Warning: SPOILERS for Blue Beetle: Graduation Day #2After decades of having some of the most controversial costume designs in superhero comics, Starfire finally has the look she's always deserved. Starfire is a true warrior and one of the Titans' heavy-hitters, and now she has the armor to back her up.
Starfire appears in a brand new costume on the final splash page of Blue Beetle: Graduation Day #2 by Josh Trujillo, Adrian Gutierrez, Wil Quintana, and Lucas Gattoni. Despite Blue Beetle Jaime Reyes being "grounded" by Superman due to an alien threat, Starfire appears at his door, claiming that "the planet is preparing for war."
Along with this apparent plea for help, Starfire has a new look: she keeps her classic purple and green color palette while adding armored sleeves and, most notably, pants. Her iconic fiery hair spirals out around her, back to its original curly design.
Starfire's New Costume Honors Her Warrior Roots
Starfire, otherwise known as Princess Koriand'r of Tamaran, is a warrior princess most frequently associated with the Teen Titans and Titans teams. She's had a number of costumes over the years, most of them quite revealing. The most iconic of her costumes is certainly her first, designed by the late George Pérez, who co-created Starfire along with Marv Wolfman. In the character's recent appearances in both Teen Titans Academy and Nightwing, she wears a purple leotard with her legs exposed—her bare legs being the consistent design choice across her decades of history. But for the first time, Starfire has a fully-armored costume, and its exactly what this warrior princess deserves.
Even though revealing costumes have become an essential part of Starfire's character—and nothing beats Pérez's original design, especially when handled respectfully—it's refreshing to see her wearing real armor, especially in a story where she's apparently preparing for war. Starfire is a joyful character, but she's also a practical warrior and one of the most powerful characters in the DC Universe. It only makes sense that she has at least one costume that honors those aspects of her character.
But one of the best parts of this new character design from Blue Beetle artist Adrian Gutierrez is Starfire's ferociously curly hair, which was once an iconic element of her design and appears to making a return here and in Travis Moore's Titans variant covers for Nightwing, where Starfire will once again become a recurring character. Even if this warrior-like costume doesn't make a cross-appearance in Nightwing, fans can look forward to seeing more Starfire in this costume in upcoming issues of Blue Beetle: Graduation Day, where she will surely flex her battle skills—and look great doing it.
Check out Blue Beetle: Graduation Day #2, available now from DC Comics!