Stargirl

[gdave]

Also, I just wanted say: I’m enjoying the series. I’ve seen it described as a more polished and tightly focused Smallville, which I think is pretty apt. I liked the first couple of seasons of Smallville, so I think that’s a good thing.

Maybe because it’s a co-production with the DC Universe streaming service, it also seems to have a significantly bigger budget than the other DC CW shows. Its production values seem higher overall, and its FX are much better than most of the other shows. I like The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow, but the FX on those shows is often distractingly terrible, but so far the FX have looked passable to pretty good.

[gdave]

@Lightnin

I’m really enjoying Stargirl so far. Of the CW DC shows, I’d have to put it as a bit below Legends of Tomorrow, but well above everything else.

One thing that really bugs me, though- and it’s possible I just missed some explanation- is why/how they’re playing coy about whether Starman was her father or not. His costume didn’t hide his face at all, so it should be pretty easy to compare photos of her dad with that banner hanging in the JSA’s headquarters. Or is it that the only picture of her father is that tiny, blurry cameo?

The only photo Courtney has is that tiny, blurry, grainy, smeared, B&W cameo. Which, since this is apparently “our Earth but with a few super-heroes and super-villains”, and since the photo should have been taken around 2010, makes it really weird. I mean, in 2010, you’d have had to deliberately try to specifically create a photo of that poor quality.

Courtney did briefly try to talk to her mother about her father, and directly asked her mother if her father were a super-hero, and her mother pretty much shut down the conversation. Courtney and Pat seem to agree that they shouldn’t tell Courtney’s mom anything about the Cosmic Staff, their current super-heroics, or Pat’s past involvement with the JSA, and Courtney seems unwilling to push her mother for more information about her father.

Which partly seems like just a plot contrivance to maintain some suspense for the audience, and partly seems like a character-driven decision that pushing her mom is just going to hurt her, and that maybe, deep down, she’s afraid if she does push her mom, her mom will provide concrete evidence that Starman wasn’t her father.

[Darren_Garrison]

@cmkeller

It’s canon in the comics that Charles McNider’s Hooty was replaced a number of times - I think it was in an issue of Inifinity, Inc, that someone refers to the current one as “Hooty XIV”.

Yeah, but that owl has been sitting there waiting for it’s master for 10 years.

[Dendarii_Dame]

1. The death of Zarick’s son really surprised me. I was sure he’d join the new JSA and turn against his dad. (After acquiring powers or swiping the wand or something.) Wonder if his ghost might turn up at some point?

2. Zarick held political office–wonder who’s going to take his place? Does Icicle have time to do it? I’d think he’d want the power. An election would be an interesting story arc.

3. Did Icicle destroy the wand, or just freeze it? If the latter, and he’s got it when it thaws, it’s a powerful weapon, although it seemed as if Icicle implied it wasn’t something anyone can use. Wonder if his son might find it and use it–they seemed to imply that he and Courtney might eventually become an item.

[Lightnin]

@Dendarii_Dame

1. The death of Zarick’s son really surprised me. I was sure he’d join the new JSA and turn against his dad.

Me too, especially when he (the kid) said that it felt like his magic was growing more powerful.

[digs]

I gotta say, I did not want to like this (shh, my friends think I only watch Ingmar Berrrrgman films) (with the subtitles off)…

…but it’s fun! The interaction between Icicle and Zarick at the beginning was well-written/acted. Genuine tension.

[Ukulele_Ike]

@gdave

You’re probably thinking of Justice League Unlimited. They were juggling a huge cast of supporting characters; most of them only briefly appeared on-screen in the background. The brief appearances of various characters were cool Easter eggs for fans already familiar with the characters from the comics, but if you weren’t, they really didn’t have much time to establish most of them as interesting characters.

Geoff Johns, one of the show’s creators and executive producers, created her for the Justice Society of America comic book, and she featured prominently in his runs on that book. When he was writing her, I though she was a great character. For whatever reason, middle-age male comic book writers sometimes seem to have an easier time writing teenage girls as interesting, 3-Dimensional characters (Stargirl, Kitty Pryde, Armor, etc.).

Thank you for the clarification! I think I saw Justice League Unlimited mainly because I searched for Plastic Man, my fave golden age superhero. I wish he wasn’t portrayed as such an idiot. He is the COOLEST.

[amarinth]

I have mixed feelings about the show, but whoever is doing the music has been doing a great job.
“One Piece at a Time” (when he’s working on the robot), “You’re the Best Around” (during the workout scene), “Girl Can’t Help It,” “The Man” (when Icicle was introduced). They even managed to work in “mmm-Bop” successfully.

I’m not sure how much I like the show, but I want this person to make mix tapes for me.

[Andy_L]

@amarinth

I have mixed feelings about the show, but whoever is doing the music has been doing a great job.
“One Piece at a Time” (when he’s working on the robot), “You’re the Best Around” (during the workout scene), “Girl Can’t Help It,” “The Man” (when Icicle was introduced). They even managed to work in “mmm-Bop” successfully.

I’m not sure how much I like the show, but I want this person to make mix tapes for me.

Concur. Loved the use of “One Piece at a Time” in particular (I hadn’t heard that song in decades).

[bmoak]

Been wondering if someone would start a thread on Stargirl, as there is usually one for all of the CW superhero shoes. I would have started one myself if no one got around to it, but I”m about a week behind in keeping up with the episodes because I wanted to dig my old run of the Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E comic book out of storage before watching the show.

[bmoak]

@gdave

Geoff Johns, one of the show’s creators and executive producers, created her for the Justice Society of America comic book, and she featured prominently in his runs on that book. When he was writing her, I though she was a great character. For whatever reason, middle-age male comic book writers sometimes seem to have an easier time writing teenage girls as interesting, 3-Dimensional characters (Stargirl, Kitty Pryde, Armor, etc.).

Geoff Johns actually created her before he started writing JSA. She was the star of his very first comic-book series, Stars & S.T.R.I.P.E, back in 1999. However, she was just the Star-Spangled Kid back then. S&S lasted about a dozen issues. At around that time, James Robinson was wrapping up his long run on Starman, and ended the series with Jack Knight retiring to raise his infant daughter and passing on both the cosmic staff and the Starman legacy to Courtney. Johns then brought her into the JSA as Stargirl.

Geoff Johns has always been partial to the character. She is named and modeled after his late sister, Courtney Johns, who died in a plane crash when she was 15 years old.

[gdave]

@bmoak

Geoff Johns actually created her before he started writing JSA. She was the star of his very first comic-book series, Stars & S.T.R.I.P.E, back in 1999. However, she was just the Star-Spangled Kid back then. S&S lasted about a dozen issues. At around that time, James Robinson was wrapping up his long run on Starman, and ended the series with Jack Knight retiring to raise his infant daughter and passing on both the cosmic staff and the Starman legacy to Courtney. Johns then brought her into the JSA as Stargirl.

Geoff Johns has always been partial to the character. She is named and modeled after his late sister, Courtney Johns, who died in a plane crash when she was 15 years old.

I didn’t know that. I’m only familiar with Stargirl from Johns’ work on JSA. Knowing that, it makes a lot of sense why she always seemed like she had a much more fully developed personality than John’s other characters (and I think Johns actually does a better job than most comics writers in developing his characters’ personalities to begin with).

[Darren_Garrison]

Been wondering if someone would start a thread on Stargirl, as there is usually one for all of the CW superhero shoes.

Well, they look okay, but all those laces seem like an impractical choice in a situation where you may need to suit up fast. Zippers might be better.

[bmoak]

Caught up with the eps, although I won’t get to watch episode four until it streams on the CW website on Wednesday.

As I said before, Courtney Whitmore is a dual-legacy character, but her origin story relates to becoming the Star-Spangled Kid, and isn’t tied to the JSA at all.

That being said the plot of the show is so far very much following the plot of the Stars & S.T.R.I.P.E. comic, but just strips out the Justice Society and Injustice Society material California girl Courtney is not happy that her new lame stepdad is moving the family out to the middle of nowhere in Blue Valley, Nebraska. She then finds out by rummaging through Pat’s stuff that he was the back half of the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy, and that he brought the family to Blue Valley with an ulterior motive.

Back in the Golden Age, the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy were members of the Seven Soldiers of Victory, basically a second-tier JSA. One of Pat’s old teammates tracked an old SSV villain out to Blue Valley and then disappeared, so Pat moved out there to quietly investigate. The villain in question is the Dragon King, shown to be a member of the Injustice Society in the TV show (he’s shown in the portrait.)

[gdave]

So, as of today’s episode (it streams Monday on DC Universe before airing on CW), we have:

Stargirl
S.T.R.I.P.E.S.
Wildcat
Dr. Mid-Nite
Hourman

Apparently, all of this show’s version of the JSA got their powers from tech or magic gizmos. Even Wildcat, who in the comics was just a really good fighter, but in the show has a high-tech catsuit that gives the wearer enhanced agility and claws. It’s not clear where this tech comes from, though. Dr. Mid-Nite apparently created his goggles, and Hourman invented the hourglass that gave him his powers, but did a boxer invent a super-suit?

They did answer a question I had above - this version of Hourman didn’t get his powers from ingesting Miraclo, he got them from an hourglass gizmo linked to his DNA…somehow. Which is also related to him being a genius chemist…somehow. So, his son inherits the Hourglass, having enough DNA in common to use it.

We also have a couple of other potential heroes or villains. One of the background characters is [URL=“https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_Crock”]Artemis Crock, and Sports Master appeared in the pilot as a member of the ISA. Courtney specifically rules out recruiting her, so she might just be an Easter egg that the writers might do something with in later seasons, or that might have been a fakeout, and she’s going to become a major character. My guess is that they’re setting up a junior ISA, and she’s going to start as a member of the ISA before joining the good guys.

We also got a close-up of a bee broach/amulet/jewelry thingy being worn by Mean Girl (I forget her character’s name). I’m guessing she’s going to be a version of Queen Bee, since she’s trying to be the social queen bee of the high school.

On a separate matter, the show’s timeline is…interesting. Dr. Mid-Nite’s goggles showed a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it reference to Dr. Mid-Nite being active from 1941-2010. So, apparently, at least some of the JSA members were alive and active for 70 years. I think the comics at one point had some sort of weird life extension explanation for Golden Age JSA members from the 1940s still being active in the 2000s, so apparently the show is following that path.

[Skywatcher]

So, neither are descended from Starman, then?

I’ll pass.

[digs]

@Skywatcher

So, neither are descended from Starman, then?

I’ll pass.

But, she’s descended from Joel McHale…

Seriously, his passing on the torch with a total diss (1:16 in this clip) was what got me to watch the series. Oh, and repeats the diss…

[digs]

@Skywatcher

So, neither are descended from Starman, then?

I’ll pass.

But, she’s descended from Joel McHale…

Seriously, his passing on the torch with a total diss (1:16 in this clip) was what got me to watch the series. Oh, and repeats the diss…

[Darren_Garrison]

The original Hourman is played by Loofa Rigno Jr.

[Terminus_Est]

Who do we figure that weird janitor is? We’ve seen him in previous episodes before, but always in the background. I believe this is the first time he’s actually spoken to anyone, and with a putative member of the new JSA to boot. I’m betting that he’s a former JSA, who somehow escaped the massacre a decade ago.