Stargirl: How [SPOILER] Returns From The Dead Explained

Forum 3 years ago

Stargirl: How [SPOILER] Returns From The Dead Explained

The final episode of Stargirl Season 1 ended with a stunning surprise, as it was revealed that Sylvester Pemberton, aka Starman, was apparently alive and well. How this was possible was not explained but an answer may lie in the same comic book series that inspired most of Stargirl's Season One storyline in the newly renamed Arrowverse.

The death of Sylvester Pemberton alongside the rest of the Justice Society of America opened the pilot episode of Stargirl. Pemberton barely escaped the field of battle, pulled out of action by his sidekick, Pat "Stripsey" Dugan, after he was fatally wounded by the villain Icicle. Pemberton died with Dugan at his side, using his dying breaths to proclaim that "... someone with grace and heroism..." would rise up to replace him and carry the torch of the Justice Society's ideals, even as he choked out it wouldn't be Pat Dugan. This set the stage for Dugan's stepdaughter, Courtney Whitmore, to take up the Cosmic Staff as her own and build a new Justice Society as Stargirl ten years later.

Heroes coming back from the dead is fairly common in comic books, with The Return of Superman following The Death of Superman being perhaps the most famous example. False resurrections are also not uncommon, with villains impersonating fallen heroes as part of a scheme, as in the case of Hank Henshaw; a technopathic scientist with a grudge against Superman, who became the Cyborg Superman in an effort to destroy Superman's reputation. Given that, it's just as likely that the Sylvester Pemberton seen in Stargirl's Season 1 finale is a shape-shifting impostor or an evil clone as it is the real Starman, somehow brought back to life by magic or a miracle.

However, the most likely explanation may lie in the pages of Stars and STRIPE; the comic book series which introduced the character of Courtney Whitmore in 1999 and inspired most of the story of Stargirl Season 1. A flashback in Stars and STRIPE #9 revealed that the Seven Soldiers of Victory (which both Pemberton and Dugan were part of) became scattered across time and space after a battle with a cosmic being dubbed The Nebula Man. 40 years later, the Justice Society of America and Justice League of America joined forces to find the lost heroes and bring them back into the modern-day. This explained why the Seven Soldiers were still alive and kicking despite having been around since World War II without having had the benefit of being trapped in a timeless dimension for several decades, as the JSA had been.

Applying that idea to Stargirl would explain several mysteries of the show as it heads into Season 2. The Sylvester Pemberton seen in the Season 1 finale could be the real Starman, sent forward in time from some point before his death. This would also explain why he was so adamant about Pat Dugan taking the Cosmic Staff and holding onto it for someone else to use; he had already met his future successor and needed to maintain the circumstances that led to Courtney Whitmore taking up his mantle. This would also be a neat nod to the Starman comics, where two different heroes bearing the Starman mantle traveled in time to maintain a series of causality loops tied into their legacy. It might also explain why Pat Dugan is so young despite having apparently been a superhero sidekick since the 1940s; he was sent forward in time and never got back to the past.