Eclipso won't be the only threat looming over Stargirl and the Justice Society of America in Season 2. During the show's New York Comic Con panel, creator Geoff Johns offered a few more details about the mysterious Shade, including his power level and his importance to the plot.
"We're going to see a lot of the Shade. He's also another big character -- a main character -- that's going to be coming into Season 2," Johns announced. "He's an immortal that has been around for hundreds of years. He was a member of the ISA, and we saw him in that mural, right? We saw his glasses behind Sportsmaster and Tigress... and he was the only member of the ISA that wasn't present in Blue Valley today. We saw him when his shadow hand grabbed Dr. Mid-Nite in the opening of the pilot."
"As Pat will tell Courtney at some point, he's the most powerful of them all. He's very threatening, because no one knows exactly what he wants, but we'll be playing a lot with the Shade," he added. "Eclipso and the Shade are two of the major characters. There's a few other new characters coming in, but those we're keeping a little bit secret."
The Shade has changed a lot since his debut in 1942's Flash Comics #33 by Gardner Fox and Hal Sharp. When he was first introduced as a Flash foe, he was a thief who used a cane that could control shadows. Decades later, he became an immortal from the Victorian era, who received his powers from a mystical event that killed over a hundred other people and wiped his memory. This version was more morally ambiguous than evil, though he did butt heads with Jay Garrick a few times in the early 20th century. Notably, Stargirl series writer James Robinson found use for the Shade in his 1994 Starman series, which put the character in a more heroic light.
DC Universe's Stargirl stars Brec Bassinger as Courtney Whitmore (Stargirl) and Luke Wilson as Pat Dugan (S.T.R.I.P.E.). The series will return for Season 2 on The CW. It also stars Amy Smart, Yvette Monreal, Anjelika Washington, Cameron Gellman, Trae Romano, Jake Austin Walker, Hunter Sansone, Meg DeLacy, Neil Jackson and Christopher James Baker.