Space Stories & Stellar Sagas: Dynamic Duos & Problematic Pairs

On Earth-Three the roles are reversed from those on Earths One and Two, where superheroes there are supervillains, and visa versa. For instance, the counterparts on that world of the Justice League and Justice Society are the Crime Syndicate, while the noble doppelgänger of the Luthors on that planet is Alex Luthor, Earth-Three's only superhero (not counting the Rogue Hunters, opposite of Flash's Rogues Gallery, who were actually amoral bounty hunters who opposed the Syndicate).

However, there are some instances where a pair of protectors on Earth-One were devious duos on Earth-Two, with the reverse also being true of others. One examples of this were heroic Space Ranger and his shape-changing sidekick Cryll on Earth-One's future, and the villainous Saturnian Duke Saturno and the Duke of Deception's Martian shape-changer of Earth-Two's past. Another was the legendary lawmen Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy, and the obstinant opponents Star-Tsar and Starfire/Red Star... all four men possessing mechanical and engineering aptitude allowing them to devise gadgets to aid in their costume careers.

While the Kid and Stripesy had length careers working alongside one another, this was also the case for Space Ranger and Cryll. Some other parallels between the two dynamic duos is their stellar themes, the leader is a wealthy young industrialist equipped with a flying vehicle, assisted by adaptable and strong sidekicks.

As for the other four, Saturno and Deception’s mimic minion worked separate as had Tsar and the Jailer, each pursuing their own criminal capers (although Tsar’s alter ego Snapper Carr had a longer career as an honorary member of the Justice League, both before and after he had betrayed them to the Joker and… later… the Key).

Heinous Henchmen Help Hooded Hoodlums

Professor Zoom aka the Reverse Flash and Captain Cold had numerous capers, which brought them into conflict with the Flash of Earth-One and his Justice League allies. Likewise, Sargon and Star-Spangled had scores of adventures alongside their colleagues in the All-Star Squadron, including the Flash of Earth-Two. But their counterparts on each others’ Earth only appeared a few times. This would be compensated by their similarly empowered henchmen.

Saigon’s doppelgänger Mister Element had his key lieutenants named Argon, Krypton, Radon, Xenon and two others. Zoom’s cosmic twin the Rival had a handful of hoodlums with superspeed powers like his and the Professor. Cold’s counterpart Icicle had similar clad henchmen, while former Justice League honorary member and Star-Spangled Kid analogue Snapper “Star Tsar” Carr had his stellar themed gang.

These thugs severed as proxies for the original rogues, and compensated for the deficiency of appearances which their bosses had compared to their correlating counterparts on the alternate Earth.

Stellar Students and Irritable Inventors

The greatest Dynamic Duo in history is easily Batman and Robin. However, there are the great…and not so great… pairings of both heroes and villains. One such colorfully collaboration on Earth-Two was Sylvester Pemberton was brilliant school student and wealthy child protégée, while Pat Dugan was an inventive mechanic and brilliant automobile designer. When they were each inspired to follow the trend of becoming costumed crusader, Syl became Star-Spangled Kid and Pat became Stripesy. When they both met and dealt with Nazi saboteurs, they began adventuring together as well as becoming members of Law’s Legionnaires (aka Seven-Soldiers of Victory) and the All-Star Squadron.

Years later on the alternate world of Earth-One, school student  Lucas “Snapper” Carr became an honorary member of the Justice League after helping them defeat Starro the Starfish Conqueror. Later during a battle with the Royal Flush Gang, Snapper as the Joker absorbed radiation from the stars which empowered him. On one occasion, the Key mentally controlled Snapper and used him as a pawn against the League. This tactic failed, yet years later the Key reached out to Snapper once more, offering him technology and an alter ego they could share to obtain revenge against the League which they both felt wronged them. The now disenfranchised Snapper Carr and malevolent.mastermind the Key assumed the alter ego of Star-Tsar, and fought the League until Carr switched sides and his former allies overcame the Key’s snares.

Cosmic counterparts Star-Tsar Snapper and Star-Spangled Kid were each allied with irritable inventors. Although the  counterpart of Stripesy, the Russian superhero known as Starfire/Red Star, never met nor worked with Snapper/Star-Tsar, another star-themed partner on Stat-Tsar-Key did. Because it was a supervillain and a superhero sidekick, the Key and Snapper quickly parted company, the Kid and Stripesy formed a partnership that lasted for years and a friendship that endured for decades.

An analogue to the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy partnership on Earth-One was another stellar superhero and sensational sidekick hundreds of years in the future. This terrific twosome, wealthy technologist Space Ranger and his shape-shifting sidekick a full, defended their future era.

Kara's and the Kids: Supergirls and Stellar Studs

Kara Zor-El began her caped career in secret, training under her famous cousin Kal-El. During this period, she joined the 30th century Legion of Super-Heroes to experience working side-by-side with fellow teens. However, given the special trips she needed to make a thousand years into the future, she was only a part-time member, and so was essentially a loner even after she revealed herself as Supergirl to her new world of Earth-One in her native era.

During the same period of time, Lucas "Snapper" Carr was made an honorary member of the Justice League of America. After years as that team's mascot, he grew disenfranchised at being looked down upon, and she so adopted the stellar powered Star-Tsar. After a brief criminal career, Carr decided that make amends for his actions by becoming a research assistant of S.T.A.R. Lab's Fred Danvers, step-father of Supergirl's alter ego. It was then that she first met Snapper when trying to stop a malfunctioning robot of Superman's he was attempting to repair to help mankind.

Kara Zor-L began her caped career also in secret, though for far longer. This was due to fact that, unlike her counterpart who grew up in Argo City which has survived the destruction of Krypton, she was raised within her Symbioship providing her with an artificial reality creating a simulated Kandor with virtual parents and friends. Now on Earth-Two, she was taught by her adopted father Clark Kent, when was also her cousin Kal-L, and her step-mother Lois Lane Kent. 

Eventually, she revealed herself to the world as Power Girl when joining the Justice Society of America at the same time as time displaced Sylvester Pemberton, known as the Star-Spangled Kid. The Kid would try to impress Kara repeatedly, although his affection would not be returned. However, a friendship would grow between the two in the years together as teammates.

Star-Spangled Striplings

After several years as the mascot of the Justice League of America, Lucas "Snapper" Carr attempted to enter adulthood as his own man. Sadly, he was well-known for his honorary status with the League, which caused others in college and the secular arena to view him as still a kid. Bitter from this experience, he was easily manipulated into adopting the alter ego of Star-Tsar, a costumed identity created by the supervillian known as the Key.

Using stellar energized technology, Snapper and the Key each disguised themselves at certain points as Star-Tsar, who had a few confrontations with the criminal Doctor Light and the combined Justice League. However, Snapper eventually realized the folly of turning to crime, and secretly assisted the League in capturing first the Key and then the true mastermind behind Star-Tsar, the hero turned villain known as the Privateer, aka Mark Shaw. From this point, Carr retired from League affairs and became a research scientist at S.T.A.R. Labs in Florida, assisting Supergirl in Florida.

After jumping ahead several decades from his native time due to a cosmic anomaly, the young superhero known as the Star-Spangled Kid attempted to restart his career using the cosmic rod which fellow superhero Starman developed to channel stellar energy through. This led to his joining the Justice Society, at first being a provisional member alongside Power Girl as one of the "Super Squad" which she formed to combat the evil Brain Wave and Per Degaton. Soon thereafter, Kid created a cosmic converter belt based on the cosmic rod which had even greater versatility in its usage, returning the rod to Starman. After several adventures alongside the Society, the Kid retired from superheroics to resume his private life as Sylvester Pemberton, later using his inheritance to purchase Stellar Studios in Los Angeles and fund the new young superhero team known as Infinity, Inc., which his pal Power Girl also joined.

While Star-Spangled Kid and his former sidekick Stripesy had longer costumed careers than had their Earth-One counterparts Star-Tsar and fellow teen hero Red Star,, their adventures during the 1940's mirrored those of the Space Ranger and his partner Cryll on Earth-One who had more chronicled cases than their Earth-Two counterparts.

Fawcett Fridays: Peak Physique Personas

On parallel planets populated with powerful people, it would at first seem that Peter Cannon and Jack Weston were ordinary. But in fact, each man was extraordinary, accomplishing tremendous feats of physical and psychological strength that far exceed their more common-place contemporaries, and earned the respect of their superpowered peers.

Jack Weston was the first to appear, in 1941 as the costumed crimefighter known as Minute-Man on Earth-S. Left an orphan after first his mother’s passing, followed by his father dying during World War I. Throughout his formative years, Jack was trained in various physical and psychological discipline, each of which he excelled in. Recruited by his guardian General Milton into adopting an alter ego as a One-Man-Army, Jack as Minute-Man battled a wide range of both local criminals and foreign adversaries.

Peter Cannon was an orphan whose parents were medical professional a group of Tibetan monks in the Himalayas from a ravenous disease. In gratitude for this self sacrifice, the monks raised Peter and taught him from ancient scrolls how to unlock his full physical and mental potential. Journeyed to his parents’ native country the United States of America, Peter as the costumes crusader known as the Thunderbolt on Earth-Four. Cannon fought a wide range of both local criminals and foreign adversaries.

While Peter’s femme fatale was the one-shot Egyptian temptress known as Evila, John’s femme fatale was his frequent foil named Illyria, who worked for various countries in the field of espionage, seeking to exploit secrets from the United States. 

The Earth-One and Earth-Two doppelgängers of Minute-Man and Thunderbolt were Star-Tsar and Star Spangled Kid, respectively. While the Kid was himself a child protégée, so much so that he was the leader of a dynamic duo consisting of he and his adult chauffeur, the Tsar was only highly intelligent. That said, Tsar’s alter ego of Snapper Carr was trained by the heroes in the Justice League, of whom he was an honorary member. The Kid had years of experience before joining the Justice Society.

Cannon’s constant companion was Tabu, who motivated him in his constant war against evil. Milton was Weston’s mentor and closest companion, continually spurring on his protégée in his heroic pursuits. While neither were team-players, preferring to work more solo, on occasion Minute-Man worked alongside Captain Marvel and the Crime Crusaders Club, while Thunderbolt operated on occasion with Captain Atom and the Sentinels of Justice.

Boy Sidekicks for Teams of Justice

Lucas Carr was born and raised in the ocean side town of Happy Harbor, where the alien invader Starro launched his conquest of  Earth-One from. Thanks to the lad's accidental discovery of the alien's weakness, lime, the Justice League of America defeated the villain and made Carr an honorary member. He was given a flying hot rod designed by the League, and over the years Snapper proved valuable more than once in assisting his teammates.

Sylvester Pemberton was the child heir to his father's fortune when he became inspired to adopt a stellar uniform and alter ego. When he was joined by his future chauffeur Pat Dugan, the pair became the dynamic duo known as Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy. Dugan designed for them their flying car, the Star Rocket Racer. Soon after, they were both charter members of the Seven Soldiers of Victory.

Snapper fell into some bad association, first duped by a disguised Joker into revealing the JLA's cave headquarters and later assisting the Key in developing the villain Star-Tsar, Using stellar based technology, Snapper as Star-Tsar was a recurring adversary of the League, although his ultimate intention was to supplant the schemes of Key and another rogue named Mark Shaw, which with the League he was able to accomplish. Snapper eventually reconciled with the team once more.

Star-Spangled Kid was eventually liberated with fellow Soldiers from ancient eras they had been exiled, returning to the 20th century where he was given Starman's Cosmic Rod to embark on a new career, joining the Justice Society of America. He created a Cosmic Converter Belt that gave him star-based powers similar to technology created by Earth-One's Evil Star. Syl eventually created a new persona as Skyman with his new team, Infinity Inc. which operated out of Stellar Studios, once owned by Guy Pompton aka Earth-Two's Evil-Star.

Star-Tsar would later be revived by a coworker of Snapper, who stole Carr’s super-suit to use for his own crimes, before this new Tsar was defeated by Green Arrow. Around the same time, Stripesy’s counterpart on Snapper’s Earth, Leonid Kosar, became the Soviet Union’s sole superhero Starfire and later Red Star, Kosar and Carr never had opportunity to meet as had Dugan and Pemberton, although another stellar sentinel on the second Star-Tsar/Key.

Swell Rides in the Sky: Enjoy the View!

Fantasy is unleashed in comic books, allowing writers and artists to unleash their vivid imaginations in ways unimagined in live or even cartoon media. Such was the case in the 40's and again in the 70's, when boy heroes and their older red-haired companions came upon a pair of flying cars that could not exist outside a Back-to-the-Future flick.

Boy genius turned costumed hero Sylvester (the Star-Spangled Kid) Pemberton enlisted the aid of his chauffeur/mechanic Pat (Stripesy) Dugan to build for him a unique form of transportation. Matching the lad's sky-high expectations, Pat built the Star-Rocket Racer, and history was born. The pair used the vehicle throughout the duration of their partnership until lost in time for decades. When the Kid returned, he would use the Racer once more as the chief mode of transportation for his newest team of youths, Infinity Inc of Earth-Two.

Earth-One's Snapper Carr was an honorary member of the newly formed Justice League of America, helping to assist them against the evil Starro. As a gift to the lad, the League designed a special device which allowed Snapper's Hot Rod to fly..

There were also the Whiz Wagon piloted by the Newsboy Legion of Earth-One and the Atomobile piloted by the Boy Commandos of Earth-Two. Each of these vehicles could traverse even more diverse environments than either Snapper’s Hot Rod or Sylvester’s Star-Rocket Racer.