Through these flashbacks, the development of these 113 Specials is shown, starting with the government's monitoring and handling of the events, to the manifestation of their powers, to the impact of these abilities on the afflicted children and the world around them.

Some of the Specials use their powers for the good of the world, others for personal benefit and fame, while others simply wish to forget about them and live a normal life.

It emerges that Maas has been manipulating "Patriot" (the alter ego of Jason Miller) to kill other Specials so her own power would be increased.

But after Randy Fisk wins the Presidency, elements in the U.S. government, seeing the Specials as a threat to their power, plot to assassinate the remaining few.

It also grants everyone limited telepathy, bringing an end to all wars, violence, and strife as people become aware of the thoughts and feelings of those they had previously viewed as their enemies.

At first, the Specials possessed varying levels of power, ranging from the clearly superhuman, such as Matthew Bright and Jason Miller, to almost negligible abilities like being invisible when not in direct sunlight.

The first Rising Stars spin-off, a three-issue miniseries, written by Fiona Avery, penciled by Dan Jurgens and published in Feb–Apr 2003, is about Matthew Bright's rookie years as a police officer in the NYPD under the name Brendan Miller, after he left Pederson.

The five-issue miniseries Rising Stars: Untouchable features Laurel Darkhaven, a Special who worked for the CIA as an assassin.

[4] In 2016, MGM optioned Rising Stars, with Straczynski slated to write the script and Alex Gartner and Richard Suckle to produce for Atlas Entertainment.

The series has been described as one of the comic book series created in the wake of works such as Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons Watchmen that "heeded [their] call to reframe and reformulate the tale of the superhero", drawing from noir genre and portraying more complex and less ideal superheroes.

[6] The TV show Heroes that debuted in 2006 has been described as having a very similar setting, which led to some discussion of whether it was plagiarizing ideas from the Rising Stars.

Heroes creator, Tim Kring, addressed this directly by stating that he has never read Rising Stars, and that he purposefully refused to familiarize himself with a number of superhero-related works to avoid such accusations of improper inspiration.