[3] The Star Brand was created by Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Jim Shooter to be the flagship series of the New Universe line.
Jim Shooter's run on Star Brand was unique in that, unlike nearly every other superhero comic up to that time, it was not told from omniscient point-of-view, and instead showed only Ken Connell's firsthand experiences.
Shortly after, a meeting between Byrne, Mackie, and DP 7 writer Mark Gruenwald was held to come up with a plot device to raise interest in the New Universe.
Following this issue, Ken Connell was reduced to a supporting character, and the series became a more generalized account of the effects of the Star Brand on humankind.
What this actually means in execution varies with each depiction, though it usually includes the traditional super-powers of flight, invulnerability, super-strength and energy blasts.
Immediately the Brand, unchecked by a higher intelligence, released a huge amount of force in a single blast, bombarding the Earth with mutating energy endowing a small percentage of all living humans with various paranormal traits and abilities, an occurrence called the White Event.
[11] He later used them in the Starblast limited series and crossover which ended when The Stranger used the Star Brand to move the Earth of the New Universe into orbit around his labworld.
The Star Brand was supposedly artificially created by a long-dead alien race as a tool that confers amazing powers to its wielder.
[12] The purpose of the Star Brand glyph (tattoo) is to help the transition of a world through the inevitable paradigm shift caused when it comes into contact with a web of strange matter, called "newuniversal structure", wherein normal physical laws operate differently.
Ken's life is a relatively normal one where the most dangerous thing about it is that the city's sheriff hates him because he is dating his daughter, Madeline Felix.
Ken wakes to find Madeline dead beside him, burned to death when the White Event granted him the star brand.
College student Kevin Connor receives the brand from a flawed White Event, causing him to be selected rather than a qualified candidate.
[15] Alongside Ex Nihilo, Abyss, and Nightmask, Star Brand joins the Avengers when they leave Earth to fight the Builders.
[16] He and several other Avengers were captured, but with the encouragement of the Black Widow Star Brand proved instrumental in destroying the Builder fleet above the Kree homeworld of Hala.
[17] After the conclusion of the Builder conflict and the defeat of Thanos on Earth, Captain America decided to keep both Nightmask and Star Brand as members of the Avengers.
Kevin Connor later becomes frenzied and attacks Ghost Rider in South Africa, mistakenly believing that the youth is seeking to unearth an ancient Celestial that was buried there many years ago.
He is apparently killed by Ghost Rider's Penance Stare, leaving the Star Brand symbol burned into the ground.
In Jason Aaron's run on Avengers (2018), months after Kevin Connor's death, the Star Brand travel far from the planet Earth in response to the presence of a female human name Suzanne Selby.
This incident and Suzanne's subsequent rampage caught the attention of both the Shi'ar Majestor Gladiator and three former Heralds of Galactus, who intended to investigate the new threat.
Brandy then aided her teammate Echo to defeat Power Princess and destroyed the source of the reality warp, President Coulson's Pandemonium Cube.
[29] In Fantastic Four #572 (2009), one of "The Council", an interdimensional think-tank and activist group composed entirely of parallel versions of Reed Richards, wields the Star Brand.
[30][31] In prehistoric times, the Star Brand fell from space, killing all the dinosaurs, and selected its first bearer, a Tyrannosaurus who would go on to protect earth from threats.
He later came together with Agamotto, Lady Phoenix, Odin, and prehistoric versions of Black Panther, Ghost Rider, and Iron Fist.