Origin
Barb is one of the girlfriends of Ken Connell when he receives the Star Brand. He is also cheating on her with Debbie the Duck and multiple other women over the course of the series. Her children are Laurie and Bobby. She is thirty-one, and Ken is twenty-five.
Barb wants a serious relationship and brings up the idea of marriage, but Ken is completely fear-struck at the idea of dealing with the responsibility of kids. In fact, he doesn’t seem to like kids at all. However, they continue to see each other. She tends to be somewhat self-conscious about their age difference and realizes he is constantly checking out other women (the baby sitter, the hostess at a restaurant, etc.) She ends up dating other men as a result of Ken’s inability to commit. Ken tends to think of her as his main girlfriend, but clearly doesn’t bond with her as deeply as he does with Duck or his friend Myron, since he tells them about his super powers and doesn’t tell Barb.
Creation
Barb was created by Jim Shooter and John Romita Jr. and first appeared in Star Brand #1.
Character History
Soon after Ken gets the power of the Star Brand, one of his enemies, the Old Man, shows up at Barb’s house. Ken sees him and runs upstairs, where Laurie, her daughter, points a laser gun at him. The Old Man hypnotized her, and while she wakes up at the moment, she continues to have psychological problems for months afterwards.
The fact that he won’t tell her about his powers begins to affect their relationship; she can tell something is wrong. They go on dates, and she tries to seduce him, but he runs out on Star Brand business, leaving her alone in her underwear.
She goes over to his place to talk to him later. She sees a picture of Debbie in her underwear, but still somehow can’t break up with him, even showing up to his birthday party later. Amazingly, Ken comes to the realization that he needs to marry her while having an affair with a total stranger, and proposes to Barb. She says yes. He tries to break it off with Debbie, but she’s so despondent that he decides to continue to see her for a while anyway, despite now being engaged to Barb. Then he sees Barb again, and is finally about to tell her about his powers, when he sees her dealing with the everyday difficulties of being a parent (especially the parent of a girl who was hypnotized by a bad guy). He ends up not telling her anything.
Finally the Old Man comes back and hypnotizes Duck. Duck, Barb, Ken, and the Old Man have a big discussion. Ken beats the Old Man in a fight, but Barb finally hits her breaking point and breaks up with Ken.
She presumably dies during the Black Event, where Ken inadvertently destroys Pittsburgh.
Other Versions
Barb is also present in a storyline in Earth-15731 involving the Exiles, Proteus, and her Earth’s Ken Connell.