Courtney Whitmore has an almost perfect LA life that gets uprooted by her mother’s new husband Pat moving the family to Nebraska. But Pat may not be all that he seems, and neither, for that matter, is Courtney.

Set in an alternate universe from the rest of the Arrowverse, Stargirl evokes nothing so much as the Shazam movie in both tone and execution – all big, solemn superhero tropes offset by snarky humour with a slight self-referential air to it.

Starting off with a flashback from ten years ago showing us the destruction of the Justice Society of America at the hands of their sworn enemies, the show immediately exhibits that humour as last survivor Starman passes his staff to assistant Stripesy, telling him it must be passed on to someone of grace and power – but definitely not him.

Courtney might not be an orphan, but her father went missing when she was very young, and she’s not adjusting well to the addition of her mother’s new husband Pat and his own son. And that’s before they all move to a small town in the middle of Nebraska which just happens to be where Courtney’s mother is from and where she has obtained a new job and Pat’s opened a garage. So far, so normal teen-angsty stuff, replete with awful people at the new school, bullies, and nothing being what she really wants.

A fateful dive into the contents of the basement of the new house sees her discovering the staff of Starman and the adventure can begin properly. Like Shazam, there’s a sort of irreverent energy to the whole thing as she explores the capabilities of the staff, itself possessed of a certain amount of character and wilfulness. There’s also some nice interplay between her and Pat as he is forced to reveal his own past, and a nice little dodge of the obvious superhero trope the show seems to set up and instantly dismiss as we wonder exactly why the staff responds to Courtney.

There’s also a sense that Courtney is the essence of the slightly bratty, precocious teenager with a heart of gold under all the snark and a desire to do good, even before she gets a glowing magical stick. And some dark shadowing of exactly what it is that’s drawn the family to this small Nebraska town and what might happen next.

Verdict: Snarky, snappy and taking itself just the right amount of seriously while having lots of fun with it. This could be good stuff. 8/10

Greg D. Smith