Cosmic Odyssey: The Deluxe Edition

by Jim Starlin, Mike Mignola (illustrator)

Genres: Dc Comics

200 pages, Hardcover

Published June 3, 2025

About the author

James P. "Jim" Starlin is an American comic book writer and artist. With a career dating back to the early 1970s, he is best known for "cosmic" tales and space opera; for revamping the Marvel Comics characters Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock; and for creating or co-creating the Marvel characters Thanos and Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu. Death and suicide are recurring themes in Starlin's work: Personifications of Death appeared in his Captain Marvel series and in a fill-in story for Ghost Rider; Warlock commits suicide by killing his future self; and suicide is a theme in a story he plotted and drew for The Rampaging Hulk magazine.

In the mid-1970s, Starlin contributed a cache of stories to the independently published science-fiction anthology Star Reach. Here he developed his ideas of God, death, and infinity, free of the restrictions of mainstream comics publishers' self-censorship arm, the Comics Code Authority. Starlin also drew "The Secret of Skull River", inked by frequent collaborator Al Milgrom, for Savage Tales #5 (July 1974).

When Marvel Comics wished to use the name of Captain Marvel for a new, different character,[citation needed] Starlin was given the rare opportunity to produce a one-shot story in which to kill off a main character. The Death of Captain Marvel became the first graphic novel published by the company itself. (

In the late 1980s, Starlin began working more for DC Comics, writing a number of Batman stories, including the four-issue miniseries Batman: The Cult (Aug.-Nov. 1988), and the storyline "Batman: A Death in the Family", in Batman #426-429 (Dec. 1988 – Jan. 1989), in which Jason Todd, the second of Batman's Robin sidekicks, was killed. The death was decided by fans, as DC Comics set up a hotline for readers to vote on as to whether or not Jason Todd should survive a potentially fatal situation. For DC he created Hardcore Station.

Reviews

[Gary Sassaman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hadn’t read Cosmic Odyssey since it appeared in its original “Prestige” format in 1988, as a four-issue mini series, so I was excited to re-read it in this new Deluxe Edition. Sadly, it turned out to be a bit disappointing, to be honest. Jim Starlin’s script is a bit overwrought at times, and this “Deluxe Edition” turns out to just be a pricey ($39.99), slightly oversized hardbound with almost no special features, just a reprint of the aforementioned four issues and a couple of covers of other reprints, plus a poster Mike Mignola did, which is also the cover for this edition. (There outta be a law about calling something “deluxe” that requires special features; I sure would have loved to see some of Mignola’s sketches, roughs, layouts, etc., if they still exist). Mignola is the real star of this book, though, drawing some of DC’s heavyweights, including Superman and Batman, and Jack Kirby’s New Gods and the Demon (wasted in this story as a plot device), at a time before Hellboy, his most famous creator-owned property. He’s the real reason I wanted to re-read this, and I find his art in this volume to be quirky and entertaining … it’s at this point in his career when his style was really starting to come together and I love his versions of some of these characters, in particular Darkseid. Anyway, the story involves the ol’ “Anti-Life Equation” coming to life and trying to destroy all life in every universe and Darkseid plotting to somehow capture it for his own ends, while seemingly acting like a hero … you know, the usual Darkseid stuff. I enjoyed re-reading it, but some more special features—and an introduction by Starlin and/or Mignola—would have been nice. Otherwise, this is just an expensive reprint.

[Robert Pickering · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great art by Mike Mignola.

[Art · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like a 3.5. It was okay, but it didn't knock my socks off. Maybe it was the late 80s vibe. Makes me wonder how the comics I read today are going to feel 20 years from now.