BIOGRAPHY - Page 3
The Guardians of the Galaxy pursued Korvac for a time, but despite several encounters they were unable to catch him. In their last encounter, he transported away before their eyes, but left a trace that Martinex could follow, back into the past. Given when and where he arrived in history, the Guardians concluded that Korvac intended to alter the timeline by killing the teenaged Vance Astrovik back in the 21st century. Starhawk and the Guardians arranged to follow Korvac back in time by reworking Drydock’s warp engines for time travel. They arrived in orbit around Earth but were in uncomfortably close contact with the S.H.I.E.L.D. space station. This provoked a visit from the Avengers and, fortunately, Thor and Captain America quickly vouched for the new arrivals. The Guardians got the local heroes up to speed about their mission, and the threat they faced. [Avengers (1st series) #167]
The Avengers were willing to assist the Guardians as they prepared for Korvac’s next move, setting them up in a rented house in Saugerties, New York near Vance Astrovik’s childhood home. However, Starhawk’s awareness told him they now faced a far greater threat than a mere cyborg, and he departed in secret to face it. In the suburbs of Forest Hills Gardens, the slightly less conspicuous Aleta approached an unassuming house. She met Michael Korvac, who had made his home there with his wife Carina. Korvac’s journey through time had brought him to the world-
ship of Galactus before Earth, and the cyborg plugged his electronic probe into the cosmic computers of the World-Eater. Michael Korvac received god-like power from interfacing with Galactus’ system, allowing him to rebuild his broken body and assume fantastic cosmic powers. Michael took up residence on Earth while he crafted a plan to re-write the nature of reality itself into a utopia under his control and direction. He began strategically by working to make himself invisible and undetectable to all the higher cosmic powers of the universe, from Galactus to Eternity.
All of this Stakar was aware of as the One-Who-Knows, and he sought to prevent it by confronting Michael earlier than he might have expected. Korvac was far calmer and more rational in this incarnation than he was as the machine-man, but he sadly saw no way to avoid conflict. Starhawk and the Enemy engaged in combat across multiple planes of existence inside that modern suburban home. Korvac’s power to bend reality pitted him against Starhawk physically, against Aleta spiritually and against his very mind as he existed as the One-Who-Knows. In time, 
however, inevitably the man, the woman, the mind, the very reality of the being known as Starhawk crumbled before Michael’s power. With the raw power he unleashed, the Enemy obliterated Starhawk, reducing him to base substance and then rending him further apart. Still, Michael’s next move was to fully restore his foe, so that Stakar’s absence wasn’t noted by the Guardians. Instead, he subtly altered Starhawk’s mind and senses, leaving him unable to detect Michael by any means and convinced the Guardians’ current interpretation of Korvac’s schemes was correct. [Avengers (1st series) #168]
With that, Starhawk returned to the Guardians, unaware of what the One-Who-Knows no longer knew. They began their stakeout of young Vance Astrovik in Saugerties. Starhawk remained convinced that Korvac would target Astrovik, keeping the Guardians’ focus on this threat and away from Michael’s growing influence on the subtle structure of reality. [Avengers (1st series) #170, 173] In time, however, the Avengers were independently alerted to the growing threat of “The Enemy” from another source. Their old foe the Collector was one of the Elders of the Universe, gifted with the Power Primordial and a precognitive insight that warned him eons ago of the coming of the Enemy. The Collector attempted to capture the Avengers and hold them safe in his collection in advance of the Enemy’s first strike on the cosmic hierarchy. When they escaped his containment pods, the Collector was on the verge of revealing the Enemy’s true nature to the Avengers when Michael struck him down with a bolt from nowhere. [Avengers (1st series) #174]
The Avengers knew of no connection between Korvac and the Enemy, but they asked Starhawk to spare time from his own mission to aid in the search for the Enemy. While Stakar was still compelled to believe Korvac was the most imminent threat, he was convinced to aid the Avengers out of graciousness for the support provided to the Guardians. Many Avengers searched for signs of the Enemy using a variety of senses, devices and awareness, including Captain and Ms. 
Marvel, Jocasta, Yellowjacket, Moondragon, Iron Man and others. Individually, several Avengers detected small traces or ripple effects left over from Starhawk and Michael’s confrontation in Forest Hills Gardens. At Moondragon’s direction, the traces were brought together and successfully pointed at Michael’s residence. Even so, the Avengers were collectively daunted by the fact that, of all their detectives, Starhawk found nothing at all despite his heightened awareness.
Starhawk and the Avengers traveled out to Forest Hills Gardens, unsure what they expected to find. They met Michael and Carina at their door and asked for permission to look around. Michael chose to bluff, confident the Avengers would find no trace of his cosmic power. After a search of the home with psychic, cosmic and cybernetic senses of various kinds, the Avengers’ chairman Iron Man grew frustrated with their lack of results. However, Starhawk was even more frustrated, and he finally asked who the Avengers had been talking to for the last few minutes. Just as Korvac intended, Starhawk could no longer perceive Michael in any way, even in his form as an 
unassuming suburbanite. As it slowly dawned on the Avengers whom they were facing, the Enemy revealed himself. The battle that followed was horribly one-sided, even as the other Guardians joined the Avengers and Starhawk in the fray. The fight alone was enough to draw the attention of the cosmic powers, and cause Carina’s faith in Michael to waiver. Korvac was not beaten by Starhawk and his allies… he defeated himself by willing his own death in the face of his mission’s failure and the loss of his love. [Avengers (1st series) #175-177]
As roundabout as it was, the Guardians of the Galaxy were thankful to the Avengers for their help defeating Korvac, and the honorary membership bestowed upon them in this time period. It took some time for the Guardians to complete their repairs to Drydock in order to leave the 21st century and return home. [Avengers (1st series) #181] As the Guardians prepared to depart, Starhawk detected an immense disturbance in the local fabric of space. Fearing Korvac’s return, he sought out Ben Grimm at the Baxter Building, who was also searching for the “disturbance”… a golden-skinned, cosmically-powered woman answerable only to “Her.” Her sought her genetically-perfect mate, a previous creature birthed by her creators the Enclave once known as “Him,” and she brusquely abducted the Thing’s girlfriend Alicia Masters because of her past encounter with the being who would become Adam Warlock. Stakar agreed to help the Thing seek out the missing women.
When they tracked down Her, Alicia and Her’s self-proclaimed acolyte Moondragon in the park, however, Her continued to aggressively repel interference in her chosen task. Her’s biostellar blasts kept Starhawk dodging while she ensnared Ben Grimm using molecular manipulation of the sidewalk. Stakar attempted to intercept Her before the trio boarded Moondragon’s spaceship to depart the Earth, but getting close was a mistake and Her deposited him to the bottom of the Hudson River. Starhawk and the Thing returned to the Baxter Building and flew a Skrull saucer out to follow them.
On the other side of Earth’s orbit, they discovered Her’s entourage aboard the asteroid habitat of the High Evolutionary, one-time mentor to Adam Warlock. Starhawk engaged with Her again, but their aerial dogfighting ended when Aleta emerged from within him. The Arcturian Reaver favored a more forcible kind of combat and tackled Her physically. Alicia Masters encouraged peace 
between everyone, and Stakar and Aleta soon joined Her in her quest. When she discovered Adam Warlock’s grave on Counter-Earth, Her’s cosmic might was enough to restore his wounds and bring life back into his body. However, Adam’s soul was no longer present and what she restored was nothing but an empty shell. Remorsefully, she returned him to his rest as Starhawk and the others departed back for True-Earth. [Marvel Two-in-One #61-63]
[Note: In the real world, it would be another fifteen years before Her was revealed as Starhawk’s mother. Stakar would not learn his origins until then, and the conception took place in an alternate future for this version of Her. So while it makes sense their connection was not remarked upon here, it remains surreal how Her repeatedly referred to her son Stakar as an inferior genetic specimen when her entire mission in life at the time was to procreate.]
The Guardians of the Galaxy had a few last loose ends to tie up before leaving for the 31st century. Starhawk and the Guardians had an encounter with Spider-Man as they prevented an attack on Drydock and covered up traces of their technology in the present. [Marvel Team-Up (1st series) #86] They also dealt with the temporal paradox which occurred when Major Vance Astro confronted his young self to prevent his thousand years of isolation as an astronaut. As the One-Who-Knows knew from long, bitter experience, this only resulted in an alternate timeline where young Vance’s telekinetic powers emerged earlier in life and had no effect on the Major’s own timeline. [Marvel Two-in-One #69]
The Guardians returned to the future for some time before Starhawk was suddenly struck down by a change in his senses. As the One-Who-Knows, he had just been aware of an upcoming conflict with Michael Korvac when his knowledge shut down. His only conclusion was that their very reality might cease to exist in a few hours, and Korvac was responsible. Starhawk and the 
Guardians prepared Drydock to return to the moment of Korvac’s apparent death to determine what actually happened to him after that. On their way through time to that temporal nexus, Stakar’s remaining knowledge gleaned the Fantastic Four might be able to help them preserve the timeline. So, Drydock materialized in the timeline a few years after their last encounter with Korvac, at a point where the Fantastic Four had recently dealt with a rogue timeline of their own.
Reed Richards aided Stakar and Martinex in creating a sub-photonic spectro-analyzer adapted to Korvac’s power signature. They learned that Korvac escaped his own death by casting his mind into a bundle of his power, leaving his body moments before his physical death. That bundle was leapfrogging forward through time along his ancestral line, until it ultimately would repower the real Michael Korvac in the 31st century. The Guardians and the Fantastic Four first fought Jaboa Murphy in Australia as she became possessed by her descendant’s mind and power, until Korvac left her to move forward in time again. Around the 25th and 26th centuries, the Guardians made two more stops fighting Korvac’s powered ancestors Varley and Marshach, but each time they failed to contain Korvac’s essence before it moved on.
Roughly forty years before their own present, the Guardians finally arrived at the day of Michael 
Korvac’s birth. Korvac’s father Jordan carried the power now and was determined to protect his unborn son from the Guardians. Jordan Korvac delayed the Guardians long enough for Michael to be born. He instantly became self-aware, killing his own father as he claimed the power as his birthright. Fortunately, Krugarr the Sorcerer Supreme sensed the sudden power of Michael Korvac. He and his mentor Stephen Strange, the Ancient One, magically contained the infant Korvac and helped the Guardians return him to Galactus, who finally reclaimed his stolen power. Several of the Guardians considered murdering the infant Korvac rather than letting him become the monster they knew, but Aleta stepped forward and refused to let anyone harm an innocent for what they might do. Michael was returned to his grieving mother, though she swore he would be raised knowing the Guardians were responsible for the death of his father.
Aleta had been absent from the physical world for some time, grieving for her children and allowing Stakar to remain in control of their shared form more often than not. When they had a 
moment of downtime with her after the conflict with Korvac, though, the Guardians approached Aleta with an offer. Her presence among them had always been so transient, she had never formally accepted membership in the team. The warm and nurturing Aleta was a far more pleasant companion that aloof and brooding Stakar, and the Guardians eagerly provided her with a Guardians’ Star, their official badge connected to the ship’s comms and teleport relay for when she was among them. Aleta graciously accepted their proposal. [Korvac Quest crossover]