WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Star #2 by Kelly Thompson, Javier Pina, Filipe Andrade, Jesus Aburtov and Clayton Cowles, in stores now.
Ripley Ryan, aka Star, started out as a magazine reporter. However, after meeting Captain Marvel, her whole life changed. After that, she became the subject of Minn-Erva, and was turned into a Kree super-soldier. Once the device that allowed her to siphon Captain Marvel's powers was removed from her, she was defeated, and back to normal -- or so she thought. As it turns out, Ripley somehow became the vessel for the Reality Stone, one of six cosmic gems of immeasurable power.
Now, Ripley is only just starting to test her abilities, which allow her to rewrite reality itself. Already, her quest for answers has led her to Loki, Jessica Jones and the Scarlet Witch. Now, she's got a team of cosmic villains on her tail: the Black Order.
The Black Order are, essentially, Thanos' own personal strike force. The team was originally comprised of Corvus Glaive, Proxima Midnight, Black Dwarf, Ebony Maw and Supergiant, and they helped Thanos on his quest to locate the Infinity Stones in the 2013 event series, Infinity. The characters proved so popular they eventually made the jump to the big screen, appearing in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame.
Since then, the characters continued to sporadically appear in the Marvel Universe, like in the pages of Donny Cates' and Geoff Shaw's Guardians of the Galaxy, where they joined forces with Hela to try and bring Thanos back to life.
Now, Thanos' personal guard has returned in Star #2. The bulk of the issue focuses primarily on Ripley, who has been taken by Scarlet Witch in another dimension as part of her lesson in learning to harness her reality-altering powers. But the story also cuts to an apartment in the East Village, where a group of seemingly ordinary humans are discussing Ripley, and the Reality Stone that is a part of her. Soon, it becomes clear these humans are no regular people -- they discuss going after Ripley, and making sure her powers fall into their hands and no one else's.
However, it's only at the end of the issue that Corvus Glaive appears in the apartment, putting an end to the discussion and declaring they are to go after Ripley. Then, the veil is lifted, and we see these humans are actually the Black Order in disguise: Black Dwarf, Ebony Maw, Proxima Midnight and Black Swan.
Therefore, the Black Order is back on Earth, and they are once again making a play for the Infinity Stones -- and no one has any idea. Worse still, the cosmic supervillains are now able to hide in plain sight, which means they can operate covertly, right among the humans. The cliffhanger ending promises a confrontation between Star and the Black Order is coming soon, and she may not have enough control of her new abilities to stop them.
Then again, with Ripley's status as a villain, nothing is stopping her from becoming the latest member of Corvus Glaive's Black Order.