Stargirl Spring Break Special #1 Review

Hitting The Beach....... And Clock King

Written By: Geoff Johns

Art By: Todd Nauck, Hi-Fi, Rob Leigh, Bryan Hitch, Alex Sinclair

Cover Price: $5.99

Release Date: May 25, 2021

It's Spring Break and it's time to not only take a trip to the beach but to the Golden Age of comics as well as Geoff Johns tries his damnedest to make everything matter in the era of Infinite Frontier where he won't only tell us how all the original Seven Soldiers of Victory are still alive but how they'll go forward from not only their original roster but with the legacy characters that showed up decades down the line. Let's jump into this prologue issue to the Stargirl series and see how strange timeline situations will spring up and what will lead Courtney Whitmore into her further adventures. Let's check it out.

For this issue, we see the Seven Soldiers of Victory being recruited by the 2000's Crimson Avenger to take on a mission that goes back to the death of the original Crimson Avenger, Lee Travis. Originally, the Crimson Avenger died in a boat explosion, which is still believed but to make this story work in with "Everything Matters" we're now told that the boat was a time vessel built by Per Degaton and while everyone believed that Lee Travis died in an explosion, we now find out that he was simply shot through time to our present day, where our Seven Soldiers of Victory will continue with their mission that started decades earlier, where the Clock King is planning to take control of the vessel.  

This is a really fun and intriguing story that not only makes the Seven Soldiers of Victory's original roster make sense in our present-day but also sets up Stargirl's own adventures in a series that's on its way..... not to mention an awesome new friendship with Emiko Queen, the Red Arrow. There's going to be a few people left behind with this issue with not only the characters involved but the time travel aspects of it and I only wish that we had more time to fully define who these characters are for new readers and really hit home the idea that this is a new continuity for these characters....... Not to mention that it feels a little weird that no one is referencing the death of Roy Harper. Even though he's alive right now, it feels weird the references about him make it feel like he's still alive and everyone knows this.

All in all, if you're a fan of the Golden Age of heroes or their legacy counterparts that took over for them I think you'll get a kick out of this retelling of their classic adventures, their tragic demises, and what this does to make sure that their presence continues to be felt in the DC Universe' Infinite Frontier. If you're not a fan of these characters and don't know a lot about them or the era they come from I feel like you might be left behind here with not only the main players involved but with the "Wow" moment that will set up the future adventures of Stargirl. Thankfully though, this one-shot has amazing art and enough heart and feeling that you might be able to go with the flow and just hope that things will be fleshed out more for you as things progress further down the line.  

Bits and Pieces:

While you could simply look at this as a fun Stargirl Special, this issue does a ton to bring the Seven Soldiers of Victory into the modern age in a story that allows their timelines to make sense in a world where "Everything Matters". We've got amazing art throughout and a story that sets things up for Courtney Whitmore going forward and even though I would have liked more time and page space to allow the Seven Soldiers to really be fleshed out for new readers, not to mention concepts, I had a lot of fun with this book and look forward to what the future brings with the characters involved.

8.5/10