Title character of comic book series published by
Marvel Comics and later picked up and published by
First Comics. The character was created, written,
and drawn by
Jim Starlin.
Vanth Dreadstar was born on an ice planet in the
Milky Way galaxy. When his parents were killed by
the largest natural predator on the planet, the huge
white ice bears, young Vanth fled for his life.
Becoming lost, Vanth stumbled across a glowing sword.
The sword was actually an intelligent entity of
immense power, whose physical manifestation was the
sword. The sword bonded with Vanth, allowing him the
ability to shoot bolts of energy from it, rapid healing,
to create energy barriers, and the ability to learn
languages instantly. When Dreadstar was not using the
sword, it disappeared to be summoned when Vanth wanted
it.
Dreadstar took his anger over his family's death at the
hands of the ice bears out on all the remaining bears,
killing the entire species over time. This made him
very unpopular with the people on his planet, as the
bears were their primary food source. Dreadstar fled
the planet and became embroiled in an interstellar
war. The war was ended with his help, when he and his
companions found and were tricked into blowing a mystic horn which effectively
blew up the Milky Way galaxy.
Vanth and the wizard that
had tricked him survived, being frozen in a force sphere
for centuries as they traveled between the defunct
Milky Way galaxy and the Emperical Galaxy. There Vanth
killed the wizard and settled down to live among a race
of gentle cat people. He met and fell in love with
a woman and planned to live out his days as a farmer,
until his planet was invaded by the Empire that ruled
the galaxy. The Empire was in a struggle with the
Church of the Instrumentality for control of the galaxy.
As the planet was controlled by the church and used
as a farming planet, the Empire killed all of the cat
people except one, a gentle cat-man named Oedi. They
also killed Dreadstar's wife. Dreadstar, Oedi, a former
priest of the Church, Syzygy, and a blind telepath
named Willow began a campaign to defeat these two
powers.
The comic was originally part of the Epic line of
comics. Epic was Marvel Comics first attempt at more
adult fare. The whole line ended poorly, and Dreadstar
was shifted to a more mainstream comic for a time,
publishing reprints of the original run in Epic. Later,
Dreadstar was resurrected by First Comics and had another
run. Peter David even wrote some on the series for
a time.