Battlestar (comics)

Battlestar
Battlestar in Civil War Frontline #3. Art by Ramon Sachs.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Captain America #323 (November 1986)
Created by	Mark Gruenwald Paul Neary
In-story information
Alter ego	Lemar Hoskins
Team affiliations	Bold Urban Commandos CSA Wild Pack
Partnerships	U.S. Agent
Notable aliases	Bucky
Abilities	Highly trained acrobat and gymnast Exceptional hand-to-hand combatant Superhuman strength, durability and resilience Enhanced endurance Peak-level agility and reflexes Wields a near indestructible adamantium shield

Battlestar (Lemar Hoskins), who was also the fifth Bucky, is a fictional character, a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Battlestar was created by Mark Gruenwald and Paul Neary, and was originally introduced as a nameless member of the Bold Urban Commandos in Captain America #323. In Captain America #327 he is called "Lemar" for the first time, but generally is still treated as interchangeable with the other BUCs. He rises from anonymity in Captain America #334, in which his full name is revealed and he adopts the identity of Bucky. Gruenwald later explained,

I get several letters every month asking when Bucky's coming back. And I said, "Well, if the government's getting a new Captain America, maybe they'd want to get a new Bucky." I had previously introduced three Buckies as the friends and partners of the Super-Patriot, the Bold Urban Commandos, and rather than create someone new, I decided one of them would be the Bucky. There were two white guys and a black guy, and I said why not the black guy. He at least stood out in the group. Cap had a black partner before in the Falcon, but he's had three other white partners so I said it's time for another black one. Thus, Bucky was black. Now I'm getting a lot of bad mail, and deservedly so, for my ignorance.

Angered fans wrote to Marvel Comics, informing the company that "Buck" is considered a derogatory term among African-Americans, as it was a term used before the American Civil War to refer to male slaves, and complaining that it was also racially offensive to have an adult black man taking on the identity of a teenage sidekick. Writer Mark Gruenwald had not known of the racial connotation of "Bucky", having grown up in a region with very few African-Americans, and agreed to give Hoskins a new name. In Captain America #341 he is renamed Battlestar, dons his own unique costume, and is more explicitly presented as a partner to the new Captain America, rather than a sidekick. Gruenwald recalled, "The search for a good name for a partner to Cap is a whole half-hour unto itself. [laughs] We came up with every single name which was vaguely patriotic, vaguely military, and yet stood on its own, because some day these guys may split up." The name "Battlestar" was ultimately suggested by Captain America penciler Kieron Dwyer.