Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for Stargirl's season 2 premiere.
The premiere episode of Stargirl season 2 set up a number of classic JSA enemies. This included villains that had been faced by the original Justice Society of America, as well as a new generation of young villains to match the teenage heroes making up the new JSA.
The themes of legacy and family are a key aspect of Stargirl's storyline and the interactions between its characters. This applies to the villains in the Injustice Society of America just as much as the heroes, with season 1 establishing most of the members of the Injustice Society as dutiful parents, even if some of their ideas on "tough love" might be more accurately described as abuse. This led to many interesting conflicts over the course of the first season, as Stargirl and her allies were forced to fight against a group of villains who plotted to use mind control to establish a debatably better future for the world at large.
As season 2 opens, it seems that the children of the Injustice Society are about to acquire a dark inheritance, with Cindy "Shiv" Burman plotting to form her own supervillain team to counter Courtney Whitmore and her friends. Yet, there are evils beyond the petty grudge of a high school queen bee scorned, and the episode referenced a number of potential threats for the new JSA to face. Here's a rundown of every JSA enemy referenced in Stargirl's season 2 premiere.
The opening scene of Stargirl's season 2 premiere offered a horrific introduction to Eclipso, who has been set up as the season's chief villain. Originally known as Lladiz, the Spirit of Wrath, the being that became known as Eclipso was trapped within a black diamond known as the Heart of Darkness. Still capable of acting through a host, Eclipso sought to punish the wicked, as it was still allowed to slay those who had broken the Ten Commandments. This was established as Eclipso, acting through a young boy named Bruce, manipulated a young girl named Rebecca McNider into stealing a present from her neighbor's birthday party before striking her down.
While going through the old JSA case files, Courtney asked Pat about a villain named Per Degaton. First appearing in All Star Comics #35 in June 1947, Per Degaton was an evil time-traveler whose experiments had made him intangible and placed him outside the normal flow of time. Pat claimed that The Flash defeated Per Degaton by banishing him to an alternate timeline. However, as Courtney pointed out, there was no way of knowing for sure that a version of Per Degaton from earlier in his personal timeline wouldn't emerge to battle the new Justice Society someday.
Blackbriar Thorn was another villain from the old JSA case files whom Courtney mentioned while asking Pat for more information about the team's enemies. First appearing in DC Comics Presents #66 in February 1984, Blackbriar Thorn was the High Priest of a Druid circle in Ancient Wales, who went mad after working a spell he hoped would give him a closer connection to nature and the power to fight back against the invading Roman armies that were slaughtering his people. A powerful magician even ignoring his connection to The Green, the Earth-2 version of Blackbriar Thorn was reportedly destroyed by Green Lantern in 1988.
In the original comics, Baron Blitzkreig was a Nazi super-soldier who fought against the JSA during World War II. A particularly vicious officer of the German Army (whose real name was lost to history) Baron Blitzkreig became the subject of an experiment in tapping the brain's potential energies. These experiments gave the Baron the ability to fly, move at tremendous speed or become superhumanly strong, but he could only possess one of these powers at any given time. Pat Dugan did not volunteer any information about the Earth-2 version of Baron Blitzkreig when Courtney asked about him while reading the JSA's old files.
In the comics, the Gentleman Ghost was an enemy of Hawkman, who later joined several incarnations of the Injustice Society. In life, Jim Craddock was a gentleman thief and highwayman, who was cursed after being hung for his crimes. Unfortunately, the curse dictated that Craddock would walk the Earth until his killer's spirit left the mortal plane. This posed something of a problem given that Craddock's killer was the gunslinger Nighthawk, who was part of an endless cycle of reincarnation that led to his eventual resurrection as the hero Hawkman. Seemingly doomed to be a ghost forever, Craddock contents himself with committing impossible thefts while searching for a way to kill Hawkman for all time and end his ghostly vigil. Again, Pat volunteered no information about the Earth-2 version of Gentleman Ghost when Courtney asked about him.
Stargirl season 1 established that the zombie Solomon Grundy was the muscle of the original Injustice Society and the murderer of Hourman and his wife. The new Hourman, Rick Tyler, had a chance to avenge his parents but elected to spare Grundy after realizing that Grundy had no true malice and acted like a beaten child. The season 2 premiere revealed that Grundy was still in the vicinity of Blue Valley, but was obeying Rick's warning to stay out of the city, apart from clandestine raids on local fast-food restaurants after hours. Rick deduced that Grundy was responsible for the curious thefts and responded by leaving three buckets of fried chicken in the forest where he found Grundy's tracks. This may mimic a storyline from the comics, where Grundy became a gentle giant and ally of Infinity Inc.
One of the main minds behind the original Injustice Society, the telepathic Brainwave was killed by the new Wildcat, Yolanda Montez, in Stargirl's season 1 finale. The season 2 premiere revealed that Yolanda was racked with guilt over the act, questioning whether it was necessary and whether might have killed Brainwave as revenge for his murdering his own son, who was her first love, rather than to save the world. Given Brainwave's power, there's a chance that he might have used the last of his power to put something of himself in Yolanda's mind to torment the young hero or to try and take over her body.
As she was going to bed near the end of the episode, Courtney was seen looking at another JSA case file for a villain known as The Thinker, aka Clifford DeVoe. The Thinker will be familiar to most Arrowverse fans, as the Earth-1 version of The Thinker was the main adversary of The Flash season 4. This version of The Thinker, like most of Stargirl's villains, appears to be modeled on the Golden Age incarnation of Clifford DeVoe, who was a crime boss that armed himself with a "thinking cap" that enhanced his intelligence. Given his mugshot, he apparently wasn't able to think fast enough to outwit the Earth-2 version of The Flash.
The daughter of the Dragon King, Cindy "Shiv" Burman was the closest thing Stargirl had to an archenemy in the original Stars and STRIPE comics. The story of Stargirl season 1 largely followed the comic books, where Shiv became obsessed with destroying Courtney Whitmore after Stargirl thwarted her father's plans, and joined a new Injustice Society founded by Johnny Sorrow to get a shot at her rival. The Shiv of Earth-2 is more proactive and was revealed to be forming her own team to seek revenge in Stargirl's season 2 premiere.
The final scene of Stargirl's season 2 premiere showed Shiv holding a folder labeled "Injustice Unlimited," which contained photos of all the other children of the Injustice Society's members. This was a reference to a supervillain team from the comic book series Infinity Inc. which was established by The Wizard. Just as the superhero team Infinity Inc. was largely made up of the children of the Justice Society of America, Injustice Unlimited was composed of the children of the Injustice Society.
Artemis Crock, the aggressive sports-loving daughter of Sportsmaster and Tigress, was one of the children in Shiv's portfolio. In the comics, Artemis Crock followed in her parents' footsteps, originally adopting an archery theme and using her first name as a codename before taking up her mother's alias to become the second Tigress. She had a more heroic destiny in the Young Justice animated series, where she turned against her parents' example and became Green Arrow's sidekick.
In the comics, Isaac Bowin was a thief who learned the secret of how to use music to hypnotize others and frequently battled the Jay Garrick Flash. The Earth-2 version of Isaac Bowin is a musical prodigy but he was routinely bullied by his peers in Stargirl season 1 because his instrument of choice was the tuba. The first season of Stargirl established that both Isaac's parents had the abilities of the classic Fiddler and that he had anger issues because of being bullied. It seems likely Isaac may have the same talent and that Shiv will recruit him for Injustice Unlimited.
In the comics, Cameron Mahkent followed in his father's footsteps to become the second Icicle, despite having little fondness for his father. Things are different in the world of Earth-2, where Cameron and Jordan Mahkent seemed to enjoy a loving father/son relationship. It remains to be seen if Stargirl season 2 will see Cameron will develop the same powers as his father or fall under Shiv's influence. It seems likely, however, that the long-teased romance between Cameron and Courtney will become a major source of drama in the coming season, particularly if Cameron learns that Stargirl was responsible for his father's death.
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