Rebecca Anne "Annie" Campbell (néeJanuary), known by the superhero name Starlight, is a fictionalsuperheroine in the comic book series The Boys, created by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. As Starlight, she is a member of the Seven, a group of superheroes funded by Vought-American (Vought International in the television franchise), and the love interest of Hughie Campbell. Annie is a former member of the Young Americans group with the ability of flight and light manipulation. Throughout the series, she is portrayed as one of the only members of the Seven with selfless, benevolent motivations, but becomes disillusioned when she sees the dark secrets of Vought and the other members of the Seven. Eventually, the death and destruction she witnesses pushes her to quit her job at Vought and join the Boys alongside Hughie, where they both serve as the moral center of the group.
Annie January / Starlight is introduced in Cherry as the latest member of the Seven. Her known powers are flight and the ability to project blinding light, though she is also hinted to have super-hearing. She is formerly a member of the Young Americans superhero organization, and a conservative Christian.[1] Upon joining the Vought-American-sponsored team called the Seven, she is shocked to discover the other members' true nature. On her first visit, the Homelander requests that she performs oral sex for him, A-Train, and Black Noir, or leave the group. She reluctantly complies. Her costume is modified against her will to be more revealing and she has often been tricked into humiliating situations. It was claimed by A-Train in issue #20 that the Seven hired her solely to amuse themselves by degrading her. Jack from Jupiter expects her to be replaced by a bigger-name hero within a year. During the "Cherry" story arc, she meets Hughie in New York on a bench in Central Park. Under her Annie identity, she begins a relationship with Hughie, neither knowing the other's true identity.[2]
Annie has frequently shown signs of changing, with aggressive outbursts, losing her faith, using profanities, and drinking alcohol. She shows some concern that she is becoming more like the rest of the Seven, coming to realize that even Homelander once shared her idealism. Butcher has footage of her induction into the Seven, and in issue #39, he discovers Annie's and Hughie's relationship.
In #32, Annie violently rejects a new, even more revealing costume and makeover and a new, fictional origin of being a rape victim foisted on her by Vought-American's marketing department. The Seven's attempt to change her mind results in a staredown with Black Noir, with Annie only being saved by Queen Maeve's surprise intervention. She further defies both the team and VA by going back to her original outfit.
Annie has said she believes her relationship with Hughie is "more precious than gold", and she intends to quit the Seven and move out. Despite this, #39–43 shows that she is terrified he will reject her if he finds out what she did to get into the Seven. This proves to be true, as Hughie flees when she reveals her true identity in Issue #45.[3]
Not wanting the truth to destroy their relationship, she follows Hughie back to Scotland during the "Highland Laddie" mini-series. She reveals her childhood to Hughie, and what it was like growing up with powers: blinding her parents at birth, being adopted by a foster couple who raised her to show her off at VA pageants and having powers while being forbidden to actually help or rescue people.
In issue #52, Hughie suggests to her that the relationship will not work despite his warnings about certain individuals not being keen on supes. She then explains to Hughie that he is the nicest person she ever had in her life and doesn't want to give that up, requesting that since the relationship is on the rocks, can he still treat her decently. Hughie agrees. In issue #55, after Hughie finishes his conversation with Mallory, he reveals to Annie that he has been working for the C.I.A. and wants her to leave the Seven and hide until the upcoming war between them and The Boys is at a conclusion. Hughie admits to her that he still loves her.
In issue #66, The Bloody Doors Off, Annie leaves New York and Hughie behind due to the events following the attempted insurrection in Washington, as well as Hughie's continued discomfort around her. She returns in the final issue, with the characters once again together, having decided to give their relationship another shot now that both the Boys and the Seven are gone.
In the epilogue series, Dear Becky, which takes place twelve years after the end of the series, Annie and Hughie get married and settle down in his hometown in Scotland, Annie taking Hughie's name as "Annie Campbell".
As a child, Annie's mother Donna (Ann Cusack) agreed to allow Vought to infuse her with Compound V after birth, but raised her to believe that her powers were a gift from God.[5] Disagreeing with what happened to his daughter, Annie's father left, with her mother telling her that he had left after losing their savings through bad investments. Annie was raised a conservative Christian in a hyper-religious environment, an upbringing that continues to influence her, and attended superhero pageants as part of her mother's efforts to groom her as a candidate for membership in the Seven.
At the start of season 1, Annie is sexually assaulted by The Deep after being introduced as the newest member of the Seven. After preventing a rape and initially being reprimanded by Vought for doing so whilst out of costume, Annie is coerced by Madelyn Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue) to wear a revealing costume supposedly representing female empowerment similarly to the golden age of feminist movement's revolution, although Annie seems to have a more puritan thought and opinion about it. After attending a Capes for Christ event, she begins questioning its approach to faith when she witnesses inherent homophobia, religious intolerance and too much focus on opposition to premarital sex, eventually revealing the Deep's sexual assault on live television. She also enters a romantic relationship with Hughie, with him finding out her identity as Starlight, though the relationship becomes strained when she learns of his involvement with the Boys and subsequently the truth about Compound V and its role in the creation of Supes.
Annie becomes a spy for the Boys and helps them leak the truth of Compound V to the press. She continues her relationship with Hughie, but temporarily ends it out of fear of reprisal from Vought and Homelander should they learn of him. Stormfront and Homelander later catch her and imprison her for secretly aiding the Boys, but Hughie helps her escape. Despite her actions, Annie is pardoned by Vought and re-admitted to the Seven by the season finale, with the events of the season being blamed on Stormfront in light of her Nazi past being exposed. The first episode of the season depicts Annie as Starlight singing "Never Truly Vanish" at Translucent's televised funeral, with Erin Moriarty providing her own vocals for the recording.[6]
While not personally appearing in The Boys Presents: Diabolical, imagery of Annie January / Starlight is used in promotional marketing produced by Vought International in the anthology series. A poster of her was seen on the Vought-a-Burger promotion for this show.
One year after the events of season 2, Annie is appointed by Vought CEO Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) as the new co-captain of the Seven, partly to repair Vought's public image, partly to moderate Homelander's behavior. Hoping to use her new position to effect positive change and to recruit allies in a plot to kill Homelander, she is forced to abandon her plans and to accept a new public persona as Homelander's lover after he kills Supersonic, Annie's ex-boyfriend (formerly known as Drummer Boy). Annie becomes estranged from Hughie when he and Butcher take up use of Temp-V (a temporary version of Compound V) and partner with Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) against Homelander, with her allying with MM (who refused to take Temp-V and had a personal vendetta against Soldier Boy), Frenchie and Kimiko. After Homelander has Black Noir hide away Maeve, and Soldier Boy kills or severely injures most of the attendants at Herogasm whilst taking revenge against the TNT Twins, Annie makes an Instagram post with MM's help intended to ruin the public images of Homelander and Vought, alert the public of Soldier Boy's return, and retiring from her Starlight persona saying: "I'm not Starlight anymore. My name is Annie January and I fucking quit."
This results in a smear campaign by Vought's news media wing, accusing her of being heartbroken after being dumped by Homelander, of being connected to the Shining Light Liberation Army (due to Kimiko), and engaging in human trafficking via her charitable foundation Starlight House. She later infiltrates Seven Tower to obtain Compound V for Kimiko, where she manages to trick Homelander into confessing to Supersonic's murder on an Instagram livestream, and also discovers that Temp-V will cause brain lesions and ultimately death after three to five doses. Annie frantically calls Butcher to warn Hughie as he is not returning her calls. After Butcher knocks Hughie unconscious and abandons him in a gas station bathroom, Annie picks him up, at which point he apologizes to her for not knowing what strength was and gives her permission to cathartically yell "I told you so" at him. Whilst fighting Soldier Boy at Seven Tower, Annie demonstrates a hitherto unknown ability to fly after Hughie turns up several studio lights to help her. After Soldier Boy is defeated, she bids a now-depowered Maggie Shaw goodbye, ceremonially throws her Starlight costume in the incinerator, and is officially welcomed as a member of the Boys.
Months later, Annie has abandoned her "Starlight" persona, considering it to be a misrepresentation of her herself, and has continued to manage Starlight House (now separate from Vought but still smeared by its news outlets as a front for human trafficking). She is tasked with investigating the newest member of the Seven, Firecracker. She remembers Firecracker as a childhood acquaintance, whose life she had ruined by spreading a rumor about her during her child pageant days, creating a lifelong resentment towards herself. Firecracker publicly broadcasts Annie's private sensitive information, such as when she accidentally blinded a hostage during her early hero days and that she had an abortion. This incites Annie and violently beats Firecracker on live television, soiling her reputation and public image and results in the collapse of Starlight House. The stress of the situation leads Annie into an identity crisis, and as a result is incapable of using her powers. Whilst being lambasted by her mother for having an abortion, she reveals that Hughie fished her Starlight costume out of the trash in case she ever wanted to reassume her Supe identity.
Annie is briefly kidnapped by Shifter, a shapeshifting Supe, who takes her form in order to delete files that Hughie had stolen from the Red River facility which prove that Vice-President-elect Victoria Neuman is a corrupt Supe, and to assassinate President-elect Robert "Dakota Bob" Singer to elevate Neuman to the presidency. Having the ability to read people's minds, Shifter taunts Annie by having sex with and proposing to Hughie, for believing herself to be a blameless "main character in [her] own story". After escaping confinement (by pulling her hands through her restraints), she saves Singer's life and kills Shifter. Furious with Hughie for having slept with and becoming engaged with Shifter (although Hughie defends himself by saying that he thought that Shifter was her), she stays with him, insisting that he get himself tested for sexually transmitted infections.
Following Butcher's assassination of Neuman, Singer is framed for her death and House Speaker Calhoun is elevated to the presidency, who declares martial law and deputizes Homelander and Vought to maintain law and order. Because of this, the Boys assume fake identities and go on the run, with Annie and Hughie staying together. Before being intercepted by Cindy and Vought Troopers whilst en route to Canada, Annie regains her powers, allowing her to escape by flying away whilst Hughie is apprehended.
Annie January / Starlight shooting blasts of light
As Starlight, Annie January possesses the ability to manipulate and draw power from nearby sources of electricity to generate, project and emanate blasts of energy and a blinding light from her hands, giving her the ability to fly. She has also been shown to possess a degree of super strength, the ability to withstand impact, even from ballistic weaponry, and she might possess a degree of super hearing.
In the comic series, and she is generally athletic as well as being a trained gymnast. Her light energy bursts are capable of blinding even super-powered beings.[a]
Annie's Starlight appearance, especially her original costume, is based on DC heroines Mary Marvel, whereas her powers are based on Marvel's Dazzler, who also can generate light and use it as both heat and concussive force.[10]
Garth Ennis has stated that Annie's relationship with Hughie Campbell and subsequent characterisation in the comic series was not originally planned, saying that:[11]
"Annie started out as a joke, and was actually going to degenerate further in terms of the shit she'd put up with, the degradations she'd suffer just to be in the world's premier super team. But I found myself writing Hughie moping in Central Park, and then to my great surprise I saw Annie coming walking down the path. That was when I realized I wanted to take her in a different direction, make her stronger and more rounded... I probably felt a bit guilty about Annie and ended up treating her a bit more responsibly as a result."[11]
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