The first episode of the new series Stargirl premiered on the CW and it’s an action-packed ride full of superheroes and giant robots. The show stars Brec Bassinger who plays the title chartacter, Stargirl herself.
Stargirl tells the story of Courtney Whitmore, a fifteen-year-old girl whose whole life is uprooted when her family moves from California to Nebraska. Courtney blames the move on her well-meaning stepfather Pat. Particularly when she discovers the new school doesn’t have a gymnastics team.
Courtney isn’t happy with Pat for one other reason: she misses her own father who never returned after one Christmas eve when Courtney was five. Now being in Nebraska without her best friend and at the single losers table, Courtney isn’t having a super time. But what can you do when you’re fifteen and your mom gets a new job four states away from your old life?
After the typical bad first day at a new school, Courtney goes down to the basement to vent her feelings. That’s where she stumbles upon the Cosmic Staff. This mysterious staff is endowed with enormous power. It once belonged to the superhero Starman, the leader of the Justice Society of America. Really the staff just looks like a PVC pipe art project. But when Courtney touches it, the staff glows with power. She is the only other person it did that for was Starman himself. (And thus, Stargirl is born!)
Courtney comes to learn that Pat isn’t just a mild-mannered mechanic. But also the former sidekick to Starman known (unfortunately) as Stripesy. Courtney is shocked by this knowledge but still intrigued by her connection to the staff. She takes it out on a little joy ride. But that ends in the staff blowing up a car owned by big-time high-school bully, Henry King Jr.
We find out that Henry King Sr. is in fact the leader of the Injustice Society. That’s a villain organization that killed the superheroes of the Justice Society of America. The organization led to the death of the once-great Starman, ten years ago. Henry King Sr. reveals himself to be the sinister Brainwave, capable of powers such as telepathy and telekinesis. Courtney is a little overzealous with her newfound powers as Stargirl. So she is drawn into a fight with Brainwave and almost doesn’t make it out alive. Luckily, Pat shows up to take care of her, all suited up in his giant robot made from spare car parts.
Now that Courtney knows she can wield the Cosmic Staff, there are so many questions that need to be answered. Is Starman Courtney’s long-lost father? What’s next for our Stargirl? Will Brainwave reassemble to Injustice Society to fight Courtney? And if that happens, who will rise to take that places of Wildcat, Doctor Mid-Nite, and Hourman to call forth the Justice Society of America once more?
