The original Red Arrow really wanted to be Batman. He had a cave and everything. The current Red Arrow has access to that cave. She’s taken Courtney Whitmore to that cave to talk to her about missing children. They’ve got a big quest ahead of them as the adventure unfolds in Stargirl: The Lost Children #2. Writer Geoff Johns walks a line between darkness and the golden age in a story brought to the page by artist Todd Nauck. Depth comes to the page courtesy of colorist Matt Herms. Though the background on the story is interesting, the actual story that Johns is developing seems to lack enough impact to make much of an impression going into the end of its first half next month.

Stargirl and Red Arrow are on a yacht heading into the Diablo Triangle in the Pacific Ocean. It’s not much, but it’s a lead, and they’re chasing it down in search of a group of people everyone appears to have forgotten about. A warning is issued from an electric phantom...then the yacht explodes. Stargirl and Red Arrow struggle to survive in an incredibly hostile environment. What’s worse: Courtney’s staff doesn’t seem to be working. If Stargirl and Red Arrow are going to track down a group of forgotten sidekicks, they’re going to have a hell of a time of it. They’re entering VERY dangerous waters indeed.  

An island of lost children isn’t...terribly fresh or interesting. The fact that it appears to be motionless in time in a way that seems to have some sort of weird interaction with the outside world might prove to be fascinating if Johns can finesse the premise in an appealing way. The series thus far isn’t quite as close a walk with Courtney as one might hope for. Her friendship with Red Arrow is pretty cool, but the script isn’t as completely focused-in on the title character as it could be. With the recent cancellation of the TV series, it would have been nice to get fans a bit more acquainted with the character on page and panel. Two issues in, and the series isn’t spending nearly enough time focussing on Courtney. 

Nauck’s art layers in a tremendous amount of detail that feels a lot like something out of the early 1990s. The intricate detail that Nauck is working with feels a little too busy to really deliver the kind of punch that it could. That being said, the action feels satisfying enough, aided as it is by Herms’s colors. The nautical adventure could have had SO much more atmosphere if Nauck had pulled back a BIT on the detail. As it is, the visual world of the series IS well-defined, though. 

Johns and company are playing with intriguing ideas that rest in the margins of the DC continuity. They would hold a lot more impact if the rest of the DC Universe had a little more continuity to it, but the idea of a lost Golden Age feels captivating enough as Johns continues to explore it in the second issue of Stargirl’s new mini-series.

Grade: C+