I have always kinda liked Dawnstar even though she can be a pretty terrible character. Her visual appeal is undeniable. Winged characters have always been a go-to in comics. Yes, her costumes are a bit objectifying. Her personality is somewhat unlikable at times, being totally officious, but then her hot and cold with Wildfire. She never developed many female friendships and seemed to be most antagonistic with Phantom Girl. Then again, Levitz was not that strong in writing female personalities.
Levitz obviously created her with the purpose of making her tracking abilities a plot device in stories; but she had no offensive abilities. Her best attempts over the years were dodging and weaving her attackers into destroying themselves. Since many of the Legionnaires had high profiles, one would think that attackers would leave her alone since can't really stop them herself, but instead during a chase, they fire upon each other or go headlong into the sun while chasing her.
She was extremely fast even though were are never given any explanation as to how her wings work in outer space. This also raises a huge issue with faster-than-light travel. Unfortunately, details about this have been overlooked in most of the Legion's publication history. We should never see Dawnstar flying outside a cruiser if that cruiser uses some type of hyperdrive. She somehow survives in space unaided, no transuit or anything. As I mentioned in my transuit post, they obviously have to protect against radiation in space so much so she must be naturally protected against that. Early on, she is noted as being extremely tough (you would have to be to survive the vacuum of space) but she has show to be susceptible to physical injuries. She has also been shown to be immune to the intense heat of Tharr, but not Wildfire's loving touch when he had a more solid form.
At times, her tracking abilities have been inconsistently portrayed, first as not very accurate, and they couldn't work on the moon or on planets, but she could also track people to asteroids. She also did some interesting things, like sense fluctuations that a world was not in the proper place or sense if there was life in an area. But no, Levitz loved her tracking abilities especially and that seems to be where we saw Dawnstar used most. I joke that when he didn't have Dawnstar for vol 7 because she was in Legion Lost vol 2, he had to create a tracking character (Mwindaji) to fill that void because loves his missing Legionnaire stories.
I feel like the identity of Bounty for 5YL was almost an attempt to snub at Levitz for not doing more with Dawnstar, or creating her with such a limited purpose. And really, there is no reason to believe that Dawny couldn't use her tracking power to be a sniper shot. Many historical Legion storeis have shown characters using weapons and it would help to give Dawnstar some type type of offensive measures.
In the JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time animated, Dawnstar had some sort of light abilities, able to create light daggers but able to imbue herself with the energy that she flew into the Time Trapper, knocked him off balance and caused a huge explosion. It's a decidedly different take on her.
It's difficult sometimes to discuss Dawnstar without bringing up Shikari who seemed to be a bit better thought out than Dawnstar, with a retractable body armor, the ability to fight in close quarters, and not a tracking power, but almost a precognitive/ESP ability to see pathways.
It appeared that later writers, Johns and Nicienza, tried to expand Dawnstar's powers, maybe borrowing a bit from Shikari, but she seemed to be progressing more towards cosmic awareness. This isn't a bad take on Dawnstar and would definitely explain how she was able to ascertain certain events in her early adventures. The only concern with that is that those powers can overlap with Sensor Girl's to an extent or can just make her a McGuffin like Dream Girl. It's a shame too that so many "classic" Legionnaires have sensory powers and not combat abilities.
So with Dawnstar, some things need to be finally quantified: how invulnerable is she? how fast is she/how does she go so fast? Are her powers only limited to tracking or is she capable of more? These are some pretty difficult questions to answer if she ever returns to print.
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