Starlight (Marvel Comics)

Starlight
Starlight as Red Guardian
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	(As Red Guardian): The Defenders #35 (May 1976) (As Starlight): Quasar #19 (Feb 1991)
Created by	Steve Gerber (writer) Sal Buscema (artist)
In-story information
Alter ego	Tania Belinsky (Belinskaya)
Team affiliations	Defenders
Partnerships	Presence
Notable aliases	Red Guardian Zvezda Syvet ("Starlight" in Russian)
Abilities	Highly skilled athlete Skilled neurosurgeon Gifted intellect Superhuman strength, stamina and durability Supersonic flight via nuclear energy generation Radiation projection As Red Guardian: Use of "belt-buckle" disc

Starlight is a fictional superheroine appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Created by Steve Gerber and Sal Buscema, she first appeared in The Defenders # 35 (May 1976).

Tania Belinsky was born in Leningrad, in the former Soviet Union. Tania became a young neurosurgeon, though after her dissident father Andrei had been sent to Siberia, she adopted a costume and persona similar to the original Red Guardian's, and fought crime and protected dissidents in an attempt to reform Soviet society. She left the USSR at the request of Doctor Strange to perform a brain transplant. She decided to stay in America and join the Defenders as an adventurer. She battled a Plant Man simulacrum alongside Doctor Strange. She was teleported to another dimension alongside Power Man and Doctor Strange, where she battled the original Eel and Porcupine. She also battled an unnamed masked Soviet. She teamed with Valkyrie and Hellcat to battle Doctor Strange as the Red Rajah and Nighthawk, Hulk, and Power Man.

Dr. Belinsky was brought to the lab complex of Sergei Krylov, alias the "Presence", a scientific genius who had become one of the most influential men behind the scenes of the Soviet government. Sergei mentally dominated Tania, and used a Chernobyl-like nuclear disaster to transform Tania into his super-powered thrall with nuclear powers. She battled the Defenders alongside the Presence, and then separated from him. She was later assigned to investigate the Presence's reappearance, and after battling a giant amoeba, she reunited with the Presence. Alongside the Presence, she encountered the Hulk, Darkstar, Crimson Dynamo, Vanguard, Ursa Major, and Professor Phobos. She and the Presence left Earth since their radiation levels were too dangerous for them to remain. Tania and Sergei were eventually revealed to be laboratory subjects on one of the Stranger's laboratory worlds. After regaining their freedom, Tania took the name Starlight, and returned to Earth with the Presence and Jack of Hearts. She battled Quasar and the Fantastic Four, and aided the Presence in his attempt to kill Eon, though she ultimately admitted only doing so because the Presence (the only person who could safely remain around her due to what he did to her, making her radioactive) threatened to abandon her if she did not serve as his henchwoman and lover. She was later seen battling Darkstar and the Black Widow.