DC Universe's Stargirl Will Reimagine the JSA & STRIPE

CBR

DC Universe's Stargirl Will Reimagine the JSA - Including Her Sidekick, STRIPE

By Meagan Damore

Published Sep 1, 2018

DC Universe's Stargirl will introduce a new incarnation of the Justice Society of America as well as STRIPE, Courtney's stepfather-turned-sidekick.

When Stargirl arrives on DC Universe, she won't be alone. The upcoming live-action series will also introduce a new incarnation of the Justice Society of America as well as S.T.R.I.P.E., Courtney Whitmore's stepfather-turned-sidekick Pat Dugan.

"Much like, you know, Arrow reimagining Green Arrow or Smallville, I'm taking a brand new direction on Justice Society," creator Geoff Johns revealed to CBR at Comic-Con International in San Diego. "It'll be, I think, more closer to the lore. I wanted to kind of do a brand new reimagining of it for Stargirl."

"You can't do Stargirl without S.T.R.I.P.E. Yeah, he's in there," he confirmed. "It's cool because, I have to say, with Titans and with Doom Patrol, Warner Bros. has given us the ability to build Robotman and we're doing Elasti-Woman and Crazy Jane and Negative Man and, in Titans, there's great scenes with Dick Grayson in the Batcave."

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"Really, I think, with the budgets and the time and the creative has pushed this stuff to be closer to lore and celebrate the lore and I think that's going to be a lot of fun. So making S.T.R.I.P.E. is hard, like a Gorilla Grodd, you know?" he continued. "Greg Berlanti and I were talking the other day and he was like, 'You know, when we started doing Flash, in the pilot we put in the gorilla cage that was bent open and we had the Grodd thing there and was like, oh, gorilla was affected by the explosion and, at the time, people were like, how are we ever going to do Gorilla Grodd? How are we going to do Gorilla Grodd? And they were like, well, we want to try. We want to try.' I think Grodd is kind of this great -- he was like the first thing, and now you look at everything that's happening like, 'Yeah, we could pull off S.T.R.I.P.E.'"

Introduced by Jerry Siegel and Hal Sherman in 1941's Action Comics #40, Dugan is a skilled mechanic who was originally sidekick to Sylvester Pemberton III's Star-Spangled Kid. Later on, he married Barbara Whitmore, inspiring her daughter Courtney to become the second Star-Spangled Kid and, subsequently, Stargirl. To protect her, he dons an armored suit called S.T.R.I.P.E. His suit is outfitted with a number of defensive abilities, including ballistic weapons and utilities, and allows him to fly.

Stargirl joins the previously announced Titans, Doom Patrol and Swamp Thing live-action dramas. Other original content already announced includes an animated adult-aimed Harley Quinn series and Young Justice: Outsiders, a continuation of the fan-favorite Young Justice cartoon.