"Icicle"
Stargirl sticks the landing yet again in what I can confidently call a streak of solid to great episodes so far in the new superhero show's beginnings. Though I won't do a full review for this week's episode, what I'd still like to do is highlight just how great this series has been overall while still pointing out what I'd call the potential elephant in the room.
Alright, let's just get to it right off the bat. Yes, I am getting a bit concerned with how annoyingly impatient and terribly stubborn our main hero has been so far since the pilot causing me to reference back to characters like Nora Allen from Season 5 of The Flash and other Arrowverse characters that had a similar issue. I can see why some viewers would already find the protagonist to be a little frustrating to follow along at the moment. However, personally, I'm still holding out hope for some major character arc to take root here eventually fulfilling itself by the end of the season where Courtney learns to take advice from people and actually practice patience and strategic planning. At the very least, they do make it crucial to show her having impactful emotional reactions to the various superhero experiences that she's dealing with. Taking on dangerous super villains shouldn't feel like some easy walk in the park lifestyle for an amateur teen, so it's awesome to the see the series tackle this in some fashion.
Speaking of which, let's talk about the two highlights of this episode being the introduction to the Icicle character and the JSA Headquarters. I'll get the headquarters out of the way first and say that this particular scene contained one of the most geek out worthy sets that I've ever seen in a comic book TV series. The golden age DC Comics superhero iconography surrounding the room with the individual hero banners and specific item of interest attached to them immediately placed a child-like smile on my face. I mean for crying out loud, they had the classic Green Lantern as one of the JSA characters with the comic accurate costume design and everything. Also, seeing Dr. Fate and Jay Garrick posters with the helmets for both heroes truly made this fan quite the happy camper.
This is the type of stuff that I've been wanting to see in the Arrowverse shows for years and it took Stargirl for us to finally get it in this franchise (even if it's not on Earth-Prime...yet).
Alright, now to the other highlight. I'm gonna start this one off by stating that we're only 3 episodes in and Stargirl's version of Icicle is already leagues more interesting and badass than what we got on the Flash series. I loved how they dove into his backstory showing the tragedy of his wife's passing pushing his character motivation front and center with his vision to make America safe for his children (no matter the cost?). It's a great scene that humanizes our big bad in very impactful manner giving us a sturdy foundation for Jordan's headspace with whatever his grander agenda may be. To then turn this understandably driven family centered figure into a man out to murder a young girl that he doesn't even know just for using the cosmic staff after he himself killed Starman felt like such a sinister multi-layered villain shift worth investing time in.
Neil Jackson is pretty great in the role so far playing both the smiling and community oriented business man to then presenting the cold blooded and twisted ISA leader. Talk about making a huge first impression for your season villain. Icicle actually murders an innocent child in this episode. No subtle implications or anything, they flat out let you know that our season villain isn't above killing children. I don't think I've ever seen such a conceptually shocking villain scene in any of the CW DC Comics shows that surprised me quite like this. Not only did he kill a child who we got introduced to earlier on as a seemingly pretty decent kid just following his dad's passion for magic, but then he murdered his father (The Wizard) right after just because he angrily confronted him about it. What I loved the most about everything revolving around this villain in this episode however is that I'm not entirely sure that he "enjoyed" what he did. That's what's great about Icicle so far. He truly feels multi-layered in the sense that he's actually trying to do something good in the world with an unfortunately savage manner of going about it.
On a side note, that scene with the Wizard confronting Jordon about his son using the wand was pretty intense. I loved the imagery and sound of the wand powering up alongside William's enraged demands for answers. It's great how both villains came across as equally threatening yet Icicle clearly had the emotional edge in the fight.
He is the hero of his own story that may not necessarily take delight in the murderous elements of his agenda, but takes delight in knowing that his supposed heroic deeds will benefit the world and soon come to completion. With this, I hope that the writers continue to develop him as interestingly as they have so far while still making his power set and villainous leader angle feel dominant and terrifyingly imposing. Now, I'm not saying that we need to see him kill more kids or anything down the line but uhhh...boy was that a start. Yikes! I'm now actually starting to wonder how dark Stargirl is willing to go with its storytelling as I wasn't expecting anything beyond family friendly with a bit of edge to it. This just took things to a whole new level of excitement for me. A series that isn't afraid to cross certain borders for its narrative to strike as strongly as possible is the type of series that will always gain my admiration and attention.
Overall, this episode definitely had a couple of shaky areas mainly surrounding the titular character herself doing your typical "I'm gonna do what I want and not listen anyone until I get hurt and repeat myself" routine. However, if these first 3 episodes have shown me anything is that the show's writing and pacing does care enough about balancing as we get countering scenes of our hero struggling to deal with loss and fear while still having moments of being overly eager and impatient. Something that I didn't mention earlier is that, going along the idea of countering Stargirl's enthusiasm to avenge who she thinks is her father, Luke Wilson absolutely shines in his performance during a particular scene where he lays down the serious and consequential life of a superhero using the death of a child as his speech's backbone. I love that we get to see more of the tragic sidekick angle of the character in this episode which I find to be compelling real estate for character growth.
Altogether, we get a a fantastic villain debut, some cool (no pun intended) visuals with Icicle's powers on display, a decent action scene with S.T.R.I.P.E. finally using the rocket punch and saving a crashing bus (CGI is a bit back and forth), a dramatically shocking death, and some awesome JSA history diving. I look forward to seeing what else is in store for us this season with hopes that we get to see the other ISA villains in action and maybe some JSA heroes show up who was thought to be dead. Seeing Earth-2's Jay Garrick would be pretty awesome as a fan of the Flash series. I'm honestly not too excited with the whole "Let's recruit some kids from school to fight villains who seem pretty fine with killing kids" idea. But if we end up getting some awesome training montages, and logical/natural feeling progression with a superhero team, I guess I'd be fine with that. Just don't make the same mistake the Arrowverse did with their expanding hero cast conflict of overcrowded plot juggling. Just a thought...
Bonus Thoughts
1. More JSA Lore Building
Something that I mentioned in a previous episode review is that one of the greatest things about this series so far is its beautifully paced out history detailing surrounding the JSA. In this episode, we get just a very brief exchange about Hooty the Owl still being present at the heroes' headquarters waiting unaware that his handler, Dr. Mid-Nite, had died years ago. It's such an effectively tear jerking piece of storytelling inserted for a character that we haven't really gotten to know yet which is what makes this series so great. The world/lore building is some of the best that I've seen in a comic book TV series aside from shows like Gotham, Krypton, and Watchmen. Every brief remark made by Patrick about his knowledge surrounding the Golden Age era immediately allures my inner comic book nerd while feeling organic to the world that's being established here. Note to Stargirl writers: I eat this stuff up like a happy child in an ice cream shop, so please don't stop expanding this corner of Earth-2's history.
2. Superpower Imagery
Three episodes in and I'm starting to take note of something that I very much like about the series on a surface level. This being the passionate direction towards displaying some of the more sci-fi elements of the show. With some of the creative choices towards the presentation of visuals during certain scenes where characters use their powers or even some of S.T.R.I.P.E.'s robot scenes, Stargirl's production team is clearly artistically invested in treating audiences to some "wow" factor. For this, I give the show a figurative gold star (no pun intended) for the awesome effort.
Favorite Shots
Stargirl, much like Black Lightning is one of the rare cases of a CW Arrowverse connected series that occasionally displays a notable sense of cinematic flare within its overall visuals. Some of my favorite shots this week are the nighttime sequences with Stargirl looking out into the night sky in some fashion. There's just something about the color pallet and framing of those shots that felt as though it was taken out of some enchantingly beautiful sequence in a classic Disney animated film...done in live action.
Episode Rating: 9/10
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