Stargirl season 1, episode 3 review: Icicle

“I have a three-point plan. Find them. Surprise them. Kick their asses.” Minor spoilers for Stargirl season 1, episode 3 follow.

After beating her first ever supervillain, Courtney is flying high and determined as ever to find the rest of the Injustice Society as the one and only Stargirl in the third episode of the DC Universe series.

However, taking on the rest of the Injustice Society won’t be as easy as Courtney thinks it will when Icicle rolls into Blue Valley.

Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E.

After seeing the joy of Courtney and Pat suit up together for the first time and the joy that it brought to do so, well things aren’t quite as rosy now. Being a superhero is hard, which is something each and every one of them learns sooner or later. For Courtney, it turns out that her hard lesson comes sooner. And that lesson is, no matter what she does, whether she stands up to bullying at school or whether she tries to stop a supervillain, people can get hurt and her job is to try her best to stop that from happening and avenge it when it does.

This is something seen time and time again within the superhero genre and there’s a reason that it’s a trope. What matters though is in the execution and this episode executes the trope incredibly well. There are some moments that falter, but, for the most part, the episode does a solid job of conveying the message it is sending and the arc that is occurring for Courtney.

Without getting into spoilers, there are some moments in this episode that are genuinely shocking as well as they clash with the tone that the first two episodes had presented. However, the clashing tones don’t hinder the quality of the episode, but rather enhance it, as well as provide stakes for the show moving forward. And because the show has done such a great job of building Courtney’s character, as well as her rapport with her classmates, what occurs makes the stakes feel emotional in a way that the show shouldn’t been able to pull off three episodes in.

The Superhero Club

After being alluded to in the first couple episodes of Stargirl, this third episode really begins to form the new version of the Justice Society. Courtney is still alone for now, but no longer will be over the next couple of episodes more than likely. It’s mainly small stuff that establishes the “recruiting” that Courtney is about to embark on in this episode, but the small stuff is important nevertheless.

Starting off with Yolanda, her scenes carry over very organically from the premiere episode and we get a bit more insight into why she is being slut-shamed. These relatively short scenes go a long way in establishing why Courtney is going to recruit her into the new Justice Society, taking on the role of Wildcat (which isn’t surprising if you’ve seen the promo pictures). It’ll be interesting to see how Yolanda develops moving forward as she wants nothing to do with anyone right now. Whereas was clearly a hero from the beginning, Yolanda, at least right now, seems more inclined to be villainous due to her treatment by her classmates.

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Yolanda isn’t the only classmate the gets more development in this episode though as a new character is introduced by the way of Cameron. He quickly catches Courtney’s eye due to his kind attitude toward Yolanda, even if he shies away from being vocal about it. However, there’s more to him than meets the eye which could potentially add more drama, both high school and superhero, moving forward.

Injustice grows

The greatest villains are the one who think that they are the heroes of their own story and that very much is true about Icicle. We learn more about Icicle’s origins and motivations in this episode and, to be completely honest, they are highly relatable motivations. Not everything is known about said motivations as of now, but what is shown in this episode makes it very clear why he is doing what he’s doing.

The problem with what Icicle is doing though is pretty much everything though. First off, he’s a murderer, but he’s not just that. In his civilian life, he uses demagoguery disguised in the form of civility to push forward what he views as “fixing the country.” It’s unclear exactly what he’s wanting to “fix,” but it very much feels like it would do more harm than good in the long run. On the surface, he just wants to gentrify cities, including Blue Valley, which isn’t necessarily harmful, but given what he does in this episode and what he’s been shown to have done in the past, it’s clear he doesn’t have good intentions moving forward.

Stargirl returns to DC Universe next Monday.

What did you think of the third instalment? Let us know in the comments below!