After Courtney’s encounter with Brainwave, she demands answers from Pat as to exactly what he knows. Meanwhile, the members of the Injustice Society are determined to get to the bottom of who Starman’s apparent successor is, before their own plans can be ruined.

While you couldn’t exactly accuse Stargirl of being a slow-burner after we got a front-loaded backstory and our heroine discovering the staff of power and getting to use it in the pilot episode, it’s not exactly in a rush either – it takes until very near the end of this episode for our main character to even get her superhero costume, for example.

What it does do pretty well is lay the groundwork and set up lots of intrigue along the way. It’s readily apparent that Blue Valley has some special significance to the Injustice Society of America, with several of its members occupying prominent local positions. But to what purpose? And how have these super-criminals, whose last major public act was to wipe out their arch nemeses, the Justice Society of America, managed to remain hiding in plain sight for so long?

While the show is throwing us hints and teases for this, it’s also giving Courtney plenty of questions of her own to be grappling with, like whether or not Starman was her real father, who exactly Pat is and what exactly he knows, and what this means for her and her family. As to the last question, she gets a taste here as her secret is tracked down by someone who isn’t messing around in terms of what they’re prepared to threaten in order to get what they want.

Peppered throughout are the sort of nice little details and fun bits that stop something like this becoming too formulaic, whether it’s Courtney’s approach to creating a costume for herself, a montage of Pat making improvements to his robot or little links between the villains and regular folks. A particularly nice detail focuses on the question of inheritance when it comes to powers – it’s really a tiny thing, but it speaks to the general overall themes of the show in a number of ways. For all its humour and energy, it’s clear that the show intends to focus on some serious, deeper themes and once again the nearest direct comparison I can think of is Shazam.

By the time we reach the end of the episode, a lot has happened. Courtney’s gained some serious on-the-job superheroing experience. Her and Pat’s relationship and respect for one another has grown, and the Injustice Society are starting to notice that they may have a bigger problem than they had thought.

Verdict: An impressive mix of fun and seriousness that promises an awful lot in the coming weeks. 9/10

Greg D. Smith