The cast of DC’s Stargirl includes a number of memorable characters. While some, like the title character, are easy to fall in love with, others are interesting because of how little the audience knows about them.
Among the many villains introduced during the show’s first season, the most curious was definitely the Dragon King. With clues suggesting this villain is both immortal and other than human, the show does an excellent job of dancing around any concrete answers throughout each episode.
There are several key mysteries surrounding the Dragon King, but most have been left vague as of the end of the first season. Take a look at this informatio Stargirl n and learn more about the history of this character on the pages of DC comic books.
Retroactively Included
Many of the characters who appear on Stargirl have been appearing in various DC properties for decades. Characters like the Star-Spangled Kid, Hourman, Wildcat, and Doctor Mid-Nite all have publishing histories dating back to World War II. Since wartime comics were integral to the launching of superhero franchises, DC often goes back to these stories in future eras.
In the 1980s, a series called “All-Star Squadron” explored some of the untold tales of the men and women at home and abroad during the war. It was during this run that Dragon King was retroactively included in the history.
With an appearance that looks almost exactly like his television counterpart, the Dragon King was a major adversary of the All-Star Squadron, themselves a sister team to the Justice Society of America. Since these stories were set during World War II, Dragon King’s storyline had him attempting to become the emperor of Japan. Though unsuccessful, he would continue as a villain for many years and eventually disappear into obscurity the way many of these older heroes and villains did.
Popping Up in Nebraska
But obscurity was not to be the fate of the Dragon King. He was reintroduced to modern comic readers in 2001 when writer and Stargirl executive producer Geoff Johns brought him to the pages of “Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E.” Here, the Dragon King has emerged as a resident of Blue Valley, Nebraska, and has a daughter.
When Courtney Whitmore moves to Blue Valley and becomes Stargirl, she learns that Dragon King’s daughter is also a villain who goes by the name of Shiv. This complicates matters, as Shiv is also Courtney’s classmate at the local high school.
This storyline was worked into the first season of Stargirl with both Dragon King and Shiv taking prominent roles. One of the biggest mysteries surrounding the first season is whether Shiv is a real girl or if she was created by Dragon King from the DNA of a daughter he had and lost. This is made more intriguing by the fact that Dragon King’s wife is a seemingly normal woman who acts as if nothing around her is out of the ordinary. The first season implies the wife is an artificial creation made to look like his dead wife.
The Mystery Unfolds
Without spoiling how the first season ends, it seems that Shiv and her relationship with Dragon King will be explored a bit more in the second season. Since the comic characters have not had many major story lines over the years, it is anyone’s guess what interesting directions the show will take them.
