Courtney Whitmore

Courtney Elizabeth Whitmore as the Star-Spangled Kid, prior to receiving the Knight family's Cosmic Staff from Jack Knight and become Stargirl. Art by the character's co-creator Lee Moder, who is modeled after Geoff Johns' late-sister Courtney Elizabeth Johns.

Courtney Whitmore, stepdaughter of Pat Dugan, finds the original Star-Spangled Kid's gear in her stepfather's belongings. She dons the costume to annoy Dugan, as she resents his marrying her mother and moving the family from Los Angeles to Blue Valley, Nebraska. Dugan, a skilled mechanic, designs and builds S.T.R.I.P.E., a robotic suit that he uses to accompany and protect her.[3]

During her time in Blue Valley, her frequent nemesis is the young villainess known as Shiv, daughter of the immortal Dragon King. Their most recent rematch was in Infinite Crisis, on a page added to the hardcover edition.

Courtney joins the Justice Society of America. After being given Starman Jack Knight's cosmic staff, she changes her identity to Stargirl. Courtney appears in most issues of JSA and it is in these pages that her half sister Patricia Dugan is born.

Starman and Stargirl on the cover of JSA: All Stars #4 (Oct. 2003); art by John Cassaday.

Later, she confronts her predecessor's killer, Solomon Grundy. Driven further into madness by the Joker's chemical assault, Grundy attacks the JSA headquarters with the head of the Statue of Liberty. With the aid of Jakeem Thunder, Courtney fights Grundy in the streets and into the sewers below. The young heroes barely defeat Grundy. Jakeem's Thunderbolt repairs the Statue. Grundy later develops an obsession with Courtney.

Courtney encounters Merry Pemberton, the sister of the original Star-Spangled Kid, during the "Sins of Youth" storyline. Merry's concerns about her brother's legacy and about young superheroes battling adults causes friction with Courtney. They resolve their differences during a battle against the forces of Klarion the Witch Boy. Courtney later saves Merry's life during an attack by Amazo. During this incident, Courtney is magically aged to an adult by Klarion.

Later, she discovers her biological father (Sam Kurtis) working as a common thug for an incarnation of the Royal Flush Gang. They later confront each other during one of the Flush Gang's robberies.[4]

In Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. and an issue of Impulse, Courtney hints at having a crush on Robin (Tim Drake), a concept that was not developed in subsequent issues.

Courtney briefly dates fellow JSA member Captain Marvel, who, in his secret identity of Billy Batson, is the same age as she.[5] To outsiders, however, Captain Marvel is by all appearances an adult, and the relationship between Marvel and Stargirl draws criticism from Jakeem Thunder and Jay Garrick. After Garrick confronts them, Marvel leaves the JSA and Courtney, instead of revealing his secret to the team. Marvel later returns to the JSA and explains that the Wisdom of Solomon prevents him from revealing his secret identity.

A glimpse into the future shows an adult "Starwoman" married to Albert Rothstein, the JSA member known as Atom Smasher.

Courtney's family is murdered by agents of Per Degaton. She travels with the rest of the JSA to 1951. The Modern Age successors to Golden Age JSA members meet and fight alongside the originals to save her family and the future. She finds herself forced to work with Atom Smasher again, for the first time since he defected to Black Adam's rival team. During her trip to the past, Courtney is briefly stuck in an asylum when she tried to recruit Ted Knight, who has become clinically depressed for his perceived role in the creation of the atomic bomb to the point that he initially thought Courtney was a hallucination, but she was saved by a figure later identified as Starwoman, an adult version of her infant sister Patricia. After the crisis is over, Courtney forgives Al for his past alliance with Black Adam, but Atom Smasher is nearly killed by the Spectre during an attack on Khandaq. He survives, but the event reveals the depth of Courtney's feelings for him. She returns to her own time to find her family alive again.

Later, Atom Smasher is tried and convicted for his actions while working for Black Adam. During a TV appearance, Courtney says that with Al in prison, she would "be there for him... no matter how long it takes."

Courtney is approached by the Shade, who tells her that her biological father is dead. This tragedy and her experience of the relationship between Liberty Belle and Jesse Quick prompts her to re-evaluate her family life.[6] She discovers that she can't hate her biological father for his failings as a father and as a man. She also learns to accept Pat Dugan as her only real father figure.

Stargirl becomes part of a coalition consisting of the JSA, the Doom Patrol and the Teen Titans that is organized to stop Superboy-Prime from destroying Smallville. Superboy-Prime kills several of the Titans, including Pantha and Baby Wildebeest and maims Risk, removing his arm. Stargirl later attends a memorial service for heroes who died in the Crisis.[7]

Afterwards, she begins attending college. She has altered her equipment: her rod now telescopes into a small cylinder, and her costume and belt materialize as the rod extends to full size.

Courtney joins the new roster of the Justice Society and fights without S.T.R.I.P.E.'s assistance.[8]

A seasoned hero despite her age, she forges a bond with her young teammate Cyclone, the eager and over-impulsive granddaughter of the first Red Tornado. They bond after witnessing the death of Mister America. Courtney suggests Cyclone create a new superhero costume and name.[9] She resumes her role of mentorship for the youngest heroes by helping Jefferson Pierce's daughter, Jennifer, cope with her powers and her isolation.[10] Courtney later expresses to Damage her doubts about Gog.[11]

A future version of Courtney is seen in Teen Titans #53 along with Lex Luthor and his future Titans. Her role is minimal. She is, however, wearing Jack Knight's goggles and jacket—the closest she has ever come to Jack's vision of "Starwoman" at the end of his series.

In the Final Crisis miniseries, Courtney joins with other heroes to form an underground resistance against Darkseid.[12]

Courtney is present (and apparently involved in voting) for discussions on how to move the JSA forward after the Gog debacle (and whom to retain or remove from the team); she defends some of the heroes who sided with Gog. Later she is present when the JSA meet a depowered Billy Batson who reveals his secret identity to the others.[13]

After the battle with Black Adam and Isis, Courtney was unhappy as the events had happened on her birthday (and had ruined any planned celebrations). When she went home and opened the door, the entire Justice Society had prepared a late surprise party for her. Later she was unhappy to learn she still needed her braces even as she was acknowledged as one of the senior members of the JSA.[14] It has been established that both she and Atom Smasher love each other in direct quotes rather than asides and implied habits, but the elder JSA members' comments about their age difference forced Al to turn Courtney down, stating he loved her "like a sister".[15][16]

Following a massive supervillain attack, the JSA is split in two. Power Girl convinces Courtney to join the JSA All-Stars splinter group. She later expresses a deep feeling of regret over siding with the All-Stars, claiming that she feels more at home with the original roster. Karen talks her through these doubts, telling her that she needed Courtney on the team because all the other teen members of the JSA look up to her.[17]

In September 2011, The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, Stargirl appears as part of a new Justice League of America title.[18] She was chosen by Amanda Waller as the public face of the JLA's PR campaign. After the disbandment of the JLA following the Forever Evil crossover event, Stargirl joined the Justice League United.

In the "Watchmen" sequel "Doomsday Clock," Stargirl appears with the Justice Society of America when Doctor Manhattan, inspired by Superman, undoes the changes that he made to the timeline that erased the Justice Society and the Legion of Super-Heroes.[19]

Britt Irvin as Courtney Whitmore/Stargirl on Smallville

Brec Bassinger as Stargirl on the promotional still for Stargirl

• Actress Britt Irvin played Courtney Whitmore in seasons nine and ten of Smallville, including the two-hour television movie Absolute Justice. [20]

• The pre-Crisis Earth-1 Stargirl appears in Legends of Tomorrow season two, portrayed by Sarah Grey.[21] In 1942, Stargirl and the rest of the Justice Society of America confront the time-traveling Legends, initially seeing them as enemies. Stargirl and most of her team go missing in 1956 during a mission and are presumed dead. In reality, she escaped to the sixth century to hide a fragment of the Spear of Destiny and create the court of Camelot, taking on the identity of Merlin.

• A pre-Crisis Earth-90 Stargirl made a cameo appearance in the "Elseworlds" crossover as one of several dead superheroes who were killed by the Monitor after he deemed her world incapable of averting an impending "crisis".

• A 13-episode television series based on the character Stargirl, titled Stargirl, was ordered by DC Universe for release in May 2020[22][23] with Brec Bassinger playing the title role[24] while Maizie Smith portrays a 5-year-old Courtney. Ahead of the series' premiere, Bassinger made a cameo appearance in the Arrowverse crossover event, "Crisis on Infinite Earths", which established her world as the post-Crisis version of Earth-2.[25]

• Courtney Whitmore appears as Stargirl in Justice League Unlimited, voiced by Giselle Loren. She and her partner S.T.R.I.P.E. have a speaking role in the episode "Chaos at the Earth's Core". In that story, Stargirl is childishly jealous of Supergirl's fame. But in the resulting adventure in Skartaris, the girls come to an understanding. Stargirl also appears in the episode "Patriot Act", where she and other non-metahuman Justice League members were trying to stop the mutated General Wade Eiling from rampaging through Metropolis. In this story, Stargirl reveals that she has no inherent powers and all of her special abilities come from her staff, and she takes the original Star-Spangled Kid's place in the symbolic and unofficial reformation of the Seven Soldiers of Victory. Stargirl gets badly injured but survived the incident and flashes a smile when she is loaded into an ambulance. Stargirl makes non-voiced appearances in "Epilogue" fighting the Royal Flush Gang, and later with S.T.R.I.P.E. in the series finale "Destroyer" in helping repel the invasion of Earth by Darkseid's forces.
• Courtney Whitmore appears in the teaser segment of the Batman: The Brave and the Bold, voiced by Hope Levy. In the episode "Cry Freedom Fighters!", she ends up fighting Mantis in a suburban neighborhood. When she uses her staff to create her own Bat-Signal to call Batman, she ends up getting Blue Beetle. It took the combined abilities of both their attacks to defeat Mantis.
• Stargirl briefly appears in Robot Chicken DC Comics Special seen fighting alongside the Justice League against the Legion of Doom.
• Stargirl appears in the Cartoon Network show Justice League Action, voiced by Natalie Lander.[26] She appears in the episode "Field Trip", on which she, Firestorm and Blue Beetle are given by Superman a tour of the Fortress of Solitude until they run afoul of General Zod, Faora and Quex-Ul when they are accidentally released from the Phantom Zone. Stargirl is also shown through the episode to have a girly interest in a red cat-like alien which inhabits the Fortress' Zoo, which she refers to as an "Alien Kitty". Sometimes she will ride her staff like a broom similar to Samantha Stephens from Bewitched.
• Stargirl appears in Young Justice: Outsiders, voiced by Whitney Moore.[27] In this show, Courtney Whitmore is the host of the Goode World Studios' news show, Stargirl.

• Stargirl is set to appear in the upcoming Black Adam film, set in the DC Extended Universe.[28]

• Stargirl makes a cameo appearance in Injustice: Gods Among Us. There is a statue of her outside the Hall of Justice.
• Stargirl appears as a playable character in Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, voiced by Tara Strong.
• Stargirl appears as a playable character in Infinite Crisis, voiced by Natalie Lander.