History
Barry Bauman was born without any of the five senses. Since his father was a chairman at Wildwood Hospital, he arranged for Barry to be kept alive there for 24 years without being able to move or feel any kind of sensation. Bauman lived in never-ending darkness but felt that there was a realm outside the darkness and started to explore the entire content of his brain, causing him to use more than the usual 10% most humans use. He became aware and discovered Tom Vocson - a male nurse hired by his father. He took over Vocson's body and learned of the five senses he never knew. With Vocson as his vessel, Bauman gathered knowledge. In time, he became more powerful and used his telekinesis to scare the nurses, cause a 62-car pileup on a nearby expressway, and create an earthquake in Nevada while he lay in his hospital bed in New England.[1]
He turned his attention to the stars in order to exact revenge on the human race which spends billions of dollars to kill each other, but wouldn't spend the mere million or so it would have cost to cure him. For his vengeance, he began transporting the stars near the solar system (and the light that had been journeying from them towards Earth) into his omnipotent brain. As the people of Earth witnessed the stars disappearing one by one, they would panic and feel Bauman's loneliness before Bauman finally extinguished Earth's Sun and left them to die with the planet.[1]
Adam Warlock discovered the phenomena of the vanishing stars and investigated it. With his Soul Gem, he determined that an Earthman was responsible. Bauman confronted this interference and adopted the name - the Star Thief - by which Warlock had referred to the then-unknown culprit. The Star Thief felt a kinship between Warlock and himself and did not kill him at once. On Warlock's way to Earth, the Star Thief would only attack him on a physical level, but as soon as Warlock was about to enter Earth, he would easily fall prey to the Star Thief's might.[1]
However, Warlock was able to trick the Star Thief into lowering his guard and thus stealing a part of his soul via the Soul Gem. This enraged the Star Thief and he decided to stop playing with Warlock. As he prepared to confront Warlock one last time on his cosmic doorstep, knowing that Warlock couldn't defeat him without killing everyone on Earth, the absence of his mind from Earth released Tom Vocson from his mental control, and Vocson vowed to act because he knew what Bauman was planning. As Warlock arrived in the Solar System, he had the form of a giant. The Star Thief explained this with the expanding universe theory. It is speculated that the Universe is constantly expanding and, according to the Star Thief, Warlock, having been thousands of light-years away from Earth, proved that the universe expanded more rapidly in some sectors than in others. Since Warlock was a giant, he couldn't reach Bauman on Earth without destroying Earth. As the Star Thief got ready to destroy Adam Warlock, Vocson was also ready to shoot Bauman. Warlock somehow felt that something was going on and that the Star Thief was going to die. After Vocson shot Bauman, the Star Thief disappeared.[2]
Despite the death of his physical body, Bauman's consciousness somehow survived and began hopping from body to body throughout the galaxy, his powers growing until the Star Thief was recognized as a major threat to galactic society.[3] Imprisoned and sent to the insane asylum known as Halfworld, Bauman's powers threatened to overwhelm the anthropomorphized animal wardens, resulting in a mass escape. A plan was swiftly put into action, whereby every one of the wardens would become part of a biological prison, one that could only be opened if every Halfworld resident was on Halfworld and willing to release Bauman. The only way to guarantee this wouldn't happen was for Rocket Raccoon, then head of security, to exile himself and remove his memories of the event.[3]
When some of the clown guards utilized by Halfworld for the worst prisoners were launched from the world by Bauman, they made their way to Rocket Raccoon, resulting in Rocket tracing them back to Halfworld and regaining his memory, but also falling into Bauman's plans. When Rocket and the wardens investigated Bauman's cell, they found his body dead and decayed, but his energy form soon appeared to them, telling them he'd taken control of Halfworld.[3] Ultimately though, Rocket managed to trick Bauman into entering an artificial reality environment where he effectively regressed to a childlike state, playing happily with his friend, a dog named Mr Binkey (based on the dog belonging to the late Tom Vocson).[4]Attributes
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Powers
- Psionics: Star Thief possessed incredible psychic powers.[5] Blackjack O'Hare described him as an Alpha-Class psychic.[3]
Notes
- The Star Thief appeared in the form of "Energy Eyes" when he was outside his body
Trivia
- In Marvel Two-In-One #63, it was revealed that Warlock had never actually been a giant but that Sphinxor had manipulated the Soul Gem to make him imagine that he had accidentally grown as large as the whole solar system so that Sphinxor and the other Prime Movers of Tarkus could take Counter-Earth without Warlock's interference. The Star Thief's mental powers probably enabled him to learn of this illusion and he realized that he could use the fact that Warlock thought he was a giant for his own purposes.
- When Warlock entered Soulworld after dying in Avengers Annual #7 at the hands of Thanos he met the part of the Star Thief's soul he had taken earlier
- Jim Starlin returned to the Wildwood Hospital in his "Darklon the Mystic"-Series in the pages of Warren Publishing's "Eerie" #100, his two Doctors even made Cameo Appearances; also he mentioned a Tommy Vocson in his "Cosmic Guard"-Series for Dynamite/Devil's Due Publications
- When Jim Starlin returned to Warlock in the early 90's he brought back many of Warlock's old foes like the Magus and enemies not created by him like Man-Beast and Triax the Terrible but not the Star Thief, not even that part of his soul that should be in Soul World was seen, when Silver Surfer and Drax the Destroyer were send to Soul World by Thanos prior to Warlock's own resurrection during the Infinity Gauntlet Crisis.
See Also
- 5 appearance(s) of Barry Bauman (Earth-616)
- 1 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Barry Bauman (Earth-616)
- 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Barry Bauman (Earth-616)
- 1 image(s) of Barry Bauman (Earth-616)
- 2 quotation(s) by or about Barry Bauman (Earth-616)