Starfire, Volume 1: Welcome Home

Starfire (2015)

by Amanda Conner (Writer), Jimmy Palmiotti (Writer), Emanuela Lupacchino (Illustrator)

Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti—the twisted minds behind the New York Times best-selling series HARLEY QUINN—introduce Starfire’s first ongoing series!

Life is bright and beautiful in Florida’s Conch Republic. Warm weather, laidback attitudes, an orange-skinned alien warrior princess, tons of sunshine…wait a minute. That’s right: Princess Koriand’r of the planet Tamaran, the former Outlaw known as Starfire, has relocated to Key West.

Starfire is determined to start a new life for herself—a normal life. But assimilation is easier said than done. Though she quickly makes new friends (some of whom want to get very friendly), Kori finds the Sunshine State more challenging than she expected. She’ll fly through the eye of a raging hurricane and battle aliens and subterranean creatures; but, first and foremost, she’ll need to find a roof to put over her head and a job to pay for it.

Is Kori ready for a life in Key West? Is Key West ready for a life with Starfire?

Collects: Starfire #1-6 and DC Sneak Peek: Starfire #1.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction, Fantasy

160 pages, Paperback

First published March 29, 2016

About the author

Amanda Conner started out in comics working small projects for Marvel and Archie while working as an illustrator for New York ad agencies Kornhauser and Calene and Kidvertisers. working a number of launches and campaigns such as Arm & Hammer, PlaySchool and Nickelodeon.

However, loving comic books and cartooning the most, Amanda found herself working for Marvel on their Barbie line (much of Amanda’s covers inspired designs for the line of Barbie toys), Disney line which included the Gargoyles books. At the same time she was illustrating “Soul Searchers & Co.” for Claypool Comics and worked on other Marvel projects, such as Excalibur for the X-Men line and “Suburban Jersey Ninja She-Devils”.

During an assignment for Crusade (‘Tomoe’) she and Jimmy Palmiotti became a real team as penciller/inker.

Amanda then moved on to do what is probably one of her best known works. She did several years as penciller on the hit series “Vampirella” for Harris Comics and drafted 24 issues. While illustrating “Vampirella”, Amanda worked with the top writers in the field, Grant Morrison, Mark Millar and Warren Ellis.

Continuing to expand her horizons, Amanda illustrated the best-selling crossover “Painkiller Jane vs. the Darkness”, and went on to work on “Painkiller Jane” #0 (the origin book). She also wrote and illustrated a story for “Kid Death and Fluffy”.

Since then, Amanda has worked on many of the top titles in comics such as “Lois Lane”, “Codename: Knockout”, and “Birds of Prey” for D.C. Comics Vertigo line, “X-Men Unlimited” for Marvel, co-created “Gatecrasher” for Blackbull Comics, and “The Pro”, an Eisner nominated creator owned book for Image Comics with Jimmy Palmiotti and Garth Ennis. Recently she worked on the highly publicized Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre series with Eisner winning creator Darwyn Cooke.

Amanda’s work can also be seen outside the comic book community in such places as ABC’S Nightline, the New York Times, Mad Magazine, the new sci-fi Stan lee “So You Want to be a Superhero” series and the upcoming Disney Underdog movie character designs for film and television, character designs for the Los Angeles Avengers stadium football team and is featured in a Biography magazine commercial on A&E. Amanda does spot illustrations in “Revolver” magazine each month and has had a huge success with the JSA Powergirl miniseries in previous years, each issue going into 3rd printings.

She continuously produces cover work for Marvel Comics, DC Comics and an assortment of independent titles.

With PaperFilms co-founder Jimmy Palmiotti, they are currently working on the highly received Harley Quinn series and other Harley Quinn related titles for DC Comics, in addition to several upcoming DC related projects. Garnering national attention and sales results, the team continues to receive accolades for their work on these titles. The new relaunch of Harley Quinn for DC in the Rebirth line garnered an estimated 250,000 copies ordered.

Reviews

[Jayson · Rating 3 out of 5]

(B+) 77% | Good
Notes: It's skin-deep, slight, but bright and sweet, all setup-punchline-rinse-repeat: stitched Sunday funnies to a risqué beat.

[Jan Philipzig · Rating 3 out of 5]

I Want to Live Like Common People...

This has been my first encounter with Starfire, so let’s see what Wikipedia has to say: “She was ranked 20th in Comics Buyer's Guide's ‘100 Sexiest Women in Comics’ list.” Huh. Anything else I need to know?

Thankfully, this first volume provides a brief origin of our heroine. As it turns out, her home planet was invaded by aliens, Starfire shipped off into slavery, yada yada yada, she ends up in a small coastal town called Key West on good ol' Planet Earth. Unfamiliar with our ways of life, she does her best to make sense of human behavior in general and English idioms in particular—a challenge that reminded me somewhat of the situation Marvel’s Silver Surfer finds himself in. Well, okay, Starfire is orange- rather than silver-skinned; plus she isn’t exactly the alienated, brooding type—quite the opposite, actually:
Friend: “She did say you’ve been up her butt since you’ve been here...”
Starfire: “Up what?? I have not... I do not even know what to say to that.”
Friend: “Huh...? Oh, wait! It means you’ve been around her all the time, not actually up in there...”

Come to think of it, Starfire may more closely resemble that audacious goddess of a woman from the song “Common People” by Pulp:
“I want to live like common people
I want to do whatever common people do
I want to sleep with common people
I want to sleep with common people
Like you...”
Don’t get your hopes up, though—this is a DC comic book we’re talking about, and a particularly wholesome one at that. It’s all a bit on the skin-deep and candy-colored side, but it feels wide-eyed and silly and enthusiastic enough to make for a fun read anyway—thanks to the combined efforts of everybody involved.

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admit, I cringed when I saw this book. I hated what Lobdell did with Starfire in Red Hood, and I didn't want to see more of it. I'm glad that I read some reviews that assured me that really, this is nothing like that. This is much more like the version of Starfire in the wonderful Teen Titans cartoon, and I loved that take on the character. The result is a book that's bright (figuratively and literally, it's very colorful) and largely cheerful, which is, I think, exactly the right way to view Starfire. And the book is at its best when it concentrates on Starfire's ongoing culture shock.

However cute it might be as a fish out of water story, the book falls a little flat when it tries to do anything like a superhero story. There's a confrontation with a villain that's anticlimactic after the way it was built up. There's a giant monster that offers nothing interesting. Everything it just so quick and easy, so much so that I get the impression that Conner has almost no interest in Kori as a superhero, instead of as the ultimate new girl in town. That isn't the worst thing in the world, but I'd rather that the superhero asides were either beefed up or marginalized even more, because as is, they're underwhelming and detract from the book as a whole.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know, I kind of liked this a lot. I think I just have a soft spot for anything with Starfire. Yes, she's kind of dumb here ... but in an endearing way.

[Connor · Rating 4 out of 5]

My only experiences with Starfire before was a random New 52 issue where she popped in for a hot minute but mostly, I enjoyed her character a lot in the Teen Titan cartoon I watched as a kid. This Starfire reminded me very much of the cartoon Starfire, where she has difficulty understanding colloquialisms and is definitely a fish out of water.

Her thought bubbles that pop up whenever someone uses a phrase that she doesn't know were entertaining, and I thought she was a pretty funny character to follow, as she interacts with normal people. I'm from Florida, so it was cool to see the references to Key West and even mentions Hemingway at one point.

I thought the plot is smooth, and the characters grow over the course of even this first volume.

I will say that the superhero portions, where she battles various bad guys, are all conveniently solved and solved quickly. There would be lot of build up, and then everything is hunky dory almost immediately.

[Diz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, this was a missed opportunity for DC. Over the past few years Starfire has been a dark character in the comics who was put into a lot of sexual and drug related situations, which didn't match how the character was depicted in the TV shows Teen Titans and Teen Titans Go. As a result, DC missed a huge opportunity to turn fans of these shows into fans of their comics.

With this volume, DC has decided to make Starfire a light-hearted character. She is basically a fish-out-of-water who is still learning the ways of Earth. A lot of the humor comes from her not understanding English idioms. I enjoyed this lighter tone much better, and it is a step in the right direction.

The missed opportunity comes with the inclusion of a lot of sexual jokes. Because of this, there is a bit of a bad aftertaste of what came before. Since DC was trying to distance the character from the missteps of the last few years, I feel that it would have been better to rely on non-sexual jokes. Also, there is a huge creep-factor in this book. Practically all of the unnamed male characters make sexual comments or comment on the appearance of Starfire. That left me feeling a little uncomfortable, and I imagine that women reading this won't feel comfortable either.

Something I did like was the art. The art is beautiful and the quality is high throughout. If they keep the art and the lighter tone, and eliminate the sexual jokes, then this would be a much better book.

[Rylan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an absolute delight to read, I’m a huge Starfire fan so a solo series dedicated to her is a must read for me. This is a fun slice of life series that focuses on Kori moving to key west Florida, it’s the same writing team from the new 52 Harley Quinn so the set up is similar. The writers do a great job at writing Kori, they went with a personality more akin to her cartoon version rather than her usual comic version which wasn’t a problem for me (anything is better than the outlaws version of her). The writers manage to capture the essence of who Kori is and take her on fun adventures. I really like her supporting cast as well, they all fit perfectly with the story. The art in here is absolutely gorgeous to look at, everything is so nice and beautiful it fits the story excellently. I really like when people around Kori use phrases she doesn’t understand and the artist draws what she thinks they are in her head. Overall this was such a fun and sweet read, I love Kori and I think this solo does a lot for her character. It’s perfect for new readers since the book catches the reader up on who she is in the first few pages and using a characterization more akin to the cartoon will be very familiar to people who have seen the Teen Titans show.

[John Wiswell · Rating 4 out of 5]

After an extremely questionable reboot of Starfire in the Nu52 universe, Conner and Palmiotti have been allowed to re-reboot her into something a bit more like her famous Cartoon Network persona. She's an adult, but largely ignorant of earth (and particularly American) culture. She can learn language through physical contact, but struggles with idioms (often her thought bubbles illustrate what she imagines when somebody says 'give me a hand'). She is at different points adorable and brave, and a lot of people are likely going to either love or hate it.

I love it. Emanuela Lupachino's art is colorful and delivers on an exhuberant superhero who's actually excited to do good, and who is powerful enough to where nobody can actually take advantage of her. Conner & Palmiotti write some lovely uses of her powers; Starfire easily gets a job at an aquarium since, after a minute in the tank, she can literally talk to the dolphins. She often has one-up on the earthlings who think they need to shepherd her.

Does it make sense that she's this clueless after years on earth? No. And the book almost comes out and asks us to pretend the first reboot didn't happen, and to behave as though she's arrived on earth recently. Given how badly written she was in the Look How Cool Red Hood is Plus These Outsiders series, I don't mind.

But I also like slapstick. Her shrugging off a hurricane because she's basically invulnerable, only to be tackled by a tornado-driven billboard, is funny to me. Funnier because she is invulnerable, it doesn't injure her, just shows she's in over her head. This is a kind of character I love regardless of gender. But it's worth knowing about if it annoys you.

Early on, one of Starfire's supporting cast declares that she's like "a big orange Supergirl." It's funny since Supergirl's actual comic is so much more serious, with angst about where she came from and where she's going. Starfire's book, by contast, is a feel-good read about her embracing her new home and the good she can do here. It's refreshing in some of the ways the new Ms. Marvel has been, and by the end of the trade, I was sure I'd pick up the next.

[Kay ☾ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I picked up Starfire with no prior experience of her character. My fiancé mentioned at the store that she was in Teen Titans and while I never actually watched the show I have seen it in passing, and so I figured why not. The premise caught my attention: Starfire wants to build a new, ordinary life for herself. I liked her lighthearted attitude and how completely clueless she was about Earth and how we do things here. But as the story went on, I kept hoping Starfire would actually develop as a character. Instead, most of the jokes relied on her naivety, while the men around her just stared and acted creepy. Action was in short supply as well. She barely fought anyone, and it took almost half the comic before there was even a real fight. She did save a few people, but that was about it. My main complaints are the lack of strong action scenes and the thin character development. I do not plan to keep reading, but I am interested to see if there are other Starfire comics that offer a deeper take on her character.

[Lexxi Kitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hmm. My read status says November 9th to 20th. I read these as individual comics. But I thought I’d been reading them longer than since the 9th. Ah well.

Okay – Starfire – This is not a character I have much experience with. She was in a Red Hood comic series, but I either read only one issue or one volume, I forget which. Whichever it was, she didn’t exactly impress me in that series. Shown as being dim-witted and easily taken advantage of (at least in the tiny section I read). It’s possible that she has popped up elsewhere that I saw (like, I know she was on an animated cartoon, but I did not watch that, and have no clue what decade that appeared). So, long and short of it is that this really is my first exposure to the orange woman from another planet.

So, something of a back-story was given but it mostly flew over my head. Something like she was a princess on some planet in a far galaxy, there were troubles, she left. Landed on earth in the Florida Keys. She popped up on Earth’s radar around the time a hurricane attacked the Keys. She helped defeat said hurricane. Then there were several monsters that popped up. A bounty hunter. Some guy with glowing eyes. She runs into three people who she inserts herself into their lives – a police officer, her coast guard brother, and Terra. Now Terra I’ve run across several times before. One or more versions (there might have been two different versions) in different Power Girl runs, and some series that came out with the New 52 that had a bunch of different people running around, kids, connected to some conspiracy or something. I have liked at least one version of Terra (when she was with Power Girl, and showed her her home under the earth). She’s kind of different here.

These side characters that pop up in other people’s comics are kind of hard to track. Especially when they get changed over the years and new versions pop up. Granted, sometimes ‘side characters’ get their own long running series and get ‘fixed’ in people’s minds (with alterations here and there). Like Batgirl spent most of her existence as a side character inside the Batman universe before finally getting her own self-titled comic series. And Harley Quinn started off as a one bit joke on an animated series, and morphed into a character with her own series. Heck, at this exact moment she is in either two or three series. Two of which have her name on them (Harley Quinn; Harley Quinn and Power Girl). One doesn’t. I’m not sure if she is still in the Suicide Squad. I never read it, and now it says “New Suicide Squad” so maybe the characters changed. I kind of hampered myself there, since characters from that squad sometimes appear, like Deadshot (or whatever his name is, Deadbolt?). So, maybe, someday Terra will get her own series. There is something of a story that could be told that gets glimpsed at each time she pops up in other people’s works.

Of course this series is Starfire’s. This, I think, is her first self-titled series. So far there have been only six issues. Ah. The description says “first ever solo series”. So. Yeah, that.

As I read the six issues, I kept being reminded of Marvels Guardians of the Galaxy, mostly the movie since I’ve only read a few separate issues here and there. Starfire, and the bounty hunter, would fit perfectly in that Guardians of the Galaxy series. More so than she fits into the type of universe as seen from other aliens on earth in the DC Universe (i.e., Superman). At some point I wanted to work in the inability to understand metaphors, like Drax, but – other than bluntly saying it like this, I couldn’t think of a way to say it.

I liked the six issues, though they seemed a little disjointed. And vaguely confusing. I’ll probably continue, though there’s every chance I’ll stop here. Now that I’ve reached a full volume’s worth of issues.

[Books & Vodka Sodas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I ... wasn't a fan. This could be because I was coming fresh off reading volume one of red hood and the outlaws where starfire is a very confident bad ass. But in this she's silly, dippy, and at times not consistent with her new 52 personality. How exactly does she not know what a tropical fish looks like -- when she was living on a tropical island?

It was just messy and more silly than carrying any real substance for starfire. I get that she's supposed to have this unquestionable compassion, but this was going a bit far. The story arc was only so so. The only part I really liked was her talking to the dolphin and it telling her it didn't want to be in a tank, it had a mate in the ocean. I probably won't continue this series anytime soon. I'm placing other comics before this one.

[Travis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cute, fluffy attempt to launch Starfire as a solo heroine.
Nice that they choose a different local for her knew home, and a decent supporting cast, but the whole time you are reading, you are constantly distracted by how does this version jibe with the previous version of Starfire?

Did I miss a story?
Glad that DC is undoing the horrible sexbot version from 'Red Hood', but it feels a bit lazy and in the end it feels like every other Armada Conner heroine story.

Noble effort, but a kind of blah result.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starfire moves to Key West to live as a normal human. Much of the series focuses on how she takes everything literally, as she doesn't understand idioms. I just watched John Carpenter's Starman the other day and this feels a lot like that movie, at least in how Jeff Bridges interacts with the world. Power Girl's sidekick from Conner and Palmiotti's Power Girl series joins the cast as well. Having super powered individuals show up in Key West is a real stretch. It's a sleepy little area with not very many people. Lupacchino's art is fantastic.

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

Take the intentionally retarded cultural stupidity of the main character in the TV show "Bones", whip with equally stupid lefty political tropes, and .....don't even bother reading it.

[zeliha · Rating 3 out of 5]

her ne kadar kendim düz saçlı kori’yi daha çok sevsem de kıvırcık ve dick’ten uzun olan kori’nin geri dönmesi gerek…175 olup barbara’dan bile kısa olması o kadar saçma ki ayrıca evet kendisi uzaylı dünyaya alışmaya çalışıyor çoğu şeyi bilmiyor gelenekleri vb kabul ediyorum ama bir yerde karakteri sadece slut olarak göstermek için yapılıyormuş gibi geliyor maalesef VE dick’ten sonra en elle tutulur love interestinin dick’e bu kadar benzemesi ayrı komik yani bro barbara’yı aradan çıkarın ve star crossed loversı geri getirin basit bir çözüm bence.genel olarak tatlıydı solo olarak kendi yolunu ve dünyadaki yerini araması,supermanle olan konuşmaları vs

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I was on the fence about reading this for quite some time but when I saw that Elsa Charretier was the artist for a majority of the second volume, I knew I had to jump on it and I'm so glad that I did. Starfire as a character is hilarious, and sure, at times she can be a little ditsy, but it's endearing as hell. Conner writes some punchy and hilarious dialogue, accompanied by a really interesting story. I flew through this in less than a day! Definitely recommend for fans of Harley Quinn.

[Emmanuel Nevers · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is really good!! Amanda Connor and Jimmy Palmiotti bring you a great one-off story of Starfire on her own in...Key West!? This story presents a fun story of what makes Starfire a fan favorite character in her own right and should not be only regulated to teen titans titles.
Recommended to any comics fan who remembers Starfire from either the teen titans cartoon or read Marv Wolfman and George Perez's 80's New Teen Titans run.

[Parker J · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolutely not. No. NO. Starfire sweetie I'm so sorry they would dumb you down and sanitize you like that. The way this cannot be considered canon because of how out of character Starfire is. I'm convinced the writers have never read a Titans comic and instead watched 1 season of the Teen Titans animated series and 50 episodes of Teen Titans Go and thought they knew what they were doing.

[Elyrria · Rating 2 out of 5]

The art is beautiful, but this comic did Starfire's character a disservice. She was shallow, vapid, and oriented toward the male gaze. I expected more for such a well loved character in our modern time.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfection! One of the best DC Comics trades I've read in the past few years. Conner and Lupaccino are sublime together.

[Shachar · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars / 5 Stars

Cute comic!! Loved this one, great artwork and multiple storylines! Excited to read the second volume.

[Chelsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted so badly to love this...I mean, it's StarFire's first solo run! However, this volume sets up a murky timeline and a watered down heroine. Kori decides she wants to learn more about the human world, kind of hints at her time with the Teen Titans...but Kori still doesn't understand basic human etiquette such as not being naked in front of other people. For being such a short run series, the first half collected in this volume did little to impress. Instead of Kori kicking ass it focuses on potential romance and cheap jokes of language barriers. A pretty lazy approach that does nothing to highlight this fun female superhero. Little butt-kicking and few characterizations points.

[Artemis Crescent · Rating 4 out of 5]

This superhero comic book is so... nice. That's what I would call 'Starfire, Vol. 1: Welcome Home' in one word.

It's just such a breath of fresh air to dive into something superhero related these days that is positive, where people are nice, and isn’t "dark and gritty" (which has quickly become synonymous with “lazy and boring”) and caught up in catering to stunted male adolescent power fantasies. Don't get me wrong, there exist excellent serious, realistic storylines about superheroes - ones that deconstruct its tropes with a carefully-planned and penned craft - and 'Starfire, Vol. 1' does contain deep, nuanced scenes plus violent moments. But it overall gave me a good feeling while reading.

The reader enters and explores a new environment along with Starfire, aka Koriand'r, aka Kori. The alien princess from Tamaran wishes to learn more about life on earth on her own, without any superhero business getting in her way. Thanks to some help and advice from Superman, Kori makes her new home in Key West, a small sunny coastal town - just her style! She meets new friends (the residents have never heard of her for some bizarre reason, though there are a lot of superheroes in the DCU), and she must earn a living by finding work (relatable!). But she also finds that trouble is always going to be looking for her -be it natural disasters, underground monsters, mutants, or alien threats - no matter how much she may enjoy living like a "normal human".

The artwork is lovely; one of the most colourful I've seen in comics in recent years, fitting the setting and the benign mood of the main character perfectly. It does show off how beautiful Starfire is without overtly sexualising her (aside from her bare midriff and legs, and occasional shower bits). With her long, fiery hair and array of facial expressions (the drastic ones are especially well drawn), she clearly has big aspirations and will not hide anything. Where her sexuality is concerned she possesses her own agency and is comfortable and confident about herself. That’s a good thing.

Starfire's personality here resembles her 'Teen Titans' animated counterpart, which will more than likely please her fans who grew up watching that show. She's really funny in her observations, and mimicking human speech mostly picked up from TV. Like an angel sent from Heaven to pass judgement, she is insightful: loving how diverse the human race is. Caring and compassionate towards any living thing, Kori is beautiful on the inside as well as out. As her own hero she gets to shine in a number of ways, and despite the weight of the responsibility of her powers and her place on earth and on Tamaran, she will try to find peaceful solutions to large scale attacks.

How great is it that a comic featuring Starfire - in her own solo series - remembers to give her a character and isn't distracted by her obvious sex appeal! She isn’t a bland object of wish fulfilment for the presumed straight male reader. Like, seriously, how many exploitative nude drawings (done professionally) of her are there? The excuse of her bare skin absorbing the sun’s rays thereby boosting her powers is an old, poor one. Even for an alien, isn't she still meant to be underaged? The way 'Starfire, Vol. 1' handles her is mature, but bright and fun at the same time.

The first volume, as it develops, shows a dark side to Kori. She isn’t afraid to consider killing when people she cares for, and innocents, are hurt. No surprise since her backstory involves an invasion on her home planet, her parents being murdered, and slavery. Despite the sunny disposition, there are violent moments in the comic, and Kori reacts accordingly, either in confused shock or rage, as she discovers more things about earth and humans in Key West. Everywhere and everything in life has a balance of light and dark, good and bad; Kori becomes fascinated by how humans cope with varied phenomena and tragedies all the time.

I love her relationships with other female characters, for indeed she is not alone. Sheriff Stella Gomez is wonderful as Kori's strong, earth mother guide to humanity, and plays the straight man in their duo, leading to hilarious as well as touching results. And there's the terrakinetic Atlee, who acts as an assured parallel to Starfire. Hooray for the Power Girl mention! Kori also develops a slow-building love for Stella's brother Sol, a nice, charismatic man with secrets. By the end of the volume you can tell there is a love triangle on the horizon, which I am not looking forward to, let me tell you.

Anyway, I recommend 'Starfire, Vol. 1: Welcome Home' to anyone. It has comedy, drama, action, mystery, and a little horror. It's about time that Starfire received her due, and is treated with the respect she deserves by DC.

A feel-good read.

Final Score: 4/5

[Wing Kee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish more DC books are like this!

This book is fun, how can it not be it's written by the same duo of Conner/Palmiotti that does Harley Quinn. When they announced the DCYou I was fairly skeptical but I also new that DC REALLY needed a tone change for some titles to broaden their reader appeal, enter Starfire.

World: The art is gorgeous, it's full of personality and character. The character models are gorgeous the backgrounds are different and all it's own (due mainly to the locale, there are not a lot of palm trees in Metropolis and Gotham), and my God the colours are just wow. This book's colour scheme is absolutely jaw dropping wonderful because it's so very different from a vast amount of DC books, the only comparison I can think of off that top of my head is the Harley book (written by the same people). The world building here is absolutely great. This is pretty much a reboot and moving Starfire to Key West was a perfect match considering her personality and her attire. The world that Conner/Palmiotti have built for her in these 6 issues is just fun. It's laid back, it's bright, it's happy and it's bright, all things I love about this world.

Story: This is pretty much a reboot and I love it. I really did not like Red Hood and the Outlaws and having her on that team just really didn't make sense to me (she's a Titan). The tone change is wonderful, it takes Kori back into what made her popular in the early 2000s on the Teen Titans show, an alien trying to discover the world and giving the reader a glimpse at seeing ourselves from a new and often hilarious perspective. I like this approach and I like this part of the story, it's light it's fun, super cute and amusing, I especially love the idiomatic word play and Kori's reactions to them. This book has 3 storylines and for the most part they are good as they offer mini arcs to paint this world for Kori. The hurricane was great to establish her cast of characters and show new readers her ability set, the middle story with monster was visually stunning and great, it's the last story that I found to be fairly rushed and a missed opportunity. The pace is so very different from other DC books that it makes me smile, it's not doom and gloom and it's not balls to the wall tension and action, the quiet moments of Kori discovering Key West are the best parts. As I said the third story was a bit of a let down as the villains and the threat were pretty much pointless and throwaways but overall this is a fun book.

Characters: I love what they have done with Kori. She's full of personality, her personal voice is very strong and distinct and they did not have to alter her to make her less sexist. She's still super sexy and fun but it's the way she's written that gives this character the respect and love that she deserves. With the New52 I was really disgusted in the way they portrayed her (walking boobs), it was not the sexuality at all as being open and honest about ones sexuality is a wonderful thing, it's the portrayal and the interactions of the rest of the characters to her that pissed me off. Here, it's not the case, as I said, she's still sexy, she's still spunky and fun and naive to the world but she know who she is and she's herself and unapologetic about it (there's nothing to apologize for). Conner/Palmiotti are doing a great job at making her a strong independent female character that is just loads and loads of fun (just like what they are doing with Harley). Read this book and you'll see what I mean, she's just fun and someone you want to be around because she is absolutely what she looks like, a ray of sunshine. The supporting cast is also great with a lot of diversity in the cast, which is also present in the Harley book. Gomez is a real character, as is Sol and Atlee and the rest of the people in Key West. It's great! Their dialog and interactions with each other and Kori makes me smile. The characters are wonderful.

I love this series, it's a breath of fresh air in the DCnU. I really wish more titles were like this, off the top of my head I can think of Starfire, Batgirl, Black Canary, Harley and Gotham Academy being the lighter books while the rest of the DCnU is pretty much doom and gloom. This is a gem and the right direction that DC should be heading towards, strong independent and unapologetic female characters. Too bad this series is only last 12 issues due to sales (dumb male reader...argh) and REBIRTH.

Onward to the next book!

[Cecilia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was very fine? Wasn't anything special

[Jenna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a massive Teen Titans fan and I have been for 15 years. I even had my door and television removed from my bedroom for six months because I was watching it past my bed time. I've been interested in reading this Starfire comic because I really liked the art style on the cover. The art continued on within the book, but she was drawn like a pinup and the plot suffered. I was disappointed and skimmed the last half of the book. I wish Starfire was given a better story despite how "enticingly" she was drawn. I'm flying off to a better written comic!

[Viola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such an entertaining series! I've yet to find anything by Conner/Palmiotti I don't enjoy. And Emanuela Lupacchino's art is a joy to look at.

I love how Kori is allowed to have a lack of understanding about basic things on Earth without being portrayed as stupid. Naive, idealistic and inexperienced characters often get that treatment and I hate it (looking at you, Guardians of the Galaxy 2). The thought bubbles that show up when she's confused about a phrase or idiom are hilarious.

Also, this should not be a concern in 2019 but I'm happy to say she's not oversexualized and objectified in this series. Unfortunately, Starfire has a bad history of that mistreatment which is super annoying. She is very attractive and people definitely notice it, but her beauty and body are not the most important things about her. She is capable, compassionate and friendly while wearing clothes that don't leave much to the imagination. I get the need for female characters in comics who don't wear revealing outfits but it doesn't need to be the norm or a prerequisite for a "strong" or well-written female character.

The positive depiction of female friendships is also a strong suit of the series and I loved seeing Terra again after Power Girl: Power Trip.
I really want to read the next volume but I might hold off on it for a while as there aren't any more after it sadly. (I consider this series and Constantine: The Hellblazer the casualties of Rebirth. The new DCYou titles focusing on smaller characters and different ideas were great and I wish they did something similar again.)

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starfire's maiden volume was a delight to read. Lots of cute characterization that hearkens back to the Wolfman/Perez New Teen Titans days, without all the melodrama. Relocated to Key West, Starfire quickly makes friends with the local sheriff, her brother, and countless hangers-on. There's not a lot of super-heroics here in the traditional sense, but still a lot of action as she saves people during a hurricane, battles a demon from the depths of the earth, faces off with a bounty hunter from the Vegan star system, and tries to find a job. I didn't think any of these sequences lacked energy or interest from the creators. It's obvious that they're all having fun with the character and her fish-out-of-water scenarios.

A few minor quibbles had to do with Starfire's complete ignorance of money and having a job. I don't think she could have been around the Outlaws without figuring out what money was and why it was needed. Also, although Starfire was always naive, here it's almost too much and borders on being ham fisted. Nevertheless, this is a very solid collection of stories, and like many other DCYou titles, on the fun side.

The art by Emanuela Lupacchino is just fantastic. She knows how to draw sexy people (both male and female) without being exploitative and super-cheesy. Her style is very similar to Amanda Conner, one of the co-writers on the book, very clean and bright. It's really gorgeous to look at, and I hope we see more of her work soon.

[Yamin Eaindray · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cute and entertaining but not really something to remember. The art by Emanuela Lupacchino was SPLENDID and it drove me to keep reading. Starfire is a lively, interesting character so the read wasn't exactly boring. This takes a completely different route from the crazy, adrenaline pumping action she's involved in while she was with the outlaws Red Hood and Arsenal. Average, if anything. Grayson's entrance and involvement was very predictable, and it got old. I was severely disappointed starting from issue 9. Why? The art flopped. The art went from a 95 to a 20. No offense to Elsa Charretier but to please us with gorgeous illustrations for the first eight issues and then to surprise us with a more cartoon-ish and slightly reckless display is just upsetting. Spoiled the will to finish it. Most of me only read this for the sake of Lupacchino's pencils but I finished it anyway. Not a very thrilling plot. Comics are supposed to deliver with both great ideas and a skilled hand but this comic was mediocre. Recommended to Starfire fans who like fast and easy reads.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is truly not the sort of book I normally go for but I'd read so many decent reviews and it was on sale at ComiXology that I figured why not?

The Princess Koriand'r, more popularly known as Kori or Starfire, has decided to make a new life for herself in Key West, Florida, simply because she's been promised by Superman that her orange skin and flaming red hair won't make her stand out too terribly from the eclectic personage already inhabiting the island. It's an interesting attempt at a fresh start, to say the very least.

It really was a lot of fun to read and, even though Kori is hypersexualized as many female superheroes tend to be, it's her bubbly personality and the misinterpretation of colloquialisms that endear her to the reader. Give it a shot. It's cool. I only wish D.C. Comics didn't reboot again thus nullifying this whole storyline.