Born in the alternate timeline Reality-691, Aleta Ogord grows up in a militaristic society but struggles to reject her ruthless upbringing. After she transforms into a living light beam, she merges with Stakar to form the space-faring Starhawk, a cosmic hero who joins the Guardians of the Galaxy.
A Merged Existence
A leading 31st century heroine in the alternate timeline Reality-691, Aleta Ogord is born roughly a millennium earlier on the planet Arcturus IV. The humanoid Arcturians are often violently unstable, a trait sometimes attributed to the never-ending daylight from their world’s twin suns. Measuring their life spans in centuries rather than years, the Arcturians develop highly advanced technologies, such as genetic engineering.
Circa Earth’s early 20th century, Arcturian fetuses are developed in laboratories, where technicians engineer specific genetic traits. The populace ultimately revolts against such unnatural practices and attacks the government birth installations. These Genetics Wars end in planet-wide nuclear disaster and the Arcturian race’s near-extermination. Genetically engineered Arcturians adapt to the post-holocaust conditions more rapidly, often mutating into progressively more inhuman forms. Normal-looking Arcturians, surviving in smaller numbers, declar war on their mutant counterparts, with military Reaver squads roaming the planet on mutant-killing expeditions. The “normal” humanoid Arcturians ultimately win, eradicating the mutants and dominating Arcturus by Earth’s early 21st century.
Aleta is born to “normal” humanoid Arcturian parents, and her father, Ogord, is a Reaver. During the Reavers’ final mutant-killing raid on the once mutant-dominated Forbidden City, Ogord finds a seemingly normal, strangely calm humanoid baby boy in an old genetics lab. Unknown to Ogord, this baby is the lost mutant son of two Earth super-beings, genetically engineered superwoman Kismet and her lover, the cosmic hero Wendell Vaughn, AKA Quasar. When Mars-based aliens conquered Earth-691 at the 20th century’s end, rogue cosmic being Era kills Quasar as part of its own universe-destabilizing plans and steals Quasar’s newborn son, abandoning the child on Arcturus. This child relives his life repeatedly through a series of time loops beginning and ending on Arcturus, which is why the baby is so unnaturally calm—he instinctively senses he had lived these events before. Mistaking this calm for courage, an impressed Ogord rescues the child. Though the soldier and his wife, Salaan, already have a child, their young daughter Aleta, they are still unable to have a son, so Ogord adopts the infant, christening him Stakar.
Not fully conscious of his past lives, Stakar grows up isolated and brooding. An intellectual pacifist in a militaristic society, he embarrasses his family by neglecting his combat training for academic studies. Though Aleta chastises Stakar for this, she is interested in studying science as well as military skills, a trait Stakar admires in her.
Upon reaching manhood, Stakar instinctively seeks out his destiny in the Forbidden City. Disapproving of his foolish quest but admiring his courage, Aleta insists on coming along, ostensibly to protect him. They soon find the temple of the Hawk God, lost during the Genetics Wars and buried beneath the Forbidden City’s ruins. Inside the temple, Aleta and Stakar find a gigantic Hawk God statue and a cache of long-lost prewar technology. Unknown to the pair, the statue is a 30’ robotic computer built by that Hawk God’s early Arcturian worshippers. More significantly, the giant computerized statue also houses the spirit of the Hawk God himself. A vastly powerful cosmic being who embodies the predatory nature of existence, the Hawk God had been judged as overly cruel and destructive by a jury of his fellow cosmic beings led by the Living Tribunal, who had trapped the Hawk God in this replica as punishment.
Aleta and Stakar spend a week exploring the temple while Stakar salvages components to re-create an ancient brain-wave helmet to access the ancient Arcturians’ lost knowledge. When an angry Ogord brings a Reaver squad into the city seeking his wayward children, Aleta and Stakar argue over their next move until Aleta angrily throws Stakar’s helmet, which hits the ground and releases an energy bolt that converts Aleta into a living light beam that merges with the Hawk God “statue.”
Animating the Hawk God’s form and driven mad by its vast power, Aleta goes on an airborne rampage, wrecking most of the Arcturian air fleet that mobilized in response. Contacting Aleta’s mind via the helmet and hearing her cries for help, Stakar realizes he can provide the wisdom she needs to harness the Hawk God’s power. Piloting an Arcturian flitter aircraft, Stakar confronts the Aleta-animated Hawk God effigy and convinces Aleta to join her mind with his. Stakar and Aleta merge, sparking a multinuclear explosion that reduces the surrounding area to a sheet of glass. All that remains at the blast’s epicenter was Stakar, who transforms first into Aleta, and then into their new shared form as Starhawk.
As the often-dominant male aspect of this composite Starhawk, Stakar has the ancient Arcturians’ knowledge and full memories of his past lives, later becoming famous as the self-proclaimed “One Who Knows.” In addition, Stakar and Aleta gains cosmic power from the Hawk God, who was apparently freed to resume his true form. The Hawk God later claims he subconsciously influenced the actions of Stakar and Aleta, empowering Starhawk to atone for the Hawk God’s sins.
As Starhawk, Aleta and Stakar share a dual existence in which only one can physically manifest at a time. Stakar’s consciousness controls their masculine Starhawk form, which can morph into a facsimile of Aleta when her consciousness is dominant.
Light Manipulation
Aleta can generate and control light, ranging from a gentle glow to blinding intensity. She also forms coherent or solid light constructs she can animate, levitate and manipulate at will, such as shields, screens, cushions, platforms, bubbles, bridges, battering rams, spheres, maces, vise grips or oversized fists. She often generates durability-enhancing “combat light shields” that manifest as golden attachments on her costume. She can also generate coherent light beams (sometimes as pulsed “lumen-pulses”) that strike with tremendous concussive force, or more powerful “nova-bursts” that disintegrate her targets.
Her sensitivity to any disruptions of the “lightstream” (light from external sources) enables her to sense movements in her immediate vicinity, or even within an entire region of outer space.
Aleta can fly, often surrounded in a light aura (when no aura is visible during flight, she may be manipulating light on non-visible wavelengths). She can achieve light speed at will and occasional seeming feats of teleportation may simply be her moving so swiftly she appears as if from nowhere.
During the first merge with Stakar, he often suppresses Aleta but she could force him to release her if he was fatigued or distracted. Her Aleta body was then a light construct based on her original form, and she could create other solid-light constructs and phase through matter—abilities she retained during her first long-term separation from Stakar. She lacked true flight but could fly by riding her light constructs, such as a pair of floating “flight discs” under her feet.
As part of dark Starhawk, Aleta becomes submerged within Stakar more often but can speak from his body in her own voice, and inflicts great pain on Stakar while confined. She can dominate their shared male form if solid-light powers were needed and can also shift into female form when Stakar allows it.
As the lone female Starhawk, she can survive in outer space, fly at light speed, project people and objects through time, generate force fields and energy blasts, cause explosions stronger than nuclear blasts, create solid-light constructs and phase through solid matter. She also seems to possess most or all of Stakar’s vast accumulated knowledge as the “One Who Knows.”
During her long-merged existence with Stakar and her first long-term separation from him, Aleta could phase through solid matter since her body was itself a light construct, able to become ethereal at will. Whether Aleta can still phase is unclear, as there are indications she may have a more conventionally physical body in the time she renounces her Starhawk role.
When her form is Arcturian, she has a centuries-long life span. Aleta has scientific and technical training sufficient for tasks such as materials analysis or basic starship operations. Trained extensively in combat in her youth, Aleta remains a formidable unarmed combatant but is wary of lapsing back into her people’s violent ways, frequently restraining herself accordingly.
She often wears a star-shaped Guardians badge or G-star, part of a set serving as two-way communicators, tracking devices and teleportation activators. Her eyes, originally blue, are now golden. Her eyes were blank white as the lone female Starhawk and sometimes resume that appearance when her emotions or energy levels are heightened.
Enemy Combatants
Desspite being Ogord’s daughter, Ogord shows no mercy when Aleta and Stakar merge. Within moments of Starhawk’s creation, Ogord tries to enlist the new cosmic being in the Arcturian war machine. Starhawk refuses and flies into space, enraging the Reavers, who blame this refusal and the Hawk God’s rampage for setting back their army’s technological advancement by untold years. This enmity grows more bitter five centuries later when an early Arcturian starship makes first contact with an alien aircraft and tries to seize it. Starhawk disables the Arcturian ship, foiling their attempted piracy, and Starhawk’s demise is declared an Arcturian fleet imperative.
As Starhawk, Aleta goes up against the Badoon and in so doing helps form the Guardians of the Galaxy in her era, and helps expel the Badoon from Earth.
The Hell Lord Mephisto drives a wedge between Aleta and Stakar in an attempt to remove Aleta from influencing the Protégé, a child of cosmic importance. This wedge leads to an estrangement between Aleta and Stakar and ultimately a physical separation as well. Despite Aleta’s attempts to guide the child, she fights Mephisto’s daughter Malevolence and loses due to interference from Stakar, who reabsorbed Aleta in a desperate attempt to survive.
Later, while separated from Stakar, Aleta battles Remora and the Asgardian God of Mischief, Loki Laufeyson.
Super-powered Allies
While Aleta grows up with Stakar, admiring him for his differences, and they share a physical being known as Starhawk, their relationship is off- and on-strained. Stakar is typically the more dominant presence, allowing Aleta dominance upon his will, which causes friction between them. As Starhawk, they join the Guardians of the Galaxy of their era. Eventually, the pair petition the Hawk God to separate their physical bodies, to which the entity agrees. They get married and have three children together. When Aleta’s father Ogord attempts to kill Starhawk using their children, it results in their deaths—a tragedy that Aleta holds against Stakar.
When Stakar forced a merge with Aleta to save himself, he turns into a darker aspect of himself as a consequence. She eventually regains her freedom and joins the Guardians as herself without Stakar, whom she sends to the past. Aleta then becomes close with fellow Guardian Vance Astro and they get engaged. Despite their back-and-forth relationship, Aleta and Stakar often return to each other to carry out their cosmic guardian duties as Starhawk.
Aleta also allies with the Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers of Earth-616, the latter of which awards Aleta and the Guardians honorary membership during their joint pursuit of the cosmic menace Michael Korvac, AKA Korvac. Aleta also adventures alongside Earth-616’s Peter Parker, AKA Spider-Man, Ben Grimm, AKA the Thing, Her (later Kismet) and Heather Douglas, AKA Moondragon.
Aleta’s Account
Starhawk wandered space for centuries, aiding and befriending beings on many worlds. Aleta and Stakar’s spirits eventually grew lonely, however, and Starhawk secretly returned to Arcturus, where they petitioned the Hawk God to allow them temporary existence as individuals. The Hawk God agreed, and the pair split into their separate forms again, living as man and wife. They produced three offspring, and Starhawk existed mostly in Aleta’s form for several years thereafter as she bore and raised their children: Tara, Sita and John. Unable to ignore his foreknowledge of Starhawk’s key role in intergalactic destiny, Stakar eventually regained dominance of their shared form and spurred them to resume their space adventures as Starhawk, building an asteroid home for their children that he and Aleta could monitor and contact during their absences.
As of the year 3007, an Earth long since freed from Martian rule had colonized other worlds, genetically altering settlers to live on different planets; however, later that same year, the alien Brotherhood of the Badoon brutally conquered the human federation, wiping out virtually the entire populations of Mercury, Jupiter, Pluto and Centauri IV, and killing or enslaving most of Earth’s people. In response, Starhawk secretly aided and protected four freedom fighters—Charlie-27 (last of the Jovians), Martinex (last of the Pluvians), Vance Astro (a thousand-year-old psychokinetic human astronaut) and Yondu (seemingly the last of Centauri’s blue-skinned natives)—and manipulated them into forming the Guardians of the Galaxy, though the Guardians themselves were unaware of Starhawk’s actions. Briefly aided by the heroic Defenders of Earth-616’s modern era via time travel, the Guardians eventually led humanity in overthrowing their Badoon masters with the now-overt aid of Starhawk, who played a key role in expelling the Badoon from Earth.
The Guardians reorganized as space explorers, joined by Starhawk. Stakar’s haughty, secretive manner often alienated his teammates, but the warmer Aleta was better liked once she began manifesting openly among them. After recruiting Nikki (last of the Mercurians), the Guardians fought the Reavers of Arcturus, now led by High Commander Ogord, who abducted Starhawk’s children, transformed them into energy-leeching beings and mind-controlled them into trying to kill Starhawk. The Guardians foiled Ogord’s plan, but the children were killed when Ogord’s conversion rapidly aged them. Stakar and Aleta were devastated, and Aleta’s grief gradually twisted into bitter resentment of Stakar, whom she unfairly blamed for the children’s demise. She also resented how seldom Stakar freed her to exist in physical form.
Regardless, Starhawk remained with the Guardians, including a mission that took the team to Earth-616’s modern era and allied them with the heroic Avengers, who awarded the Guardians honorary membership during their joint pursuit of the cosmic menace Michael Korvac. After further adventures alongside Earth-616’s Spider-Man, the Thing, Kismet, and Moondragon, the Guardians returned to their own 31st century reality.
When the defeated Korvac transported his cosmic power and knowledge forward through time, it manifested in his ancestors as it moved from Earth-616’s modern era toward Earth-691’s 31st century. The Guardians tracked these cosmic manifestations until they reached the year 2977 and battled Michael Korvac’s newly cosmic father, Jordan Korvac, who died when an infant Michael Korvac inherited his adult self’s knowledge and fatally absorbed Jordan’s power. The reborn Michael was defeated and de-powered, and Aleta talked the Guardians out of killing the infant, which they had briefly considered as a means of preventing Korvac’s future crimes. Afterward, Vance suggested making Aleta’s Guardians membership official and team leader Martinex agreed, much to Aleta’s delight.
Aleta grew increasingly bitter over her children’s fate and her often long-term confinement within Starhawk. Her bitterness evolved into fanatical hatred of Stakar thanks largely to the subliminal influence of the demon lord Mephisto, who had targeted Aleta because she was fated to mentor the Protégé, a child of cosmic importance. Seeking influence over the child, wanting Aleta out of the way and regarding Stakar as the key obstacle, Mephisto further influenced Aleta’s emotions so she and Stakar became completely estranged. Mephisto also somehow triggered Stakar and Aleta’s physical separation during a fight with the battle-armored Stark alien race, causing this split to occur earlier than it had in any previous incarnation of Stakar’s life. During that same battle, Aleta accidentally killed Stark officer Lt. Darkeyes, which traumatized her since she had long struggled to reject her ruthless Arcturian military upbringing.
Aleta reveled in her forced separation from Stakar, declaring their marriage over and romancing Vance Astro, who soon proposed and became Aleta’s fiancé. Meanwhile, as the new one-man Starhawk, Stakar was gradually dissolving and his vast memory was eroding; while his split from Aleta seemed like the sole cause, Mephisto had secretly exacerbated Stakar’s deterioration as part of his plan to set Aleta and Stakar against each other. Aleta fought Mephisto’s daughter Malevolence in a series of clashes for the right to be Matriarch (guardian/ mentor) of the Protégé, bonding with the powerful child and trying to offer him positive guidance. Aleta had the upper hand in her final battle with Malevolence until a desperate Stakar, having nearly faded away to nothingness, forcibly re-absorbed Aleta to save himself, clearing the way for Malevolence to become the Protégé’s Matriarch.
The Guardians formally expelled Starhawk, who had morphed into a physically and emotionally darker form due to his forced absorption of Aleta. Stakar’s and Aleta’s consciousnesses were now active simultaneously within Starhawk and could speak through Starhawk’s form in either’s voice. Stakar mostly controlled their actions, but Aleta struggled from within to seize control, causing Stakar agonizing pain. This new “dark Starhawk” soon renewed association with the Guardians, though only Aleta still considered herself a member. Gradually overcoming Stakar’s control, Aleta usurped Starhawk’s power, split herself from Stakar again and reduced him to an infant, sending him back in time to Arcturus IV’s Forbidden City to relive his life yet again.
Aleta rejoined the Guardians as the new female Starhawk, resuming her romance with Vance at first, but soon grew cold and aloof due to the sense of responsibility and superiority that came with her new status as the “One Who Knows.” She even considered a romance with Asgardian ally Heimdall while they teamed up against the Remora and Loki Laufeyson, regarding the godly Heimdall as a potential mate more on her own level, though they parted after the mission.
Stakar eventually returned as the male Starhawk, reborn again with full knowledge and power, presumably having sought out Aleta in Reality-691 after living out another version of his life in some alternate timeline. Aleta attacked Stakar until the Hawk God intervened, embarrassed and annoyed by his champions’ endless strife, fusing their hands together so they would be forced to work together. The reluctant duo briefly functioned in this capacity until the Hawk God reconsidered and decided to grant only one of them Starhawk’s power. Realizing the power was eroding her humanity, Aleta voluntarily renounced her claim to it, though she retained her solid-light abilities as a boon from the Hawk God. She also finally forgave Stakar for their children’s deaths but said she had long since forgotten how to love him, reaffirming her devotion to Vance. Stakar departed the Guardians as a lone Starhawk.
Aleta and Vance resumed their romance, hindered at first by Vance’s new Beyonder-made containment suit, which sometimes seemed alive and repulsed Aleta. As Guardians leader, Vance later briefly allied with murderous Martian warrior Ripjak against cosmic plague spreader Bubonicus. Aleta and most of the other Guardians disapproved, voting to temporarily disband and consider their future, then reassemble and hold new leadership elections. Despite voting against Vance, Aleta stayed with him to help analyze his new containment suit and rebuild their romance, succeeding in both goals as testing determined his suit was neither alive nor dangerous.
The Guardians soon reunited under new leader Charlie-27 and went back in time to prevent Earth’s Martian invasion of 2001, though they knew this would probably only diverge an alternate timeline in which Martians never conquered Earth. The Guardians succeeded, but their Inhuman enemy Wormhole cast them adrift through a space-time warp. Whether and when they returned remains uncertain, but Aleta was among the Guardians later seen in Earth-616’s modern era, tracking a time anomaly and battling the New Warriors. This timeline was, however, reset.
A temporal anomaly occurred again, this time the Guardians ended up back in time allying with the 21st century Guardians against the menace Korvac. Aleta came forth as the dominant presence and guided Geena Drake, whom Starhawk had previously foreseen her to play an important role in the future. Drake was able to reach Korvac and gave him permission to remake the universe to solve the time anomalies they were experiencing. Though Korvac wasn’t able to do so and things faded to black for Aleta and the Guardians.
