Preserve
Clark Kent became the temporary council leader of the Justice
League after Kevin Grady was killed in an attack by the Hand of Vengeance, a
metahuman gang of vigilantes lead by the notorious criminal Star Sapphire. The only
other council member at the time was Bart Allen.
Their former leader Jordan Cross had left almost a year ago to join the Green
Lantern Corps in a galactic battle against their enemies, the Zamarons. And
Kyle Tippet remained in stasis at the Fortress of Solitude after being
critically injured by one of Lex Luthor's minions.
The Justice League had taken on some new members, including former Agents of
Justice members Oliver Queen (AKA Green Arrow),
During the attack by the Hand of Vengeance two members of the Hand, Jodi
Melville and Greg Arkin, had surrendered themselves. With the League's influence
Jodi Melville served only six months in prison. Greg Arkin
was given a sentence of five years. They were newer members of the Hand, and
did not play a large part in their terrorist operations.
Greg and Jodi originally saw the Hand as freedom-fighters but they soon learned
from their mentor Byron Moore (AKA Werewolf) that the Hand had a careless
disregard for human life. To protect Jodi, Greg Arkin
secretly accepted tasks that were given to her by Byron, tasks that included
destruction of private property and intimidation.
After Jodi had served her six months she sought membership in the Justice
League. Council members Clark Kent and Bart Allen were both concerned that Jodi
might be traumatized from her experience with the Hand, but Jodi persisted and
told them that she was ready to serve the common good. Clark and Bart
ultimately accepted her request for membership.
Years earlier, Jodi had been meteor-infected but was cured of her
hyper-accelerated metabolism and fat absorption abilities by Luthorcorp
scientists. This experimentation on her eventually attracted Lana Lang's (AKA
Star Sapphire's) attention, who sought out meteor-infected individuals who were
the "victims" of Luthorcorp and Summerholt
experiments. Subsequently when Jodi was accepted into the Hand of Vengeance she
was given alien artifacts procured by Lana, with help from Jeremiah Holdsclaw.
One of these items was a belt that gave her enhanced strength, speed, agility,
stamina and also emitted energy bursts resembling shooting-stars. She was also
given a staff which enabled her to fly and manipulate energy. Combined with her
gymnastics and kickboxing training Jodi was a formidable adversary, and one of the
few members of the Hand of Vengeance who managed to elude the former Justice
League council-leader Kevin Grady.
Jodi had been given the name Darkstar by Lana Lang, a
name Lana hoped would inspire fear in her enemies. But when the public learned
of her acceptance into the League and saw her flying in the sky with
Jodi was elated to be praised by the public, and gratefully accepted the name 'Stargirl' as her official code-name.