Publisher DC Comics Team affiliations Big Science Action | Alter ego Takeo Sato First appearance (Takeo Sato) | |
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Created by (Takeo Sato)
Paul Kupperberg (writer)
Alex Saviuk (artist)
(Celebrity Sunburst)
Grant Morrison (writer)
Richard Case (artist) Abilities Converts solar energy into light or heat. Creators Grant Morrison, Richard Case, Paul Kupperberg Similar Rising Sun, Air Wave, Doctor Light | ||
Sunburst is the name of two fictional Japanese superheroes published by DC Comics.
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Takeo Sato
This Sunburst first appeared in New Adventures of Superboy #45 (September 1983), and was created by Paul Kupperberg and Alex Saviuk. Takeo Sato gained the ability to turn solar energy into light or heat after inhaling volcanic vapors as a child. He accidentally discovers his powers when working as a stuntman on the low-budget television series "Sunburst." When the cables used to make him appear to fly break, he finds out that he can actually fly. At first keeping his powers a secret, he is forced to use them to commit robberies after his parents are kidnapped by gang of crooks. Sato frees them with the help of Superboy, and decides to become a superhero for real. Sunburst is a founding member of the Japanese equivalent of the Justice League of America, a team called Big Science Action.
During the Crisis, he unites with Dr. Light and Rising Sun to save the Earth from the Anti-Monitor. He is killed by one of the Anti-Monitor's Shadow Demons in Crisis on Infinite Earths #12 (March 1986).
Post-Crisis, it was clarified in the pages of DC Comics' Who's Who editions that Rising Sun was retconned into Superboy's role in Sunburst's origins.
Celebrity Sunburst
Grant Morrison introduced a new version of Sunburst in Doom Patrol vol. 2 #26 (September 1989). This version proclaims himself to be one of Japan's "greatest super heroes" and is constantly trailed by the media. He even has his own show and manga, "The Adventures of the New Sunburst". This Sunburst is responsible for bringing in the woman who would later be known as the Quiz, before being ambushed by the Brotherhood of Dada and disgraced on national television. He is then sucked into the living cyclone known as Frenzy; it is unknown if he survives. Whether or not he had a connection with Takeo Sato, the original Sunburst, was never revealed.