Parting Thoughts
If anything, what this proves is that while the Hero’s Journey, or the Monomyth, or The Hero With 1000 Faces, seems to have its distinct patterns, there is a lot of wiggle room in those patterns, because we have two origin stories that are so opposed to each other they end up parallel to each other. Like a Force Dyad, whatever that is, of girl power.
Random thoughts…
- One grievance I have with Warrior Nun is that the Order, and its Mother Superion in particular, were quick to accept that Ava killed herself (despite barely being able to move her fingers, let alone give herself an overdose of pain meds), when in fact it seemed obvious to me that she’d been murdered by a nun, and that seemed very relevant to Ava’s reluctance to join the flock, and Mother Superion was never called out on that, and it irked me.
- 90s Starman supporting character, The Shade, a villain who became less evil in his retirement, is name-dropped as a former member of the ISA, and also pops by ISA headquarters during the season’s denouement, and I’m really curious where they take him, because The Flash’s take on Shade was really underwhelming compared to the immortal 19th-century dandy that James Robinson envisioned in his Starman comic, who turned to supervillainy in the 40s out of boredom.
- I came to know one of the rogue nuns brought in to replace the Order as “Irish Murder Nun.” She was a bad person and the best thing she did was get repeatedly cold-cocked by better combat nuns (She gave Sister Beatrice a moment to shine, I tell you what) but I still wish she’d hung around longer.
- Before they were in the JSA, Sylvester and Pat were part of the Seven Soldiers of Victory, who based on their group photo were the original Golden Age lineup. They name Crimson Avenger, his sidekick Wing, Vigilante, and Shining Knight, but avoided naming the one who was very clearly OG Soldier of Victory Green Arrow. For what seem to be obvious reasons. Arrow just ended, it’s a little soon to be throwing around other Green Arrows.
- That the cute boy luring Ava away from the Order in the first act is named JC seemed a little on the nose to me but sure fine.
- Eclipso gets mentioned in the Stargirl finale, the first time Eclipso has shown up in a DC show/movie since Matt Ryan had a run-in with him on Constantine way back when. Eclipso, a vengeance demon imprisoned in a black diamond and released by anger, had an… unpleasant run-in with Yolanda and Beth in the comics. I choose to believe that we are not hurtling towards a repeat of that story, but towards Yolanda and Beth getting some three-decade overdue payback. (Yolanda’s brother gave it a go in Geoff Johns’ JSA run, but it didn’t go well for him.)
- And at one point in the finale, Icicle walks past a movie theatre, and the titles on the marquee and every poster are all DC characters from World War II… GI Robot, the Unknown Soldier, the Haunted Tank… that last one is best kept an Easter egg, ’cause the idea of a tank full of soldiers aided by the ghost of a Confederate general has… not aged well.
Overall grades: Stargirl is B+ at least, maybe an A-, they really stuck the landing… Warrior Nun is in the B to B+ range. I liked it enough that I watched the whole thing in one go but maybe the first act took a minute longer than I’d like. But if Shotgun Mary doesn’t make it out of that cliffhanger (yeah there’s a cliffhanger), we burn the world.