Courtney Whitmore wants to save the lost sidekicks of the DCU, regardless of the consequences… but the universe has other plans. Your Major Spoilers review of Stargirl: The Lost Children #6 from DC Comics awaits!

STARGIRL: THE LOST CHILDREN #6

Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Todd Nauck
Colorist: Matt Herms
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Editor: Andrew Marino
Publisher: DC Comics
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: May 2, 2023

Previously in Stargirl: The Lost Children: The battle for the fate of the lost children is here! Stargirl faces off against the Childminder on Orphan Island in the hopes of saving these forgotten sidekicks from her monstrous clutches.

But if she succeeds, what does this mean for the DC Universe timeline?

THE SANDS OF MIRACLO

Having freed the sidekicks held hostage on Orphan Island, Stargirl was shocked to find that their captor, the Child-Minder, was working with someone she already knew: Matthew Tyler, the artificial Hourman of the 853rd Century! Hourman’s powers nearly signal her end, but Corky Baxter, the youngest Time Master, arrives just in time to break the feedback loop and keep him from stealing Stargirl’s youth. Hourman warns them all that his “master” is coming, but can’t quite escape his re-programming until The Boom literally steals his artificial brain out of his head. The appearance of the Time Master shocks everyone, but the real moment of truth comes when he reveals that he is WORKING with one of Stargirl’s allies, and that they cannot let everyone make it off the island alive.

NOT EVERYONE CAN COME HOME

Given that this whole exercise started because of Wing How, former sidekick and driver for The Crimson Avenger who died saving reality from The Nebula Man, it’s likely no surprise which of the assembled heroes has to fulfill their destiny. What is surprising is the decision to move the two-dozen-plus new and revived characters (including Pinky, The Whiz Kid, and Blue Beetle Dan Garrett’s long-lost sidekick Sparky) into the present, forming a new team calling themselves The Young Justice Society. It’s quite overwhelming, which combined with the complicated #TimeTravelShenanigans of the story makes this issue quite difficult to follow. Nauck’s art makes up for some of that confusion with its clarity and bombast (especially the double-page spread of all the assembled kid heroes trying to stop the evil Time Master from dragging one of them off into the timestream), but that can only carry us so far. In retrospect, this entire limited series was a set-up to make the Young Justice Society into a thing, but the plot sort of sputtered out in the middle of the last issue.

BOTTOM LINE: JUST SORT OF TRAILS OFF

In short, Stargirl: The Lost Children #6 provides energetic and engaging visuals, gives us some fun moments with the new and revived characters, confuses the timeline by de-aging a number of heroes seen to be already grown, has a time-travel paradox that bends the plot out of shape, earning a still better-than-average 3 out of 5 stars overall. Johns has clearly replaced Roy Thomas as “guy who gets to play with all the Golden Age folks” in the modern era of DC, but the issue quickly becomes a case of too many characters and not enough plot/page real estate to showcase them all.

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