Best Character Ever 14: Stardust the Super Wizard

Most of my focus on Best Character Ever so far has been on childhood favorites. This time I picked a character I only discovered in recent years, albeit one that existed nearly forty years before I was born.

He throws that head a bit later.

Stardust was known as The Super-Wizard, although creator Fletcher Hanks never really bothered to stop and explain why. Of course, Hanks rarely stopped to explain much of anything for his character. Instead Stardust is a crazed tale of a being from outer space come to Earth to unleash his own insane brand of justice to criminals. He often did so in ways that made the Spectre seem tame in comparison.

He really puts the squeeze on
criminals!

Stardust isn’t a character build around great character development or even competent storytelling. He’s a character built around pure, unadulterated insanity from an era where comics had little or no rules.

His adventures were collected in recent years by two Fantagraphics anthologies I Shall Destroy All The Civilized Planets!and You Shall Die By Your Own Evil Creation!, both of which come highly recommended for their entertainment value. Together they pretty much collect every Stardust story, alongside some of the other oddball creations Fletcher Hanks brought to comicdom. 

In the aftermath of their release, Stardust’s profile has certainly risen, just out of the character's sheer craziness. He may be the most well known independent Golden Age character in the modern era outside Black Terror and Daredevil.

Whatever the case, he’s a great character, one that will make an appearance in a future volume of Living Legends, late in the upcoming volume two.