Star Brand

The Star Brand is the name of a number of similar fictional comic book objects of power all of which exist in the multiverse created by the shared universes of Marvel Comics. Two of these Star Brands have been prominently featured in two separate series published by Marvel.

The original Star Brand is a star-shaped tattoo-like mark that first appeared in the comic book series Star Brand, published by Marvel Comics as a part of its New Universe imprint from 1986 to 1989. All of the other Star Brands are alternates of this original version. The Star Brand gave its bearer infinite, god-like powers, limited only by the wielder's imagination. After the end of the series and the New Universe imprint, the Star Brand made appearances in Marvel's main shared universe, the Marvel Universe.

The second Star Brand is a glowing glyph, shaped like the original Star Brand and giving identical powers. This Star Brand is featured in newuniversal, a series featuring a universe that is a reimagining of the original New Universe that began publication in 2006.

Starbrand (newuniversal)

Kenneth Connell is a character from the newuniversal imprint of Marvel Comics, and is one of the four initial superhumans created by the White Event in 2006 (the others being Justice, Cipher, and Nightmask). newuniversal, designated Earth-555 in the Marvel Comics multiverse, is a re-imagining if the New Universe (designated Earth-148611) imprint from the late 1980s. The name Star Brand actually refers to two things: a powerful extra-dimensional glyph (tattoo) that confers superhuman powers on a sentient being, and the name of the being that wields the glyph. Originally the Star Brand was the only extra-dimensional glyph, but Warren Ellis' re-imagining broadened the concept to allow others to exist, namely Justice, Cipher, and Nightmask. Ellis's re-imagining of the Star Brand should not be confused with the original New Universe Star Brand, as its origins and powers are significantly different.

Origin of the Star Brand

The origins of the Star Brand lay with a supposedly long-dead alien race that created the Star Brand artificially as a tool. The purpose of the Star Brand is to help the transition of a world through the inevitable paradigm shift caused when it comes into contact with a web of strange matter, called "newuniversal structure", wherein normal physical laws operate differently. Whenever a world enters the web it can take thousands of years before the world finishes traveling along one of its many strands, thus contact implies the danger that any given world could be destroyed if its transition period is not guided. It is the purpose of the Star Brand to protect the world from being destroyed. It is not yet clear what effects (if any) the destruction of a single world within the newuniversal structure would cause, but presumably it could threaten the stability of the strand if not the entire web.