Rebecca Anne "Annie" January, formerly known as Starlight, is the tritagonist of the superhero-drama comic series The Boys. During most of the comic series, Starlight is a member of The Seven, having being picked after leaving the conservative religious superhero team Young Americans. She starts a relationship with Wee Hughie, although neither realizes what the other's "day job" is.
History[]
In the comic series, she is known by her superhero alias, Starlight. She has the ability to emit blinding light from her hands and also the ability to fly. Annie was born with her abilities and accidentally permanently blinded her parents and the doctors present upon birth. Faced with an increased cost of living due to their disability, her parents were forced to give up custody of Annie to Vought. She was raised by foster parents and attended several superhero pageants as a child.
Annie received no real love from her foster parents, however, as they viewed her as a show pony more than anything else, and were only caring as long as she performed well in the pageants. She joined The Seven after the death of previous member Lamplighter, leaving her previous superhero group Young Americans. She is quickly rattled after finding that her membership to The Seven comes at a high price—sexual activity with the male members. Starlight is coerced into performing oral sex on Homelander, Black Noir, and A-Train. She continues to be mistreated but gradually learns to stand up for herself, particularly in her interactions with A-Train. This culminates in Starlight temporarily blinding him when he attempts to rape her.
Shortly after joining The Seven, Starlight enters into a relationship with Hughie Campbell, although neither are aware of the other's real profession. When Annie finally confesses to being a superhero, Hughie is shocked and hurt. He considers resuming the relationship but is further hurt when he is manipulated by Butcher into watching Starlight perform oral sex on members of The Seven. Without knowing the full context of what he just witnessed, Hughie is furious and breaks up with Annie after insulting her.
She later tracks Hughie down to Auchterladle, his home town, where the two are able to partially rekindle their relationship after he apologizes for insulting her. Their relationship remains strained, however, and Annie eventually leaves Hughie due to him being unable to move past the events he witnessed. Despite this, the two rekindle their relationship at the end of the series.
Over a decade later, Annie becomes engaged with Hughie and move in to Scotland. Over time, Annie notices Hughie's behaviour before discovering Hughie has been secretly reading a journal of Billy Butcher, anonymously sent to him. Incensed for not having been told about the journal, Annie orders Hughie to find the sender before leaving him alone.
A few weeks later, Annie and Hughie get married in Hughie's hometown.
Powers and abilities[]
Powers[]
- Light Projection: Starlight possess the ability to generate, project and emanate a blinding light from her hands. Her light energy bursts are capable of blinding even super powered beings as demonstrated when A-Train attempted to force himself on Starlight, however earning her anger as she blinded him with an attack. Her bursts of light can, according to herself, reach up to a million candlepower.
- Flight: She is able to fly in the air with little effort.
- Superhuman Hearing: Starlight mentions that she has "pretty amazing" hearing, although it takes her lots of concentration. It is potent enough for her to identify heartrate and breathing alterations.
- Superhuman Durability: Starlight is shown to possess a high level of durability, potentially being bulletproof, as she was able to withstand being slammed against a wall by A-Train at full force and sustained no visible injuries and was only pissed off by the whole ordeal.
Abilities[]
- Skilled hand-to-hand combat: Starlight is one of the few Supes to have actual martial arts training.
Trivia[]
- Starlight's character traits and costume design might draw inspiration from the character Mary Marvel. As for her abilities, she possesses light-based powers, a set of abilities commonly found among various fictional superheroines like Dr. Light, Starfire, Dazzler, and more.
- Ennis has stated that the relationship was not originally planned: "Annie started out as a joke, and was actually going to degenerate further in terms of the shit she'd put up with, the degradations she'd suffer just to be in the world's premier superteam. But I found myself writing Hughie moping in Central Park, and then to my great surprise I saw Annie coming walking down the path. That was when I realized I wanted to take her in a different direction, make her stronger and more rounded... I probably felt a bit guilty about Annie and ended up treating her a bit more responsibly as a result."
- Starlight appears in the Amazon adaptation of the series, portrayed by Erin Moriarty.
- Starlight is the only member of The Seven not to be a villain but a hero, (while Queen Maeve is an anti-hero).
- Starlight is also the only member of The Seven aside from The Deep not to die.
Gallery[]
