Oni Press has announced Citizen: Stardust, a 12-issue “prestige maxi-series” that reimagines Fletcher Hanks‘ Golden Age oddity Stardust the Super Wizard through the washed-up Hollywood star who once played him. Oni’s announcement says Citizen: Stardust #1 arrives in comic shops in April 2027. The publisher has not named a specific on-sale day yet.
The series is co-written by Dave Baker (Mary Tyler MooreHawk, Halloween Boy) and Malachi Ward (Black Hammer: The End, Prophet). Ward draws it, and Dave Stewart (Hellboy) handles color. Oni released four black-and-white interior pages from the first issue with a note that the finished book will be in color, along with Ward’s Cover A.
A fallen star and a strange invitation
Oni’s synopsis opens in 1947. Barclay Flagg is the biggest star in Hollywood, known to the public as Stardust, “post-war America’s first and most bankable on-screen superhero,” across dozens of films, serials, and radio shows. Then a crazed fan tries to assassinate him, and the bullet ends his career. Decades later, Flagg is a bitter, fading figure in a decaying Los Angeles mansion when an invitation arrives from The Institute, “an experimental arts retreat dedicated to advancing innovation through radical creativity.”
The Institute gives Flagg a near-unlimited budget and an obsessive crew of fellow creators to finally make the Stardust masterpiece he has always wanted. Per Oni, he “is about to discover that some dreams are too good to be true … and that the two-dimensional comic book hero inside him could never, ever be truly locked away.” The book is set in an alternate America where Stardust became a fading pop culture mainstay.
“Malachi Ward and I are bringing a new perspective to the superhero world informed by psychogeography, cult sacrifices, and technology beyond human comprehension,” Baker said in the announcement. “If that doesn’t make you want to read it? Just know that there’s a cat of nine tails made of human skulls.”
Ward called Baker’s take on Hanks “a compelling meditation on the savagery of American pop culture and the often tragic consequences of trying to make something great.” Oni President and Publisher Hunter Gorinson said Baker and Ward are “lighting a new path out of the long shadow” cast by deconstructions like Miracleman, Planetary, and Black Hammer.
Who was Stardust?
Hanks created Stardust in Fox Comics’ Fantastic Comics #1 in 1939. The character appeared in fewer than 20 stories during Hanks’ roughly two-year comics career, which ended in 1941. Oni credits Paul Karasik with reviving interest in Hanks when he compiled the 2007 Eisner-winning collection I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets. ComicsBeat describes Stardust as a public domain superhero, and Smash Pages also notes the character is now in the public domain, which means no license is needed to tell new stories with him.
Citizen: Stardust at NYCC
Baker will appear at Oni Press’s New York Comic Con panel on Friday, October 9, from 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. ET in North-Room S 406.1. Oni lists George Northy, Caitlin Yarsky, Oliver Mertz, Ryan O’Sullivan, and Batman producer Michael E. Uslan on the panel too, along with Oni’s Karl Bollers and Bess Pallares.
Oni isn’t the only indie publisher making news before the show. Ignition Press signed 12 creators ahead of NYCC over the weekend.
