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Star-Spangled Kid

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Star-Spangled kid
The Sylvester Pemberton incarnation of the Star-Spangled Kid as depicted in All Star Comics #64 (February 1977). Art by Wally Wood.
Publication information
PublisherDC Comics
First appearanceSylvester Pemberton:
Star Spangled Comics #1 (October 1941)
Courtney Whitmore:
Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. #0 (July 1999)
Miss Martian:
Teen Titans #37 (August 2006)
In-story information
Notable aliasesMiss Martian
Courtney Whitmore
Sylvester Pemberton/Skyman
AbilitiesSylvester Pemberton
  • Superb athlete
  • Hand to hand combatant
  • Cosmic converter belt

Courtney Whitmore

  • Expert gymnast and kickboxer
  • Enhanced strength, speed, agility and stamina
  • Shooting star projection
  • Flight
  • Cosmic energy manipulation

Miss Martian To view all abilities click here:

Miss Martian’s abilities or White Martians

The Star-Spangled Kid is the name of several superheroes in the DC Comics' main shared universe.

Fictional character history

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Sylvester Pemberton

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The original Star-Spangled Kid was Sylvester Pemberton, a Golden Age character, created by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel. He adopted the identity to battle Nazism during World War II, and was unique in being a child with an adult sidekick, Stripesy a.k.a. Pat Dugan.[1][2] Both he and Dugan were superb acrobats along with having sufficient training in hand-to-hand combat, but the pair regularly bickered about which of them should get top billing.

Decades later, he changed his name to Skyman and led Infinity Inc.[3] He was later killed by Mister Bones's cyanide touch.

Courtney Whitmore

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Courtney is Pat Dugan's stepdaughter, who found Pemberton's gear in his belongings and donned the Cosmic Converter Belt, with a costume of her own design. She begins her career as the second Star-Spangled Kid to annoy Dugan as partial revenge for him marrying her mother and supposedly forcing the family to move from Los Angeles to Blue Valley, Nebraska. Dugan, a skilled mechanic, designs and builds S.T.R.I.P.E., a mecha which he rides in to accompany and protect her. Eventually, she joins the JSA and, after being given Jack Knight's cosmic rod, changes her identity to Stargirl.

Miss Martian

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A third Star-Spangled Kid appears in Terror Titans #1 and is subsequently captured by the Terror Titans team for the Dark Side Club. The Star-Spangled Kid is forced to fight in a tournament against other meta-humans, going on to win the tournament. During the course of the storyline he appears to have a much stronger resistance to brainwashing than the other fighters, although he does eventually succumb. Later, it is revealed that he is the shape-shifting Miss Martian, who is immune to the brainwashing and gradually frees the other combatants.[4]

Other versions

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  • An African-American child based on the Star-Spangled Kid, simply named Stars, appears in Kingdom Come. This version wears a leather jacket, an American flag bandana, a T-shirt with an inverted American flag, and a cosmic belt in addition to wielding the Cosmic Staff. Additionally, he is accompanied by a muscular older man called "Stripes".
  • The Star-Spangled Kid appears in Tiny Titans #38.

In other media

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  • The Sylvester Pemberton incarnation of the Star-Spangled Kid appears in the Smallville two-part episode "Absolute Justice", portrayed by Jim Shield.
  • The Sylvester Pemberton incarnation of the Star-Spangled Kid appears in a photograph depicted in the Stargirl episode "Brainwave".

References

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  1. ^ Green, Paul (2017). Encyclopedia of Weird War Stories: Supernatural and Science Fiction Elements in Novels, Pulps, Comics, Film, Television, Games and Other Media. McFarland & Co. pp. 165–166. ISBN 978-1476666723.
  2. ^ Benton, Mike (1992). Superhero Comics of the Golden Age: The Illustrated History. Dallas: Taylor Publishing Company. p. 184. ISBN 0-87833-808-X. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  3. ^ Markstein, Don. "The Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  4. ^ Terror Titans #6 (2008)
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