The first official image for DC Universe‘s Stargirl has been released. While the one-sheet is meant to be an overall promo for the Stargirl series, there are two big reveals that come with the new image: our first official looks at the costumes for the JSA and the Injustice Society villains they’ll be fighting! Of course, since this is a DC Universe TV series (and not a DC Films movie), fans should probably set their expectations for the costumes of Wildcat, Doctor Midnight, Hourman, Count Vertigo and others a bit lower what we’ve seen in Justice League or even DC Universe’s Titans flagship series:
Videos by ComicBook.com
Here we have Pat Dugan / S.T.R.I.P.E. (Luke Wilson); Courtney Whitmore / Stargirl (Brec Bassinger); Doctor Mid-Nite (Anjelika Washington), Wildcat (Yvette Monreal); and Hourman (Cameron Gellman), for the young JSA. The Injustice Society includes (R-L): Sportsmaster (Neil Hopkins); Dragon King (Nelson Lee); The Icicle(?), Count Vertigo, and Tigress (Joy Osmanski).
Ok, so let’s not beat around the bush here: this looks bad. Like, even by the standards expected for a DC Universe series, or a CW Arrowverse series, this looks bad. DC fans are already savaging the Stargirl character costumes on social media, with claims like “It seems like porn parody,” or “You guys should really start hiring or at least consulting professional cosplayers…”.
That’s not to say that the response is all bad: Some fans seem to be liking the lighter and campier tone of this DC Universe Stargirl series:
@geoffjohns This looks awesome, cannot wait! pic.twitter.com/J24sKJbjUW
โ DC Movie News (@DCMovieNews2) March 31, 2020
Stargirl had its premiere moved to later in May (just by a week) due to the Coronavirus Pandemic that’s crippled a lot of entertainment industry. The show is going for the exposure of debuting on DC Universe first, before airing the premiere on The CW a day later. The hope of Warner Bros. / DC Television is to excite the core fanbase before giving the wider Arrowverse audience a taste of what they can get with DC Universe. At this poingt it’s arguable that the strategy is too little, too late: with just a few exceptions (Titans, Harley Quinn) DC Universe original programming hasn’t been able to secure a large fanbase, at all. RIP Swamp Thing. Clearly with Stargirl being lighter in tone, there’s more room for distributing it alongside the Arrowverse content, but that still doesn’t bring home any major wins for the DC Universe streaming service.
Stargirl premieres on May 18th, on DC Universe.