Stargirl: The Justice Society
June 23, 2020 7:08 PM - Season 1, Episode 6 - Subscribe

Courtney makes a difficult decision after Pat confronts her about the potential consequences of recruiting new members to the JSA. Courtney, Yolanda, Beth and Rick prepare for their first major mission.
posted by oh yeah! (14 comments total)
 
Courtney, you chopped up Starman's costume, gave yourself shorts and a bare midriff, now tell us how good an idea that was. During the fight you got your legs and knees all scraped up, but are you considering kneepads and leggings? Somehow I doubt it.

Speaking of costumes, I'm not really sure of the message this show is sending about Beth. Everybody else has a significant percentage of modern, high-tech, textured and stretchy fabric. Beth mainly doesn't. Everybody else is wearing form-hugging outfits, but not Beth, who (in this show at least) is the stand-in for the less than ideal teenage girl body type--the type that in movies and TV often goes along with being a smart loner nobody likes. Even though I love that they're sticking to the look and feel of the original JSA uniforms, I'm not liking the message Dr. Mid-Nite's attire is sending in this day and age.

I know this isn't an Arrowverse show, and that we can't expect continuity with that universe, but the AV Club reviewer reminded us that we saw the new JSA group formation shot (with S.T.R.I.P.E. and the kids) in one of the Crisis montages (starting around the 29-second mark). The label given to the JSA's world was Earth-2. Somehow this doesn't jive with my impression of Earth-2 from the Arrowverse. Wasn't that the place that was so terrible that we got Black Siren instead of Black Canary and Robert Queen under the hood instead of Oliver? (Not to mention Hunter Zolomon and Killer Frost and other bad guys.) Sure the ISA is bad and is trying to take over the world (or the country) but the place doesn't seem Earth-2 bad. Yes, I know, just hand wave it away as one of those co-incidences the multiverse likes to play on us. It doesn't mean the baby JSA in the Arrowverse is the same baby JSA in whatever universe this is.

I know it is common to cast older actors to play teens (just to get around those pesky labour laws) but for whatever reason, the high schoolers in this episode looked so old to me. It was really jarring.

I know I'm not really discussing the plot or the meat of the show, but I will say that Rick needs an attitude adjustment PDQ. Pat didn't dismiss him or put him down when they first met. He complimented his automotive skills and talent and taste. Rick was the miserable one in that meeting. Then he accused Pat of looking down on him right from the start. I don't think so. Grow up, buddy, and stop being a broody sulk. Sure, I mean I'd be really peeved too, if a relative sold my carb out from under me, but that's between you and your uncle, it doesn't involve other people.
posted by sardonyx at 8:52 PM on June 23, 2020 [1 favorite]


Crisis was pretty confusing, but I figured the Stargirl cameo at the end was from the newly-formed post-Crisis Earth-2 and didn’t necessarily have anything to do with the grimdark Earth-2oom.

Courtney and Pat coming to an understanding is such a relief! The show was emphasising Courtney’s new perspective, but Pat has also climbed down a long way from “I’m sleuthing 30 minutes a day, everyone else do nothing until called” to reach his new stance.
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 4:50 AM on June 24, 2020 [2 favorites]


Also: halfway through the season they have not eased off on the messaging that supers make bad parents, so I'm gonna call that the show's central thesis.
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 5:18 AM on June 24, 2020


It seems clear to me that Rick's uncle has been abusive to him most of Rick's life. I'll give the kid some slack for being a surly teen.

It's interesting how the show is telling us that Pat has neglected his son in his obsessions.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 5:19 AM on June 24, 2020 [3 favorites]


I have the opposite impression of the relationship between Pat and his son. I got the sense Pat was smothering him and that Mike didn't want Pat or anybody at the science fair because he didn't want to be embarrassed by the geeky, overwhelming Pat. Sure, Pat doesn't understand his son at all, but I don't think that originates out of neglect. In some ways, I see Pat and Mike's relationship as the mirror to Beth's with her parents.

As for Rick, yes he has definitely been abused by his uncle, so there's that, but I refuse to let that excuse his disdain for the girls on the team. Just because he's the big, (literally) strong guy, he's also the least experienced one of the group, but he's just going to charge ahead and think he's the leader. Yeah, no. That so doesn't fly with me.
posted by sardonyx at 6:52 AM on June 24, 2020


Also: halfway through the season they have not eased off on the messaging that supers make bad parents, so I'm gonna call that the show's central thesis.

There's definitely some interesting parallels and contrasts going on with Runaways. So far this show has been pure history-as-a-cycle - the kids of superheroes* are heroes, all the kids of the bad guys are bad kids (or at best indifferent/neutral), and the one sorta-exception was a father/son pair who still shared exactly the same fate, except their fate was to get killed off early. Will be interesting to see if that ever changes.

*-well, really just Rick, since, inevitably, Courtney's dad is gonna turn out not to be Starman. Maybe Courtney's dad will turn out to be a supervillain? If so, probably not until Season 2...
posted by mstokes650 at 2:21 PM on June 24, 2020 [1 favorite]


Costumes: Well, they're being comics accurate. So I appreciate the fan service, for what that's worth.
I feel like Courtney's costume came about right about when bike shorts and sports bras became a thing IRL; and the as yet unremarked upon big red belt took care of the No kneepads, really? factor.
I don't see a boy like Rick being OK with the ankle length hood cape extravaganza. But it's his father's, and I see a dad-hero-worship plot for him. After they finish the I'm not your dad, but I can give you a job fixing transmissions and tell you stories about him thing with Pat.
Beth's ill fitting costume kinda made sense to me, since it's the costume of an adult man with no super suit requirements.

re Beth, there's a tiny rewrite that would make everyone else's treatment of her make more sense, in the context of teenagerdom. Make her a 9th grader and the others in 11th. It feels uglier as it is, but "whatever, freshman" would feel more universally kids-are-awful.
And as a DC/JSA person, there's always been a thing about Dr. Mid-Nite. They're cool, but an also-ran. They're fun to draw into a big "Backup? We brought EVERYONE!!" splash page, with their goggles and owl companion. But when it's a fight against 50 foot robots, or cosmic beings...nobody stops to ask; Hey Doc, you're a surgeon whose superpower is that you can only see in darkness. Why are you even here? So Beth's bringing Google Glass to a gunfight at the moment, compared to fight choreography / truck lifting / cosmic staff zapping.
Ooh, y'know what, make her the first one to get her drivers license (so responsible!), that'll change things up.
Mike's John Hughesian Incipient Slacker Kid has to be dealt with; but I think maybe it's the pen that will teach him lessons that Pat isnt.
I still want something other than 'aw, what a great stepmom' for Amy Smart. And I'm still stuck on "your father only visited once a year, then vanished [at the time the JSA fell]".

Oh hey, longshot out of nowhere. What if Beth's parents are the Hawkcouple?
posted by bartleby at 8:07 PM on June 24, 2020 [3 favorites]


And re: Earth 2. Welcome to comics continuity, where you have to explain things like Post-Crisis Superman and New 52 Supergirl team up against Pre-Crisis Superboy and Elseworlds Red Son Superman.
As I'm remembering it, the CW version of Crisis
a) merged by attrition the remaining universe survivors into Earth Prime, which includes all the Arrowverse shows & characters. The DC Streaming Shows (Titans, Swampy, Doom Patrol, and Stargirl) were all shown as separate earths at the end of the crossover, AFTER all the Crisis stuff went down.
So as far as we know, Stargirl is set on Post-CW-Crisis Earth-2.
(There's a whole other thing that the Titans and Doom Patrol shows were both on Pre-Crisis Earth 9, but Post-Crisis Doom Patrol is now on Earth 21. COMICS! ARE! WEIRD!)
posted by bartleby at 9:21 PM on June 24, 2020


...merged by attrition the remaining....which includes all the... is set on Post-CW-Crisis Earth-2...There's a whole other thing that...now on Earth 21...

I think this is why I gave up on comics. Decades ago.
posted by amtho at 6:17 AM on June 25, 2020


Oh, believe me, I'm familiar with COMICS! ARE! WEIRD! and its close cousin "Continuity is SO! MESSED! UP!" (which is a great reminder that the current issue of Hawkman is supposed to have Katar (Carter Hall) Hol visiting his JSA buddies on his tour through memory lane, but I'm so far behind in reading that--or any--title that I may get around to it sometime next year or next decade) but thinking on it now, it still seems weird that one of the big Crisis plot points was that they wiped out Earth-2, couldn't restore Earth-2, but then there in a montage, Earth-2 is back and it's completely different. Even though it wouldn't have fit with comics numbering, I would have been content with the JSA earth being Earth-40.
posted by sardonyx at 6:18 AM on June 25, 2020 [1 favorite]


I mean, at some point, you really should just start another story.
posted by amtho at 10:44 AM on June 25, 2020


i'm of the opinion that _we_ know there are still multiple Earths, but Arrowverse people on Earth Prime thinks it's merged because the non-Earth-Prime people (Supergirl, Black Siren, Nash) woke up on that Earth too. I think if Berlanti & co. can figure it out, we'll have a crossover with multiple Earths again.
posted by numaner at 7:50 PM on June 26, 2020 [2 favorites]


Oh yeah, Hawkman is Advanced Weird when it comes to continuity.
*my headcanon is that Hawkman has one of those side-superpowers that don't get talked about much, that being a kind of immunity to Continuity in his personal timeline. Like Booster Gold is immune to the mind-twisting nature of time travel, because he's such a shallow himbo that it doesn't even occur to him to contemplate it? You're talking to Hawkman and pause: 'Hey, did your costume just change by itself mid-conversation, and now you have an accent?' 'Happens all the time, don't worry about it.'
If you're about to go adventuring through alternate universes, you bring Hawkman along, because he's always gonna be Hawkman, in every timeline.
Also explains a little of why everyone else finds Hawkman kinda spooky and he doesn't have many pals, because no one ever knows _Which_ Hawkman they're talking to.
posted by bartleby at 1:28 PM on July 1, 2020 [2 favorites]


Why is Mike on the show? What is the point of him? Usually he's in what, about three minutes of each episode? Him making Big Rock Candy Chocolate Lava Mountain is his best plotline yet. From the TV Fanatic review: "No one is watching this series to see Mike make a candy volcano."

No take backs, Courtney. Especially since that's Beth's new best friend.

I love how Rick calls Pat out for being useless. Good point, sir.

I am LOL'ing at all the fighting with sports equipment. Less funny: all the coach murdering.

I concur that Beth's costume is weird and hideous. I'm not saying she needs to be sexay, but it's like a gnome made a costume?

And apparently the badass villains are afraid of the Iron Giant.

WHY ARE A BUNCH OF SUPERVILLAINS HANGING AROUND A SMALL TOWN IN NEBRASKA?!?! I really want to know why this is A Thing. The jocks seem quite bored with the place, for example.

Well, that distracted me from the election for three hours, so good job, show!
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:54 PM on November 3, 2020 [1 favorite]


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