Darkstars issue #4 written by Michael Jan Friedman, penciled by Travis Charest, inked by Scott Hanna, lettered by Bob Pinaha, and colored by Julianna Ferriter.  The Editor to the Stars was Brian Augustyn and the Stellar Consultant was Robert Greenberger.  The cover date is January 1993 and according to Mikes Amazing World of Comics the release date was December 1, 1992.

       “Star Wars” begins with Evil Star and the starlings attacking the city in hopes of luring Green Lantern out.  The police arrive to stop the mayhem but to no avail.  Flint attacks one of the starlings after some officers are killed.  Colos and Mo arrive to face Evil Star.  All Evil Star cares about is that the two are not Green Lanterns.  Evil Star attacks Colos when he attempts to convince Evil Star to surrender.  Evil Star orders the starlings to attack the Darkstars as they are not worthy of his attention.  Suddenly Evil Star has a crisis of conscience and questions what is it that he is doing and leaves to give himself some time to think leaving the Darkstars confused.  Colos orders his ship’s computer to analyze what just happened in hopes of gaining some important Intel.

            Now we catch up with Carla.  She is leaving a taxi but is soon kidnapped by two goons.

            The police in attempting to learn about what is going on are attacked by Evil Star who is just looking for some time to think.  The Darkstars continue their pursuit of Evil Star and his starlings.  They determine that the starlings are headed for an abandoned junkyard which gives Colos time to get the data he requested from his ship’s computers.  Flint however goes rogue and attacks Evil Star.  He is attacked and grabbed by the starlings,  prompting Colos to intervene.  He attacks and kills the starlings but is attacked himself by Evil Star.  The Darkstars withdraw but are pursued themselves by the starlings.  Colos surmises that the starlings are just trying to scare the Darkstars off and when they fly off the starlings stop their pursuit.

            Colos scolds Flint for his reckless actions.  Colos declares himself as the one who calls the shots and Flint is not to go off on his own again.  Flint agrees saying that he got carried away.  After this the three settle down to watch and wait.

            We get an interlude in deep space.  We see the Controllers for the first time.  They approach Administrator Jeddigar in order to answer some questions.  They are contemplating the distribution of Darkstar forces in sectors two through six.  Their concern is that they are venturing too far from the sphere of the Controllers concerns.  The administrator just says that this was not a question.  The Controllers admit that they are not accustomed to verbal communication.  The administrator then responds by saying the the sphere of influence the Controllers are talking about is not far enough to adequately protect them.  The Controllers then question Colos’s posting on Earth saying that they do not see the relevance of this position.  Jeddigar answers that Earth is extremely relevant.  Earth has been tagged by an organization in Sector Four.  The Controllers insist that Colos should then be replaced as he has had problems in the past so he should not be in such and important post.  Jeddigar announces that he alone makes the decisions.  Jeddigar ends the conversation saying that he has a staff meeting.  The Controllers on leaving complain about the administrators arrogance.  They decide to wait for a confrontation but admit that sometime they must confront and remove Jeddigar because in time he can become a greater threat to the Controllers.

            Back on Earth, Carla slowly wakes up from the chloroform and discovers that she has been kidnapped by Pappas.  Pappas kidnapped her because in his mind, she is still his lawyer and he just wants Carla to hear him out.  He hopes to buy Carla’s services as his lawyer.  Carla answers by throwing a glass of wine at Pappas.  Pappas says that she will be sorry for her actions.

            Back at the junkyard Evil Star and the starlings take off prompting the Darkstars to prepare to engage.  Colos finally gets the information he ordered from his ship’s computer.  It seems that the brainwave restrictor used on Evil Star was a prototype that actually spurred unconscious brain activity.  The restrictor allowed Evil Star to unknowingly awaken the starlings to steal the Star-Brand.  This seems to answer why Evil Star was running from the starlings in the beginning as well as his current actions.  Consciously he is terrified of the starlings and as a result he is experiencing an internal struggle for control.  Colos leads the Darkstars to follow Evil Star but only to distract him from a narrowcast from his ship’s computer using the same frequency of the brainwave restrictor.  Colos plans to flood Evil Star’s mind with six million reminders of his genocidal crimes.  This brings the internal conflict in Evil Star’s mind to a head and makes Evil Star to fall into unconsciousness.  Colos removes the Star-Brand and the starlings go inactive.  Colos now plans to melt a dense metal down with their masers and mold it around the starlings to prevent Evil Star’s mental commands from reaching them.

            We now find Carla in Pappas’s limousine.  He threatens that if she does not shut up, he will do worse to her that Pedro Montoya, the man Pappas was accused of killing.  If she does shut up she will live and maybe even like where she is going.

            It was good to see Colos use intelligence in defeating Evil Star.  Instead of just fighting him which he learns is next to impossible, he formulates a strategy based on the Intel he was able to discover about Evil Star and win the day with this strategy.

            We get our first look at the Controllers.  They are pink just like the Guardians of the Universe but instead of being short like I am used to seeing the Guardians,they are normal sized.  They appear to have turned over complete command to this Administrator Jeddigar.  A man that they even admit to not liking or trusting.  We still see that the Controllers are more concerned about their own welfare than anything else and the Darkstars were created not to police the Universe but instead protect the Controllers and their interests.  I personally do not see much to like about this people.

            We do get more Carla in this issue and her arc is the continuing story to be looked at next issue.  I give this issue a 4 out of 5 Power Rings.  It was intelligent and action packed at the same time.

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