Justice Society Presents: Stargirl Spring Break Special

STARGIRL SPRING BREAK SPECIAL

In this episode of JUSTICE SOCIETY PRESENTS, Sean Ross joins Shag to praise the recent STARGIRL SPRING BREAK SPECIAL #1 written by Geoff Johns with art by Todd Nauck! This fantastic comic includes additional content from Mike McKone, Jerry Ordway, Bryan Hitch, Fred Hembeck and Brec Bassinger! With thanks to Fire & Water Patreon supporter Joe Tonello for suggesting we cover this issue!

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28 responses to “Justice Society Presents: Stargirl Spring Break Special

  1. Listening to this was fun. Some good insights and analysis on the possible future titles. Sean and Shag are some of my fave people to listen to, and together even better.

    Sean, watch the show.

  2. Listening to this fun discussion now, even though I still haven’t gotten this comic yet, since my comic shop was sold out!

    Stripesy’s car was the Star Rocket Racer. The Whiz Wagon was used by the Newsboy Legion, but I believe the Forever People’s ride (later used by Young Justice, and drawn by Todd Nauck) was the Super-Cycle.

    Back to listening!

    Chris

    1. Chiming back in to say normally I wouldn’t want to listen to a show about a comic I haven’t read yet, but you guys have just whetted my appetite for this one! The retcon with Green Arrow and Speedy is brilliant, and it makes me wonder, why didn’t someone think of this back in 1986 or so? And getting a young Greg Sanders back in the present day? I’m down for that too! And of course there’s the new Justice League Infinity book following on from JLU animated, so we can get more of THAT version of the SSOV as well!

      Chris

  3. Thanks for a real treat boys, I loved this issue too (not least because my blog review of it produced the first ever comment from Shag!), and you superbly elucidated the reasons. The blend of nostalgia and new in the book is terrific, every page had me smiling from start to finish. The script, the visuals, the promise of things to come. I want a tee shirt of the Jerry Ordway pin-up and a poster of Where’s Stripesy. And I want that Stargirl series, and the JSA run, and the return of Secret…

    I do see that Courtney balancing on the star sceptre is unlikely, but she is a master gymnast, and it’s very possible the chatty staff has a gravity field that’s linked to her.

    I feel a challenge has been silently announced – find more modern comics Shag would enjoy. Well, I offer the recent Generations: Shattered and Generations: Forged giants by writers Dan Jurgens, Robert Venditti and Andy Schmidt and artists including Ivan Reis, Rags Morales, Colleen Doran, Kevin Nowland and Bryan Hitch. They have a ‘From the pages of Dark Night: Dark Metal’ slug on the cover, but really, there’s no link. It’s a big, bonkers time travel story involving Booster Gold, Kamandi, the Golden Age Batman and more fun folk. If you don’t like it, Shag, I’ll give you your money back!

    1. Ha! Well, Paul Hix recently talked me into trying DCeased and I surprisingly enjoyed it! So maybe I’ll try GENERATIONS SHATTERED & GENERATUIONS FORGED on the DC Universe Infinite app someday! Thanks for the recommendation!

  4. Impressive pod cost most impressive. Ah so Olie was both Green Arrows? Interesting. So waaait Didn’t that Green Arrow exist for years? So how was he both? Does the Kirby run on GA now count? Yeah the island bit was first done by Jack Kirby’s run. The art looks good. Looks like a style I saw Black Cannery drawn in. Any way seeing the 7 solders again is cool. I tried reading the Zatana comic from the 7 solders, but didn’t get the other issues so I had no idea what was going on. Any way this looks like a cool issue. Star Girl looks cool. Can’t wait to see her on tv. Season 1 was great. Can’t wait to see season 2. Cool to see Silent Knight looking like he does on the show is cool. Brining back Wing is interesting.

      1. If it’s the one I’m thinking of I really like the Bulleteer issues, though I can’t remember anything else about the series so that might say something about the whole thing.

  5. it’s nice to hear two people enthuse about a comic, a modern one at that, for an hour. I was touch and go about picking it up, but after your synopsis, I couldn’t help myself and picked up a (digital copy) and I wasn’t disappointed!

    I only really know Stargirl from the telly, and this comic version reads very much like Courtney (and family) on the show. And I couldn’t help but read Vigilante in the voice from his JLU appearances, so apparently, we’re all on the same page there 😀 I was looking up the Infinite Frontier issue as you were speaking about Alan’s coming out and apparently he told “some of the boys on the Society” so I assume it’s something that will be explored when the JSA series starts up. Actually, the latest issue of Infinite Frontier (number 2) has Alan and Obsidian going off to look for apparently missing JSA folks from this latest crisis reboot, including whats looks like the TV version of the JSA, Jade and yes my Power Girl!

    Talking of being so deep in the 70s All-Star era I picked them out on like the second glance, two Power Girls might have caught my eye I’ll admit. They even got her high collar costume from the era, though if I’m being slightly critical she never wore that should guard string combination back then, and yes I’m being really nitpicky here! 😀
    (she also wore the scooped collar by the time she’d met huntress, but that is like really nitpicky). I guess I really am becoming an expert here!

  6. I forgot to say, never mind the chest logo, I really dislike Alan’s new costume as seen in the mini-story, the cut of the tunic is unpleasant to my eyes. But Shag will be glad to know that Jesse Chambers is namechecked as hale and hearty in this week’s Infinite Frontier #2.

  7. Ordway AND Hembeck? Gues I’ll have to venture out to the LCS. ( I also have to find that Sub-Mariner book F&W talked about last year!) As much as a stickler as I am for old continuity, last I knew there simply hadn’t been a Green Arrow in the 40s. This seems like a neat kind of solution. But, how old is Ollie and how old is Roy? You know what, don’t tell me. I’ll just enjoy it like the old Brave and the Bold cartoon! It sure was nice to hear Sean! I’d listen to his podcast, but he doesn’t talk much about comics that I like!

  8. I’m pretty sure that Hippolyta’s time travel exploits have been re-retconed to have not happened. And if I remember correctly, it was Batman: the Animated Series that modernized Clock King and put him a suit back in the 90s.

    1. Spot on, it’s now been Diana since the Forties, though Hippolyta did get to be an adventurer with Justice League Dark Ages or whatever they were called in the fun Justice League Endless Winter story (try that too, Shag!)

  9. I have loved the Seven Soldiers since their appearance in the first JLA issue I ever picked up, JLA #112.
    Great review, with a lot of cool insights and comments that expressed a lot of my own thoughts, and much more.
    I’m not sure I like the idea of Ollie and Roy as Time Travellin’ Heroes, but we’ll see. It’s better than not having a Golden Age GA & Speedy at all, I guess….
    Can’t wait to pick up the new Stargirl series, and ofcourse this new JSA series! I first picked up STARS & STRIPE because of the Seven Soldiers cross-over issues, and then got all the back issues. Courtney WAS a jerk at first, but she’s matured and come into her own. She’s one of my favorite JSA characters now (although I will always prefer the name Star-Spangled Kid to Stargirl).

    I saw Alan and Obsidian in the recent DC Pride special. Have to track down the other appearances that Sean was referencing. I love the idea that DC is going to show us what a closeted super-hero had to endure during the Forties and Fifties, but I’m not sure if I like that it was Alan. It sounds interesting, but I think I would have preferred it to have been someone like Mr. Terrific or Wildcat, but we’ll see.

    And lastly, for those of you who love classic Seven Soldiers and who may not have read their back-ups in Adventure Comics from 1975, here’s a link to my blog where I scanned all of them in.

    http://seiginonakama.blogspot.com/2020/05/seven-soldiers-of-victory-land-of-magic_10.html

    After reading the first installment just click NEWER POST at the bottom of each installment to see the next chapters. 🙂

  10. I picked up this special primarily because of what you guys had to say about it in the episode. I always liked Courtney in the JSA, and it is nice to see her back in a fun and exciting story. The Green Arrow/Speedy time travel bit is an elegant solution to the continuity hole left by erasing the GA Green Arrow. And, although I get what was said about the time travel prompting Speedy’s drug issues, I take it as speculation from a character who really doesn’t understand how addiction works. Vigilante’s comment sounds very much like comments I’ve heard family and friends make about a loved one’s addictions issues, and it is merely their attempt to understand something they can’t wrap their heads around.

    Anyway, this book was fun, and I simply had a blast reading it. I hope DC is listening because we need more books like this.

  11. Thanks to a sneaky but generous purchase from one of the hosts of this episode, I was able to read this comic. I can honestly say, it’s the most fun I’ve had with a mainline DC Universe comic in well over 10 years. Thank you all for spotlighting it, and I look forward to wherever this is going…and I hope it gets there soon!

    Chris

  12. Just a slight point of clarification as to the podcast promo: Cyclone was not part of the Earth-Two Justice Society, nor was Johnny Quick although he did work alongside them. She wasn’t even associated with that team during the second Crisis when Earth-Two was recreated.

    1. Hi Netministrator – The show is not specifically tied to Earth-2. As the promo says, “…celebrating some of their favorite comics and characters associated with the Golden Age of comics, Earth-2, the JSA and beyond.” By saying “associated with” the “JSA and beyond” that opens up the definition to cover any characters associated with the JSA in anyway and any era. So yes, Cyclone and Johnny Quick would qualify in that definition.

  13. Excellent episode and really has it been a year already since this was published? Has there been another Stargirl special in between because I was sure something was printed this year? But of course just like everything produced after 2000 is almost unable to figure out which year it was actually released – I’m convinced everything since 2020 has happened both ages ago and like maybe last week?

    Of course we all know NONE of those loose ends have been picked up in the last 13 / 14 months – which considering Geoff John’s time show running Stargirl TV show one can understand I guess – but I sure wish we could get them picked up asap. Especially as it is crazy that Stargirl is on TV and there is NO comic published at the moment with her in it! Hopefully the JSA arrival in Black Adam will draw back focus on to the team – and we are finally getting another JSA title … But I would love for Stargirl companion book while we are still in Season 3 on the TV!

    Talking of the TV show I loved season 1. I can’t believe the quality of Stargirl and the Superman & Lois Tv shows these days – I know the Arrowverse is about to disappear – which sucks as finally we had Supergirl, Batwoman (and thus Batman), Flash and Black Lightning on the same earth and the Pandemic cost us the future we hoped for…. But the quality of Stargirl and S&L makes up for it a bit (plus Titans even if it’s not exactly Family friendly). However we watched the first season as a family with my twin then 10 year old daughters no problem but we are a 1/3 of the way through season 2 and it seems it’s too dark and scary for one of the twins (who is now 11) so we are waiting until she feels more able to deal with eclipso.

    Anyway thanks for prompting me to hunt this down on DC infinite (even if the search process is rubbish) as I enjoyed the heck out of it and I wish I’d bought it in physical form at some point recently! Oh well we’ll always have digital – bit difficult to share with my kids mind you!

    Anyway I’m now trying to catch up with this pod and enjoying it just as much as the JLI podcast.

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