Stargrave first appeared observing a confrontation between the Time Trapper and five Legionnaires. He then tried to convince Brainiac 5 that he was his father. He claimed that he was transformed by aliens and the power of an exploding sun. He confessed that he had once been an ordinary mortal scientist who was studying a star when his life support failed. This placed him in a drug-induced suspended animation. He was then found by aliens who teleported his 'corpse' into a nearby star at the moment of a super-nova. His mind fused with the exploding plasma and the supernova apparently collapsed into a pulsar with a living heart.