DC's Stargirl Season 1 Review: 10 Ups & 2 Downs

5. Great Villains

Another thing that sets Stargirl apart from some of its colorful counterparts is the fact that it exchanges the tired old villain-of-the-week format for a single long-form feud with the same group of antagonists.

It's a risk given that we are primarily talking about a superhero show here, but it's one that ultimately pays off as it allows the writers time to fully flesh out the Big Bads instead of interchanging them with standalone B-baddies. And that, in a sense, gifts the show with a new type of villain-of-the-week mold as some of the earlier episodes do spotlight one or two of the primary Injustice Society characters without ever falling victim to the tropes.

As a result, villains like Brainwave, Icicle and Dragon King (and to a lesser extent Sportsmaster and Tigress) feel like three-dimensional people with a tangible goal - and that makes it easier to at least see their motivations, let-alone understand them. Moreover, it also emphasises why the ISA is such a force to be reckoned with.