought together
with Overtime and Quantum, Star ended up resorting to working for Hydra
to pay her bills. One of the jobs they sent her on was to track down and
capture Spider-Woman, who was somewhere in the middle of the US, as she
had recently relocated from New York to San Francisco. Star worked her
way west, interrogating people about whether they'd seen Spider-Woman,
losing her patience and blowing up a gas station in Gary, Indiana as
well as threatening a ticket agent at a train station out near the
Rockies until she told her which train Spider-Woman was on. Finally
intercepting Spider-Woman's train out in the mountains, she attacked,
blasting her way into the train and driving Spider-Woman out onto the
roof. Star insisted no one needed to get hurt and that she only took the
job because Hydra wanted Spider-Woman alive but the hero's resistance
led her to unleash a massive energy blast out of frustration.
Unfortunately, she missed Spider-Woman and destroyed the bridge ahead of
them. Spider-Woman told her to fix her mistake and headed into the train
to try to help the passengers, leaving Star to generate a temporary
energy bridge and then to physically catch the train itself when more of
the rail bridge gave way. Ultimately, the passengers all survived and
Star apologized to them profusely before flying off and abandoning her
pursuit of Spider-Woman.
(Thanos Annual III#1/1) - Ryan decided to track down the
other Stone bearers, believing that only by combining their powers as
some of them had during Black Cat's "Infinity Score" could they discover
why the Stones had chosen them and what their collective destiny was.
She found Quantum and arranged to bump into him at a coffee shop, where
she told him that she knew who he was and what he had, telling him for
the first time that the thing that gave him his powers was an Infinity
Stone and part of a set, that she had one, and that they needed to find
the others. Unfortunately for them, Thanos was also tracking down the
Stones and suddenly appeared in the shop himself. He insisted that the
two come with him but Ryan told him that they weren't looking for a
leader and that the Stones were no longer just things he could collect.
She then changed the floor into lava, which was enough escalation for
Quantum to teleport himself away. Thanos, unlike the rest of the coffee
shop's customers and employees, was only moderately inconvenienced by
the lava and revealed his brand new Death Stone, which began to suck the
life out of everyone present. Quantum returned to rescue a barista
because she'd been nice to him and when he returned to the shop again
after taking her to safety, he met a future incarnation of Overtime, who
had traveled back in time a few hours to change the events Quantum, Star
and others were about to experience in the near future.
Meanwhile, aboard Thanos' Sanctuary
ship, Star awoke to discover that she was drugged and bound to an
operating table, unable to focus well enough to use her powers or even
construct a convincing insult. Thanos then cut her open alive, failing
to learn how the Reality Stone had bonded with her but successfully
extracting it at the cost of her life, only to witness the Stone vanish,
as the future incarnation of Overtime arrived with Quantum in tow,
plucking the Stone from his grasp and using it to once again bring Star
back to life. The three of them attacked Thanos but despite their raw
power, they lacked skill, experience and coordination, and the Mad Titan
was able to defeat them all. He commanded the Death Stone to learn from
the way the other Stones had bonded with their hosts and much to his
surprise, it fled from his grasp, shot through the hull of the ship and
flew away. Quantum took advantage of the distraction to teleport himself
and his fellow stone bearers back to Earth, where a gleeful Star used
her powers to produce a photo of Thanos' shocked expression at his
rejection by the Death Stone. Overtime cut in, telling them that he was
from the future and that they needed to meet up with the present-day
Overtime in Queens as soon as possible, and left.
(Amazing Spider-Man Annual VII#1/1) - Star and Quantum found the
present-day Overtime, who was meeting with Spider-Man after helping him
save the life of the rookie supervillain Fission the previous day. As soon
as Spider-Man was safely away, they revealed themselves to him and told
him that the version of himself from the future said the stone bearers had
to get together. After learning that would mean they had functionally
limitless power, he said he was in.
(Moon Knight Annual V#1/1) - After Colleen Wing, the new
bearer of the Mind Stone, made her way back to New York City, Star kept
tabs on her.
(Spider-Boy Annual I#1/1) - Wing eventually met Multitude and Apex, the
Soul Stone and Power Stone bearers respectively, after a brawl with the
Circus of Crime at Coney Island. Star led her group of stone bearers there
and all of the new incarnations of the Infinity Stones save the Death
Stone were finally brought together in one place.
(Avengers
Annual VI#1) - The meeting was not very collegial, with Star instantly
unimpressed by the new arrivals and annoyed by Wing's attempt to take
the lead. Star appointed herself leader, saying the Reality Stone
trumped the Mind Stone, and announced that they would not be constrained
by one of the members having morals. Captain Marvel and Thor, the only
Avengers not trapped inside a forcefield Thanos had erected around their
Impossible City orbiting headquarters, chose that moment to make their
entrance, having also been warned by the future Overtime that the stone
bearers would be fighting Thanos at that time and place. As soon as
Danvers started talking to Wing about how they needed to get some
distance between the stone bearers to prevent their powers becoming
uncontrollable, Star saw Danvers coming to ruin her life again and
lashed out. The situation unraveled from there, with Multitude pleading
with Star not to fight the Avengers, Apex immediately taking the
opportunity to fight Thor, and Quantum trapping Captain Marvel in a
series of space portals.
Phil Coulson, who alongside Fury had
been watching from a distance, was drawn involuntarily down towards the
fracas, just as Multitude's enhanced powers created an uncontrollable
soul-construct of Thanos. Star kicked it away with a giant stone foot
and began to monologue about how her new power would let her change the
word, making it better or "whatever the $@%#" she wanted it to be. This
led to another showdown with Wing over how the group was going to use
their powers while the Avengers turned their attention to the Thanos
construct.
The actual Thanos then arrived,
destroying the construct and immediately tearing into the assembled
heroes and villains, seemingly killing Overtime first then killing
Quantum, Apex and Wing and seizing their stones. Star attempted to bail
and save herself but Thanos immobilized her and tore out her Stone
again. He then methodically slaughtered the rest of the Bearers, along
with Captain Marvel, and incapacitated Thor until only Overtime was
left. He froze time in order to get a chance to think and was joined by
himself from the future. The two then used their coexistence in the same
time to threaten Thanos with a paradox that would destroy the universe
unless he gave up the stones. The present-day Overtime then jumped back
into the past in time to be the first casualty of the fight and the
future Overtime ensured that Thanos used the stones to undo all the
death and destruction he had caused. Reunited with their stones, the
newly-christened Infinity Watch agreed that they needed to leave,
whether to get away from innocent people or just the Avengers, and all
seven of them disappeared.
(Infinity Watch I#1 (fb)) - The Watch met on some kind of
intermittent basis for an unrevealed period of time. Coulson was always
late for these meetings, which annoyed Star. She also continued to butt
heads with Colleen Wing.
(Infinity Watch I#1) - As the Watch hung around on a
tropical beach on an island somewhere in the Pacific, Star used her
powers to make the team a sprawling and lavish secret base, designed by
Overtime. More squabbling between her and Wing about how the Watch never
did anything with their vast powers and an accusation by Star that Wing
was using the Mind Stone to prevent her from doing anything she didn't
approve of, was interrupted by the base's alert system, to Overtime's
great joy. Quantum teleported them all to New York, where they found a
crashed vessel and its apparent pilot at the mercy of Inflict, Seeker
and Star Slayer, members of the extradimensional Apeiron. A fight
inevitably broke out and the Watch, failing to work together as a team,
soon found themselves losing, with Star overpowered by Inflict. The
Watch, at Apex's suggestion, realized they had to connect their powers
but even this failed, as the Apeiron just started draining their energy
away. This was enough distraction, however, for Avery Zavala, the pilot
of the mysterious vessel to sneak up and impale Star Slayer on his
Infinity Blade. Seeker them teleported himself, Inflict and the badly
injured Star Slayer to safety.
Zavala explained his story to the
Watch: he was a fugitive stone bearer from Earth-25313, whose teammates
had been killed and absorbed by the Apeiron, who were themselves evil
stone bearers from Earth-92345 and who hopped from universe to universe
looking for stone bearers to consume. Unlike normal Infinity Stones,
which had no power outside the universe of their origin, something about
the process by which "awakened" stones bonded to bearers allowed them to
preserve their abilities anywhere. According to Zavala, it was rare for
this to happen, and so there were very few universes with stone bearers.
When the rest of his team was killed, Zavala took the Infinity Blade, a
sword created by his reality's greatest inventors, intending to
incorporate the stones and the only thing that could kill the Apeiron.
He also used his Soul Stone to absorb every soul in his universe and
fled, soon finding himself on Earth-616.
He explained that his plan was to use
the blade to kill the Apeiron and then have the Infinity Watch create a
whole new universe for him to populate with the souls of his own
universe. The Watch dissembled, feeling that they had nowhere near the
understanding of their stones necessary to create a whole universe. Star
specifically, with a twinge of regret, thought it sounded like a lot of
hassle and responsibility. Zavala immediately flew into a rage and
declared his alternative was to use the Mind Stone to take all their
Stones and use them to replace their own universe with a new copy of
his, and revealed that he'd already killed Wing, taking her Stone, and
used it to prevent any of them from noticing.
(Infinity
Watch I#2) - Zavala, impeding the Watch by controlling their minds,
killed all of them save Star, immobilizing her while he stole the stones
of the rest. He spared her, briefly, because he wanted to know if, when
the Watch linked their powers, the Reality Stone showed her the "truth"
of her universe. He released her mind in order to allow her her own
thoughts in her last moments as he tore her stone from her chest and
added it to the Infinity Blade, and she used that freedom to seize the
Blade and use the stones' power to overwrite the universe with one of
her design.
In this new Earth-45869, the Watch were
all alive but without their powers alongside all other residents of the
planet. Ripley Ryan was the head of Ryan Industries, a massive
corporation, with Colleen Wing as one of her employees, along with Peter
Parker and Harry Osborn. Ryan had hidden the Infinity Blade, which
numerous parties were searching for after there were rumors that Adrian
Toomes, the Vulture, had been able to use it to actually fly. Quantum
was a delivery driver, Hector Bautista was a man dating Ward's mother
and Phil Coulson was the warden of Alcatraz Federal Prison with Apex as
his deputy. As the Watch came together in small groups, all but Ryan
unaware that their lives and histories had been changed, Alcatraz came
under attack by the forces of Doctor Doom, who was seeking to break out
one of the prison's most well-secured prisoners, disgraced industrialist
Avery Zavala.
(Infinity Watch I#3) - Doom's forces (including Hydra and
the Wrecking Crew) breached the prison and freed Zavala, who it turned
out had been able to slightly alter Ryan's creation of the new universe
to make all of the world's villains his devoted servants. Coulson and
Apex were able to escape, catching a ride with the ruined businessman
Tony Stark to New York and driven by a strange compulsion on Coulson's
part. Meanwhile, in New York, Ryan learned from Parker that the
Hobgoblin, another villain who had been after the Infinity Blade, was
being represented by lawyers on Zavala's payroll. She immediately sent
Osborn and Parker to warn, too late, Warden Coulson to watch for a
breakout attempt while taking Wing with her to her home to secure the
Blade.
By the time the two made it to her
home, they found it ransacked and Ryan's chief of security, Carol
Danvers, who had been overpowered by the Green Goblin, who had taken the
Blade. Ryan tried to pay him off but he had already fallen under the
thrall of the sword, learning that Ryan had created their reality and
being able to hear Zavala's thoughts. The Goblin fought them while
ranting about the depth of his understanding of the universe, Zavala and
the Apeiron, and mocked Ryan for having lost the stones. As they
battled, the rest of the Watch arrived and attempted to gang up on the
Goblin to take the Blade back. They failed and all six members of the
Apeiron returned for the stones.
(Infinity Watch I#4) - The Apeiron attacked the Green
Goblin, briefly turning everyone's attention away from the Watch. Ward,
having somehow become aware what had happened, confronted Ryan and told
her she needed to explain to the rest of them what she'd done to the
universe. She told them about their deaths at Zavala's hands and how
she'd changed the universe to save them. Although the Goblin held off
the Apeiron for some time despite an unfamiliarity with the Infinity
Blade, the evil stone bearers began to turn the tide and once they
managed to disarm him, the Watch joined the melee except Ryan, who
grabbed the Blade. She first used it to restore her own power and then
the powers and memories of her teammates but upon trying to restore the
universe to the way it had been, she realized she didn't know how all of
it had been. She gave the Blade to Multitude, whose connection to all
the universe's souls allowed him to put it right.
The Watch once again squared off
against the Apeiron, matching up with their counterparts, but Star could
not defeat the Apeiron's Reality Stone user nor could the others win
their duels. Coulson, who was hanging back without a opposite number to
fight, was therefore the first to realize Zavala had arrived and that he
had retrieved the now-stoneless Infinity Blade that Multitude had lost.
He convinced Coulson that the only way to stop the Apeiron was for the
Watch to all share their powers with him and Coulson convinced the
others. Thus empowered, and with the Death Stone unique to Earth-616,
Zavala effortlessly wiped the Apeiron out of existence. He then refused
to relinquish the Infinity Stones' powers and admitted that it had been
he, a jealous, unpowered man, that had sent a message into the
multiverse looking for allies against his world's superhumans, and that
it had been that message that had drawn the Apeiron to his world. He
only gained the Soul Stone after its original bearer was killed and had
forcibly stolen the souls of the rest of the population of his universe
before they were even dead. As promised, he announced his intentions to
turn the Watch's universe into a new one for his people.
(Infinity Watch I#5) - The Watch and Zavala engaged in a
complex multidimensional battle during which Zavala demonstrated mastery
over the manipulation of reality and the Watch struggled until they
slowly learned the same tricks he had. They began to work together and
Multitude, who seemed to understand the nature of the universe better
than any of the others, finally guided them together, ultimately
combining their powers to reshape the world such that Zavala awoke,
alongside his wife, with no memory of anything involving the Infinity
Stones. The crisis finally over, Star celebrated their newfound control
of their abilities and began to excitedly make plans to change the
world. A grim Coulson said they needed to prepare for whatever it was on
the horizon that the Stones had chosen them for. Star insisted they
explore what they could do, aghast at the others' lack of ambition,
until finally realizing that Wing had been preventing her from
using her powers to the fullest. Wing admitted it, saying they couldn't
be trusted with the power they had, and she forced Quantum to split them
up, sending them to where each of them would "do the most good." Most of
them ended up somewhere on Earth but Star found herself on a lifeless
planetoid somewhere in space.
Comments: Created by Kelly Thompson and Carmen
Carnero.
Star is a character whose degree of
potential heroism changes from writer to writer. Overall, she comes
across as a badly damaged individual who would on some level genuinely
like to be a hero who helps people but who is too selfish, impulsive and
thin-skinned to reach that goal. In Thunderbolts, particularly,
she was used as the voice of "not as evil" to contrast with Mister Fear
and her appearances in ASM Annual and Spider-Woman both
play that up but by contrast, she's the "bad one" in Infinity Watch.
Her power level also changes dramatically from writer to writer and in Thunderbolts particularly, there are many, many situations a reality manipulator could have solved the situation pretty easily. Some of this is explained away by her lack of focus and experience with the stone and the toll it takes on her mind and body.
Star's dialogue often, but not always,
appears in red and often, but not always, has its own distinct font when
she is specifically calling upon her powers.
Her one-panel appearance in ASM
V#38 could possibly take place during the Star series
itself but her time in costume in that book is basically one long fight
scene and it appears to take place at a different time of day.
About her origin: Narratively, the
satisfying timeline is that Ripley is so traumatized by the Roosevelt
Island incident that she seeks out Minn-Erva's power-granting process.
Unfortunately, the story Minn-Erva tells Carol is unequivocal. Her first
success at producing a human-Kree hybrid, strongly implied to be Ripley,
was created before Captain Marvel first fought Minn-Erva's Kraken and
therefore, before Ripley ever met Carol at all, let alone was
transported to Roosevelt Island with her. Fortunately, Kelly
Thompson agrees with me and her position is that it was
after Roosevelt Island that Ripley went to Minn-Erva and that Minn-Erva
must be lying to Carol for reasons of her own...and she should know
because she's the one who scripted those lies:
"The panel where it's implied by Minerva through flashback that she
was only successful once and that the success was Ripley/Star -- is
Minerva editing her story. Ripley had to have come to Minerva after
Roosevelt Island (yes she would have been interested in power prior,
but that interest became an obsession after Roosevelt Island) and so
we have to assume that Minerva is still hiding some information from
Carol (i.e. that Star is maybe not the only engineered Kree/Human
hybrid, but she IS the only one that got implanted with a receiver to
siphon power -- and you are correct that it's Star's vibe to shove to
the front of that line for sure).
I do think it tracks that Minerva
wouldn't be fully open with Carol -- she doesn't want to tell her any
more than absolutely necessary and to her, some other test subjects
without powers or implanted receivers, don't really rate as "need to
know."
But if I could I would definitely go back and clean
that up a bit as it's unnecessarily messy -- again, I think it's
mostly an example of small details getting smudged when we swapped the
order of the arcs."
I forgot to ask where all those
(ambiguously-drawn) WWII fighters on Roosevelt Island came from.
Star was featured on the Handbook-style variant cover for Infinity Watch I#5, which includes an abbreviated writeup and vital statistics. It gives her height as 5'10", which is classic Handbook height inflation, as Ripley is repeatedly shown to be shorter than most characters she appears with, and numerous characters call her "little." It also confirms her eye color as green; her eyes are consistently green from her debut through the end of Star I#5 then consistently blue all the way until Avengers Annual VI#1, when they return to being green for all her appearances to date. Normally, this would be an error but the nature of her powers (and the fact that the change happens following her experiments with changing her appearance) means it might not be an error after all.
Of the Apeiron's members, only Inflict,
Seeker and Star Slayer are identified on-panel. The identities of the
other three come from Derek Landy!
Thanks!
This profile was completed on 08/20/2026 but its
publication was delayed, as it was intended for the Appendix's 25th
anniversary celebratory event.
Profile by LV!
CLARIFICATIONS:
Star (Ripley Ryan) should be distinguished
from:
| --Amazing Spider-Man Annual V#2/1 |
Appearances:
Captain Marvel XI#1 (January 9, 2019) - Kelly Thompson (writer), Carmen
Carnero (artist), Sarah Brunstad (editor)
Captain Marvel XI#2 (February 13, 2019) -
Kelly Thompson (writer), Carmen Carnero (artist), Sarah Brunstad
(editor)
Captain Marvel XI#3 (March
20, 2019) - Kelly Thompson (writer), Carmen Carnero (artist), Sarah
Brunstad (editor)
Captain Marvel XI#4 (April 10, 2019) - Kelly Thompson (writer), Carmen
Carnero (artist), Sarah Brunstad (editor)
Captain Marvel
XI#5 (May 8, 2019) - Kelly Thompson (writer), Carmen Carnero
(artist), Sarah Brunstad (editor)
Captain Marvel XI#8/1 (July 17, 2019) - Kelly Thompson (writer),
Carmen Carnero (artist), Sarah Brunstad (editor)
Captain Marvel XI#9 (August 14, 2019) - Kelly Thompson
(writer), Carmen Carnero (artist), Sarah Brunstad (editor)
Captain Marvel XI#10 (September 11, 2019) - Kelly Thompson
(writer), Carmen Carnero (artist), Sarah Brunstad (editor)
Captain Marvel XI#11 (October 16, 2019) - Kelly Thompson
(writer), Carmen Carnero (artist), Sarah Brunstad (editor)
Incoming! I#1 (December 26,
2019) - Kelly Thompson (writer), Mattia De Iulis (artist), Tom
Brevoort (editor)
Star I#1 (January 8,
2020) - Kelly Thompson (writer), Javier Pina with Filipe
Andrade (artists),
Sarah Brunstad (editor)
Amazing Spider-Man V#38 (January 22, 2020) - Nick Spencer
(writer), Iban Coello (artist), Nick Lowe (editor)
Star I#2 (February 26, 2020) - Kelly Thompson (writer), Javier
Pina, Filipe Andrade (artists), Sarah Brunstad (editor)
Star I#3 (March 25, 2020) - Kelly Thompson (writer), Javier
Pina, Filipe Andrade (artists), Sarah Brunstad (editor)
Star I#4 (August 19, 2020) - Kelly Thompson (writer),
Javier Pina, Jay Leisten, Felipe Andrade (artists), Sarah
Brunstad (editor)
Star I#5 (September 9, 2020) - Kelly Thompson
(writer), Javier Pina, Filipe Andrade (artists), Sarah
Brunstad (editor)
King in Black I#2 (December 23, 2020) - Donny Cates
(writer), Ryan Stegman (artist), Devin Lewis (editor)
King in Black: Thunderbolts I#1 (January 13, 2021) -
Matthew Rosenberg (writer), Juan Ferreyra (artist), Jake
Thomas (editor)
King in Black:
Thunderbolts I#2 (February 10, 2021) - Matthew Rosenberg
(writer), Juan Ferreyra (artist), Jake Thomas (editor)
King in Black:
Thunderbolts I#3 (March 3, 2021) - Matthew Rosenberg
(writer), Juan Ferreyra (artist), Jake Thomas (editor)
Captain America Annual III#1/2 (June 16, 2021) - Jed
MacKay (writer), Juan Ferreyra (artist), Nick Lowe
(editor)
Amazing Spider-Man Annual V#2/1 (July 7, 2021) - Karla
Pacheco (writer), Eleonora Carlini (artist), Sarah
Brunstad (editor)
Black Cat II#8 (July 28, 2021) - Jed MacKay (writer), C.F.
Villa (artist), Nick Lowe (editor)
Black Cat II#8 (August 18, 2021) - Jed MacKay (writer),
C.F. Villa (artist), Nick Lowe (editor)
Miles
Morales: Spider-Man Annual I#1/2 (August 18, 2021) - Jed MacKay
(writer), Juan Ferreyra (artist), Nick Lowe (editor)
Avengers Annual IV#1/2 (August 25, 2021) - Jed MacKay (writer), Juan
Ferreyra (artist), Nick Lowe (editor)
Black Cat II#10 (September 29, 2021) - Jed MacKay
(writer), C.F. Villa (artist), Nick Lowe (editor)
Giant-Sized Black Cat: Infinity Score
I#1 (December 8, 2021) - Jed MacKay (writer), C.F. Villa (artist),
Nick Lowe (editor)
Spider-Woman
VIII#6 (April 17, 2024) - Steve Foxe (writer), Ig Guara (artist),
Ellie Pyle (editor)
Thanos Annual
III#1/1 (June 26, 2024) - Derek Landy (writer), Salvador Larroca
(artist), Nick Lowe (editor)
Amazing Spider-Man Annual VII#1/1 (July 3, 2024) - Derek
Landy (writer), Ron Lim (artist), Nick Lowe (editor)
Moon Knight Annual V#1/1 (September 4,
2024) - Dan Watters (writer), Marco Renna (artist), Nick Lowe
(editor)
Spider-Boy Annual I#1/1
(September 18, 2024) - Steve Foxe (writer), Carlos Nieto
(artist), MR Daniel (editor)
Avengers Annual VI#1 (September 5, 2024) - Derek
Landy (writer), Salvador Larroca (artist), Kaeden McGahey
(editor)
Infinity Watch I#1 (December 11, 2024) - Derek Landy (writer),
Ruairí Coleman (artist), Nick Lowe (editor)
Infinity Watch I#2 (February 19, 2025) - Derek Landy (writer),
Ruairí Coleman, Enid Balám (artists), Nick Lowe (editor)
Infinity Watch I#3 (March 26, 2025) - Derek Landy (writer),
Enid Balám (artist), Nick Lowe (editor)
Infinity Watch I#4 (April 23, 2025) - Derek Landy (writer),
Enid Balám, Ruairí Coleman (artists), Nick Lowe (editor)
Infinity Watch I#5 (May 28, 2025) - Derek Landy (writer),
Ruairí Coleman (artist), Nick Lowe (editor)
First posted: 09/07/2026
Last updated: 08/20/2026
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and © 1941-2099
Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you
should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com
Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!
