Stargirl: Is Starman Courtney Whitmore’s Dad?

Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for Stargirl, season 1, episode 1, “Pilot.”

The premiere episode of DC Universe’s Stargirl suggests that Starman might be Courtney Whitmore’s long-lost father. This mystery, which seems poised to dominate the storyline of the series’ first season, represents a major change to the canon involving Courtney Whitmore’s parentage in the comic books that inspired the show.

First appearing in Stars and STRIPE #0, Courtney Whitmore grew up in Beverly Hills, California, raised alone by her mother. She never met her father, a grifter named Sam Kurtis, until years later after she had taken up the identity of Stargirl. Kurtis flew in and out of Courtney’s life, conning her out of an antique locket her grandmother had given her, which matched a second locket he had and claimed to have kept as a memento of the daughter he’d been forced to leave behind. Courtney only saw her father one more time before his death, discovering he was a low-ranking member of the Royal Flush Gang. In the reality of New 52, nothing was ever said about Courtney’s father save that he had committed crimes so great it would ruin her reputation to be tied to him; a fact Amanda Waller tried to use to blackmail Courtney into obeying her orders.

The pilot episode of Stargirl borrows more heavily from the character’s original origin story in Stars and STRIPE than the 2011 reboot, with Courtney being forcibly moved from Beverly Hills to Blue Valley, Nebraska after her mother remarried a mechanic named Pat Dugan. As she was wandering around in the basement shortly after moving, Courtney happened across a box which contained photos from Pat’s former life as Stripsey, the sidekick of the superhero Starman and a hanger-on to the Justice Society of America. Courtney also discovered a box which lit-up as she approached, which contained the Cosmic Staff; the artifact that granted Starman his powers, which Pat later claimed hadn’t glowed since Starman’s death 10 years earlier.

In the reality of Stargirl, Courtney did meet her father a few times before her fifth birthday, though he disappeared mysteriously on Christmas Eve when he was supposed to be meeting Courtney and her mom to celebrate the holidays. When Courtney learns the date of Starman’s death was the same night, she immediately latches onto the idea that he must have been her long-lost father and that he’d been keeping a secret identity to meet her and her mother when he wasn’t saving the world. Pat Dugan dismisses this idea outright, saying that he had been Starman’s friend for years while serving as his family’s chauffeur and personal mechanic, and that he would have known if he’d had a kid and a wife he was trying to keep secret. Despite that, Dugan also has no explanation for why the Cosmic Staff responds to Courtney.

It’s worth noting that in the original comics, the first Starman, Ted Knight, put a DNA lock on his cosmic technology so that only he, his son Jack, and later Courtney Whitmore could make use of it. However, there’s no indication in the pilot that Ted Knight exists in the reality of Stargirl or that this version of the Cosmic Staff is advanced technology rather than a mystic artifact of unknown origin. However, it seems likely, given how closely the show mirrors the comics in other respects, that Courtney is being set up for disappointment regarding her father and a life lesson in how family is who you choose to keep close rather than who is tied to you by blood.

About The Author

Matt Morrison
(1835 Articles Published)

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Matt Morrison has been writing about comics since before the word
“blogging” was coined. He got his start writing for the
legendary DC Comics digital fanzine Fanzing,
before receiving his own column, The Mount. Since then he has gone on
to write for over a dozen websites, including 411
Mania, Comics
Nexus and The Cult of Nobody. He holds both an MS in Information
Science from the University of North Texas and a BFA from the
University of Texas at Arlington. Known as a font of comic book
history trivia, he has delivered lectures on the history of American
Comic Books, Japanese Manga, Doctor Who, and Cosplay at over a dozen conventions
and served as an Expert In-Residence for a course on Graphic Novels
for Librarians at the University of North Texas. In addition to his
work for Screen Rant, Matt is currently the Editor In Chief of
Kabooooom.com and writes reviews for No
Flying, No Tights – a graphic literature and anime review site
aimed at teachers and librarians. He also maintains a personal blog –
My Geeky Geeky Ways –
which hosts his extensive episode guide for the television series
making up The Arrowverse as well as his
comedic Let’s Play videos. What little spare time he has is
devoted towards acting, role-playing, movie-riffing and sarcasm. You
can follow his adventures on Twitter, @GeekyGeekyWays.

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