Marvel's Starbrand has incredible cosmic power... but all that power doesn't come with the smarts or the wisdom to use it. The hereditary title has become a crucial part of the latest Avengers storyline after taking a new host in the womb, resulting in an orphaned newborn with godlike power falling into the Avengers' care. The superhero team is unsure how the new host will use the incredible strength and energy the Starbrand grants... but it would take a lot of trying for the baby to do as poor a job as his predecessors. The original Starbrand just might be Marvel's worst superhero ever: he has no clue how to use his powers, no morals to speak of, and accidentally kills way more people than he saves.
Starbrand was created in 1986 as part of Marvel's then-editor-in-chief Jim Shooter's "New Universe" lineup. New Universe created a fresh continuity with all-new characters, meant to be more grounded and realistic than the usual Marvel fare. (Marvel's Ultimate Universe would later try this again to much more success.) The flagship series, styled Star Brand, was written by Shooter himself. It starred Ken Connell, who was gifted by a mysterious old man with a "star brand" that bestowed Superman-like powers.
The efforts to make Ken a more grounded and human hero come on strong. Ken has a job he hates at an auto shop, a relationship he finds annoying, and a best friend who thinks he's a loser. When he gains godlike power, none of that changes, and his moral fiber only gets thinner. He uses his powers to spy on his girlfriend changing, fails to save the day on every attempt for the first four issues, and gets jealous when other heroes help the people he can't.
This may seem the beginning of a Spider-Man-style origin story about character growth and responsibility, but it isn't. This is his entire characterization. Connell ogles and flirts with every woman he sees, including his seventeen-year-old babysitter. He cheats on his girlfriend with a friend he considers "not the smartest", then has her do his chores. He gets completely lost whenever he flies outside of his hometown, which nearly kills him. His only supervillain is an unnamed old man who gave him his powers and then inexplicably demands them back.
After Shooter was fired from Marvel, several creative teams carried the series along in the same vein. Starbrand lashes out at a terminally ill boy who wants him to fight crime. When he tries to save a convention center, he goes overboard and destroys it, killing thousands inside. In the nadir of Starbrand's failed superhero career, he attempts to siphon off his overwhelming power without harming anyone. This annihilates the entire city of Pittsburgh.
The rest of Starbrand's story is a surreal post-apocalyptic drama, making him a supporting character in a saga that focuses on the survivors of his destruction. Writer John Byrne gives Connell a son, a godlike baby who reveals that he is somehow his own biological father, and is also the Old Man, who is actually Connell from the future. In the end, all three entities unite and send themselves back in time to create their own Starbrand and save the universe from their uncontrollable power. However, they didn't account for a man the Starbrand resurrected, who gained the mark in the process. The last and greatest act that Marvel's worst superhero performed was to erase himself from existence... and ultimately even that was a failure.
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