On The Air: Stargirl (2020)

Students of comics history will recall that the small town of Blue Valley was home to Wally West, aka Kid Flash, dating back to the Silver Age.

20-odd years ago, Geoff Johns, a relatively new writer at DC, introduced readers to a new generation Star Spangled Kid, later rechristened Stargirl (not to be confused with a forthcoming Disney movie by the same name), in Stars & S.T.R.I.P.E., which lasted 15 issues between 1999-2000, due largely to DC's overpricing ($2.50 was too expensive for a new title aimed at teens & tweens at the end of the 20th century, almost guaranteeing cancellation after a year minimum).

The timing was coincidental, since Frank Miller & Geof Darrow had introduced Big Guy & Rusty The Boy Robot at Dark Horse, which became a short-lived animated series for Fox. The books came out months before Stars & S.T.R.I.P.E. landed on shelves. Rusty, a robot himself, was unaware his partner was really a human wearing an armored suit.

Not the case with Stargirl.

Courtney Whitmore (Brec Bassinger, ex-Bella & The Bulldogs) is not a happy camper as she and her mother, Barbara (Amy Smart, Shameless) have relocated from LA to Blue Valley, where Barbara grew up. Barbara has married mechanic Patrick Dugan (Luke Wilson), formerly Stripesy, partner-in-peril to the Star Spangled Kid, later known as Starman (Joel McHale, Card Sharks, ex-Community). Dugan, a decade earlier, was the lone survivor of a Christmas Eve massacre of the Justice Society of America at the hands of the Injustice Society.

But when Courtney finds the cosmic staff, Starman's cherished weapon........!

Johns has cited "E.T." and "Back to The Future" as inspirations for his series. As Courtney learns to master the staff, I can't help but think of Stephen J. Cannell's Greatest American Hero from 40 years ago, except that the staff doesn't come with a user's manual for Courtney to lose.

Before I go any further, let's take a look at a trailer:



To the surprise of, well, no one, Stargirl is another Greg Berlanti production. Forget the 30 hour week. Berlanti needs 50 hours a week, so he can get some sleep. Stargirl airs Mondays on DC Universe, Tuesdays on CW, and streams on the CW website on Wednesdays for those who can't afford DCU. Airing on the CW allows the series to be a paid advertisement for the streaming service.

In the course of the season, veteran readers will recognize some characters introduced in Roy Thomas' Infinity, Inc. series in the 80's, including a 2nd generation hero, some of whom have been de-aged into high school students. Something tells me Berlanti and WB may be testing the waters for a crossover between Stargirl and the R-rated Titans down the road. I'm not just saying that to put it out there. Someone on a message board the other day asked if Titans and Doom Patrol would follow Stargirl and reruns of Swamp Thing to the CW. If they do, they'd have to be sanitized for gore and language.

Anyway, before I digress even further, Stargirl is a delightful breath of fresh air for CW and DCU, both of whom can use some lighter adventure fare, and, as long as Johns is very involved with his pet project (Courtney is named for Johns' late sister), it won't suffer from the same creative maladies plaguing other Berlanti shows.

Rating: A.