The Star-Spangled Kid is the name of several superheroes in the

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' main

shared universe A shared universe or shared world is a fictional universe from a set of creative works where more than one writer (or other artist) independently contributes a work that can stand alone but fits into the joint development of the storyline, char ...

Fictional character history

Sylvester Pemberton

The original Star-Spangled Kid was Sylvester Pemberton, a

Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the '' Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages, Gold being the first and the one during which the Go ...

character, created by Jerry Siegel, the co-creator of Superman. He became the Star-Spangled Kid in order to battle

Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. He was unique in that he was a kid superhero who had an adult sidekick,

Stripesy S.T.R.I.P.E. (short for Special Tactics Robotic Integrated Power Enhancer) is a superhero in the DC Comics DC Universe, Universe. S.T.R.I.P.E. is a powered armor suit invented and worn by Patrick "Pat" Dugan, the former adult sidekick to teenage ...

a.k.a. Pat Dugan. Both he and Dugan were superb acrobats along with having sufficient training in hand-to-hand combat, but the pair regularly bickered about which of them should get top billing. Decades later, he changed his name to Skyman and led Infinity Inc. He was killed when Harlequin III made Solomon Grundy touch Pemberton with

Mister Bones Mister Bones (Robert Todd) is a character in the , created by Roy Thomas, Dann Thomas, and Todd McFarlane, in ''Infinity, Inc.'' #16 (July 1985). A former low-level supervillain and member of Helix, he reformed and joined the Infinity Inc. team ...

's hand. Bones' cyanide touch killed him instantly.

Courtney Whitmore

Courtney is the stepdaughter of

Pat Dugan S.T.R.I.P.E. (short for Special Tactics Robotic Integrated Power Enhancer) is a superhero in the DC Comics DC Universe, Universe. S.T.R.I.P.E. is a powered armor suit invented and worn by Patrick "Pat" Dugan, the former adult sidekick to teenage ...

. She finds Pemberton's gear in her stepfather's belongings and dons the Cosmic Converter Belt, with a costume of her own design. She begins her career as the second Star-Spangled Kid in order to annoy Dugan as partial revenge for him marrying her mother and supposedly forcing the family to move from Los Angeles to Blue Valley, Nebraska. Dugan, a skilled mechanic, designs and builds

S.T.R.I.P.E. S.T.R.I.P.E. (short for Special Tactics Robotic Integrated Power Enhancer) is a superhero in the DC Comics Universe. S.T.R.I.P.E. is a powered armor suit invented and worn by Patrick "Pat" Dugan, the former adult sidekick to teenage superhero Syl ...

, an armored

robot A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be ...

which he rides in to accompany and protect her. Eventually, she joins the JSA and, after being given Jack Knight's cosmic rod, changes her identity to Stargirl.

Miss Martian

A third Star-Spangled Kid appears in ''Terror Titans'' #1 and is subsequently captured by the Terror Titans team for the Dark Side Club. The Star-Spangled Kid is forced to fight in a tournament against other meta-humans, going on to win the tournament. During the course of the storyline he appears to have a much stronger resistance to brainwashing than the other fighters, although he does eventually succumb. Later, it is revealed that he is the shape-shifting Miss Martian. She uses her immunity to the brainwashing to slowly free the other combatants.''Terror Titans'' #6 (2008)

Other versions

In ''

Kingdom Come " Kingdom come" is a phrase in the Lord's Prayer in the Bible. Kingdom Come may also refer to: Film * ''Kingdom Come'' (1919 film), a Western short featuring Hoot Gibson * ''Kingdom Come'' (2001 film), a comedy starring LL Cool J * ''Kingdom ...

'', Alex Ross portrays a later Star-Spangled Kid (simply called Stars) as an African-American street kid wearing a leather jacket, an American flag bandana, and a T-shirt with an inverted American flag, using the cosmic rod in conjunction with the cosmic converter belt. He, too, is accompanied by a muscular older man in a striped shirt, this one called Stripes.

In other media

* In ''

Smallville ''Smallville'' is an American superhero television series developed by writer-producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, based on the DC Comics character Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The series was produced by Millar/ ...

'', the

Sylvester Pemberton Sylvester Pemberton, alternately known as The Star-Spangled Kid and Skyman, is a superhero in the DC Comics universe. Sylvester first appeared in '' Star Spangled Comics'' #1 (October 1941) and was created by Jerry Siegel and Hal Sherman. Star ...

version of the Star-Spangled Kid appeared in the season 9 episode '' Absolute Justice'', where he contacts

Chloe Sullivan Chloe Sullivan is a fictional character in the television series ''Smallville'', which is based on the Superman and Superboy comics published by DC Comics. Portrayed by series regular Allison Mack, Chloe was an original character created exc ...

before being killed by Icicle's son Cameron Mahkent after a brief fight. * In the pilot episode of '' Stargirl'', Pemberton operated as the Star-Spangled Kid in his teen years before taking the name Starman. * In '' Tiny Titans'', Star-Spangled Kid made an appearance on ''Tiny Titans'' #38.

References

{{reflist

External links

DCU Guide: Star Spangled Kid

at Don Markstein's Toonopediabr>Archived
from the original on March 16, 2017. Additiona

on June 4, 2017. DC Comics superheroes United States-themed superheroes