Stargirl S01E05 Review: Teenage Vengeance

Stargirl, Season 1, Episode 5: Hourman and Dr. Mid-Nite

And after spending the last episode centering around Yolanda, "Hourman and Dr. Mid-Nite" focuses on two of the obvious recruits to Courtney's JSA Junior. I suppose that it's good in terms of pacing, having one-hero-per-episode would probably get a tiresome a bit fast. I didn't mind the Wildcat episode per se, but it would definitely be a bit tiresome if we had every single episode be focused on one of Stargirl's team's origin story without really advancing any of the JSA/ISA story. That said, though, until I sat down and looked up the title of this episode, I genuinely did think that this was the full Hourman episode and episode 6 would be the full Dr. Mid-Nite episode. I suppose we're just lumping the two in while focusing more on Rick's backstory? I still think we'll get a full, proper Beth episode somewhere down the road.

Granted, Beth Chapel has probably been one of the more prominent side-characters with the most screentime in the first three episodes until we get the full Yolanda Montez focus in episode 4. Being geeky, socially awkward and a bit too forward, and just wanting to be helpful, Beth is so easy to be likable! She's figured out what Stargirl and Wildcat are, and during Beth's attempts to go into the Dugan-Whitmore house and talk to Courtney, she ends up stumbling upon yet another JSA gadget (thanks, convenient doggy friend!), namely the goggles of Dr. Mid-Nite.

Said goggles contains an A.I. version of Charles McNider, essentially making it slightly more believable that someone would properly explain to Beth and catch her up about the whole JSA thing without too much exposition on Courtney's part. Beth honestly spends most of the episode as being super-helpful and super-excited, but Yolanda's just kinda grumpy and Courtney is too nice to drive her away but also unwilling to think of her in the same ballpark of badassery as herself, Wildcat or Hourman. For what it's worth, though, I did like the focus on her, she just motor-mouths her ways through every single conversation with Courtney and Yolanda, it's hilarious. Beth's actual story, as we see it, is something relatable but not really explored too much, the idea of a couple of parents who see that their kid has grown up to be independent and they want time to be themselves. It's neat, and Beth's actress is pretty great, but ultimately it's definitely the backseat compared to the Courtney/Rick stuff.

The bigger focus, of course, has to be Rick Tyler. He gets the flashback that reveals that he is the son of the first Hourman, Rex Tyler. We've established that Rex was investigating Blue Valley before Pat Dugan showed up, and was presumed killed in a car crash. Rick is raised by an asshole of an uncle who keeps selling his car parts and is outright hostile to Pat (who's trying to be nice to Rick). We get a nice scene of Rick frustratedly punching the tree that killed his parents -- and later on, when he gets the convenient superpowers, Rick punches the tree and knocks it down. Unlike Courtney, Yolanda and Beth; Rick embodies the complete other side of the superhero spectrum. He's not doing it because it's right, or because he thinks it's cool and fun, but straight-up out of vengeance. Something that is solidified when Beth's Mid-Nite goggles allows them to see what actually happened that day, that Rex and Wendy Tyler were killed by Solomon Grundy of the Injustice League.

Courtney's attempts to recruit Rick is far, far more disastrous than her being a good happy friendly cheerful girl to Yolanda, too. Thinking that Rick's basically 'destined' to carry on the Hourman legacy like how she's destined to carry on the legacy of totally-her-real-dad-trust-her Starman, Courtney just gives the Hourman necklace (it's an ambiguous magic necklace than super-drug pills, which is a very necessary update) to Rick without even considering Yolanda's complaints about how Rick's kind of a giant antisocial douchebag, even moreso than Yolanda herself. Granted, sure, Rick is literally the only person who can use the Hourman hourglass because of DNA reasons, but still.

And Rick, well, just takes the hourglass necklace and runs with it, punching his uncle's truck. It's not quite supervillain levels of power abuse (he leaves his asshole uncle alone), but still. Sure, Beth ends up bringing the team together by telling Rick of the whole Solomon Grundy thing, but that alliance between JSA Junior is one out of convenience more than anything for the revenge-obsessed Rick Tyler. There's also a neat subtle theme of parenting, too, where Courtney and Rick's respective father-figures really ended up being in stark contrast to each other.

Ultimately, it's... it's honestly pretty basic. Rick's story is pretty neat and executed very well, and it certainly ties in into the bigger-picture plot of the JSA-vs-ISA storyline. And yet... it's kind of one-dimensional, y'know? Especially compared to Yolanda in the previous episode. It's not terrible, though, and it's clearly just them introducing the audience to the new Hourman and Doctor Mid-Nite pretty quickly so we can get into the actual superheroing in the next couple of episodes.

Of course, with episode 4 and 5 focusing on Courtney Whitmore's recruitment drive, everyone else is basically in the background. The rest of Courtney's family are basically just there for one-off gag scenes, while Pat... Pat's there, but he really doesn't do much. He sort of befriends Rick but didn't catch the connection because Rick's using a pseudonym last name (and Rex had kept his existence a secret from both the ISA and Pat). He gets to interact with Rick's asshole uncle Matt, but beyond the contrast of their parenting styles there's really nothing there. Pat tells Courtney about the existence of the Fiddler, but what they found out about Principal Bowin last episode is too little to really connect her to the supervillain. He did find the Green Lantern lamp at the end of the episode, so a confrontation between Pat and Courtney might be incoming.

Other things that happen in this episode? Cindy Moon dresses up as an absolutely killer teenage vampire, but she's a complete bitch even to her supposed-boyfriend Henry Jr, who briefly seems to display a weaker version of his dad's mind-reading power. Foreshadowing! The Injustice Society is doing something nefarious in the background. Sharpe/Gambler is meeting people in theaters and paying them with chocolate coins (he doesn't have any superpowers, I don't think, and he shoots some chump at the end with a gun), and at the end of the episode we get to see her and Principal Bowin (who is the Fiddler with violin powers) hijack some sci-fi equipment or something. It sure is something, but the bad guy stuff is kind of too nebulous and will probably only really make sense later on.

Definitely weaker than the previous four episodes, but it's not a terrible episode. It's very fun, and I get the fact that they just want to blitz through character introductions before we get to the main meat-and-potatoes of the story. Again, a good part of why Stargirl is so strong is just how well-done the acting and how charming most of the character are.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Hourman II, a.k.a. Rick Tyler, is the son of the first Hourman, Rex Tyler. In the comics, Rex was a distant father who was either caught up in superheroing or his addiction to the super-serum Miraclo which gives him super-strength for the duration of one hour and has a cooldown of 23 hours. Rick and his father came to a massive disagreement when Rick took some Miraclo during the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths to save Beth Chapel. Rick would become the second Hourman on-and-off, and temporarily retired when Miraclo gave him severe medical side-effects. After his father's death and being cured of his disease, Rick would succeed him as Hourman in the Justice Society, using a non-addictive variant of Miraclo. 
• Dr. Mid-Nite II, a.k.a. Beth Chapel, is a medical doctor that succeeded the first Dr. Mid-Nite, Charles McNider. Chapel was blinded by an oxygen explosion, but thanks to a derivative of the Miraclo serum from Rick Tyler, gained the ability to see in the dark. Chapel, who parsed her alter-ego as "Dr. Midnight", joined Infinity Inc. only to be tragically killed by the supervillain Eclipso. (The far more prominent Dr. Mid-Nite successor was Pieter Cross, one of my all-time favourite DC comic superheroes)
• Artemis Crock appears! Made particularly famous in the Young Justice cartoon, Artemis Crock (a.k.a. just Artemis) is a sometimes-superhero, sometimes-supervillain depending on what part of her history you read her in. I won't talk too much about her since it'd probably be spoiling things down the line. 
• Red Bee, a.k.a. Rick Raleigh, shows up as a hero killed by having is secret identity exposed, as told by the robotic voice of Charles McNider. Red Bee's superpower was fighting with a 'bee gun' as well as trained bees in his belt buckle, and is often derided as one of DC comics' more lame superheroes. He was ultimately killed off in the pages of All-Star Squadron, and for the most part Red Bee was mostly used more as a gag. 
• The little data bank on the Mid-Nite goggles lists Red Bee as being associated with the superhero teams All-Star Squadron and the Freedom Fighters.