The Last Starfighter (Mad Cave)

#1A

Taurin Clarke Regular

Release:

Jul 01, 2026

Mad Cave

Creators

Writer	Deric A. Hughes | Benjamin Raab
Artist	Willi Roberts
Cover Artist	Taurin Clarke

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Greetings, Starfighter! You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada!

There were three main things that dominated the summer of 1984 for me. Two of them were movies. The other was a person, though that person was in one of those two movies and was a big part – but far from the only part – of why that movie loomed so large in my mind.

One of those movies was The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.

The other was, as you can probably guess, The Last Starfighter.

The person was Catherine Mary Stewart, who played Maggie in The Last Starfighter.

She, at the same time as the movie, was first brought my attention in this inside-front cover comic book ad.

In the lead-up to the movie’s release, I missed the Marvel Super-Special adaptation (I own it now), only managed to pick up the first issue of the regular comic release of the adaptation, and picked up the novelization.

Sometime after the movie’s release, I even grabbed one of those movie picture books.

(I also clipped out any image I could find of Catherine Mary Stewart in magazines and tabloids.)

As for the movie itself, I missed the theatrical release and had to settle for taking in a showing at a drive-in theater – a double feature with The Muppets Take Manhattan – which was disappointing in the way that drive-in movie-viewing experiences, especially in a place where, in the summer, it’s still barely dark at 11 PM, were always disappointing.

I didn’t get to properly enjoy it until watching it on VHS once it was available for rent.

All of which is to say that the movie has held a special place in my heart for more than 40 years – indeed, should the time ever come that I tell the full story of which the one comic I’ve made is a very small part, there will be a story inspired by and in a way directly tied to the movie – so when I saw that the story would finally get a sequel, in comic book form, I had to pick it up.

You know, eventually. After I discovered that I’d failed to pick it up on the day it was released.

The issue opens with a quick recap of the story told in the movie. And that story is as follows:

Alex Rogan, a recent high school graduate who is stuck in a trailer park in the middle of nowhere – living in a mobile home that never moves – finds that his only escape is a video game called The Last Starfighter really is a means of escape, as it’s not just a video game, it’s a test. A test which he passes, leading to his recruitment to become a Starfighter far off in space. After some initial misgivings, and a devastating attack that leaves Alex as the, well, last Starfighter, he embraces his destiny and defends the frontier. Tasked with helping to rebuild and train the legion of Starfighters to defend the Star League of the threats that still remain, Alex makes a quick trip home to Earth to say his goodbyes, and to take his girlfriend Maggie back to the planet Rylos with him.

That recap is delivered by Alex in the immediate aftermath of his return as he speaks at a memorial service for his fallen comrades.

After that, we move on to take stock of the current state of things on Rylos.

Which is not great.

The armada that destroyed the Starfighters was defeated, but the evil Xur escaped destruction, lawlessness reigns across the galaxy, and Enduran, leader of the Star League – and father of the traitorous Xur – is still recovering from the attack, leaving his son to take on his responsibilities.

Despite his heroic efforts, not everyone is confident that Alex is up to the task ahead of him. Indeed, he’s from a primitive backwater world that is not part of the Star League and wasn’t even supposed to be given the opportunity to become a Starfighter.

Maggie doesn’t respond well to the insults to her home or her man, but it’s ultimately Grig, Alex’s reptilian co-pilot, whose confidence in Alex wins those assembled over. At least enough for them to give him a chance to prove himself worthy of Grig’s confidence.

We jump ahead six months, and things still aren’t going great. The reconstruction of the Frontier – the sort of wall of satellites that serves as a boundary between Star League space and the enemy Ko-Dan – is going to take longer than expected. There’s not enough material available to rebuild the fleet of Gunstars – the ships used by the Starfighters – so Grig is working on designing smaller ships.

But even if they had ships, they wouldn’t have any Starfighters to put in them, as the recruitment efforts have not been bearing fruit.

Alex’s friend Centauri – designer of the “Excalibur test” used to identify potential Starfighters – stops by and tells Alex that he needs to focus on how he’s going to train the Starfighters once they do start showing up.

Grig encourages Alex to consult an oracle for guidance. Centauri dismisses the idea as superstitious nonsense, but while they’re talking, they get a hit for a potential recruit.

Alex asks Centauri to make contact, but Centauri points out that he never worked alone – or for free – and the trusty Beta unit who had been his companion in the past was destroyed on Earth.

However, that’s just an opportunity for Alex to address another issue: how poorly Maggie is adjusting to her new living situation.

Alex’s visit to the oracle doesn’t provide him with much in the way of immediate answers, but he does have a more productive exchange with Maggie, who has agreed to accompany Centauri on his trip to recruit the potential Starfighter the test identified.

There is another potential – but unlikely – candidate that Alex needs to speak to, a woman named Xyla who is being held prisoner for acts of terrorism.

But one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, and Xyla’s actions were all taken in the absence of the Starfighters to defend the galaxy against Ko-Dan incursions, and when offered the chance to do so officially as a Starfighter, she takes it.

As Alex is bringing her back to Rylos, he receives some disturbing news from Grig.

On Kaisu, Maggie and Centauri are greeting the eager recruit, but are interrupted by those enemy ships, who have a simple demand: surrender the Starfighter or die.

Showing the true spirit of a Starfighter, the recruit gives his defiant answer:

You want me lady?? Come and get me!

He receives an answer in return:

The issue is rounded out with the members of the creative team sharing their thoughts on continuing the story all these decades later, and a few reprinted pages from the Marvel adaptation, showing the moment when Alex gets the high score, the immediate aftermath, and Centauri’s arrival to take Alex to meet his destiny.

While there wasn’t a whole lot of action, this was a lot of fun and set the tone for what is to come as the story continues.

Though they clearly didn’t get the rights to the likenesses of the actors, I still heard the dialogue in their voices. Particularly the voice of Robert Preston who played Centauri – the huckster with hearts (he’s not actually human, after all) of gold – so perfectly in the movie.

The comic itself, however, is not perfect; I’m not entirely sold on the artistic style, which I find a bit too blocky and over-rendered, particularly where things stray from the original designs of the movie.

Which isn’t to say that I necessarily want things to look exactly the way they did in the movie, where budget constraints did lead to some questionable choices, but what we’re getting here isn’t exactly wowing me either.

I guess I want something a bit more imaginative that still holds true to the spirit of the original that can deliver on its promise in a way that the groundbreaking but still crude* – even at the time – CGI of the movie could not.

How much anyone who does not share my affection for the movie would enjoy this is a question I can’t answer, but as a fan of the movie, I know it has a strong foundation on which to build, and I think it’s headed in the right direction and has a lot of potential.

My view of it is undeniably biased by nostalgia and my eagerness to finally see the story continue in some form, but…so what? I always say comics are for everybody but not every comic is.

This one is for me.

That said, if you are a fan of the movie, you’ll want to check this out, and if you’ve never seen the movie, what are you waiting for? Go watch it!

*I can’t knock it too much, as it really was groundbreaking in 1984, but to my 12-year-old eyes…it still didn’t look great. It looked about as good as CGI looked on TV shows in the early ’90s, when it was clear that they were doing the best they could with what they had and also didn’t quite know what they were doing or how to do it. People have often talked about remaking the movie, but I don’t think there’s any need, and at most all that should ever be done is maybe – and that’s a big maybe – remastering the CGI and rereleasing it. But that treads dangerously close to “Special Edition” territory, so maybe just leave it as it is.

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