How was Starfire recruited by Darkseid for a dangerous mission — and along the way, end up saving the entire galaxy herself?
Cosmic Odyssey saw a surprising collection of heroes assembled for a mission of galactic importance — setting up multiple major figures from across the DC Universe to work with the New Gods and even their opposites from the world of Apokolips. Among those heroes was one major member of the Teen Titans, who proved just how powerful and effective she is as a result.
How did Darkseid once recruit Starfire — and a host of other heroes — to save the universe in Cosmic Odyssey by Jim Starlin, Mike Mignola, Carlos Garzon, Steve Oliff, and John Workman?
Cosmic Odyssey is one of the few times in the history of the DC Universe that Darkseid has been forced to turn to his ancient enemies — the New Gods — for assistance. After discovering Metron and analyzing him, Darkseid detects a powerful source of energy roaming the universe — personifications of the Anti-Life Equation. The risk is so great that Highfather agrees to work with him. He sends an envoy to Earth to recruit a handful of heroes to help contend it. While this includes powerhouses like Superman and Batman, Starfire is also one of the heroes drafted for this mission. The heroes are each sent to different worlds, in hopes of preventing the living Anti-Life Equation from destroying two of four worlds. If successful, the Anti-Life Equation would begin a chain reaction that would destroy the entire Milky Way Galaxy.
Starfire is partnered with Lightray, one of the more boisterous of the New Gods. Arriving on Raan, they find most of the population turned against themselves by the efforts of the Anti-Life Equation. Only Adam Strange is immune and quickly joins them on their mission. Throughout the adventure, Starfire has to put up with Lightray’s attempts at flirting, as well as his massive ego getting in the way of their mission. Upon finding the bomb that will be used to detonate the world and cause about the end of everything, Starfire is forced to face off with the aspect of the Anti-Life Equation alone while Adam Strange is incapacitated and Lightray is distracted searching fruitlessly around.
By the time Lightray returns, it seems that it has defeated Starfire as well and makes quick work of the New God. But Starfire is revealed to have been pulling a feint, successfully tricking the Anti-Life aspect and giving her the opening to save her teammates and attack it anew. Starfire quickly figures out how to defeat the creature too — realizing that it may be a volatile creature, Starfire was finally able to lull it into a false sense of security by playing possum — again — and getting close enough to it to fire a point-blank shot. This erupts the creature, igniting the monster.
Starfire even managed to drag Lightray out of the way of the ensuing explosion, stopping the Anti-Life aspect and destroying the bomb all on her own. To Lightray’s dismay, Starfire is quickly heralded as a hero of Raan and celebrated for her success. In an event where even the likes of a Green Lantern wasn’t able to prevent the destruction of a world, it’s impressive that Starfire didn’t just defeat an Anti-Life Aspect on her own, but did so even without the technology provided by Darkseid to directly combat the force. She accomplished the kind of mission that even Superman had difficulty mustering — proving why she was one of the heroes Darkseid would think to recruit for their mission.
