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
Previous		Next
	Battlestar Galactica: Starbuck #1	Battlestar Galactica: Starbuck 2
Purchase
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Available at Amazon.com – [[amazon:{{{amazon}}}|Purchase]]
Available at Amazon.co.uk – Purchase
Available at Things From Another World - Purchase

Summary

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

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.

Notes

• Mount Colicos is a nod to John Colicos, the actor who portrayed Baltar in the Original Series.
• The backgrounds of the Viper bay on battlestar Pegasus are directly inspired by the hangar bays from the Re-imagined Series.
• The left shoulder patches on Rycon and Pegasus Warrior uniforms are Galactica emblems; they should be different.

Analysis

• This issue features misogynic 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."

Gallery

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