Starfire has had her ups and downs in DC Comics. A beloved Teen Titans member, she has often been reinvented after continuity shifts and disparaged by her fans for this very reinvention. Though her character has quite a different - and childish - version in the Teen Titans cartoons, Starfire's comic character is always unflinchingly and powerfully herself, no matter what - even in a dark universe which redesigns Starfire in a way no fan could expect.

Starfire, as a founding member of the Titans, is an essential character in DC lore and has been since the 1980s. She's had more than a few redesigns over the years, but one of her most drastic looks is from the Dark Multiverse, as seen in Dark Nights: Death Metal - The Last 52: War of the Multiverses #1. In a story starring the Teen Titans, "Falling Through the Cracks" by Che Grayson, Pop Mhan, Chris Sotomayor, and Troy Peteri, the Dark Multiverse is warring against the DC Multiverse, and the Teen Titans meet their match: a twisted, evil version of the team as if seen through a nightmare mirror.

While evil versions of mainstream characters are nothing new to the DC Universe, this story shows an evil Starfire deviating from her standard appearance and, in its stead, she is given bladed hair she uses to attack the Teen Titans.

Starfire Is a Space-Hero Staple of the Teen Titans

Starfire Has Had Many Resets - But Always Ends Up With the Titans

Starfire is a princess hailing from the planet Tamaran who is known for the more liberal aspects of her personality, including her free-love mentality. Essentially, her planet embraces a progressive version of feudalism, and as such, Starfire is both the beautiful princess of her native land and also the knight that saves the day. Starfire saves herself, but that Amazonian-like strength and ideology doesn't stop her designs from being heavily sexualized throughout the years.

Presently, events like Beast World redefined Starfire's home world as well as filled some gaps in her origin story. She's a major player in the Titans, and her character is now even more well-rounded than when first conceived in the '80s. But it wasn't the her original New Teen Titans appearances that did her the most injustice - it was her redesign from just a over a decade ago.

Starfire Got Her Most Famous Redesign in 2011

Starfire's Controversial New 52 Look

Starfire New 52 reinvention redefined her lore - and her appearance. Often cited as being a low period for DC Comics, the New 52 era still has a lasting impact, and one of those ways can be seen in palimpsests, such as the way DC retcons certain storylines from that era. For the Teen Titans, that means Wallace West's Kid Flash takes a backseat, for example, and Starfire regains her former glory as a space warrior. In these changes, in the overlay can be seen what DC is trying to cover up.

Originally created by the legendary New Teen Titans team of Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, Starfire made her post-Flashpoint debut in Red Hood and the Outlaws #1 by Scott Lobdell, Kenneth Rocafort, Blond, and Carlos M. Mangual

Starfire's New 52 look reduced her entirely to her sex appeal. While Starfire has always had a costume that looked more like a bikini, this new look was one of DC's most adult versions of the character. Her sexuality, too, reached a new peak as a defining attribute of her character. As for her backstory, she was stripped of her princess title and space warrior status quo and relegated to being an escaped ex-slave. It was a hard fall from grace for one of DC's best heroines.

Everything Beautiful About Starfire Turns Wicked in This Nightmarish Multiverse

Dark Starfire Uses Blades For Hair

DC has recently added to Starfire has finally found closure in the revenge she was seeking regarding the murder of her parents. Currently, Starfire is getting some awesome story reinventions that really fix all those lapses in her character that only served for sex appeal. And this Dark Multiverse Starfire only helps with that cause.

Starfire's beauty has been turned into a weapon in this Dark Multiverse, and even then, it's her power that shines, not her sexuality.

It's interesting how, in the Dark Multiverse, Starfire has lost all her personality and becomes entirely a weapon. Throughout all of her changes, Starfire's hair has been there with her, full and flowing and sometimes filling a whole . Starfire's beauty has been turned into a weapon in this Dark Multiverse, and even then, it's her power that shines, not her sexuality. It seems her light side and her dark side have finally come to a full synthesis of who she is: a powerful warrior who should really be leading the Titans.

Starfire Is a Warrior First and a Princess Second

After Too Many Redesigns, Starfire Is Better Than Ever

Starfire is a force unto herself, and it's time that DC gave her a look that matches her strength. Even as her dark alter ego takes everything wonderful about her and turns it on its blade-haired head, Starfire's power is obvious as her defining trait. Starfire is a warrior first and a princess second.

Dark Nights: Death Metal - The Last 52: War of the Multiverses #1 is available now from DC Comics.