It's the truth though. Toward the end, even Hickman's Starbrand started getting a lot of love. His showing vs the avatars of Eternity's children was monstrous. We know he operates on at least a planetary level too. He's so far beyond her it's not even funny.
__________________
..even the outer hells are indifferent matters for they bow only to potent and archaic Nodens.
As such other planets within the Marvel Universe have their own Starbrands. They are imbued with planetary scale power in order to defend their assigned world:
Rachel was the most stable Phoenix as her access to the Force was limited by the Force. So she was never intoxicated by infinite power, she was just able to draw on a limited pool which made thigs more manageable for her. (A plot device so that she could be a team mainstay. I suspect it will be a similar situation for whichever Avenger is chosen as the new Phoenix. They'll have varying showings and be a deus ex machina)
This means that as a Phoenix she was never particularly impressive so a matchup with Starbrand isnt as ridiculous as it 1st sounds.
Given Phoenix Rachels handling of heralds (who themselves have planetary scale power and similar feats to Starbrands) id place Rachel Phoenix above heralds/Starbrand level and on par with a skyfather. Same as Logan Phoenix.
I always thought it was funny that even with Rachel's experience, Teen Jean still trumped her and she couldn't figure her out. Like, imo As far as " "users" are concerned after Jean Hope Summers is a better Phoenix avatar than Rachel.
Thats tough to accurately judge as Hope only had the Phoenix for a few pages and despite having the Iron Fist power to bring her calm and order she still nearly lost control of the Force before Scarlet Witch had to step in and help her dissipate the power.
But then you could argue that there were times that Rachel almost lost control even with limited access.
But then as said in Endsong a fraction of infinity is still infinity so Rachel did well to maintain control consistently over such an extended period regardless.
only reason i said Hope was better because she has achieved the highest level we have seen so far and Rachel NEVER has. Even with her training wheels. Rachel was basically a puppet/substitute for the Phoenix Force while Jean was out of the picture. It only connected to her well because she was related to Jean and because of plot purposes. That was evident when Jean was able to take it from her from the White Hot Room and she said "Not now mom". Granted, given Rachel's powerset, if they gave her great character development, she could become OP. But given that Jean is the resident psychic for Marvel, thats probably not gon happen. Hell, even Quentin gives her a run for her money.
Do you also see those same Heralds being able to take on Thor, Hulk, and Hyperion simultaneously? Kevin as an inexperienced Starbrand user took them on with what appeared to be casual ease.
The Starbrand should be bumped up above the High Herald tier. It says that it is a planetary defense weapon, but a being as powerful as Galactus could also be used as a planetary defense weapon. This does not mean that we would automatically classify said being as a High Herald level character.
Kevin took on beings well above that weight class, and when he did take on High Heralds he easily held his own.
Gender: Male Location: Planning to take over the WORLD!
i agree it should be higher, just not sure how high or where it's power would tap out. at one time it was super uber. in its more recent incarnation it was never very well defined. too bad. i always liked the starbrand. one of the few good series during that "new universe" debacle. also liked justice.
It’s the user. The Starbrand’s power has never had a hard limit set upon it. It’s as powerful as the user imagines it to be. If Kyle had it for example, we’d likely see a high end Starbrand.
But how well did Rachel handle that power? Would she have been able to handle Thor, Hulk, and Hyperion with what appeared to ease?
Was there ever a source that the Starbrand drew its power from? How do we know exactly how powerful it is? I don’t recall any retcon happening on the Starbrand, and years ago it was a bonafide threat to the universe.
Was Rachel up there? Kevin an inexperienced user went up against three powerful Heralds amped by three different Abstracts. He did pretty well.
Wait, what? Newbie Starbrand was taking on the Avengers. A slightly more experienced Starbrand took on a living star. Then later he held his own vs the avatars of 3 universal level abstracts.
Rachel gets curbstomped.
__________________
..even the outer hells are indifferent matters for they bow only to potent and archaic Nodens.
KMC Community Forums
Feb 20th, 2021 04:40 PM
