Suicide Squad’s Project Starfish and villain Starro, explained


For fans of eagle-eyed comics, previews for Suicide squad I had the evil writing on the wall from the start. There were flashes of enemy soldiers with strange covers on their faces, and a giant, tentacle-like foot crushing a car. Oh, and a full view of a “kaiju” villain on a background monitor screen.

And with the release of Suicide squad, Amanda Waller’s mission for Task Force X becomes crystal clear: Destroy everything related to a mysterious “Project Starfish”.

[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for The Suicide Squad]

Or to be more specific, destroy the alien titan the Thinker calls Starro the Conqueror.

Starro is not the jolly invention of screenwriter / director James Gunn. The marine space creature has a long history in the comics, and an even stranger place in today’s DC universe. So let’s talk about Starro the Conqueror.

Who is Starro the Conqueror?

Green Lantern, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, and Flash battle Starro, a giant starfish with a central eye on the cover of The Brave and the Bold # 28 (1960).

Image: Mike Sekowsky, Murphy Anderson, Jack Adler / DC Comics

To be frank: Starro is a giant psychic starfish from space who can fire lasers from his tentacles. He was the first villain the Justice League of America fought against, back in the 1960s. The brave and the brave # 28.

At the time, DC Comics was in the process of updating many of its lesser-known characters for a new generation of young people; these days, we would definitely call it a “reboot”. The Justice League itself was simply a reimagining of the atomic age of DC’s WWII super-team, the Justice Society. The team’s immediate popularity convinced rival upstart comic book publisher Timely Comics to try out their own super-team, The Fantastic Four, kicking off the Marvel revolution.

So yes, the Avengers had Loki, and the Justice League had a giant psychic starfish from space.

What is Project Starfish?

Starro and an American astronaut in The Suicide Squad

Image: Warner Bros. Pictures

Project Starfish is a unique build for Suicide squadand an attempt to weaponize Starro’s scariest superpower. Held in the South American island nation of Corto Maltese, and overseen by the Thinker, the project hopes to weaponize a version discovered by Starro and brought to Earth by American astronauts sometime after the end of the Cold War. This version of Starro is almost exactly like the one from the comics, so the question remains …

What are Starro’s powers?

As a giant space starfish, or Star Conqueror, Starro can fly unassisted through vast interstellar distances, fire lasers from the tips of his arms, absorb energy (including that of a nuclear bomb at point blank range), regenerate limbs, and in turn some comics, resize to grow bigger or smaller for convenience.

Image: Brian Bolland, Anthony Tollin / DC Comics

But later versions of Starro have really brought his psychic powers to light, making him something of an enemy of cosmic horror, as he is a large starfish that can kill him with a laser. Starro can generate tiny duplicates with which he shares a psychic bond, and once those duplicates have come into contact with another sentient being, they take full control of his mind.

Starro spores can be hidden under clothing as they pilot their hosts and pretend nothing is wrong, but when things run out and hiding is no longer a priority, you get the classic spooky iconography of Starro: Dozens of superheroes with a starfish stuck in the head. his central eye without blinking looking with an alien hatred.

Starro’s mind control abilities carry over to Suicide squad, with the Titan unleashing mind control hell during a rampage on Corto Maltese. The Tinkerer makes sure to tell Bloodsport that once a person has been Starro’d, there is basically a living corpse, giving him all the freedom to shoot them in the head like zombies. We mention Suicide squad it’s a bleak comedy?

What is Starro like in current DC comics?

Jarro, who is a small blue starfish from space with a pink border and a central eye, shares a hug with Batman, in Justice League # 29, DC Comics (2019).

Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Bruno Redondo / DC Comics

I’m really glad you asked. Right now Starro is presumed dead, but the Justice League managed to rescue a small polyp from him; a Starro clone baby. They keep it in a jar and called it Jug.

He thinks Batman is his father.


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