Star-Spangled Kid

The Star-Spangled Kid is the name of several superheroes in the DC Comics' main shared universe.

Fictional character history

Sylvester Pemberton

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} The original Star-Spangled Kid was Sylvester Pemberton, a Golden Age character, created by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel. He adopted the identity to battle Nazism during World War II, and was unique in being a child with an adult sidekick, Stripesy a.k.a. Pat Dugan.<ref name=War>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Both he and Dugan were superb acrobats along with having sufficient training in hand-to-hand combat, but the pair regularly bickered about which of them should get top billing.

Decades later, he changed his name to Skyman and led Infinity Inc.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was later killed by Mister Bones's cyanide touch.

Courtney Whitmore

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Courtney is Pat Dugan's stepdaughter, who found Pemberton's gear in his belongings and donned the Cosmic Converter Belt, with a costume of her own design. She begins her career as the second Star-Spangled Kid to annoy Dugan as partial revenge for him marrying her mother and supposedly forcing the family to move from Los Angeles to Blue Valley, Nebraska. Dugan, a skilled mechanic, designs and builds S.T.R.I.P.E., a mecha which he rides in to accompany and protect her. Eventually, she joins the JSA and, after being given Jack Knight's cosmic rod, changes her identity to Stargirl.

Miss Martian

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} A third Star-Spangled Kid appears in Terror Titans #1 and is subsequently captured by the Terror Titans team for the Dark Side Club. The Star-Spangled Kid is forced to fight in a tournament against other meta-humans, going on to win the tournament. During the course of the storyline he appears to have a much stronger resistance to brainwashing than the other fighters, although he does eventually succumb. Later, it is revealed that he is the shape-shifting Miss Martian, who is immune to the brainwashing and gradually frees the other combatants.<ref>Terror Titans #6 (2008)</ref>

Other versions

• An African-American child based on the Star-Spangled Kid, simply named Stars, appears in Kingdom Come. This version wears a leather jacket, an American flag bandana, a T-shirt with an inverted American flag, and a cosmic belt in addition to wielding the Cosmic Staff. Additionally, he is accompanied by a muscular older man called "Stripes".
• The Star-Spangled Kid appears in Tiny Titans #38.

In other media

• The Sylvester Pemberton incarnation of the Star-Spangled Kid appears in the Smallville two-part episode "Absolute Justice", portrayed by Jim Shield.
• The Sylvester Pemberton incarnation of the Star-Spangled Kid appears in a photograph depicted in the Stargirl episode "Brainwave".

External links

• DCU Guide: Star Spangled Kid
• Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy at Don Markstein's Toonopedia Archived from the original on March 16, 2017. Additional WebCitation archive on June 4, 2017.