Some thoughts about Stargirl: The Lost Children #1

Whatever happened to the Golden Age sidekicks?

Courtney thought she knew everything about her heroes but Emiko Queen is is going to show her that there's more to history than she expected, especially once that kids that were erased from history start appearing once again.

While last week Geoff Johns handled the Justice Society of America by itself in The New Golden Age one-shot, this time he deals with one of the loose threads he left from the last Stargirl story that handled what happened to the original sidekicks and I personally like this take, it allows Johns to develop the Golden Age corner of the DCU his way and honestly, I don't think there's anyone more capable than him at that (Aside from maybe an inspired James Robinson).

This issue continues the mystery of the disappearance of the young superheroes who are heavily connected to Stargirl which presents a few problems, particularly in terms of the narration since Johns has to be a bit expository at the beginning since Lord knows it has been a while since the last Stargirl one-shot and he has to explain what's going to the audience. Thankfully, this doesn't last for long and what follows is the classic Johns worldbuilding that leaves a lot of hints about the history of the classic characters while exploring the new ones he retconned into history and progressing the main plot, this creates a pretty content-packed read overall.

It's also cool to see some characters back including Courtney and Pat with the expected portrayals, more enjoyable though is the introduction of Emiko Queen as the protagonist's best friend and is the best characterization the character has gotten pretty much since Jeff Lemire left. Plus, I really dig how they described Oliver Queen as "A man driven by his own ego, a contrarian" which is a pretty appropriate depiction and speaking as someone who is tired of the romanticized recent portrayals of Green Arrow (including the tiring romance with Black Canary that defines a lot of his current personality that Ben Percy and sadly Joshua Williamson developed), this is a really appreciated breath of fresh air.

Todd Nauck handles the art and I'm happy to say that he's a consistent as ever with a very polished style that offers a lot of detail both in terms of characters and scenarios with a semi-cartoony look. It's great to see a (mostly) 90s artist continue to improve.

Solid read, hope the rest of the series remain this way.