DC’s Stargirl: Easter Eggs and References From the Series Premiere

DC’s Stargirl debuted this week with the premiere episode hitting DC Universe on Monday and the show making its network television debut Tuesday night on The CW. The series follows young Courtney Whitmore (Brec Bassinger) as she moves from California to Nebraska and ends up trying to find her place in a new school and new life, but there’s another challenge teenager must face. She’s chosen by the Cosmic Staff and becomes Stargirl, a hero that ushers in a new generation of justice as she takes on the villains of the past.

As is the case with most of DC’s superhero television shows, Stargirl had quite a few Easter Eggs packed into its series premiere. Over the course of the pilot episode, there were plenty of nods and references to the comics as well as the history the show’s various characters. There was even a touching tribute to series creator Geoff Johns‘ real-life sister who died in a 1996 plane crash and ultimately inspired the creation of Courtney Whitmore.

Read on for the Easter Eggs we caught in the series premiere of DC’s Stargirl (please note that these Easter Eggs are collected from both the DC Universe version of the episode and The CW version) and be sure to let us know if there any that we’ve missed in the comments below!

The Justice Society of America

Not only did we get to see the various heroes we expected to — such as Dr. Mid-Nite, Wildcat, and Hourman, but there were nods to other iconic characters as well during the episode’s opening scene — including Jay Garrick/The Flash’s mangled helmet.

Civic City

A newspaper front page seen in some of Pat’s memorabilia is from the “Civic City News” out of Civic City, Nebraska. While the story is all about the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy defeating “Doctor Weerd”, the city the paper is based out of is itself an Easter Egg: Civic City, Pennsylvania is the original home of the Justice Society of America in the comics.

Dr. Weerd

Oh, and bout that news item about Stripesy and Star-Spangled Kid defeating Dr. Weerd? Dr. Weerd is a classic villain of the Star-Spangled Kid from comics — and Stripesy’s hand-over-his-face pose in the newspaper photo is very similar to a pose the character had on the cover of an issue of Star Spangled Comics that contained the two heroes going up against Dr. Weerd!

Mary Kramer

Courtney Whitmore’s friend she’s so sad saying goodbye to in the early part of the episode as she’s preparing to move away from California? She’s not original to the series. She appears in the Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. comics as well! In the comics, Mary is a friend of Courtney’s in Blue Valley so there’s a bit of a shift in the story here, but it’s still nice to see that part of the comics represented in some fashion.

Courtney Johns

While Courtney is packing, viewers get a glimpse of her life in California thanks to her gymnastics trophies and photos she has pinned on her bulletin board. Among those photos was a very special one: a photograph of the late Courtney Johns with Bassinger’s Courtney Whitmore added in. Bassinger herself took to Twitter during the show’s broadcast to share a better look at the touching tribute, calling it “the best, most important Easter egg in this entire first season.”

Courtney Johns, the inspiration for the Stargirl character, was the younger sister of creator Geoff Johns with the real Courtney having died in the TWA Flight 800 disaster in 1996.

“Action Movers”

The logo on the moving truck that comes to pack Courtney and her family up for their big move is a nod to Action Comics and there’s even another Easter Egg tucked into that reference. If you look carefully when the movers are unloading the truck in Nebraska, you’ll see a mover dressed in red and blue with a support belt around his waist carrying a heavy rug — a visual reference to Action Comics #1 which saw Superman lifting a car over his head!

The Liberty Files

Did you catch the name of the movie playing in Blue Valley’s theater? It went by pretty fast, but the theater marquee reads “Now Playing The Liberty Files”. As fans might recall, that’s the name of a comic as well: Elseworlds JSA: The Liberty Files.

Another nod to comics can be spotted in the DC Universe cut of the episode. The files that Pat looks over in the basement read “JSA Classified”, sharing a name with the JSA: Classified comic book series.