STAR-THIEF
Real Name: Princess Ilse Pterigil
Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (Dreolln) mutant
Occupation: Princess
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Defenders (Andromeda Attumasen, Angel/Warren Worthington, Beast/Hank McCoy, Cloud, Gargoyle/Isaac Christians, Iceman/Bobby Drake, Valkyrie/Brunnhilde), Krugreppeans, Kubik/Cosmic Cube, Seraph/Sonya Tolsky
Enemies: Defenders (Andromeda Attumasen, Angel/Warren Worthington, Beast/Hank McCoy, Cloud, Gargoyle/Isaac Christians, Iceman/Bobby Drake, Valkyrie/Brunnhilde), Krugreppeans, Kubik/Cosmic Cube, Seraph/Sonya Tolsky
Known Relatives: Unidentified mother
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: The planet Dreolln, uinidentified Star System, presumably in the Milky Way galaxy
Appearances: Defenders I#150 (December, 1985)
Powers: The Star-Thief possessed great, but untrained psychic powers, which allowed her to tap into and usurp the power of the Cosmic Cube. With this power, she could make her every wish a reality, and was limited only by her own scope and imagination. She was able to teleport entire stars into a pocket dimension. She could rearrange matter and energy to a vast degree. Her physical form was blind, and while her mind was outside her body in the form of the Star-Thief, it was comatose, as well.
What psychic powers she will develop on her own are uncertain, but she retains the potential to tap into the power of a Cosmic Cube.
Height: 4'8" (when last seen, as a child)
Weight: 87 lbs. (when last seen, as a child)
Eyes: White
Hair: Black
History:
The Star-Thief was a young princess on an the planet Dreolln. Under unrevealed circumstances, a laser beam struck her eyes and
penetrated into her brain, rendering her comatose. Having been
used to getting anything she wanted, the princess was severely
traumatized by being cut off from the outside world. Her mind
reached across the vastness of space, and managed to tap into the
power of the first Cosmic Cube from Earth, which had just begun
its evolution into a sentient being. Now seeking vengeance on the
"little light" which had injured her, she used her vast
power to remove the stars from around her, leaving only her
planet's own sun, which she saw as a different kind of light due
to its proximity.
The Star-Thief continued to remove the stars from around her in an ever-expanding sphere. Some races were able to survive in small numbers by escaping in starships, but numerous races met their end when they suddenly lost all heat and light. A nebula in the proximity of the disappearing stars had somehow developed intelligence. This nebula sought to stop the deaths of the stars, which it saw as its brethren. The nebula tracked the Star-Thief's power source's origin to Earth, but a series of events robbed the nebula of its memory and resulted in a portion of it becoming Cloud, who ended up as a member the Defenders. Eventually Cloud regained its mind and purpose, and brought the Defenders into space with it to oppose the Star Thief.
The Defenders were aided by the intelligent
Cosmic Cube, who led them to join with a Krugreppean fleet composed of the
survivors of one of the planets that had lost its sun. The Star
Thief threatened to destroy them, but its new perceptions had
limited its ability to comprehend smaller levels of action, and
it was unable to directly attack them. The Beast determined where
the Star-Thief's home planet might be by finding the single star
in the center of the empty space from where so many stars had
vanished. The Defenders invaded that world, and the Cube guided
them to the princess. Cloud allowed the Angel to mentally contact
Star-Thief. Having been recently blinded himself, the Angel hoped
the Star-Thief would relate to him best. Initially the Star-Thief
feared his intrusion, and sought to lash out. She appreciated the
scope of entire galaxies from the mind of the Angel, and
threatened to begin wiping them out on that level. All of the
Defenders, Seraph, Cloud, the Cube, and even the aliens who had
lost their own Star-To the Star-Thief then joined together to
mentally comfort the terrified girl. They succeeded in easing her
fear and anger, and making her realize the effects of what she
was doing, and the princess released a small bag that was a
portal to the pocket dimension into which she had placed the
stars. The Cube took the bag and returned the stars to their
original locations.
Comments: Created by Peter Gillis, Don Perlin, Alan Kupperberg and Randy Emberlin.
Star-Thief got a full entry in Marvel Legacy: The 1980s Handbook.
Planet Dreolln and Star-Thief's real name were identified in the Star-Thief profile in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z#11 while the Krugreppeans
were identified in the Over-Mind profile in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z#8.
The race is not actually revealed in print, but Dreollnians sounds as
good as anything for the people of Dreolln to me.
The Cloud profile in Defenders: Strange Heroes#1 noted Dreolln to be presumably in the Milky Way galaxy, while Cloud's nebula originated only "many light years" from Dreolln.
Ilse has a few additional images in the Dreollnians profile.
Clarifications: Star-Thief should be distinguished from:
|
(Defenders I#150 (fb) - BTS) - Child princess Ilse Pterigil was left comatose by a blinding laser beam of unrevealed origin that struck her and penetrated into her brain. Ilse's mind reached across space to tap the power of the now-sentient Cosmic Cube (later Kubik), a force field containing reality-altering energy, as it explored the cosmos. Ilse used the Cube’s energy to transport stars and their discharged light into a pocket dimension, destroying many civilizations dependent on them. Ilse's mother people of Dreolln were unaware of Ilse's actions, and her mother, the (presumed) queen cared for her comatose daughter. Although the surgeons had told her their was no chance of recovery, the queen mother continued to maintain hope. (Defenders I#150 (fb) - BTS) -
Having sensed the vanishing stars, the being that
would become Cloud allied with the former Cosmic Cube that would become
Kubik and Earth's Defenders, eventually tracing Ilse, the Star-Thief,
to Dreolln (via identifying the only star in a region otherwise void of
stars) and ultimately to her bed where her mother stood beside
her. Surprised at the aliens appearance/intrusion, Ilse's mother asked what they were doing and ordered them away. After Cloud identified the comatose girl as the Star-Thief, Beast apologized and asked what was wrong with the girl. The queen mother explained the events that had led to her daughter's condition. Beast convinced the queen
mother to join the others in projecting their presence, their desire to
help and their love into Ilse.  The queen mother thanked her, but nonetheless noted how she was bewildered by their discussion of the fates of stars. The Cube explained Ilse as an extraordinary being who had reached across the light years and tapped into the Cube's power's power in an effort to destroy the light that had hurt her. As the queen mother watched, still somewhat shocked, the Cube sent all the visitors back home as it began the process of restoring the stolen stars, starting with the Krugreppeans. Note: Her last name would seem likely to be Pterigil, but that's unconfirmed. If she had been identified, I might have given her her own profile. |
The Krugreppeans that assisted the Defenders had originally been a happy, peaceful society. When the Star Thief wiped out their star, they used their starships to escape the darkness and cold that resulted. However, they possessed a limited number of ships, and only a very small number of them were able to take to the stars. The rest died on their planet.
They sought vengeance on the source of their plight, and eventually joined with the Defenders and the Cosmic Cube against the Star Thief. One of their ships brought them to Star Thief's world, and several of them participated in helping to calm Star Thief to prevent it from performing destruction on a larger scale. The name of the race, its planet, and its galaxy are not known. The galaxy is the same as that of Star Thief, and the Beast jokingly referred to their planet as Xiombarg.
The natives are covered with thick hair, have brown skin, and no visible nasal structure. Many are trained as warriors, and use both bladed and energy weapons. They possess space-faring ships and other advanced technology, but after superstitious enough to fear the Valkyrie as the Chooser of the Slain. The warriors are strong, possibly superhumanly so. They like to use the world "Hoopla" (or their languarge's equivalent) as an exclamation of some sort. None of them were known by name, but the Beast referred to several of them as Moe, Curly, and Shemp, after the Three Stooges, of course.
(New) Defenders I#150, pg. 17 (manifestation; confronts Defenders);
pg. 18, panel 5 (manifestation; full)
pg. 30, panel 5 (Ilse's room; mother full, small);
pg. 31, panel 1 (mother; face; profile);
panel 2 (Ilse; face);
pg. 32, panel 4 (mother; upper; oblique);
panel 4 (others sharing love, offering help/hope);
pg. 35, panel 1 (Ilse in bed with stars);
pg. 36, panel 6 (mother, mostly full, olbique)
Appearances:
(New) Defenders I#150 (December, 1985) - Peter B. Gillis (writer), Don
Perlin (penciler), Alan Kupperberg & Randy Emberlin (inkers), Carl
Potts (editor)
Official
Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z hardcover#11 (January, 2010) - Jeff Christiansen,
Stuart Vandal, & Sean McQuaid (head writers/coordinators), Mike
Fichera, Madison Carter, Markus Raymond, & Mike O'Sullivan
(coordination assistants), Jeff Youngquist &
Jennifer Grunwald (editors)
Defenders:
Strange Heroes#1 (February, 2012) - Jeff Christiansen, Mike O'Sullivan,
Stuart Vandal (head writers/coordinators), Markus Raymond, Mike Fichera
(assistant coordinators), Sean McQuaid, Patrick Duke, Markus Raymond,
Roger Ott, Ronald Byrd, Madison Carter, Kevin Garcia, Anthony
Cotilleta, Rob London, Patrick Ryall, Eduardo Freyre, Michael Hoskin
(writers), Jennifer Grunwald & Mark D. Beazley (assistant editors),
Jeff Youngquist (editor, special projects)
First posted: 09/01/2001 (apparently one of the first 165 profiles I loaded onto the site the day I started it)
Last updated: 4/18/2021
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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thing!
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Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!
As Ilse was a princess, it is presumed, but unconfirmed, that her mother was the queen. 