Stargirl S01E01-02 Review: Stars and Stripes

Stargirl, Season 1, Episode 1: Pilot; Episode 2: STRIPE

Episode 1: Stargirl

It's actually not something I say about a lot in this blog, but while it was Batman and the Justice League who got me into superhero comics for the first time, it was actually probably Stargirl who ended up causing me to go into a huge deep-dive into the DC comics lore back in the 00's. I was a huge fan of the Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. comic book run, as well as the Justice Society of America comics that they were basically the ones that ended up causing me to really, really hunt down less-mainstream DC comics and try and learn more about the characters. And so I have a huge, huge love for the character and the fact that they're basically combining both the 'small town superhero learning her legacy' of Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. with the more over-reaching 'the next legacy of the Justice Society' of the 2006 JSA comic book run... yeah, I really liked the concept of this show. I watched the entirety of this show as it aired back on May... and I'm just not entirely sure why I didn't review it. Oh well, better late than never, right? 

Technically taking place on "Earth-2" in the CW-DC Multiverse (it's just a moniker until they decide to do a crossover), it's basically a standalone series working with its own lore and history, something that I was certainly not prepared for. The comic book geek in me was so, so surprised to see the brutal fight as the original Justice Society gets absolutely massacred by their foes, the Injustice Society. And we get to see so many pretty faithful nods to the comics! Hourman! Icicle! Tigress! Sportsmaster! Dr. Mid-Nite! Wildcat! Solomon Grundy! A lot of CGI fights, a lot of deaths, as we follow the young sidekick Stripesy/Pat Dugan in seeing these heroes die. All Pat is able to do is get his partner Starman to safety before Starman gives his equipment to Pat... telling him to find a successor who is not him. 

Fast-forward ten years later and... and the episode basically does a full 180 in tone, going from superhero action-epic to... wacky happy teen drama stuff. Pat Dugan is older now, married to a woman, Barbara Whitmore, with young son Mike Dugan and angry teen stepdaughter Courtney Whitmore. And... it's got a very fun tone to it. The first episode does take a while to get on, but the cast is charming, and the setup as the family moves to Blue Valley is pretty chill while the episode sort of takes its time telling us about the core cast of characters that form the Whitemore-Dugan family, and their struggles after moving.

And it's actually pretty nice to have... I wouldn't say that Stargirl is a more grounded show, because if anything, the choice of eclectic superpowers that its cast has (which are remarkably faithfully adapted from the comics) is far more wacky than most of CW's fare, but its characters certainly are. There is a Peter Parker style simplicity to a teenager who just wants to find her place in the world, but ends up discovering that with great power comes great responsibility and all that. Pat Dugan, old and retired, is still looking for answers, seemingly hunting for the Injustice Society and tracking them to Blue Valley. Meanwhile, Courtney shows up at Blue Valley High School... and these first two episodes does a lot at showing a bunch of new characters and while I know enough of the comics to recognize some last names and figure out where the show is going to take them, I do appreciate that the show is more about seeing this new town through Courtney's eyes and basically ends up reducing most of the side cast into first impressions. There's the cheerleader alpha bitch. There're the awkward kids. There's the rich jock. 

To a smaller extent, we also get to see Pat and Barbara interacting with the small down people, with Barbara working with councilman Zarick's American Dream meeting, and Pat setting up his automobile shop and coming across overly-friendly 'hey yo brother everyone needs to work out' gym owner "Crusher" Crock. Again, we'll learn later on that a lot of the residents of Blue Valley are actually supervillains in disguise, but the show actually plays it very close to its chest in these early episodes, making characters like Crock and Zarick distinctive on how they relate to our main cast, while not overly suspicious. 

And the pacing could've been so boring. It really could've been slow and agonizing. And yet somehow, even as someone who normally dislikes these sort of after-school teen dramas, I really ended up liking everything that's going on here. And I'm willing to admit that there might be some bias because I like Stargirl and the JSA a lot... I don't know. The fact that the series immediately starts off with the promise that we're going to be building up to something epic is probably a good factor, but the fact that the two primary cast members -- Brec Bassinger (Courtney) and Luke Wilson (Pat) -- are so gosh-danged likable is probably a factor. 

Of course, eventually Courtney comes across the mysterious box that her dorky stepfather has while moping about her fate moving in this small town... and turns out that it's Starman's Cosmic Staff! Which is all alive and emphatic and warbles all the time, and has basically 'chosen' Courtney to be its wielder. Courtney also eventually figures out Pat's identity as Stripesy, and she and the Cosmic Staff go off on a bit of a joyride, using the brilliant disguise of a scarf over her face to beat up the bully in the school, Henry King Jr... and accidentally blowing up his car. Oops! Abuse of power! 

Courtney returns to her house and talks very long to Pat... and it's a very interesting scene, too, because it's not just the excitement that Courtney has and the anger that Pat's hiding something so big and potentially dangerous. The fact that this adaptation adds in the fact that Pat was glossed over by both Starman and the staff for being a potential wielder, and the fact that Pat is basically burdened by the fact that all  his friends are dead adds a sense of gravitas to this whole speech. Pat being absolutely worried that Courtney might get herself killed isn't just an adult refusing to let the teenager main character have fun, but something that might actually happen. And then Courtney complicates this further by fantasizing about how Starman could've been her missing biological father, who, coincidentally, went missing at around the time that the JSA died. They sort of bond over sharing this secret, and without realizing that there might be supervillains around, Pat basically allows Courtney to keep the staff under supervision. Being a teenager and a mystical sentient object, the Cosmic Staff almost immediately gets Courtney to run away and practice wielding it. We also get a neat scene of Courtney telling her mom how she and Pat are basically trying to make this family work, which is a continuing running thing in the background that I really do appreciate. 

Much to Courtney's misfortune, Henry King Junior is the son of dr. Henry King Senior. In addition to being one hell of an asshole of a father, turns out that once King Sr. figures out what's going on, he goes into a secret room and reveals that he's actually Brainwave, one of the villains that killed the JSA ten years ago... and someone just attacked his son in what he (reasonably) thinks is a superhero attack meant to draw him out. After informing Jordan Mahkent (a.k.a. Icicle), Brainwave decides to hunt down what he thinks is a new Starman. 

And so begins the 'starter villain' for our new heroine, where Brainwave, in all his glorious supervillain glory, starts tossing around tires and cars and trying to kill Stargirl while interrogating her, and it's only thanks to the staff's own initiative that Courtney survives -- something I found very much believable. The episode ends with Stargirl losing her first fight against Brainwave, and meeting with a giant robot. 

And... that's the end of the first episode, which feels more like the first part of a two-episode pilot, and that's why we're reviewing the first two episodes together here. But ultimately, it certainly is a fun breath of fresh air to have this very, very fun superhero show. I really do like the concept of a basically everything that's going on here. A father and daughter that's trying to make their relationship work; old sins and old failures; a small town with supervillains secretly living in it... there's a lot to unpack in this series, and I absolutely love everything that's going on here. A very serviceable pilot episode for sure. 

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Episode 2: STRIPE

And then we move into episode two. Oh, hey, turns out that Pat is piloting the Iron Giant esque giant robot, it's made out of Starman's old flying car, and they manage to rocket-boots away from Brainwave's assault. The reality and danger of having superpowers and mistaken for a superhero just sets in then and there for Courtney and Pat, and I really do like just how utterly protective Pat is of his stepdaughter. Again, there's honestly nothing super-out-there in this episode, mostly just a typical superhero origin story as Courtney learns more about her powers and decides to use it, and the justifiably worried parent, Pat, decides to finally support her daughter and realizing that Courtney's potential is going to allow her to be one of the best superheroes around... while also being pants-shittingly scared like any good parent would. We also get a bit more context about Pat's search, about how apparently Hourman was the one that went on the trail of the Injustice Society before killed in what Pat had assumed was a random car accident in Blue Valley. 

There's a neat bit of argument where Pat really tries to quash Courtney's dreams of Starman being her dad, while Courtney is angry that Pat would stop her from superheroing since Sylvester Pemberton started off at the age of fifteen... and also none-too-subtly insults Pat for 'sitting on the sidelines' for too long. I do like that the talk about secret identities leads to Courtney to decide that the clear solution here is to make a super-suit. And proceeds to destroy a bunch of sewing machines that aren't built to handle super-suit material. Meanwhile, Pat tries to work out the kinks in his STRIPE armor and punches himself in the face, another fun bit.

The villains living in Blue Valley are perhaps not as organized as Pat would've loved to think, though. Brainwave meets up with Councilman William Zarick, who turns out to be the Wizard, hiding his Harry Potter wand in a safe. They talk about how their plan, Project New America, is threatened, and how their boss (and presumed big bad of the season) is Jordan "Icicle" Mahkent. There's a neat little friction between them, and seeing that both Wizard and Brainwave both have kids that also attend Courtney's school, there's also the very, very interesting facet of this series in that most of the villains are parents who want to leave a legacy for their children, which is what they're doing in this small town. 

That said, though, that legacy bit is... interesting. Courtney herself has already played with a lot of legacy, inheriting her stepfather Pat's fight and also her (ssumed and totally not-real biological father's equipment. But in somewhat of a darker tone, we get to see the interaction between other people in Blue Valley as the secondary characters become slightly more prominent. There is Principal Anaya Bowin basically forcing her kid to be a musician. And Brainwave's son, Henry King Jr, gets a pretty interesting scene where he steals from his father's wallet, before his father calls him in and essentially interrogates him and asks him if he has psychic powers, essentially grooming Henry King Jr to be a copy of Henry King Sr. 

Ultimately, after we bounce around a bunch of side-characters and some superhero montage hijinks, there is a massive assembly in Blue Valley where Brainwave, Pat and Courtney are basically trying to figure each other's secret identities out. Brainwave wins on this pretty tense scene, corners Courtney, discovers her (mistaken) belief that she's Starman's daughter and basically threatens to kill her mother if she doesn't bring the Cosmic Staff to him. 

And... and Pat, bless him, decides to forbid Courtney from seeking vengeance or playing hero like a fool, and decides to head off to fight Brainwave as STRIPE with strict instructions for Courtney to bring Barbarba and Mike away should he not return. And after a nice bit of Barbara thanking Courtney for trying to bond with her stepfather, Courtney heads off into combat as Stargirl. And while Brainwave mops the floor with STRIPE in their first encounter, after a pretty fun and fast-paced action scene Stargirl eventually beats Brainwave, overloading him with so much energy that it leaves him in a coma. There was a bit where Brainwave clearly had both heroes on a disadvantage, though, and while there's nothing super-special about it, it's a tense fight nonetheless. 

There are a couple of other side-characters that get developed. Barbara's boss, Mr. Sharpe, seems nice but is basically a passive-aggressive control freak who refuses anyone's input. We get a bit more of Crock being a gym rat. The Loser Squad in Courtney's school also get some highlight, mostly the overly-chipper Beth Chapel (her mother works with Brainwave's alter-ego and there's a fun bit where Courtney and Brainwave just narrowly miss seeing each other over Skype). And, of course, alpha-bitch Cindy Burman with her Rogue-from-X-Men hair gets a fair bit, too. And, of course, the end of the episode has Icicle finally show up and meet with Solomon Grundy (locked in a cage), Zarick and Sharpe. Since Stargirl's basically made her debut, she's essentially inviting the rest of Brainwave's allies to fight back. On with the premise of the season!

Episode 2 was perhaps a bit slower, alternating between typical 'newbie superhero' hijinks like making a costume or figuring out how a robot suit works while also having the tension of Courtney and Pat trying to figure out who Brainwave is and what he is planning in this small town. There are parts of the episode that feel a bit exposition heavy, although the script and Luke Wilson's performance ends up making a lot of them feel like he's just panic-rambling instead of delivering exposition. And I do like how the tension is ramped for the audience as we discover that more and more of the adults in Blue Valley are actually supervillains. 

Again, this is a pretty great two-parter pilot (even if it's not marketed as such), really showing off not just the characters of Courtney and Pat, but also selling the premise of a post-JSA world and the concept of a small town that's basically run by supervillains trying to do something. It really does feel like it's something completely different, and after a couple of DC shows that have taken some... extreme liberties with its source material, I am very happy to see one that is a lot more faithful while also doing a lot of changes that make the new stuff a lot fresher. The CGI and the action, which I didn't mention a lot in my already-lengthy review, is also top-notch. Special kudos go to the work in making STRIPE exude Pat's dork-dad energy and the Cosmic Staff for being a neat little R2-D2-style bleep-bloop companion. Pretty great pacing and general mood, too. I really did enjoy watching this season. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• The constant reference to the Golden Age of Heroes is, of course, a reference to the Golden Age of comics, the era from the 1930's to the mid-1950's. In the DC universe, a lot of the heroes whose careers debuted there (mostly the Justice Society) tended to also have an equivalent in terms of being part of a 'Golden Age' themselves. 
• Courtney Whitmore/Stargirl, originally the second Star-Spangled Kid, in the comics is the step-daughter of Pat Dugan, sidekick to the original Star-Spangled Kid. As shown here, Courtney comes across the gear of the original Star-Spangled Kid (the cosmic converter belt), as well as later on the Cosmic Staff of Jack Knight, one of the many superheroes known as Starman. Thus carrying the legacies of two superheroes, Courtney would fight crime both in her small town of Blue Valley (in her solo series) and as part of the Justice Society of America.
• Pat Dugan/S.T.R.I.P.E., originally Stripesy, was the adult sidekick to the teenaged Star-Spangled Kid. Retiring when he grew older, Dugan would be forced to develop the S.T.R.I.P.E. armor when his stepdaughter runs around as a superheroine in order to protect and assist her. 
• The original acronym for STRIPE is Special Tactics Robotic Integrated Power Enhancer. Courtney prefers the more hilarious one of "Subatomic Tactical Robot Internet Pat Enhancer".
• Sylvester Pemberton is the Star-Spangled Kid in the comics, although the show combines him with the various superheroes called Starman in order to simplify the whole 'Courtney takes over a hero's legacy' thing. In the comics, the Star-Spangled Kid and his chaffeur sidekick fought against Nazis with their acrobatic prowess. Pemberton would later inherit Ted Knight (Starman I)'s cosmic rod for a while. He would be killed when he emerged from retirement as part of the Infinity Inc. organization. 
• The Justice Society of America shown here are based on many of its original members. Their base, as seen in this episode, is lifted almost verbatim from the comics. There are a lot of characters, so I'll be brief with talking about them:
• Wildcat, a.k.a. Ted Grant, is a world-class boxer who fought crime initially to clear his name after being framed. 
• Dr. Mid-Nite, a.k.a. Charles McNider, is a surgeon who was blinded by gangsters, but later discovered that he could see but in perfect darkness, and he began fighting crime at night or with 'blackout bombs'. 
• Hourman, a.k.a. Rex Tyler, is a chemist who created the super-steroid Miraclo, allowing him to have superpowers for exactly one hour. 
• The Flash I, a.k.a. Jay Garrick, might not appear on-screen but his helmet is evidently seen
• Green Lantern I, a.k.a. Alan Scott, also doesn't appear on-screen but his green flames are seen in the battlefield and he shows up on photographs. Alan Scott became a superhero when he found a mystical 'green flame' crash-landing on earth, giving him a variety of powers, allowing him to fly and create green objects. 
• Sandman, a.k.a. Wesley Dodds, (the guy with the gas mask) is a vigilante who has prophetic dreams about crimes, and would head off to prevent them with a sleeping gas gun. 
• Harkman (Carter Hall) and Hawkgirl (Shiera Sanders), as they are originally conceptualized, were the reincarnated Egyptian rulers Prince Khufu and Priestess Chay-Ara, reincarnated in modern times and using the knowledge of the extraterrestrial Nth Metal to fashion their wings and powers. 
• Johnny Thunder, also not seen but mentioned, is a man born on a specific date and forced to bond with a mystical genie called the Thunderbolt by a cult. Johnny is able to summon the Thunderbolt and ask him for assistance by saying the magic words "cei-u".
• The Injustice Society (not named on-screen) is based on the various incarnations of the team's lineup. The team is a mixture of various incarnations of the group over the years. Spoiler warning; a lot of the 'real names' here will spoil the identities of the characters although my review probably did so already. 
• Icicle, a.k.a. Joar Mahkent (Jordan here), is a foe of Alan Scott's Green Lantern who had access to an ice gun. Later, thanks to an accident with his equipment, Icicle became capable of wielding ice powers as a metahuman. 
• Tigress, a.k.a. Paula Brooks, was a foe of Wildcat who was a skilled hand-to-hand fighter who had an affinity for exotic weaponry. 
• Sportsmaster, a.k.a. Lawrence "Crusher" Crock, is a foe of Green Lantern who was a frustrated athlete who turned to a life of crime, utilizing various sports-related gimmicks. 
• Brainwave, a.k.a. Henry King Sr, was a secluded, friendless boy who developed psychic mind-reading and mind-manipulating powers, and was one of the earlier enemies of the Justice Society. 
• Solomon Grundy, a.k.a. Cyrus Gold, was a Green Lantern (and later Batman) enemy who was once a 19th-century criminal killed in the cursed Slaughter Swamp, and would continually be resurrected as the simple zombie Solomon Grundy. 
• Wizard, a.k.a. William A. Zard (renamed to William Zarick here) is a master illusionist and hypnotist, although later on he would gain access to actual magical power to menace the magic-users among the JSA. 
• Gambler, a.k.a. Steven Sharpe, a career criminal using throwing knives, cards and gas guns. He is yet another Green Lantern enemy. 
• Shade, a.k.a. Richard Swift, is presumably the one responsible for all the shadowy demon arms rampaging around the battle (it could be Wizard?). Shade is able to control the shadows, drawing power from a magical dimension called the Shadowlands. 
• Ted Knight, a.k.a. the original Starman, is credited by Pat as the designer of Sylvester's suit. 
• Dr. Weerd, a.k.a. James Stanton, is a very minor villain from the original Star-Spangled Kid comics. 
• This is long enough as it is, so we'll be saving the school cast for when they get relevant.