Star Hawkins
Created by John Broome

STAR HAWKINS, the "greatest detective of the 21st century," first appeared as a back-up feature in Strange Adventures #114, DC's science fiction comic of the early sixties.

Set in the future, his adventures seem to take place anywhere between the years 2079 (his first apperance) and 2092 (his last to date). And Star really is a private eye, with an office in New City and everything. He's even got a robot-secretary, Ilda. He's got that "perpetually down on his luck" thing down pat, and has been known to pawn Ilda in exchange for a quick bit of cash.

Star and Ilda appeared in a total of 22 issues of Strange Adventures , and then faded from view in 1966, until they were brought back (in a back-up feature, of course) 16 years later. But it's a glorious wrap up -- by the end "Whatever Will Happen to Star Hawkins?" (DC Presents, May 1981 , #33) Star's ship has come in, and both he and Ilda have found true love, Star with the lovely Stella Sterling, and Ilda with Stella's robotic bodyguard, Automan. The story ends with Star and Stella running the Hawkins-Sterling Academy of Robot-Detection, a place where robots can learn how to be detectives (and where one of the classes is given by Ilda and Automan). A nice final touch is that the Corvan mercenaries who are the villians in the story are named after the creators who worked on the original stories in Strange Adventures: B10Room (John Broome), S12Ekow (Mike Sekowski), S12Achs (Bernard Sachs) and K7Ane (Gil Kane).

And that's it for Star and Ilda, until the appearance of Twilight, a 1990 3-issue mini-series, which had very twisted versions of most of DC Comics's "near future" heroes. For numerous reasons, this can only be seen as a non-DC-Universe-continuity story (an "Elseworlds", but I believe it actually pre-dates the genuine "Elseworlds" imprint).

COMICS

• STRANGE ADVENTURES
  (1950 -1973, DC Comics)
  Writters: John Broome, France Herron, Dave Wood
  Art by Mike Sekowsky, Bernard Sachs, Gil Kane
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• "The Case of the Martian Witness" (March 1960, #114)
• "The Case of the Robot-Spy" (May 1960, #116)
• "The Case of the Counterfeit Credits" (August 1960, #119)
• "The Case of the Red-Hot Robot" (November 1960, #122)
• "The Case of the Vanishing Robots" (February 1961, #125)
• "The Case of the Robot Detective" (May 1961, #128)
• "The Case of the 3-Eyed Invaders" (August 1961, #131)
• "The Case of the Interplanetary Imps" (November 1961 , #134)
• "The Case of the Robot Brother" (February 1962, #137)
• "The Case of the Worn-Out Robot" (May 1962, #140)
• "The Case of the Unwanted Robot" (August 1962, #143)
• "The Case of the Robot Counter-Spy" (November 1962, #146)
• "The Case of the Rebellious Space-Crew" (February 1963, #149)
• "The Case of the Body-Switching Robot" (May 1963, #152)
• "The Case of the Red Diamond Smugglers" (August 1963, #155)
• "The Case of the Romantic Robot" (November 1963, #158)
• "The Case of the 14 Clueless Crimes" (March 1964, #162)
• "Ilda -- The Glamour Robot" (February 1965, #173)
• "The Case of the Cosmonik Quartet" (May 1965, #176)
• "Wanted -- One Lost Memory" (August 1965, #179)
• "The Case of the Blonde Bombshell" (November 1965, #182)
• "Ilda - Gangsters Inc." (February 1966, #185)
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• DC COMICS PRESENTS
  (1981, DC Comics)
  Writer: Mike Tiefenbacher
  Art by Alex Saviuk, Vince Colletta

• "Whatever Will Happen to Star Hawkins?" (May 1981 , #33)
  .

• TWILIGHT
  (1990, DC Comics)
  3-issue mini-series
  

RELATED LINKS

• The Star Hawkins Home Page
  Chaim Mattis Keller's site dedicated to Hawkins has a list and detailed synopsis of all of the "real" Star Hawkins's appearances. He even rates the amount of real detective work in each story. What it doesn't have are links to Chaim's fan fiction stories featuring the intergalactic gumshoe:
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• Paths of Life (a three-part story with the middle containing a mystery within the larger story - "The Case of the Tiger's Toothmarks")
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• The Case of the Reborn Ripper (Chaim feels this one's his best work)
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• The Case of the Mining Mishaps (this one's half mystery, half James Bond tribute)
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• The Case of the Imperfect Impostor
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• The Thrilling Detective Web Site: Detective Comics
  A listing of all the private eyes who have shown up in DC comics.
  

Respectfully submitted by Chaim Mattis Keller, with some additional information by Kevin Burton Smith, and some nifty copy-editing by Rudyard Kennedy.