Battlestar Galactica: Starbuck 1

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Battlestar Galactica: Starbuck #1 An issue of the Dynamite series.
Issue No.	1
Writer(s)	Tony Lee
Illustrator(s)	{{{illustrator}}}
Penciller(s)
Inker(s)	Eman Casallos
Colorist(s)	Davi Correia (pages); Adriano Lucas (cover)
Letterer(s)	Joshua Cozine
Editor(s)
Collection Design	{{{designer}}}
Cover Artist(s)	Sean Chen
Adaptation of
Published	November 2013
Collects
Collected in	Battlestar Galactica: Starbuck
Reprints
Reprinted as
Pages	{{{pages}}}
ISBN	725130209306
Population	0 Survivors
Special	{{{special}}}
Chronology
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	Battlestar Galactica: Starbuck #1	Battlestar Galactica: Starbuck 2
Purchase
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Finally, the origin of Lt. Starbuck is told by #1 New York Times best-selling author Tony Lee! See how Starbuck became a Viper pilot, his first meeting with Apollo and why Adama treats him like a son - as he pieces together what really happened the night he was orphaned, and the name of the traitor who ordered it...

Plot

The events depicted in this installment take place between 7322 and 7335. Future installments take place in 7346.

Yahren 7322 — Umbra, Caprica

• The attack on Umbra, Caprica is underway as Captain Adama and Tigh from battlestar Rylon engage the Cylon Raiders. While Rylon has scrambled additional Viper, Adama and Tigh on left to melee with the squadrons of enemy fighters.
• During the engagement, Adama informs Tigh that Ila ferried Apollo and Athena to Rylon the moment the basestar appeared over Caprica. When Tigh notes Ila's pallor from the week prior, Adama reveals that Ila is pregnant with a boy, but have not yet decided on a name. Ila wants to name their newest son Zac, while Adama prefers Starbuck.
• Engaging the phalanx of Raiders at 10-to-1 odds, Adama's fighter is shot down over the Forest of Thorns. Before Adama crash-lands, he orders Tigh to return to Rylon for reinforcements.
• Adama extricates himself from his burning Viper's cockpit, only to be attacked by a lone, damaged Cylon Centurion.
• Adama goads the Centurion to kill him, but the Cylon is attacked by a hurt, barefoot boy with a large tree limb.
• The Cylon's left arm dangling at its side, Adama brings his laser pistol to bear and blows off the Centurion's head.
• Adama recovers his ear piece, replying to Tigh's declarations over the communication channel. Adama informs Tigh that a kid saved him, and requests a med-ship for the kid.

Yahren 7322 — Battlestar Rylon

• Rylon's medic speaks to Adama, whose left arm is restrained by a sling, about the boy's condition. Electronic feedback from the Centurion that the boy attacked has affected the boy's frontal lobe. Coupled with the post-traumatic stress, the boy will be an amnesiac at best; a nameless orphan along the three thousand other Umbran children that need homes.
• Adama gives the boy a name: Starbuck. He feels that the boy who saved his life is a fighter, and Adama pledges to find him a home. The doctor signs off on the name and during the conversation Ila's pregnancy comes up, as well as a question of what they'll name his and Ila's boy. Adama has made his decision and agrees with his wife's decision in naming their boy Zac.

Yahren 7328 — Caprica

• At Flight-Major Adama's home, teenagers Athena and Apollo are playing on the couch. Apollo is reenacting a Viper launch, but Athena claims that first-year cadets don't leave the classroom and asks her father to support that statement. She then states that when she's old enough, she'll join the academy in the aim of outranking Apollo.
• Adama's house servant informs Adama that a boy is asking to see him: Starbuck.
• Adama meets Starbuck at the front door. Starbuck asks Adama to sponsor his application to be a Colonial Pilot, as Starbuck hasn't a biological parent to do so. Starbuck didn't want to tell his foster parents until he had spoken to Adama about it.
• Adama notes that he is honored, but strongly believes that the request should come from his adopted father. Starbuck is displeased, noting that "it's not like you owe me your life or anything," and speeds away on his turbocycle.
• Apollo, having observed the conversation from an upper story window with Athena, tells her to stay behind while he pursues Starbuck.
• Back home in "Lower Caprica" in a run-down domicile, Starbuck's foster parents react to Starbuck's conversation with Adama. Starbuck's foster father is livid at Starbuck going behind their backs on the request, but Starbuck counters that the request would have been agreed to, and the conversation would then move towards becoming a farmer—a vocation shared by his foster father's father, and down the line.
• Starbuck's foster mother asks if this decision is prompted by something they did, but Starbuck is adamant that he always wanted to be a Colonial Warrior since the night he saved Adama in the Thorn forest.
• Starbuck's foster father suggests that Starbuck to go for a ride, so that he may discuss with his wife. Starbuck agrees and leaves, encountering Apollo waiting outside the domicile. Apollo is displeased that Starbuck had disrespected Adama. In order to teach him a lesson, Apollo agrees to a turobcycle race. If Starbuck wins, Apollo agrees to convince Adama to sponsor Starbuck, but if Starbuck loses then Starbuck agrees to stick to agro farming and never bother Adama or his family again.
• They head for the dirt track up the side of Mount Colicos for a no holds barred race.
• During the start of the race, Apollo chides Starbuck for not knowing who his father was. Starbuck is enraged, telling the eldest son that were it not for his actions that fateful night, Apollo wouldn't have a father either. Apollo rebukes the comment, noting that "from what I heard, all you did was hit a toaster with a stick."
• Apollo speeds ahead, throwing dirt in Starbuck's face. After insulting Apollo by asking if cheating is something taught at the Academy, Starbuck turns his turbocycle and strikes Apollo's cycle. During this act, a rock hits the side wheel rim and strikes Apollo's forehead.
• Apollo is rendered unconscious on the turbocycle, and Starbuck acts quickly by jumping off his cycle and knocking Apollo off from his and onto the dirt path. Both cycles careen over the cliff and burn.
• Meanwhile, Athena and Adama arrive at Mount Colicos, as Athena has informed her father of Apollo's plan to handle Starbuck in a race. Adama assures her that divulging this to him would be the least of Apollo's problems, and notes that the smoke they've seen could be the result of some accident.
• On the dirt path, Apollo and Starbuck come across Athena and Adama. Apollo and Starbuck have since bonded over their experience, which Apollo informs his father about. After meeting Athena for the first time, Starbuck and the rest enter Adama's transport; Adama has been begrudgingly convinced to sign off on sponsoring Starbuck's Warrior application.

Yahren 7331 — Battlestar Pegasus

• Cadet Starbuck first meets his flight instructor, Lieutenant Wyler, in battlestar Pegasus's hangar bay. Wyler informs Starbuck that it isn't his first time being shadowed by a cadet, and Starbuck shares with Wyler his enthusiasm for flying many Vipers over many years to come. Wyler's imparts that every pilot only ever flies three Vipers: the one he trains in, the one he escapes from, and the one he dies in.
• Wyler introduces Starbuck to fumerellos for the first time, and imparts various bits of wisdom on the impressionable Starbuck in how to deal with women. When pressed, Starbuck admits to an affection for Athena, and that he views her in a different light than other women. Starbuck believes that impressing Athena is in earning more cubits, to which Wyler introduces Starbuck to gambling via pyramid to make "cubits work for you." He then pledges to take the young Starbuck under his wing in various rouge vices, believing that a Warrior is more than just fighting and flying: namely drinking, gambling and girls.

Yahren 7335 — Caprica

• Starbuck celebrates becoming a Colonial Warrior following a ceremony witnessed by Adama, Athena, and Apollo. Apollo wryly notes that while he never doubted that Starbuck would become a warrior, he had doubted that Boomer and Jolly would have made it as well.
• As Starbuck begins talking to Athena—noting that they haven't spoken in a while—Boomer interrupts and asks Starbuck if he had received his orders yet, noting that Jolly was assigned to Galactica. Starbuck replies that all three of the newly minted Warriors have, commenting that it's Apollo's plan to keep them on the straight and narrow.
• Asking after Captain Wyler, Starbuck is informed by Adama about some sorrowful news: Wyler's patrol was ambushed by Cylon Raiders yesterday and no one had survived.
• Starbuck leaves the ceremony to deal with his grief in the only way he knows how: gambling.
• At a chancery frequented by both himself and the late Wyler, Starbuck plays with a man called McKintosh. In the course of the game, McKintosh learns of Starbuck's past, and taunts Starbuck with a tall tale that conflicts with the official story of that night. Claiming to be a truck driver ferrying agro goods from Umbra that night, McKintosh bets a data chip worn around his neck. This data chip is said to contain data that the defense net was disabled, thus allowing the Cylons to attack.
• Despite fellow player Tycho's sentiments about Starbuck being played, Starbuck shows off his winning hand of full pyramid and wins the chip. He shares the remaining cubits from the pot by buying a round for the house, "courtesy of the late Captain Wyler."

Yahren 7335 — Battlestar Galactica

• Returning to Galactica a day later, Starbuck attempts to access the chip, only to find it corrupted.
• Lieutenant Apollo meets up with Starbuck, checking to see if he is all right. Starbuck replies in the affirmative, placing the data chip in a box, under the lid to which features a photo of his foster parents—he notes that it was a shame that his foster parents couldn't make it due to harvest season.
• Apollo offers to take Starbuck on his first patrol and, after gentle ribbing about Starbuck having changed his mind to become a farmer—Starbuck's idea of a nightmare—Starbuck gladly accepts the offer.
• Launching from Galactica, Apollo offers his condolences on Wyler. Starbuck notes that Wyler died exactly as he had expected: in his third of the three Viper that all pilots will ever fly. They then race to the nearby binary star.

Notes

Nods

• Mount Colicos is a nod to John Colicos, the actor who portrayed Baltar in the Original Series.
• Wyler's "three Vipers a pilot flies in" axiom is noted (and originates from) Starbuck's comment in a piece of dialogue from "The Young Lords."
• While the cover of this issue depicts Brie, Athena, Cassiopea and one of the Tucana singers, only Athena appears in this installment.

Errata

• As with other entries in the Dynamite Entertainment comics, a mix of Re-Imagined Series and Original Series terminologies occurs:
  • This includes the use of the word "toaster" to describe a Cylon.
  • The backgrounds of the Viper bay on battlestar Pegasus are those of the hangar deck from the Re-imagined Series.
  • The left shoulder patches on Rycon and Pegasus Warrior uniforms are Galactica emblems; they should be different. This is a common error in most comic book depictions depicting officers and Warriors from other battlestars.
  • The Vipers depicted are visually more in line with the Re-imagined Series Mark II Viper than the Original Series counterpart.
  • Civilians wear contemporary clothing (modern suits with ties, vests, tank tops, red dresses, t-shirts) as opposed to the distinct Egyptian-esque clothing designed by Jean-Pierre Dorleac.
• In dialogue between Starbuck and McKintosh, Starbuck erroneously states that the attack on Umbra was 15 yahrens ago. However, it was only 13 yahrens ago by that point in the story.

Analysis

• The battlestar Rylon may be a misspelling of the battlestar Rycon, which had been commanded by Commander Kronus, as noted in "Take the Celestra."
• This issue features misogynistic acts of note, including:
  • A comment about Tigh needing to "stop being a girl" from Adama, after Adama destroys a pursuing raider that Tigh couldn't shake over Umbra.
  • Comments from Starbuck's flight instructor, Wyler, on how to be a ladies' man. Wyler believes that women like rogues and money, and that fumerellos (sic) are supposed to burn in order to "make your voice all grown up and manly."
• Such misogyny appears to be the author's way of reconciling the male-centric behaviors in the Original Series, notably Starbuck's "roguish" behaviors.

Questions

• Relating to Umbra:
  • Why did the Cylons attack Umbra?
  • Were there other such attacks by the Cylons in the vein of the Umbra attack?
  • How were the Cylons able to bypass Colonial patrols to reach Caprica?
  • Are McKintosh's claims about the defense net being deliberately disabled true?
  • Did McKintosh know that the data chip he wagered, and won by Starbuck, had been corrupted?
• How did the forest of Thorns get its name?
• Who were the Commanders of Pegasus and Rylon during the time periods depicted in the story?
• Were there no birth records that could have assisted in identifying Starbuck?
• What happened to Starbuck's biological parents? Were they indeed killed in the attack? (Answer)

Noteworthy Dialogue

• Wyler imparts advice upon a young Cadet Starbuck:

  Wyler: Starbuck, a Viper pilot only flies in three Vipers. The one he trains in, the one he escapes from, and the one he dies in. Remember that.

• Wyler on being a Colonial Warrior:

  Wyler: Oh, Starbuck—I'm going to teach you everything about being a warrior. Not just the flying—any fool can do that. I mean, the drinking, the gambling, the girls!

Gallery

• 
  Colorized cover.
• 
  Inked cover variant.
• 
  Inked Page #1
• 
  Colorized & Lettered Page #1
• 
  Inked Page #2
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  Colorized & Lettered Page #2
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  Inked Page #3
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  Colorized & Lettered Page #3
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  Inked Page #4
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  Colorized & Lettered Page #4
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  Colorized & Lettered Page #5

External links

• Battlestar Galactica: Starbuck #1 at Dynamite Entertainment

 

Original Series definition: agriculture ^{(TOS: "The Magnificent Warriors")}

Original Series definition: an all-purpose term for Colonial soldier and Viper pilot (see: Warrior)

Original Series definition: a form of coined currency (see: cubit)