POWER (Rising Stars, Book 2)
Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Published by Image Comics (June, 2002)
Available at Amazon

In Rising Stars, Volume 2 J. Michael Straczynski continues the tale of The Specials, 113 humans born with extraordinary powers. The specials wage war, not only on each other, but on the rest of the world as well in this epic story of the struggles of the real world against extra-ordinary power.

ALL 24 ISSUES IN ONE VOLUME:

RISING STARS (Hard Cover)
Written by J. Michael Straczynski,
Art: Keu Cha and Brent Anderson
Publisher: Image Comics (June, 2005)
Available at Amazon

From the creator of Babylon 5 and Jeremiah comes the greatest superhero epic in recent years! J. Michael Straczynski and a team of the best and brightest artistic talents in the industry unite to tell the saga of 113 strangers united by one event they will never forget. This super-hero tour-de-force is collected, beginning to end, in one massive bookshelf volume. Follow the super-powered "Pederson Specials" as they grow up, live, love, die, and ultimately try to save the world. One of the greatest comic series ever is now available for your bookshelf! 624 pages

Rising Stars is a comic book series by J. Michael Straczynski about 113 children (called specials) who are born with special abilities following a mysterious light in the sky. The comic explores how a society may react to the introduction of superpowers, and how those specials may react towards society and themselves. Rising Stars was one of the first comics produced under JMS's own Joe's Comics imprint for Top Cow.

THE STORY
The story is narrated by the last living special in the future, Poet. The story starts when the specials are all grown up, but it constantly flashes back to when they were kids. Through these flashbacks it shows the development of these 113 specials, starting with the government's monitoring and handling of the events, to the manifestation of the powers, to the impact of the abilities on the afflicted children and the world. Some of the specials use their powers for the good of the world, others for personal benefit and fame, whilst others simply wish to forget about them and live a normal life.

HISTORY
The comic was published monthly at first by Top Cow / Image Comics, and then under the Joe's Comics imprint. Within a few months, however, there were unscheduled artist changes and unexplained delays by Top Cow in shipping the comics - sometimes lasting months.

The comic itself came to an unexpected halt after issue 21 due to internal arguments between JMS and Top Cow. JMS claimed he was cut out of the loop on the potential Rising Stars movie. After communication broke down between them, he held back the scripts for the last three issues, and the entire comic was put on hold. In addition to an apology for the way JMS was treated in regards to the possible film, Top Cow relented by giving JMS the full rights to an anthology comic he had written for them, Dream Police (which will now be published by Marvel Comics), as well as the rights to the name and logo for the Joe's Comics imprint.

The last issue of Rising Stars was published in March 2005. During the intervening time, JMS has since gone on to write a similarly themed comic for Marvel Comics, Supreme Power.

1. Matthew Bright - Police officer - Flight, strength.
2. Elizabeth Chandra - Former model - Beauty, strength.
3. Randy Fisk (Ravenshadow) - Artist - Flight, strength, can see things nobody else can.
4. Stephanie Maas (Critical Maas) - Multiple personality with strength, flight, telepathic mind control over Specials she has been in physical contact with, broadcast telepathy.
5. Jason Miller (Formerly Patriot, before that Flagg) - Formerly masked corporate superhero employed by NexusCorp, now a vigilante - Flight, strength
6. Jerry Montrose (Pyre) - Control of fire, flight.
7. Paula Rodriquez - Singer - Telepathic singing that can only be described as beautiful.
8. John Simon (Poet) - Poet and writer, but not a very popular one - Has a knack with electronics, can avoid security systems and is sensitive to electrical impulses. Also, the force that created the Specials resides in him, making him the most powerful of all the Specials.
9. Willie Smith - Flight, strength, can feel the location of other Specials.
10. Laurel Darkhaven - Telekinetic Government assassin that pinched the carotid artery of her victims.
11. Joshua Kane (Sanctuary) - Televangelist - Levitation, body illuminates, energy absorbtion. Hermaphroditic, shapeshifts between completely male and completely female. The powers are amplified in the female form.
12. Lionel Zerb - Seer of the dead.
13. Cathy Jean - Can resurrect the dead.
14. Brody Kempler - Supergenius - Inventor
15. Clarence Mack (Dreamwalker) - Psychologist - Telepathically visits other people's dreams
16. Peter Dawson - Invulnerable - a microthin shield protects his body from all injury and sensation; therefore, the only sense he feels is taste, causing him to overeat.
17. Ted Kramer - Flight
18. Lee Jackson - Pyrokinetic
19. Patrick Ferry - Voyeur - Able to disappear into shadows, go anywhere without being noticed

* Rising Stars Vol. 1: Born In Fire (collects #1-8; ISBN 1582401721)
* Rising Stars Vol. 2: Power (collects #9-16; ISBN 1582402264)
* Rising Stars Vol. 3: Fire And Ash (collect #17-24; ISBN 1582404917)
* Rising Stars: Visitations (collects Rising Stars : Perlude and Preview; ISBN 158240268X)
* Rising Stars Hardcover (collects #1-24; ISBN 1582404887)

SPIN-OFFS

Rising Stars: Bright

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

The series' second spin-off, the six-issue miniseries Rising Stars: Voices Of The Dead about Lioena Zerd, is a special who can see dead people, began publication in April 2005. It is again written by Fiona Avery with pencils by Stanz Johnson.

(Source: Wikipedia)

I originally wanted to do a review of J. Michael Stracynski’s comic book, Rising Stars, and the television show The 4400 since they cover the same territory and have basically the same sort of spiritual connections. But as there’s already a review of The 4400 (which is essentially Rising Stars: The TV Series, minus the spandex) I can focus on the comic book.

Rising Stars drew some early comparisons to Watchmen, which was fair to neither it nor Alan Moore’s seminal work. The only valid comparison is that Rising Stars, for its 24 issue run, started in 1999 and didn’t finish until 2005, which sounds like the release schedule I remember Watchmen being under. With three, 8-issue acts, the story feels a little padded (it could’ve been told in 12-16 issues). However, as long-time fans of Stracynski know, he does character-, not necessarily plot-, driven stories (Amazing Spider-man, Babylon 5).

Rising Stars follows the journey of 113 people. A force struck the town of Pederson, Illinois—an event referred to as The Flash—and every in utero baby at the time was affected. Cloistered together, to be studied and for society’s protection, they grew up together. Some became heroes, some criminals, and some tried to be ordinary. The story is about a group of people given gifts, how they touched the world, and how the world touched them.

“The power was different for each of us, formed and shaped by our personalities just as we were shaped by the power.” Poet

What we come to find out is that their energy, the source of their powers, binds them. It was also not inexhaustible: as they use their abilities, they drain that “battery.” However, when one of them dies, that person’s energy is transferred equally to the rest of them. Or, as Poet put it,“We are finite in number and duration.” This is an important aspect of the series, as it provides the motivation behind a lot of the Specials' internecine squabbles, as well as stoking the fears of the rest of the world.

“We’re in a spiritual war, a war of possibilities, one world or another and nothing in-between. Well that war has just come knocking on our front door, son. It’s time to take a side, and that’s just what we’re going to do.” Reverend William Kane

As previously mentioned, the series is made up of three, 8-issue acts. Act I traces the development of the Specials from accepted (albeit suspicious) anomalies to a threat. This is when they suspect that they have a call, that the power that imbued them was conscious at some level, directed, and gave out their gifts with a purpose. During Act II, the Specials wage a war within their ranks. Only through much bloodshed is their higher calling glimpsed and they figure out their purpose: a mission to change the world. As Patriot puts it, “The time for words is over. Time now to make a difference. Time to go to work.” Act III sees them fulfill their mission and what it means to the world.

“We cannot change the world... if we do not begin with ourselves.” Poet

The Specials are “the elect.” The term “elect” is one of those Bible words that signifies a group that has been picked out or chosen. The Church, the world-wide body of people who claim to follow Christ, is sometimes considered the elect. Too often this has led to having the attitude and image of the church as a country club because those that have been elected, or chosen, have forgotten that they have been called for a purpose, not to form a club that keeps “undesirables” out.

More pointedly, the Specials, during the second Act, can’t act as a unified body. Their gifts are squandered in petty bickering, endless divisions, and power brokering. Almost too late do they realize that they have been gathered in order to be sent. The Church, too, needs to be missional, to be a particular people, empowered for the sake of the world. They need to remember that they are filled with God’s power and presence and purpose. They are to work towards a new heaven and new earth, to set an example, and to lead the mission while inviting others to join.

For too long, the Specials had retreated from the world, into their “Special ghetto,” never engaging with the world around them. All this taught them was to fear the world and they had little to no sense of how to relate to it.

The good news was that there was still time for them to fulfill their purpose.

“Free yourself from the burden of my fear... from the concerns of an old man. Look at the world anew.” Dr. Welles

The Specials from Rising Stars, like The 4400, are a perfect picture of the Church. They are to be a force unlike the world has ever seen. We each have our own gifts and an obligation to use them. We can say all we want, talk as good a game as anyone else, but when all is said and done, it is what we do with our gifts that define who we are.

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