Created by John Broome & and Mike Sekowsky
All you wannabe Chandlers might as well give up.
STAR HAWKINS IS the “greatest detective of the 21st century,” first appearing as a back-up feature in Strange Adventures #114, DC’s science fiction comic of the early sixties.
Set in the future, his adventures seem to take place anywhere between the 2079 (his first apperance) and 2092 (his last — so far ).
And Star really is a private eye, with an office in New City and everything. He’s even got a snarky, wise-cracking robot-secretary, Ilda, and he has that “perpetually down on his luck PI” thing down pat. He’s even been known to occasionally pawn Ilda in exchange for a quick bit of cash when things get tight.
Star and Ilda appeared in a total of 22 issues of Strange Adventures, and then faded from view in 1966, until they were brought back (in a back-up feature, of course) 16 years later.
But it’s a glorious revisit — by the end of “Whatever Will Happen to Star Hawkins?” (DC Presents, May 1981 , #33) Star’s ship has come in, and both he and Ilda have found true love, Star with the lovely Stella Sterling, and Ilda with Stella’s robotic bodyguard, Automan. The story ends with Star and Stella running the Hawkins-Sterling Academy of Robot-Detection, a place where robots can learn how to be detectives (and where one of the classes is given by Ilda and Automan).
A nice final touch is that the Corvan mercenaries who are the villians in the story are named after the creators who worked on the original stories in Strange Adventures: B10Room (John Broome), S12Ekow (Mike Sekowski), S12Achs (Bernard Sachs) and K7Ane (Gil Kane).
Star and Iida returned in Twilight, a 1990 3-issue mini-series, which had some very twisted versions of most of DC Comics’s “near future” heroes. For numerous reasons, this can only be seen as a non-DC-Universe-continuity story (an “Elseworlds”, but I believe it actually pre-dates the genuine “Elseworlds” imprint).
But the two popped up once again in Mystery In Space (December 2006), where Star was bumped off.
Probably not for good, though. Nobody ever really dies in comics.
COMICS
- STRANGE ADVENTURES
(1950 -1973, DC Comics)
Writters: John Broome, France Herron, Dave Wood
Art by Mike Sekowsky, Bernard Sachs, Gil Kane- “The Case of the Martian Witness” (March 1960, #114)
- “The Case of the Robot-Spy” (May 1960, #116)
- “The Case of the Counterfeit Credits” (August 1960, #119)
- “The Case of the Red-Hot Robot” (November 1960, #122)
- “The Case of the Vanishing Robots” (February 1961, #125)
- “The Case of the Robot Detective” (May 1961, #128)
- “The Case of the 3-Eyed Invaders” (August 1961, #131)
- “The Case of the Interplanetary Imps” (November 1961 , #134)
- “The Case of the Robot Brother” (February 1962, #137)
- “The Case of the Worn-Out Robot” (May 1962, #140)
- “The Case of the Unwanted Robot” (August 1962, #143)
- “The Case of the Robot Counter-Spy” (November 1962, #146)
- “The Case of the Rebellious Space-Crew” (February 1963, #149)
- “The Case of the Body-Switching Robot” (May 1963, #152)
- “The Case of the Red Diamond Smugglers” (August 1963, #155)
- “The Case of the Romantic Robot” (November 1963, #158)
- “The Case of the 14 Clueless Crimes” (March 1964, #162)
- “Ilda — The Glamour Robot” (February 1965, #173)
- “The Case of the Cosmonik Quartet” (May 1965, #176)
- “Wanted — One Lost Memory” (August 1965, #179)
- “The Case of the Blonde Bombshell” (November 1965, #182)
- “Ilda – Gangsters Inc.” (February 1966, #185)
- DC COMICS PRESENTS
(1981, DC Comics)
Writer: Mike Tiefenbacher
Art by Alex Saviuk, Vince Colletta
- “Whatever Will Happen to Star Hawkins?” (May 1981 , #33)
- TWILIGHT
(1990, DC Comics)
3-issue mini-series
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- The Star Hawkins Home Page (defunct)
Chaim Mattis Keller’s site was dedicated to Hawkins had a list and detailed synopsis of all of the “real” Star Hawkins’s appearances. He even rated the amount of real detective work in each story. - Detectives in DC Comics
A listing of private eyes who have shown up in DC comics.
THE DICK OF THE DAY
- September 2, 2026
THE BOTTOM LINE: All you wannabe Chandlers might as well just give up. This sci-fi eye from DC Comics’ Strange Adventures (circa 1960) IS the “greatest detective of the 21st century.” DC said so. Set in the increasingly near future of 2070-2090, he’s got with an office in New City, and a snarky, wise-cracking robot-secretary, Ilda, whom he’s been known to occasionally pawn in exchange for a quick bit of cash when things get tight. Goofy retro sci-fi.
Respectfully submitted by Chaim Mattis Keller, with some additional information and snark by Kevin Burton Smith, plus some nifty copy-editing by Rudyard Kennedy.
