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The standard armor was powered by the will of the Controllers. This armor also included a fail-safe installed by Director Jeddigar. This allowed him to turn off any of the exo-mantles completely.

Darkstars were equipped with powersuits called "exo-mantles". There were four distinct models:

History

Standard armor

The standard armor was powered by the will of the Controllers. This armor also included a fail-safe installed by Director Jeddigar. This allowed him to turn off any of the exo-mantles completely.[1]

Deputy armor

A toned down version of the original armor, with less powerful maser blasts. It was created because the Network for the Establishment and Maintenance of Order (NEMO) felt that primitive races could not be entrusted with the standard version with out proving themselves. It was slightly different in design, lacking the shoulder ornaments of the standard version.[2]

Alternate universe armor

When Ferrin Colos was sucked into a miniature universe, he fought an evil version of himself. He joined the resistance, led by good versions of his old enemies Jeddigar and K'lassh.[3] After joining them, he was provided with the miniature universe's version of the exo-mantle. This armor had more powerful masers,[4] but using it required much more concentration than the old armor.[3]

Self-sustaining armor

After the Controllers took their hands off the Darkstar project, Director Stewart designed a new mantle. This version was not reliant on Controllers for energy and did not have Jeddigar's failsafes.[4] However, these exo-mantles were time consuming to construct. When Grayven began to hunt down the Darkstars, Stewart could only muster seventeen Darkstars with functioning armor for a counter-offensive.[5]

Living armor

In wake of Dark Nights: Metal the Controllers created newly refurbished Exo-Mantles with Artificial Intelligence slaved directly to their central mental collective.[6] These new armors were consciously aware of their surroundings, able to act on their own and choose their designated hosts who would become enslaved to their masters' will. Kellic boasted of their newfound invincibility as they possessed tactical computation ability, Collective Intelligence linked to their own, greater resilience and the ability to teleport interstellar distances.[7]

Blackstar armour

An offshoot of the Darkstars led by Controller Mu, known as the Blackstars, upgraded their Exo-Mantles with the addition of Evil Star's Star-Band technology. This allowed them to focus their will into powerful energy blasts.[8][9]

Powers

All versions of the exo-mantle granted the user:

  • Flight: The wearer could achieve high speeds during flight, all the while protected from wind friction by personal force field's.[10]
  • Force Field: The mantle gives it's users protective shielding which can withstand the rigors of harsh combat and space travel.
    • Kinetic Shielding: The exo-mantle could withstand direct attacks and siphon energy from others beings.[11]
  • Self-Sustenance: The suit provides it's wearers vacuum survivability whenever they travel the spaceways.
  • Superhuman Strength: The exo-mantle greatly improved the natural strength of the wearer.[2]
  • Superhuman Agility: The exo-mantle greatly improved wearer agility while in use.[2]
  • Superhuman Reflexes: The exo-mantle greatly amplified a wearers reactions when adorned.[2]
  • Superhuman Speed: The exo-mantle also augmented the users speed to incredible but undisclosed levels.[2]
  • Twin Masers: The exo-mantle came equipped with twin maser units capable of firing energy bolts from the wearer's hands. Darkstars were often surgically altered to gain instant maser control, rather than the split-second delay in reaction time when wearing the deputy version of the exo-mantle.[12]

Later & alternate models of the battlement gave its wearer:

  • Gravity Blasts: Exo-Mantles from another reality were powered by black holes and could discharge powerful gyrokinetic discharge.[3]
  • Invulnerability: The new mantle's boast increased resilience to physical abrasion, giving the likes of a solar powered Zod difficulty in damaging them.[13]
  • Psychic Link: Newer Darkstar exo-mantles grant the user access to a hive mind network which gives them tactical superiority over adversaries.[14]
  • Teleportation: The recently upgraded Darkstar mantle had the ability to Phase Jump across star sectors at a time with relative ease.[7]
  • Tracking: New Exo-mantle's had the ability to seek out those willing to exact lethal justice upon the wicked. Similar to how a Power Ring searches for a worthy recipient of it's power.[7]
  • Radiation Production: Recent upgrades Controller Mu had made using Star-Band based innovating enables the Mantle to channel stellar energy for willpower directed plasma blasts.[8][9]

Notes

  • Since the exo-mantle served as the uniform for the Darkstars, it appeared in all stories featuring members of the organization.
  • The appearances of the Darkstars as an organization only fall within the New Earth and Prime Earth continuities.
  • A variation of the design was used for a legacy character in Kingdom Come (1996). This character was later used in related stories with its home continuity referred to as Earth-22.


See Also

Links and References

  • None.
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