| SKYMAN (Sylvester Pemberton) | BIOGRAPHY |
| Created by Jerry Siegel and Hal Sherman |
PERSONAL DATA
Real Name: Sylvester Pemberton
Aliases: Star-Spangled Kid I
Occupation: Adventurer, formerly student, later studio head, Stellar Studios
Status: Deceased
Citizenship: American
Marital Status: Single
Known Relatives: John Pemberton (father, deceased), Gloria Pemberton (mother, deceased), 'Soapy' Pemberton (adopted brother, presumed deceased), Arthur Pemberton (nephew), Merry Creamer-Pemberton (adopted sister), Hank King, Jr. (nephew), Jacqueline Pemberton (niece, deceased)
Base of Operation: Civic City,PA; later Gotham City,NJ; then Los Angeles, CA
Group Affiliation(s): Seven Soldiers of Victory, All-Star Squadron, Justice Society of America, Infinity, Inc.
Gender: Male
Height: 5'5", later 5'8"
Weight: 136 lbs. , later 160 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black
First Appearance: (in an advert): Action Comics #40 (September 1941)
(as Star-Spangled Kid I): Star Spangled Comics #1 (October 1941)
(as Skyman): Infinity, Inc. #31 (October 1986)
Creators: Jerry Siegel and Hal Sherman
OVERVIEW
Sylvester Pemberton teamed up with mechanic Pat Dugan to become the crime-fighting duo Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy, joining the wartime coalition of heroes, the All-Star Squadron, as well as the original Seven Soldiers of Victory. Thrown through time with the Soldiers, Pemberton arrived in modern times as a youth, with people who used to be his own age now grown up with children of their own. In this modern era he joined the Justice Society of America, where he became close friends with Starman who at one time asked him to take over his role. He soon left the Society to found Infinity, Inc. with the children of many of the Society's members, and took on the new name of Skyman. After the team lost Hector Hall, the Silver Scarab, Sylvester was also killed by Marcie Cooper, the Harlequin, using Mister Bones' cyanide touch.
HISTORY
Even as a very young child, Sylvester Pemberton knew he had a lot to offer. He just didn't know where his true talents lie. He excelled at his studies, taking some high school courses while still in elementary school, and his wealthy parents felt that his home tutoring was sufficient to stimulate him, so he was pulled out of school and accelerated his studies at his own pace. He was sufficient enough to graduate high school at age 12, and spent most of his free time in self-study readying himself for college. He had many fields of interest... physical sciences, biology, psychology... and was an avid reader and experimenter. Sylvester kept up with current events and knew that America was going to be involved with the war in Europe sooner or later, and was at odds at how he might serve his country. He was much too young to join the service, and found that many of his ideas were scoffed at just because of his age.
He found his destiny on July 4, 1941, when attending a movie, he heard pro-Nazi protesters in the theatre. He and another patriotic citizen at first shouted them down, and when they became violent, beat them back. Pemberton discovered that they were saboteurs, and after devising a quick costume, tracked them down with the aid of the other man, a mechanic named Pat Dugan. Sylvester thought the two would make a fine duo and decided to join together as the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy. Pemberton convinced his father to hire Dugan as his driver, and helped develop Pat's ideas into the Star-Rocket Racer, an auto which could race up to 200 mph and could fly for short distances.
He grew to appreciate Pat, in his security in knowing that his leadership in the duo didn't threaten him due to the differences in their ages.
While corralling up some crooks, the duo came upon plans by The Hand to cause a crime-wave across America, using several crimelords. Teaming up with several other heroes in the summer of 1941, both the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy became founding members of the Law's Legionnaires (also known as the Seven Soldiers of Victory). Later, the two also became members of the All-Star Squadron.
Late in 1948, his parents felt that he needed more companionship, and adopted a young girl named Merry to be his playmate. She stumbled upon the Kid's secret and devised her own secret identity, as the Gimmick Girl and aided the Star-Spangled Kid in several cases while Stripesy healed from a broken leg.
In October, 1949, the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy were contacted by the Spider, who pretended to be a hero and a member of the Seven Soldiers, and was led into a trap that culminated in the team being hurdled back though time. Sylvester spent several weeks in 50,000 B.C., before being rescued by several members of the combined forces of the Justice League of America and the Justice Society of America. He was returned to his proper era, but nearly decades after he had left.
Everyone he had known except for his fellow Soldiers had passed away or forgotten about him, and he was feeling depressed when Starman lent him his Cosmic Rod to use. Sylvester began to fight crime and aided the Justice Society on a case. He adapted the Cosmic Rod into a Cosmic Converter Belt and soon joined the JSA full-time. However, a thread from his former life popped up, as the son of his adopted brother used the family fortune to form a criminal cadre called the Strike Force. After defeating the Strike Force, Pemberton took a brief leave-of-absence and re-established his identity and took control of the Pemberton fortune.
Lacking a purpose in his life, Sylvester decided that he would try and make a going concern of a movie studio that the Pemberton estate owned. Feeling also that his heroic career was at a dead-end, he decided to create his own team of heroes, and when the super-powered offspring of the Justice Society members teamed together to save their elders from the Ultra-Humanite, Pemberton offered to lead the team and move them to California under the name Infinity, Inc. After dropping most of the abilities of the Cosmic Converter Belt, he incorporated the remaining features into a new costume and began to go by the name of SKYMAN.
Soon after reconciling his differences with his retired partner, Skyman was killed by the cyanide touch of Mister Bones, under the direction of the second Harlequin. Bones was later found to not have caused Sylvester's death intentionally.
Recently, the step-daughter of the former Stripsey, Courtney Whitmore, took up the Cosmic Converter Belt and the name Star-Spangled Kid, joining the reformed Justice Society.
POWERS AND WEAPONS
A brilliant tactician, the Star-Spangled Kid used acrobatics and practised routines with his partner Stripesy to beat criminals. Pemberton was a genius level intellect in many fields of study, and used this knowledge to fight crime. After returning to modern times, the Star-Spangled Kid refined the Cosmic Rod into a Cosmic Converter Belt, which could enable the wearer to fly, generate power blasts, and create stable energy constructs to a higher degree than the Rod. It was also linked in some way to that person's aura structure, and no two wearers had the same abilities (Courtney is slightly enervated, with heightened vitality and able to throw energy disrupting "stars". It is not known whether she will be able to do all the things Sylvester might.)
CHRONOLOGY
For a definitive list of appearances of Skyman in chronological order click here
PROFILE REFERENCES
Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #21 (November 1986)