Who's This? Starfire's sister.
The facts: If Starfire is a space princess then it stands to reason she has an evil sister who wants to be on the throne. If New Teen Titans is an X-Men clone, then they are Lilandra and Deathbird. And the naming gods weren't particularly sharp the day she premiered (that would be The New Teen Titans #22, August 1982), not just because Blackfire is the easy evil version of Starfire, but Komand'r sounds like Commander and that's just silly. Anyway, she plays her part in Titans and manages to show up in the Rann-Thanagar War to kill Hawkwoman, before appearing in REBELS to make Vril Dox her consort. In other words, she's part of the cosmic landscape of the DC Universe.
How you could have heard of her: Still exists in the New52, but getting cast in the Titans animated shows, DC Super Hero Girls, and in the second season of the Titans TV series will probably loom larger in contemporary audiences' minds.
Example story: The New Teen Titans #23 (September 1982) "Kidnapped!" by Marv Wolfman, George Perez and Romeo Tanghal
This issue starts with Starfire's evil sister bringing a fleet of Gordanian warships to Earth (if that is indeed what Earth looks like - what the what?!), and that splash page makes me think Tamaranians must have ultra-dense bones or else that giant mane of hair would snap her tiny frame, geez.
The Titans are already in the middle of a crisis of public trust following Brother Blood-related shenanigans, so the Gordanians attacking and remotely making Starfire's powers go out of control isn't helping. Kory is captured and brought to the mothership (with the Titans trying to reach in commandeered flying saucers), so let's see what happens from that point on. Spoiler: There's a lot of gloating.
"Gordanians are such bothers!" She then admits she does prattle on. What is this dialog? Anyway, on with the torture, which could have gone a LOT worse.
I can almost imagine a 2000s-era re-staging of this scene where Komand'r uses her powers in panel 2 and leaves a hand print on Kory's face that stays there until the next reboot. I guess it hurts more to watch the Titans get turned to mince meat by Blackfire's ship defenses.
They get airlocked, and as history as shown, they were never heard from again. The ship "star-slides" back to Citadel space and, oh ok, the Justice League satellite tractors them in while Raven's soul-self keeps them alive in the vacuum of space. Now that I think of it, the Titans DID show up after this. And Superman might be able to help with the whole situation if he hadn't lost his powers in whatever's happening in Action Comics at the moment. Timing is everything, kids.
Obviously, the next story arc concerns the Titans getting Starfire back. As for Blackfire, her most notable villain trait is her ruthlessness. She disintegrates her henchmen, throws the heroes out into space, there's just no stopping her. I still can't muster much enthusiasm for her since it's Titans in Space, which is just X-Men in Space, which I'm pretty ambivalent about. Also never been keen on Tanghal inking Perez, as it seems to flatten all the detail out of it, especially in the Blackfire sequences for some reason. I think a lot of New Titans stuff feels exciting because of Perez eye candy, but it's really not a sweet in this era.
Who's Next? The guy we can thank for Blackest Night.
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