Captain Marvel’s Epic Rematch With Marvel’s Most Unstable Hero
Warning! Spoilers for Star #4 below!
Captain Marvel has had her hands full when dealing with Ryan Ripley, the Reality Stone-wielding hero/sometimes villain known as Star, who's still learning how to use her massive powers. She's defeated Star once before, but now, Captain Marvel is facing Marvel's most unstable hero again.
Star first debuted in the pages of Kelly Thompson, Carmen Carnero, and Tamra Bonvillain's Captain Marvel #8, where reporter Ryan Ripley transforms into Star after volunteering to be experimented on and siphoning the longtime Avengers powers with a virus. As Captain Marvel's reputation craters and Star becomes more and more popular, she discovers Ripley is taking her powers and defeats her. But, after Star is sent to the Raft, she bonds with the Reality Stone. Thompson's Star miniseries has focused on Star's struggle to contain her powers as the Black Order hunts her down.
At the end of Star #3 by Thompson, Javier Pina, Jay Leisten, Jesus Aburtov, Filipe Andrade, Captain Marvel finally confronts Star. In the next issue, the fight begins. Star uses the Reality Stone to create a shield of armor around her as she exchanges blows with Carol. Star questions her power's stability when Captain Marvel manages to punch through her shield. That's when Star calls "laser eyes" and sends Carol flying with the move.
After using her laser eyes, Star starts freefalling to the ground after using too many powers at once. However, Star manages to prevent her fall by calling on her flight ability. As she celebrates finding some control of her powers, she's hit by a huge blast and sent through the roof of a nearby building. Laying in rubble, she sees Captain Marvel emerge. But, after asking Carol why she did it, Captain Marvel explains she didn't do anything and that Ripley's panic attack might have triggered the blast.
Even when Star thinks she has a grasp on how to use the Reality Stone, she soon becomes unstable. While Star and Captain Marvel's fight was epic, the two are forced to stop and team-up together once the Black Order shows up and demands the Reality Stone. While the issue ends with Star, Captain Marvel, and the Black Order being seemingly transported into another reality, the book really illustrated that even with some control, Star still has a ton to learn to come close to understanding how to use the Reality Stone properly. Captain Marvel did her best to reason with her, but with one more issue of Star coming, the battle isn't over just yet.
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