The following contains spoilers for Black Adam, now playing in theaters.

The Justice Society of America -- DC's Golden Age superhero team -- has seen an increase in its profile lately. Both the Stargirl live-action TV series and the Black Adam movie prominently feature its members. The JSA arrived before the better-known Justice League of America, and is often depicted as its precursor. Black Adam's use of the Justice Society is a bit of a head-scratcher, considering the prominence of the JLA in DC's movie universe and the unnecessary complexities that a new hero group entails. Stargirl, which uses the JSA as a centerpiece, has a much better grasp on who and what they are.

Stargirl has a number of built-in benefits. A TV series can give far more time to individual characters than a feature film, for example, and Black Adam's JSA has to compete with star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson for what time they do have. Stargirl is also set more or less in its own continuity -- Earth-2, a tangential parallel universe in the Arrowverse -- which gives it more room to breathe. But beyond that, Stargirl simply assembles its version of the team with more care than Black Adam's, and it shows.

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Stargirl's JSA Feels Bigger Than Black Adam's

Aldis Hodge as the Carter Hall Hawkman in Black Adam (2022)

Black Adam hints at a larger and diverse JSA, and yet it only shows four members: Doctor Fate, Hawkman, Cyclone and Atom Smasher. They're well-portrayed, and yet their time feels extremely limited: forced to compete with The Rock's Black Adam for the audience's attention. They're given dramatic short-shrift as well, and essentially come across as a warmup act for the JLA as hinted at by the post-credits appearance of Superman.

Stargirl, on the other hand, has far more screen time to develop the JSA, and indeed the series premiered with its title heroine tasked with rebuilding the Society from scratch. That allows a plethora of members to appear, including versions of Wildcat, Doctor Mid-Nite, and Hourman. They're also more developed, and appear as heroes in their own right, rather than stock foes to throw against Black Adam. And their universe allows them to take center stage without competing with the likes of Batman or Superman for attention.

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Stargirl's JSA Has More Iconic Members Than Black Adam's

John Wesley Shipp as Jay Garrick and Mark Hamill's Trickster on The Flash

Similarly, Stargirl provides a better look at some of the JSA's original members, and in doing so, it provides a more comprehensive exploration of the group's comic-book roots. The JSA is officially the first superhero team in comics, making their debut in All Star Comics #3 (Gardner Fox, Everett E. Hibbard, Sheldon Moldoff, Bernard Baily, Sheldon Mayer, Howard Sherman, Bill O'Connor, and Ben Flinton) all the way back in 1940.

Black Adam showcases two of the eight founding members, but simply has no room for more. Stargirl gives a number of them ample screen time, including the Jay Garrick Flash and Alan Scott Green Lantern: the original versions of better-known later heroes. It provides a far better grounding for the group than Black Adam can hope to match, and with the series focused on rebuilding the JSA, it gives those old-school members a much stronger dramatic arc to boot.

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Stargirl's JSA Bridges The Generation Gap Better Than Black Adam's

Stargirl JSA feature

Black Adam divides its rump JSA into older and younger members, with Cyclone and Atom Smasher playing new kids to Doctor Fate and Hawkman. It works well enough as a subplot, but again it simply provides them with some color while they confront the problem of Teth-Adam. With Stargirl, the generation gap is a baked-in part of the drama. The titular character, Courtney Whitmore, becomes the heir apparent to the JSA's Starman in the show's premiere.

Stargirl's efforts to re-create the team entail newer, younger members who inherit the mantles of older JSA members now deceased. It also includes Pat Dugan, the original Starman's sidekick who serves as a reluctant mentor to the rebuilt team. That provides a good deal of nuance and complexity to the divide between older and younger heroes. Figures like Dugan must deal with lost friends and a world that has moved on, while Courtney and the younger heroes grapple with the legacy they seek to revive. Black Adam can only match that in the most superficial ways.

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Stargirl's JSA Are Better at Resolving Conflicts Than Black Adam's

Dr. Fate in full costume in Black Adam.

When it comes to being heroes, Stargirl's JSA does far better at resolving conflicts without a massive loss of life and property. Some of that stems from offscreen reasons -- a big-budget movie has more money for expensive CGI fights than a TV series -- but the impression remains. The JSA in Stargirl seek to avoid conflict whenever possible, and only fight when other options have been exhausted.

In Black Adam, they're active catalysts of escalation: inadvertently aiding Ishmael's plans to become Champion of Hell and leading to a finale in which huge swaths of Kahndaq are leveled in the process. Again, it's largely a manner of audience expectations -- spectacle is far more important in a big-screen movie -- but it leaves the JSA looking irresponsible at best, and dangerous at worst.

With Stargirl having done a better job at introducing the JSA to a mainstream audience, Black Adam's JSA is a harder sell for a spin-off franchise with the rather clumsy way they were introduced. As such, Stargirl's JSA captures the spirit of the classic Golden Age better.

New episodes of Stargirl premiere every Wednesday on The CW. Black Adam is currently playing in theaters.