By d. emerson eddy — Jim Starlin is one of the absolute heroes of cosmic tales in comics. His stories and characters are a cornerstone for Marvel, creating Thanos and delivering legendary stories from The Death of Captain Marvel to the original Infinity Gauntlet event. He brought a similar verve to DC with his creation The Weird and charted some excellent underrated adventures in the phenomenal Cosmic Odyssey (with Mike Mignola, no less) and Death of the New Gods (it may be an oddity in terms of how it fits in continuity, or rather doesn't, due to shuffling things during Countdown and Final Crisis, but it's still quite enjoyable in its own right). But quite possibly Starlin's most epic creation that definitely deserves more attention is Dreadstar, particularly the original tales in his “Metamorphosis Odyssey” saga, written and illustrated by himself, with letters by Tom Orzechowski.

The saga began as a serial within Marvel's Epic Illustrated magazine, the publisher's answer in the early '80s to the popularity of more adult-oriented comics stories being published in Heavy Metal. It started largely as an ensemble piece, as a final survivor of his Orsirion race, Aknaton, works to gather a group he'd seeded thousands of years before to battle the encroaching enslavement and destruction of the galaxy by the Zygoteans. It's an interesting way to start the series, making it feel like a grand epic, with Vanth Dreadstar not even appearing until the fifth chapter. In the beginning, each chapter takes on the point of view of the central characters individually, giving us a nice shift between tones and an insight into the people brought together to save the world. It's very different from what comes later in the saga, but it kind of readies us for some of the radical shifts that occur in each subsequent phase of the story.

Like the shifting narrative, Starlin's artwork takes a few twists and turns. The story starts out in gorgeous, deeply detailed black and white. It features the interesting designs for characters, vehicles, and more that you'd expect from seeing Starlin's other work, but it's taken to a higher level. It feels like he's really swinging for the fences with the overall depth and quality here and he hits a home run. It shifts, though, as the characters come together, and colors begin to come in, giving the work a very lush feel.

Tom Orzechowski's lettering very nicely adjusts with the shifting narration and approaches to the artwork. The gorgeous and trippy sequences of Aknaton communing with a higher power allows both Starlin and Orzechowski to cut loose in a manner that might remind people of the artistic and narrative synergy of the recently-concluded run of The Green Lantern series at DC Comics from Grant Morrison, Liam Sharp, Steve Oliff, and Orzechowski as well.

Dreadstar overall is one of my favorite sagas from Jim Starlin, capturing a very epic scope for its space opera cosmic drama in the beginning and embracing a fluid change throughout each incarnation of the series. The two graphic novels that follow “Metamorphosis Odyssey” carry on that tradition, before streamlining into the ongoing series (the original Epic Comics imprint ongoing series, then later published at First Comics joining the shared universe there) that had a slightly more traditional swashbuckling adventure tone. 

The omnibuses published by Ominous Press are gorgeously produced, remastering the work in impeccable detail and color. If you want to dip your toe in first before splurging, Dynamite did publish an earlier collection of the first three phases of Dreadstar (the serial and the two graphic novels) as Dreadstar: The Beginning.

Dreadstar - Metamorphosis Odyssey

Dreadstar - Metamorphosis Odyssey
Writer & Artist: Jim Starlin
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Publisher: Ominous Press
Release Date: October 2019
Price: Jim Starlin's Dreadstar Omnibus – Volume 1 - $40.00 (digital) | $89.95 (print) | Also available in slightly different form as Dreadstar: The Beginning from Dynamite: $9.99

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d. emerson eddy is a student and writer of things. He fell in love with comics during Moore, Bissette, & Totleben's run on Swamp Thing and it has been a torrid affair ever since. His madness typically manifests itself on Twitter @93418.