Originally Posted by
GhostPirate
To each their own, but in this case I'll be the guy to point out that at least sometimes it seems the Emperor is indeed running around naked. I just don't see why the series is considered such a "masterpiece", and personally I found it dramatically overrated. The Shade mini and over-arching storyline was really what kept me reading, and I found the "talks with David" issues enjoyable, but beyond that? meh. I found Jack a bland and thoroughly unlikeable protagonist, a lot of the interesting aspects of legacy he seemed intent on exploring really fizzled with some of his writing and plot choices towards the latter half of the series, and Robinson's insistence on forcing every DC character to ever use the name of Starman (all of whom I liked more than Jack) into his narrative, especially in many of the ways he chose to do so, I found disappointing, and downright wasteful, on so many levels.
Starman, and the relentless praise the series enjoys around this site especially, is actually one of the primary reasons why I will go through the library to check out a book or two of a series that is universally raved about online before purchasing now whenever possible. While I don't wave a banner for Gaiman, Moore, Morrison, et al., I believe all have had their legitimate genius runs on various characters and titles, even though all have had their admitted missteps as well; but, while Robinson seems a reasonably talented writer and by his forwards in the collected editions, a pretty likeable guy, I in no way see how he deserves mentioning in that group. Sandman and Swamp Thing, in particular, are just that much superior to Starman, AND they each have more than a few additional runs, series, novels, or the like on their resume Robinson just doesn't match. Frankly, I'd put him even below the next group of great, if not necessarily visionary, writers as well, such as Claremont, Byrne, Stern, Simonson, Ostrander, and their like, because I wouldn't consider Starman the equal of their respective runs on X-Men, FF, Spider-Man, Thor, Suicide Squad, etc, either. He seems more fittingly grouped with 'reasonably competent but my goodness are they fawned over to nonsensical extremes' examples like Vaughan, Johns, & Snyder.
As far as "under collected", I'm not sure I get that complaint either. I know for a fact the entire Starman run has at least been collected in deluxe trades (after donating the first 2 books my library now has the complete run), and I'm pretty sure also in smaller softcover editions as well... which you can't say for a lot of really good DC runs from in and around that time, including what I consider a far superior run in Ostrander's Spectre. I wish Ostrander, in particular, was that "under collected". You want to talk about deserving more credit...