Princess Koriand'r of Tamaran: Starfire 2024 Appreciation

[signalman112]

Perez with his creation. 1983.

Perez1983Starfire.jpg

[GreyFox]

One thing I wonder about, and I would like to get opinions on, is what the versions of Starfire in comics are, and how separate they seem to be.

The animated version that started with 2003 Teen Titans strikes me as being so heavily altered, she is like a different character.

In comics, I know Starfire has been altered over the years (especially in looks), but can she be split up into what are pretty much different characters? If so, what are these versions? Or is it plausible that New Teen Titans Starfire, New 52 Starfire, the Starfire of the 2015 series, and current Starfire, are the same person?

[Frontier]

One thing I wonder about, and I would like to get opinions on, is what the versions of Starfire in comics are, and how separate they seem to be.

The animated version that started with 2003 Teen Titans strikes me as being so heavily altered, she is like a different character.

In comics, I know Starfire has been altered over the years (especially in looks), but can she be split up into what are pretty much different characters? If so, what are these versions? Or is it plausible that New Teen Titans Starfire, New 52 Starfire, the Starfire of the 2015 series, and current Starfire, are the same person?

I know a lot of people view the cartoon version as different but I tend to view her as just taking traits Kory had from the comics (especially later in her development) and just depicted in a more sanitized, cutesy, way.

I view the current Starfire as a development of Post-Crisis Starfire.

[Primal Slayer]

One thing I wonder about, and I would like to get opinions on, is what the versions of Starfire in comics are, and how separate they seem to be.

The animated version that started with 2003 Teen Titans strikes me as being so heavily altered, she is like a different character.

In comics, I know Starfire has been altered over the years (especially in looks), but can she be split up into what are pretty much different characters? If so, what are these versions? Or is it plausible that New Teen Titans Starfire, New 52 Starfire, the Starfire of the 2015 series, and current Starfire, are the same person?

As far as comics go...I definitely view Pre-52 Starfire as the same character. New52 as a different character. Rebirth as return to Pre-52.

Animated Starfire and live action Starfire are definitely different from OG Starfire.

MAX!Starfire is basically WBs version of Dinah Lance.

[Primal Slayer]

Oldie but a goodie

ANDY: When you first started on the TITANS, you said you didn’t think it would last five issues, and said that you were afraid that people would compare them with the X-MEN – but you didn’t read the X-MEN, right?

GEORGE: At the time, I did. I drew an issue of the X-MEN – the X-MEN ANNUAL- so I knew about the X-MEN. But I was worried about the visual ideas. Particularly, Starfire worried me, because I had to color her almost like a lion with the green eyes, the golden skin and dark brown mane. And considering the fact that they were teenage characters, it might seem too much like the X-MEN. The one thing that we hated was having to keep the name “TEEN” in TEEN TITANS. But they really were teenagers, not just teens in name, actual teens dealing with the fact that they are teens, and that gave us the slant. We were doing an X-MEN type of team, that was true – we wouldn’t have been doing it if it weren’t for the X-MEN. But the Titans’ sense of family, their sense of being young, gave them the individuality that was definitely just theirs. Issue #8, “A Day in The Lives,” was what nailed it for us. We did that totally personal type story on them, and got people interested in them just as characters. They weren’t just another group of superheroes in costumes teamed up; they were characters people cared about. And from that point on, THE TEEN TITANS developed an identity of their own. There are always going to be the die-hards who’ll say, “Yeah, ripoff, plagairism,” but the TITANS have proven that they have their own legs to stand on.

[...]

ANDY: When you started developing the individual characters, the individual faces of the TEEN TITANS, who did you base the characters on? You’ve often said that Changeling was a young Mickey Rooney. But who were the others in real life?

GEORGE: In real life, let’s see now… Koriand’r, she’s so many characters I’ve used: Marilyn Monroe, my first wife, oh gosh, there was a stripper somewhere, ….. . (Laughter.) She was so many.

ANDY: Are there any particular actors you would want to play the TITANS in movies?

GEORGE: I’ve never worried about that. There are those people that have certain features that work, certain features that don’t. Some who look the part but couldn’t act worth a damn, or have the really good voices but don’t have the bodies for them. Everyone says Michael J. Fox would make a good Changeling and, years ago, he would have. Now he’s too old. And there are others… Burt Ward, he was Robin at one time; he’s way too old now. He’s forty – it just doesn’t work. And the girls are even tougher to cast. To get a face like Raven, I also thought of a young Barbara Luna, she played in the “Mirror, Mirror” episode of STAR TREK, Kirk’s love interest. And she’s a night club singer now. And there are others. How do you cast Kory?

ANDY: Loni Anderson?

GEORGE: Well, Loni’s age goes against her, and other people who have the right face, like Audrey Landers has a good Kory face, but she doesn’t have Kory’s figure.. she has the right personality, just the wrong figure. So short! (Laughter.)

ANDY: What are some of the other scenes that you have specifically put in?

GEORGE: Well, Kory taking her dress off in the middle of the park, in that same issue, is something I thought expressed her. (Laughter.) A lot of the stuff with Cyborg; the whole scene with Cyborg and his parents in the #40s issues – I wrote out notes like crazy for Marv, so he paraphrased the entire scene from what I had written in there.

ANDY: That made some of us fans very happy.

GEORGE: And, of course, putting in a lot of the TITAN TALKERS. Mary okayed that – I didn’t do it behind his back – but as to where, I was in charge. I knew more of them; I knew most of the girls and guys who are involved in Titan Club. I’m much more personal about my relationship with the fans than Marv is. Marv enjoys his fans, but enjoys his privacy. I’m much more gregarious, much more outgoing, so a lot of the fans contact me on a personal basis through letters or phone calls. So I did a lot of the wedding issue.

“Who is Donna Troy?” is one book we worked so closely together, I couldn’t tell you what scenes were mine and what scenes were Marv’s. It was symbionic. That one is a real Perez/Wolfman collaboration. Or Wolfman/Perez collaboration, depending on your point of view. (Laughter.) And that one I couldn’t honestly tell you.., the only scenes I know were fully mine were the framing sequence – having Dick Grayson in the midst of that black office, having him turn on his tape recorder, call Kory and say how good he felt, because Marv and I decided to put a happy ending on it. We weren t quite sure how to end it, and we decided to give it a happy ending. Dick calling Kory was my idea and I came up with the dialog, a couple of lines that Dick says, Kory, it’s me.” “Great. I feel just great. What are you doing tonight?” That was my scene. There are others that I can’t think of. Probably just as well; it shows that in our symbionic relationship, we start losing track of who did what, ’cause it’s such a contribution from the both of us. The only ones where I didn’t contribute much are the ones having to do with Brother Blood. I don’t understand the character! Of course, since I designed Jericho, a lot of the stuff I did with Jericho’s body language and reactions to people was more mine; I had a grasp of sign language at the time, since I had books on it.

ANDY: What did you think of the changes they made in the stories, Kory ‘s costume..

GEORGE: Kory’s costume was my idea to change. I knew that we were dealing with young kids, and I knew that we were going to be going through some kind of committee – why give them ammunition to complain about something that wasn’t important to the book? I changed Kory’s costume at the bustline a bit, so we wouldn’t have to deal with something that we knew would have been a problem immediately. Why ask for trouble. We censored ourselves there.

ANDY: What do you think about Kory ‘s marriage?

GEORGE: I disagreed with that. I would probably have done a lot to argue against that particular story, and particularly against the resolution. Whether I would have won, I don’t know; again, with Marv and I, it was always a series of compromises. But I definitely would have fought that. I found a lot of that story bothersome. And again, on the importance of the timing of it, everyone. . . all the other characters were going through hell at the same time, so it just seemed like more melodrama upon melodrama. And Marv was heavily involved in CRISIS, which is why I think his writing suffered during that period, and I think he admits that.
https://web.archive.org/web/20141019...-george-perez/

[Stanlos]

The inconsistencies around Starfire really center on the origins of her powers, the level of her powers, and her planet's history/fate

[Agent Z]

Source.

[Frontier]

Source.

I love the outfits !

[K7P5V]

I love the outfits !

Ditto. The artwork as well, Frontier!

[Thirteen]

Oldie but a goodie
ANDY: What did you think of the changes they made in the stories, Kory ‘s costume..

GEORGE: Kory’s costume was my idea to change. I knew that we were dealing with young kids, and I knew that we were going to be going through some kind of committee – why give them ammunition to complain about something that wasn’t important to the book? I changed Kory’s costume at the bustline a bit, so we wouldn’t have to deal with something that we knew would have been a problem immediately. Why ask for trouble. We censored ourselves there.

What bustline change for Kory's costume is Perez referring to here?
The only costume alteration I recall along those lines was for the proposed animated series and one of those free giveaway public service issues - with the Protector subbing in for Nightwing...

[Agent Z]

[Agent Z]

A video examining Starfire's relative lack of popularity.

[John Venus]

One thing I wonder about, and I would like to get opinions on, is what the versions of Starfire in comics are, and how separate they seem to be.

The animated version that started with 2003 Teen Titans strikes me as being so heavily altered, she is like a different character.

In comics, I know Starfire has been altered over the years (especially in looks), but can she be split up into what are pretty much different characters? If so, what are these versions? Or is it plausible that New Teen Titans Starfire, New 52 Starfire, the Starfire of the 2015 series, and current Starfire, are the same person?

I don't think they are different enough to be considered different characters.

The show just focuses on different aspects of the character. She is still a naive super powered alien adjusting to earth culture. The cartoon version doesn't focus much on Starfire's sexuality and view on relationships because of course she is a teen there as opposed to the young adult she was on NTT. And they toned down some elements of her backstory like her kidnapping and being sold into slavery and her bloodlust.

I would say it's the same difference between the Adam West Batman and the Michael Keaton Batman. One is the kid friendly version of the character and the other is the darker version of the character.

[Frontier]

A video examining Starfire's relative lack of popularity.

I thought she was super popular?

[Primal Slayer]