Fictional Character Biography
Starro is an intelligent alien lifeform resembling a giant starfish with a central eye and prehensile extremities. In his first appearance, Starro came to Earth and gave his powers to three starfish. One stole and exploded an atom bomb, then absorbed its energy; another kidnapped scientists to absorb their brain power; the last placed the residents of Happy Harbor and Rhode Island under its mental control. The heroes Aquaman, the Flash, Hal Jordan, Martian Manhunter, and Wonder Woman teamed up to defeat the alien, after defeating his three accomplices. Starro was defeated by coating him with quicklime, which nullified his abilities. A segment of that Starro survived, and regenerated into a complete creature, but was stopped by Aquaman before he was able to renew his plan of conquest.
Starro reappeared to threaten Earth again, having once more regenerated from a small piece of his former body. He took mental control of a young boy who found him while fishing, and subsequently dominated the boy's family, who fed him enough to regenerate his full starfish anatomy. Starro forced them to transport him to New York, where he displayed for the first time his ability to asexually spawn millions of miniature duplicate "spores" of himself, which attach to the faces of humans and render them under his mental control. Starro used these starfish spores to control several members of the Justice League while enslaving the entire population of New York, but was defeated with extreme cold before he could carry his plan to spread his spores across the planet.
When Superman investigates a strange phenomenon causing the citizens of Metropolis to begin acting like apes, he is accidentally transported to an alternate universe and arrives on the parallel Earth called Earth-C. Meeting sentient animals called Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew, Superman aids the animal heroes to defeat Starro, who is based on the Earth-C universe's planet Pluto. Superman then takes the defeated Starro back to their original universe.
In a later appearance, Starro convinces Justice League Europe that he is dying and wishes to return to space. Aided by ex-Green Lantern Kilowog, Starro returns to his original ship, which, once repaired, is launched out of Earth's atmosphere. Starro, however, betrays the Justice League when he programs the vessel to explode, freeing Starro from his large body and releasing thousands of his smaller "spore" versions over Western Europe. Assuming control of thousands of humans, Starro seizes power, with several members of Justice League Europe opposing the alien. The team suffers a setback when Starro takes control of the Martian Manhunter, although Starro is finally defeated when Justice League member Ice freezes the original creature.
During the Infinite Crisis, Starro appears as a member of Alexander Luthor, Jr.'s Secret Society of Super Villains.
Starro returns to Earth-C (now called Earth-26) to spark a conflict between aquatic and terran creatures. Despite the efforts of the Zoo Crew, Starro floods the planet and defeats the team. They are then transported off world with the surviving refugees by another animal team, Just'a Lotta Animals. Zoo Crew member Pig Iron apparently sacrifices himself and battles Starro underwater as they escape.
Starro reappears in the Titans Tomorrow storyline as a member of the Sinestro Corps, wielding five power rings and controlling several supervillains. He is destroyed again by a future version of the Flash (although he points out that Starro will eventually regrow again).
In post-Infinite Crisis DC continuity, it was retroactively established that Starro belonged to an entire race of parasites that travel around the universe conquering planets with "motherstars" releasing spores to take mental control of a population. When one such motherstar arrived on the planet Hatorei and enslaved its psychically gifted native humanoids, the race's sole surviving boy manages to take control of an infant starro queen which fuses to his chest, thus empowering him to mentally dominate her entire parasitic race, assuming the name "Starro the Conqueror", himself. Empowered by a huge army of drone soldiers taken from conquered worlds and controlled by starro spores, and led by an elite guard who retain their free will including Astrild Storm-Daughter and Smite, this starfish-fused-humanoid "Starro" conquers entire galaxies and derives power from all those mentally linked by his spores. It was thus retconned that the originally-established Starro who had faced Earth's superheroes several times was merely a "probe" dispatched by this humanoid conqueror.
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