‘Stargirl’ S01E06 “The Justice Society” Spoiler Review

This was a very intense fast-paced episode that was very well-done for being the shortest episode(at only 41 minutes) of the show so far. A lot went on this episode as we saw how Pat confronts Courtney about recruiting behind his back as well as his reluctance(at first) to see these kids take up the mantles of his fallen friends. Meanwhile we got much more needed screen-time for Sportsmaster, Tigress, Artemis, Barbara, Mike, Jordan, and Cameron!

The New JSA’s (rocky) start:

After 6 episodes we finally have the start of the new JSA and things……aren’t off to a good start. I did appreciate the fact the new team wasn’t so willing to give up being superheroes after Courtney tells them that Pat wants them to quit. Yolanda being inspired by Ted Grant even not knowing he was Wildcat was a really touching parallel between the two. I also enjoyed both how Beth and AI Chuck were bonding together over reading a book. The scene between Pat and Rick was interesting too as Rick really challenges Pat asking him if he really has done everything he can to help stop the ISA. These kids may not have asked to be superheroes at first, but their newfound identities have already helped them grow as people.
As every first mission goes with a team I feel like this one went about as expected honestly. With the team not having done any training together at all I knew immediately the members of the team were not gonna be able to work together just yet. Even though the mission didn’t start off so well I enjoyed seeing the tag-team duos of Courtney helping out Rick and Beth assisting Yolanda. In the future I hope they continue this as there’s tons of different combos the team could have while fighting the ISA. I’m very excited to see how Pat begins to train them in the next episode having realized that they would never give up their superhero personas.

The Gym Rats(Sportsmaster And Tigress) + Artemis:

I think everyone is in agreement that Sportsmaster and Tigress are very great additions to this series. I loved watching the two throughout the episode being so sporadic the performances by both Joy Osmanski as Paula and Neil Hopkins as Larry(Or as his friends call him “Crusher”) were amazing to watch. They genuinely felt so both kind and could snap at any moment. I would have been both simultaneously suspicious and not fooled by them that they were secretly super villains if I ever met them honestly. When the fight with these two against the JSA happened I was immediately sold on these two characters being a part of the show. Everything from the way they used their very (simplistic) powers was so cool to watch. The choreography felt very seamless and with the editing I could easily tell what was going on in the fight.

Even though we didn’t get that many scenes of Artemis this episode we still got a lot more screen time for her this episode compared to previous ones. I loved how protective her parents were of her really showing how the two may be super-villains, but they still cared about their daughter in their own way. I definitely hope we get to see more of this character especially cause we don’t know what the future holds for her. Will she end up as a villain like her comic counterpart? Or will she end up being a hero like her Young Justice counterpart and join the JSA?

Additional Plot Details:

The other two big subplots of the episode were with Barbara and Mike bonding as well as Icicle and his son Cameron honoring the birthday of their wife/mother Christine. Both paralleled very well with each other showing just like with Artemis and her parents that this show goes above stereotypes of uncaring heartless parents/step parents. Seeing Icicle with his son showed further that he truly did care about his wife and that he wants his son to live in a better world. With Barbara and Mike it just goes to show viewers that you don’t have to be related to someone biologically to really care about a person. Together both show the two differing but similar sides to parenthood.

Final Thoughts:

Stargirl has continuously made consistently amazing episodes and this one was no exception. From the character development with the new JSA as well as our supporting cast with Barbara,Mike, Jordan, and Cameron nothing felt wasted this episode. To the amazing choreography of that fight between the JSA against Sportsmaster/Tigress was just incredible. Unlike last week’s episode there’s nothing I can really say that was bad about this episode. So I guess this is it for now, looking forward to seeing how Cindy being full on Shiv in the next episode as well as everything else in this season!

Score:10/10