Starfire

History
Tamaran's Princess Koriand'r was the second of three children. Her older sister, Komand'r proved unable to fly, so she was deemed not worthy to be queen and the succession fell to Koriand'r. When both sisters were sent to train with the legendary Warlords of Okaara, the bitter Komand'r ran off, allying herself with the Citadel. They used Komand'r's information to successfully invade the planet Tamaran. King Myand'r turned Koriand'r over to the Citadel to ensure peace. Koriand'r endured six years of torture until she and Komand'r were both released for experimentation by the Psions. Both sisters escaped, with Koriand'r finding her way to Earth with the help of the Teen Titans. She chose to remain with the team and took the name Starfire.

Psions, who are largely sadistic scientists, performed a deadly experiment on both of the sisters to see just how much energy their Tamaranian bodies could absorb before exploding from the overload. During the procedure, Komand'r's forces attacked the Psion ship to rescue her and while the Psions were distracted, Kory broke free with the starbolts, destructive blasts of solar energy, a result of the experimentation. Against her better judgement, she decided to free Komand'r who was still absorbing energy. However, far from grateful, Komand'r struck her sister down with the same, but more intensified, power and had her restrained for later execution.

Kory is regarded as extremely physically attractive even by the standards of the superhero. She also displays the traits of Tamaran's highly sensuous culture, coupled with a no nonsense warrior attitude. For a time, Kory had a career as a fashion model.

She has been married twice, both times to Tamaranean men: once to the prince Karras to seal a peace treaty, and once to General Phy'zzon for love. Both of her husbands died in battle.

She married Dick Grayson, but their wedding was interrupted by Raven, who had followed in the steps of her father, the demon Trigon. Raven murdered the priest after he pronounced Dick and Kory husband and wife. The relationship was already on unsteady ground, with Kory fearing that Dick was rushing into marriage, also concerned by the anti-alien sentiments that sprang up in response to the news of the impending nuptials.

Starfire has served as mentor/teacher to the latest roster of Titans, and also began serving with the Outsiders.

Starfire was stranded on a paradise-like planet with fellow heroes Animal Man and Adam Strange after the battle with Alexander Luthor, Jr. and Superboy-Prime. After several weeks, Adam was able to get his spaceship working, and they departed for Earth. Their ship, however, was attacked by Devilance, who they had encountered on the planet and who had pursued them into space. Lobo appeared just in time to destroy Devilance, and after a some negotiation, agreed to help them out.

When it was believed that Animal Man had perished in battle against Lady Styx, Starfire took it upon herself to bring his jacket back to his surviving family on Earth. Upon reaching Earth however, she quickly discovered that Animal Man was still alive.

Powers
Tamaranean Solar Absorption: Starfire's alien physiology constantly absorbs ultraviolet radiation and converts it to energy, for various purposes. Such as:


 * Flight: Which leaves a distinctive energy contrail behind, looking as if it is coming directly from her hair. Starfire has also been seen traveling in space. She may be able to do this by sustaining herself in space or she can absorb solar energy and create a force field that lets her breath in it.


 * Starbolts: The solar absorption experiments performed on her by the alien Psions granted her the ability to channel and project that same energy into destructive blasts called "starbolts".


 * Ligustical Assimulation: She is also capable of assimilating other languages through physical contact with another person.


 * Invulnerability: Starfire is inpervious to most kinds of damage.


 * Superhuman Strength: Starfire possesses superhuman strength--the uppermost level of which is not known as yet, but it is well over the level of her teammate Cyborg's strength who can lift/press at least 15 tons.

Abilities
Expert Combatant: Starfire is also an extremely proficient in armed and unarmed combat, having been trained in those arts by the Warlords of Okaara.

Teen Titans
Starfire appears in the Teen Titans animated series, voiced by Hynden Walch. Elements of her storyline appear in different episodes spread across the show's five seasons, in which she deals with her arch-foe and sister, Blackfire (also voiced by Walch), the responsibilities of being a princess, and her insecurities about being an alien on Earth.

Starfire was born and raised on the distant planet Tamaran before arriving on Earth and joining the Teen Titans. Her race, the Tamaraneans, are an emotional race who see feelings as the force that drives their very livelihood. Their emotions fuel their natural abilities of flight and superhuman strength, as well as Starfire's energy blasts, called starbolts. Her race is also highly resilient to radiation and the cold (though the longer she is outside, and the more exhausted she is, the more susceptible she is to sub-zero temperatures). The animated Starfire also has the ability to travel faster-than-light without a ship, as well as the ability to survive in the vacuum of outer space for long periods of time. However, she cannot breathe underwater. Sometimes her powers act beyond her control, such as releasing explosive energy blasts when she sneezes, as well as her strength accidentally bending a street light down to the ground. She can absorb knowledge of basic language through a kiss.

Starfire's Titans character bears some similarities with her comic version. In the flashback episode "Go!", which tells of the founding of the Titans in their animated continuity, just before meeting the Titans, Starfire is shown being held prisoner as a "prize" by a group of Gordanian slave masters, working for an interstellar power known as the Citadel. Eventually, she manages to escape and flees to the closest planet, which happens to be Earth. Starfire runs into Robin and the other soon-to-be Titans, but after being mistreated for so long, she is aggressive, antagonistic and does not trust the Titans or any one else for that matter. After Robin aids her in taking off the "space cuffs" that bind her wrists, the Gordanians whom she escaped from show up looking for her and the Titans help her fight them off. After winning and driving off her jailers, Starfire elects to stay on Earth with the four heroes and quickly develops feelings for Robin. Starfire is inherently the most sensitive of the Titans. This kid-friendly version of Starfire is naive, innocent, and somewhat insecure, but it is this trait that endears her to others, especially to Robin. An alien and an outsider, she is still new to Earth and its customs, which serves as a recurring source of comic relief. She also insists on sharing her own customs with other members of the team.

Presumably because English is not her first language, Starfire speaks without contractions and misuses idioms. Additionally, she uses several Tamaranean nouns. Starfire has a pet giant moth larva named "Silkie" in the series, given to her by Beast Boy. Starfire takes friendship very seriously, and is easily distressed when others, especially her friends, argue or fight. Although her naive and slightly overly friendly yet kind nature can sometimes clash with Raven's more secretive one, she has shown a closeness to her.

Reflecting the comic books, the series hints at a potential relationship between Starfire and Robin. At the Teen Titans panel at Comicon 2005 in San Diego, Sam Register asked story editor Rob Hoegee if Robin and Starfire would ever kiss. "Pretty safe bet. But we're not saying for sure," Rob replied. In the season 5 episode "Go!", Robin and Starfire's first kiss is shown; however (as in the comics), this was for the purpose of assimilating the English language. In the movie Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo, moments are shared between the two. Finally, Robin and Starfire share the "actual" kiss after Brushogun is defeated.

Links

 * http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Koriand%27r_%28New_Earth%29