As Stargirl continues to build the Justice Society of America, it also continues to illuminate a lot about the world the show takes place in, and how heroes work there. Let’s jump in.
1. More heart-rending kid stuff
Much like “Icicle,” this episode begins with a traumatic episode of a child losing their parent(s). Rex Tyler, aka Hourman, and his wife have to go on the run, leaving their young child Rick with his uncle Matt, with the promise of a speedy reunion. That reunion goes the way to the dodo when, just a short distance from their home, Solomon Grundy kills them before they smash into a tree.
I was hoping that the ‘uncle Matt’ would be Matthew Tyler, aka the Hourman android from the 853rd century, but alas, it is Matthew Harris, his uncle Matt on his mother’s side. Uncle Matt proves to be, let’s call it a super dick? They leave the house in his name, $50,000, and changed Rick’s name to Harris, all so that both Rick could have a good life with his uncle. Well, his uncle, in the span of one episode, talks about how much Rick ruined his life, threatens to fight him, and sexually assaults a waitress. So Tylers, I have a question: is this really the only person you could trust Rick with?
2. Rick? More like Dick, amirite?
Rick has, no doubt, had a rough life. We know that he is struggling with his parentage because he’s listening to Everclear, the Rick Remender of bands (if you get that joke, you’re welcome). Despite his internal struggle, Rick is an insufferable prick at almost every turn in this episode. Some of it can be written off to his upbringing, but he does almost nothing in the entire episode to garner the slightest glimpse of heroism. Despite all of this, Courtney still wants him to be the new Hourman. Sure, his dad was the old Hourman, but I think history has proved, from George W. Bush to Frank Sinatra Jr, that getting the son of a distinguished person to do their dad’s job rarely turns out well.
Pretty much up until the exact moment that he agrees to be Hourman, the one positive thing we see Rick do for someone else is when he helps Pat diagnose the issue with his car, though he refuses to help him push it up the street. For the JSA, this plays out one of two ways: either his being a dick is a constant, annoying, struggle, or it goes away next week. Neither is great.
3. Yep, all external powers
With the revelation that it’s not Miraclo, but rather the hourglass pendant, is what gives Hourman his strength, and the Dr. Mid-Nite glasses being…well, everything?…further proves that in this world, there is no such thing as a real superpower. Everything is generated from some external source, seemingly without exception. While the comics JSA had some heroes cut from this cloth (Green Lantern, Johnny Thunder), there were also truly ‘super’ heroes, as well as regular folks who put themselves into the hero game without any sort of powers. It seems like the show is very much leaning into this type of hero, which is honestly fine, though a bit surprising when we see characters like the Flash and Solomon Grundy referenced.
One other weird thing about this world? They apparently either don’t live in a world with the pop-top can, or some companies still make the old ‘peel off’ beer cans, because that’s what Uncle Matt boozes from. Or, I suppose, he could just have a lifetime’s supply of Billy Beer under his shed, and throws back a 70s vintage brew every now and then.
4. Everyone is cruel to Beth
Look, I know that, since the first episode, we’ve been trained to think Beth is super obnoxious and, no doubt, she is. But everyone in this episode is flat out cruel to her. It’s sort of expected from her fellow students, because teenagers are cruel, but when Courtney’s mom basically says “Hey! Since you won’t shut the fuck up, go wait in the other room for Courtney,” it legitimately shocked me. I know that we are all a series of mistakes and imperfect moments, but an adult should know what a desperately lonely kid should look like and be able to put up with that for a few minutes.
Continued belowI hope that there is a fair amount of time this season for people to apologize to her, because holy shit, they are basically giving her the note from The Waterboy all the time.
5. Dr. Exposition
So, Dr. Mid-Nite’s goggles are basically magical search engine, Wikipedia, the FBI database, and a super detective all in some faux-Google Glasses. Not only does it have facial recognition technology for people who were kids when it was built (in other words, how can it recognize a photo of Courtney, even though she was 8 when Dr. Mid-Nite died and the glasses, most generously, could’ve been built?), but it also somehow knows Rick’s real last name? These are basically a cheap device to give the viewer more information, quicker.
That sort of sums up this episode in a nutshell: some decent stuff happens, but instead of the more emotionally resonant “Wildcat,” which took an entire episode to really delve into Yolanda’s life, this rushes stuff with Rick and Beth and leaves both feeling under-developed. This show has been much better when dealing with the emotional lives of its characters, which has led Pat to become an actual character over the past few weeks, but this week forgets all of that in service of quickly assembling the JSA.
