REN ZIRCOREN ZIRCO
Real Name: Ren Zirco
Identity/Class: Alternate Reality (Reality-8116) extraterrestrial (unidentified but grossly human race in the Empirical Galaxy)
Occupation: Chemical plant worker
Group Membership: Staff
working at an Instrumentality
chemical plant
Affiliations: Daina, James;
formerly the Instrumentality;
he either worshipped the twelve Gods
of the Instrumentality or at least invoked them in times of stress
Enemies: Deacons
of Deltor (presumably, or Church agents who looked like them), Instrumentality, Lord Mozam, three unidentified assassins
indirectly Dr. North
Known Relatives: Claudia
Zirco (Iron Angel; widow), unborn child (deceased)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Unidentified planet in the
Empirical Galaxy (it could have been Altarix,
but it was not identified)
First Appearance: (Referenced only via notation
that Claudia Zirco was married) Dreadstar#55 (June, 1990);
(full) Dreadstar I#56 (July,
1990)
Powers/Abilities: Ren had no superhuman abilities.
He was a loving and apparently loyal husband.
He was a loyal employee, at least for
the goal of gaining income to support his wife and to raise a family.
He had an unspecified level of
experience working with chemicals.
History:
(Dreadstar I#56/2 (fb) - BTS) - Happily married to Claudia, Ren worked
at a plant that supplied chemicals to the Instrumentality, the theocracy
that ruled half of the Empirical Galaxy and was at war with the Monarchy
(who ruled the other half).
(Dreadstar I#56/2 (fb) - BTS) - Ren heard talk around the plant that the war was really heating up, and that rebels like Vance Dreadstar where giving the Church all kinds of problems.
(Dreadstar I#55/2 (fb) - BTS) - The Lord Papal, leader of the Church of the Instrumentality, ordered Lord Mozam to produce soldiers in mass quantities to be a match for rebels like Vance Dreadstar. Mozam's agent Dr. North showed him a prototype cyborg model from project: Iron Angel, explaining that they could make an army powerful enough to challenge even the Lord Papal. The power-hungry Mozam approved this cyborg project and then sought out a loyal volunteer...someone more loyal to him than to the Church. Mozam further requested that, out of those medically compatible subjects, they seek out a woman, as women were used to giving their bodies over for other uses (child bearing, men's pleasures, etc.). North identified the perfect subject in Claudia Zirco but noted one complicating factor, that she was married. Mozam prepared to resolve this problem.
(Dreadstar I#56/2
(fb) - BTS) - Lord Mozam made arrangements to have three Church agents
(possibly Deacons of Deltor) hire a trio of men to kill Ren and make it
look like they were rebels against the Instrumentality in order to
convince Claudia to want to oppose the rebels.
(Dreadstar I#56/2) - After some romance, Claudia told Ren
that she was sure that their latest effort had made her pregnant. As
they got ready to head off to work for the day, Ren mentioned reports of
anti-Instrumentality rebels, notably "Vance Dreadnaught," giving the
Church problems, but Claudia told him she just wanted to have her life,
her husband, and a couple of kids, and not worry about things she
couldn't control.
On the way to work, Claudia told Ren about a surprise birthday party their friend Daina was throwing for James, but Ren replied that he wasn't sure as they lived pretty far away. They were then interrupted by a group of "rebels" (actually men hired by Church agents to pose as rebels) approached Ren, confirming that he worked at plant, telling him that they supplied the Church with chemicals for experiments and telling him that they wanted him to blow up the chemical plant. When Ren replied that he couldn't do that and that it was insane, the one guy told him if he was not with them, he was against them, and another added, "and if you against us...you dead," as he stabbed Ren in the chest with a double-bladed dagger.
As Ren collapsed on the ground, Claudia rushed to his side and called for help. The assassins rushed off, yelling "Church supporters die! All die!"
(Dreadstar I#56/2 - BTS) - The three assassins met up with
the Church agents, announced their success and asked for their payoff,
but the Church agents slew them instead.
(Dreadstar I#56/2) - The three Church agents then
approached Red, pulling Claudia away from him and telling them they
would handle things. When Ren asked for Claudia, one of the Church
agents gave him something to "ease the pain" Noting it tasted bitter and
stung, Ren realized that it was poison, he called out to Claudia, but
the Church agents held her back. He struggled to say, "Poi..poi..."
and Claudia thought he
was saying "boy," and she assured him that they would have a boy but
that he had to live to see him.
(Dreadstar I#56/2 (fb) - BTS) - Ren died. Lord Mozam had Claudia brought to his offices.
(Dreadstar I#56/2 - BTS) - Lord Mozam told Claudia that her husband had died a hero, which was why he had her brought there, so he could extend his sympathies personally. He further explained to her that is was the rebels who had killed her husband, and he noted the more famous ones like Dreadstar, but that others were spreading like a cancer.. As expected, Claudia, wishing to prevent other innocents like Ren from dying like he had, asked to volunteer to join the fight against the rebels, and when Mozam told her she was no soldier, she told him she'd do anything to stop the rebels. Having no one else to live for, Claudia agreed to turn herself over to the Church.
(Dreadstar I#57/2 - BTS) - Claudia was mortified to see a
three-armed Izak
try to pound his way out of his cell, telling Claudia to get out while
she still could. Lord Mozam told Claudia that Izak was a criminal who
had volunteered for their program rather than face a death sentence.
North subsequently examined Claudia, and tests showed
that she was pregnant. North told Claudia, and she became ecstatic,
announcing that she wouldn't be able to participate in the project
because she needed to raise her child. Furious at North for telling her
this, Mozam instructed North to dispose of the child.
Claudia later visited Izak; they exchanged stories
(including her intent to leave the program due to her pregnancy). When
Claudia suddenly collapsed, Izak correctly surmised that Mozam's men had
done something to her to make her lose the child.
When Claudia recovered, Mozam told her the child had
been lost and that she was better off without it. Claudia was
distraught, but North swiftly anesthetized her to begin her
transformation.
(Dreadstar I#58/2 - BTS) - Claudia woke up and began
screaming upon seeing that her limbs were made of metal.
(Dreadstar I#59/2 (fb) - BTS) - Having gained an affinity
for computers with her new cyborg nature, Claudia learned of the
background of the Iron Angel project and was convinced that Mozam had
arranged Ren's death and the termination of her pregnancy.
(Dreadstar I#59/2 - BTS) - Aided by Izak, Claudia slew North.
(Dreadstar I#61/2 - BTS) - Claudia apparently mortally wounded Mozam, but he and Izak were ultimately transported into another galaxy. Believing them to have disintegrated and furious over losing the chance to kill Mozam herself, Angel blasted the transmat device, destroying it.
Comments: Created by Peter David and John Calimee.
This story would
appear to be sometime after the Dreadstar Graphic Novel, which was when
Dreadstar first joined with Syzygy (and Gregzor) to plot against the War
between the Instrumentality and the Monarchy, and Dreadstar I#10, when
the Instrumentality wiped out the Monarchy and ended the war.
This profile was
completed 10/29/2025, but
its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25th
anniversary 's celebratory event.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Ren Zirco should be distinguished from:
First posted: 09/23/2026
Last updated: 10/29/2025
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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