The Star City Slayer was a name coined by the press in relation to the actions of the elderly Stanley Dover.
History
An amateur occultist, Dover hunted young boys and girls, savagely murdering them and using their blood as a means of baiting a demonic entity known as the Beast With No Name.
In the 1950s, Stanley Dover and his wife Marge lived in the suburbs where they enjoyed life as a cheerful, wholesome, church-going couple. The rising popularity of Satanism however, lured them away from the church and they began participating in various occult rituals. While Marge enjoyed them merely for the sex orgies, Stanley was captivated by the Satanic lust for power. The time eventually came when Marge became pregnant, and she no longer wished to be part of the cult following. Stanley was elated by the news of his wife's pregnancy, but upset that she wanted to abandon their new church. Dover wanted to use the infant as a human sacrifice for the Great Beast in a bid to gain immortality. Marge was repulsed by her husband's desires and soon left him.
For years, Stanley continued to research the occult seeking a means to summon the Great Beast. In 1968, he met occultist Jason Blood who told him of an ancient tome known as the Magdalene Grimoire. Reputedly, the Grimoire held the secret to life eternal. Dover learned that the book was last known to be in the possession of a notorious Magus named Roderick Burgess. He traced Burgess to his ancestral estate in Wych Cross, England, only to discover that the Magus had since died, and that his son, Alexander, now carried on the sorcerer's work. Alexander was not nearly the occult scholar that his father was, but he did have the Magdalene Grimoire in his possession. During a party, Stanley snuck down into the cellar of the Burgess estate and stole the book.
He returned to the United States and purchased a home in Star City. The power of the Grimoire provided Stanley with enough material wealth that he was able to concentrate all of his time and energy towards trapping a creature of supreme power. The book led him to discover the existence of a monster known as the Beast With No Name. Due to it's seemingly un-demonic behavior, it was denied any semblance of identity. This was a creature that Dover felt that he could easily bully and manipulate; if only he could find the means to summon him.
In 1985, Stanley's daughter, Sheila, arrived on his doorstep with her husband, Mitch. Stanley had never even met his daughter before, but she was determined to reach out to the father she never knew and establish a connection. Dover wanted nothing to do with his daughter, and even less to do with her husband, but he needed to maintain a respectful mien, so he invited them into his home.
Sheila had recently given birth to a son, whose name was also Stanley. On the days when Sheila and Mitch were out of town, baby Stanley was left in the care of his grandfather. Dover would take the infant into the cellar with him while he conducted his various binding rituals. This practice continued for several years with neither Sheila nor Mitch ever suspecting what her father was actually doing in the cellar.
As hard as he labored however, Dover could not summon the Beast With No Name. The binding spells appeared to have failed completely. What he didn't yet realize however, was that the rituals were slowly binding the essence of the Beast With No Name to baby Stanley. When Stanley was six-years old, he told his grandfather that he had a large pet dog named Spot that hid inside of his closet. Dover was amazed to discover that the boy had not been speaking of an imaginary friend, but rather, the Beast With No Name. The Beast and Stanley Dover made eye contact with one another, but moments later, the Monster disappeared and Dover lost track of him.
He knew that the Monster was still on Earth however, and he decided to use his grandson as the bait to lure him out of hiding. He kidnapped Stanley and imprisoned him inside of a glass binding container in the basement of his home. He then began kidnapping other youths, slaughtering them, and feeding their blood to young Stanley. The Star City press took to calling the kidnapper, the "Star City Slayer".
Stanley Dover's insatiable quest for power turned in a bold new direction when he met the amnesiac Oliver Queen, also known as the Green Arrow. Queen had only recently returned from the dead, but without the benefit of a human soul. Dover's occult senses detected this, and he realized that he could one day transfer his own spirit into Queen's hollow body. From there, he intended on masquerading as Green Arrow, taking advantage of Oliver's contacts in the Justice League of America and using them to help hunt down the Monster.
By masquerading as an independently wealthy homosexual, Dover endeared himself to Queen's liberalism and the two became friends. He invited him into his home, and also took in the former teen prostitute, Mia Dearden. Before long, Dover revealed his true motives to Oliver and he captured him, tying him down, and preparing him for the ritual of transference. Before Dover could conduct the ritual however, the Monster made his presence known. While Ollie's friends rescued him from Dover's clutches, the Monster took revenge against Stanley Dover by eating him.
Since Stanley intended on living out his life in Oliver Queen's body, he had arranged his will so that all of his assets would be left to Oliver. Queen used his new-found inheritance to establish the Star City Youth Center.
Powers and Abilities
Abilities
- Occultism: Stanley Dover was a master of the occult.
Paraphernalia
Equipment
- Magdalene Grimoire: An ancient occult text once owned by the late warlock, Alexander Burgess. The Grimoire contains rites and passages that can bind the very essence of Death, enabling the caster to control Death's power, in essence rendering themselves immortal.
Trivia
- Stanley Dover once had a chance encounter with Morpheus of the Dreaming during the latter's seventy years of imprisonment.
Recommended Reading
- Green Arrow (Volume 3) #1
- Green Arrow (Volume 3) #2
- Green Arrow (Volume 3) #3
- Green Arrow (Volume 3) #4
- Green Arrow (Volume 3) #5
- Green Arrow (Volume 3) #6
- Green Arrow (Volume 3) #7
- Green Arrow (Volume 3) #8
- Green Arrow (Volume 3) #9
- Green Arrow (Volume 3) #10
- Green Arrow Secret Files and Origins
Related
- 10 Appearances of Stanley Dover I (New Earth)
- 2 Images featuring Stanley Dover I (New Earth)
- Quotations by or about Stanley Dover I (New Earth)
- Character Gallery: Stanley Dover I (New Earth)
Footnotes
  This character is or was primarily an enemy of Green Arrow, or his supporting cast including Black Canary and Team Arrow. This template will categorize articles that include it into the category "Green Arrow Villains." |