Stargirl to air on both DC Universe and the CW

https://deadline.com/2019/11/stargi...aming-debut-linear-window-digital-1202792227/

It'll air on the CW the day after it debuts on DC Universe. And will also be available to stream on various CW online platforms.

So with Doom Patrol also airing on HBO Max, one has to wonder: what is the purpose of DC Universe?

 

I gather it also offers digital comics, old animated shows and films, and merchandise. So it's a multimedia service rather than strictly streaming TV.

 

Seen some reports that the show will have to be edited for its CW airings to conform to network broadcast standards -- which sucks, if so.

 

It's a fan community platform, not strictly a streaming service, and was never promoted as being anything other than a fan community platform.

 

This does seem a bit odd. I know there's other stuff on there, but it still seemed like the original shows were supposed to be the big draw, so it seems odd to be showing them on TV so soon after they're uploaded to DC Universe.
EDIT: According to a post over in the Crisis on Infinite Earths thread, Stargirl will be making her first appearance in CoIE before her show premieres. There is a link to the story in the post, but I just don't feel like copying it right now.

 

^DC Universe has never been promoted as being a simple streaming service. Shows like Titans, Doom Patrol, Stargirl, etc. were meant to be the 'anchors' of a curated content lineup, but were never intended to be the platform's sole draw.

The service has morphed from a pure curated content platform into a semi-curated platform where more content is being kept available for longer, but the streaming content that the service provides is not and has never been the sole or primary draw.

 

Yeah, that’s why all the adverts were “Comics comics comics, and, oh, yeah some shows or something. But, COMICS!!”

 

I got reamed last week for suggesting this as a hypothetical possibility for Disney Plus programming, becuase it's what used to happen to Cable Shows when they aired on the Networks.

4 pages of yelling.

 

The trailer has arrived.

 

My memory may be playing tricks on me, but didn't Legends already establish an Earth-1 version of Stargirl with the JSA? Or am I thinking of Smallville...?

 

Both.

 

If you watch the trainer, you get an explanation.

 

This show isn't set on Earth-1. It's a different version of the character from the Arrowverse version. After all, the show was made for DC Universe and is being rebroadcast on The CW. (At least I thought so, though it's interesting that the first trailer for it is CW-branded.)

 

I thought so...

That's why I asked. The trailer seems to show the old JSA version was StarMAN. Though I suppose maybe that guy was second gen after the original Stargirl? Or it could be one of those "post-Crisis continuity hand-waves"?

I'm not massively familiar with the lore on this character; just how far back does this mantle go?

 

The original Starman was created in 1941, and there have been a whole bunch of different variations over the years, including Batman for a while and an alien, and a Stargirl. it does appear that Stargirl is an Earth-90 character on CW, so her background will be different from the Stargirl we saw on LoT.

 

I think you mean Earth-9, the Titans universe (Earth-90 was the 1990 The Flash universe and was destroyed last year). I read that Geoff Johns has been cagey about whether Stargirl was in that universe or not.

 

That's a little complicated.

Courtney Whitmore is actually the inheritor of two different mantles: Starman, and the Star-Spangled Kid.

The Star-Spangled Kid was a WW2 era hero named Sylvester Pemberton that was just a kid with really good athletics/martial arts skills noteworthy for his patriotic theme and being a rare case of a kid hero having an adult sidekick (a big brawny guy named Pat Dugan aka Stripesy). Later on he got some powers in the form of a Cosmic Belt. At least originally Courtney's stepdad turned out to be (a modernized version of) Stripesy and that's where her costume came from, Sylvester Pemberton's old one (he had died in offscreen).

Starman was a trio of science themed heroes, Ted Knight and his sons David (briefly) and Jack. Ted used something called the "gravity rod" and then later Jack turned the tech into a "Cosmic Rod" that let him fly and fire energy blasts among other things iirc. Jack passed the Cosmic Rod to Courtney when he retired. The costumes weren't at all the same as hers, Ted and David used a red/green/yellow classic superhero type outfit and Jack just went with pants and boots and shirt with a long black coat and goggles.

My guess is they're gonna just merge Ted Knight and Sly Pemberton into one character, giving him the Star Spangled Kid look and the Cosmic Rod.

 

@Alan Roi and @Christopher: None of the DCU Original series exist in a shared continuity.

 

Saw the trailer during Crisis Aftermath, and it looks good.

 

The Doom Patrol and Titans had an in universe crossover ep during the first season of Titans that refutes your statement.