Stargirl: Summer School Chapter One
Now, in season two, we see some of the aftermath of the heroes’ big win, as well as new characters and complications. There’s a lot to learn in “Summer School: Chapter One.”
Now, in season two, we see some of the aftermath of the heroes’ big win, as well as new characters and complications. There’s a lot to learn in “Summer School: Chapter One.”
Flash’s long-term planning has been all sorts of thrown off over the last year or so. COVID changed the spacing and timing on a few major plot elements, and in some ways it feels like they’ve been struggling to get back on track ever since. When in doubt, they toss the mysterious Godspeed into the mix.
The surprisingly good second season of Batwoman finally comes to an end with “Power.” Black Mask makes his big play, alliances shift and reform, there are some more surprises and nods to the comics, and one issue I’ve commented on that puts Batwoman at a disadvantage compared to most of the other Arrowverse heroes finally gets rectified.
All of which makes one of the most recent decisions by the head honchos at DC utterly incomprehensible. John Constantine has been a popular character in DC’s darker titles for many years. He was the lead character of a movie that had mixed reviews at best, and was also the lead of a short-lived tv show on NBC. Fan reaction to the cancellation was so strong that the character, played superbly once again by Matt Ryan, made an unexpected guest appearance on Arrow, thus becoming part of the growing Arrowverse. That one appearance met with great approval from the fans, and Constantine found his way to Legends of Tomorrow, adding some mystical muscle to the team. He’s been a great addition and provided some snark, sexual tension, and bi representation, which is unfortunately rare. Now, suddenly, because of an upcoming project from JJ Abrams on HBO Max, the show has been told they can’t use the character any longer.
Now, everyone wants to get back to normal, so they literally revisit the past. Sadly, their usual Western contact doesn’t show up in “Stressed Western.”
The broad strokes of Superman’s origin is a story I’d wager the majority of the world knows. The fine details have changed with various retellings over the years, and bits have been added on to the mythos (Kryptonite didn’t show up until the radio show began, for example), but the bare bones of who he is and how he got here are common knowledge.
It says something in the confidence a show has in their ensemble when the main character takes off for an episode and lets the various supporting characters take center stage. This has happened a few times on Flash now, and they pull it off pretty well.
Some superhero shows get kind of formulaic as they go. Batwoman, especially in the second season, has been a series of surprises, plot twists, shifting alliances, and generally shaking up the status quo.
The Legends have been through a lot, and their leader, Sara Lance, even more. She had a rough life before she signed on with, and eventually became the leader of, this band of time-traveling misfits.
Superman and Lois, as they have with so many other things, went in their own direction with a completely different story. After his big reveal last episode, we get to learn a lot more about him in “O Mother, Where Are Thou?”