Stargirl S2E7 TV REVIEW: Meet the God of Wrath, Eclipso!
The Heart of Darkness has shattered. Eclipso now roams freely around Blue Valley and the JSA has nowhere to hide. Days have passed since the events of last week’s episode and our teenage heroes must carry on with their daily lives, all the while looking over their shoulders for the town’s latest villain. Maybe Eclipso is worse than a villain. Maybe he’s a devil? When Eclipso first appears in comics as Bruce Gordon in House of Secrets #61, he is an average man, a scientist just messing with a rare black diamond so his city can run completely on solar power. I don’t get it either, but let’s just go along with it. Suddenly, Bruce has an eclipse form on his face, and he transforms into Eclipso when an actual natural eclipse occurs thousands of miles away. So far, aside from the eclipse discoloration across the face, this doesn’t sound like the Eclipso we meet in Stargirl: Summer School. But wait, there’s more!
In 1992 there premiered a miniseries titled Eclipso: The Darkness Within, where his more modern origin story is presented. Eclipso is upgraded to the God of Wrath, a spirit of vengeance. God places him into a giant black diamond known as the Heart of Darkness, and he is thrown out of heaven for disobeying the almighty. Eventually the diamond is found, and for profit's sake is broken into a thousand pieces, thus freeing Eclipso. Here is where we see Eclipso looking significantly like the Stargirl-designed character with the monster-ish face, beady red eyes, and a head cowl. When some time has passed, Eclipso goes on a full assault against all of the world’s heroes by using the thousand diamonds to possess them by way of their hatred. We have so far seen what this spirit of vengeance is capable of from within the Heart of Darkness on Stargirl. Already capable of possessing an individual and consuming souls, weaponizing hatred could be a potential ability out of the diamond.
Soon after the 1992 miniseries, there was an 18 issue series titled Eclipso, where he battles the Suicide Squad as well as Darkseid and the Spectre! The final issue in this arc may contain a clue as to how Stargirl's JSA could defeat him. More recently there have been new comic series that involve Eclipso under the New 52 reboot where he can fly, control the weather, produce energy blasts, and has almost every power imaginable. We've definitely seen some of this in action already, especially the stormy weather as a marker of his presence in Blue Valley.
As scary as he was for the JSA to meet, there is still much about Eclipso that remains as much a mystery for the JSA as it does for us. Showrunner Geoff Johns has already said he plans to make more calculated reveals in an effort to appropriately pace the series' story and he's doing a great job of it. In hindsight, there were also some subplots that seemed unnecessary, but it turns out they were all meant to set up how Eclipso will go about attacking the JSA on a very personal level. We're only halfway through the season, but the end will be here in no time. Use this opportunity to read up more about this dastardly spirit of vengeance in some of the recommended readings below.
Watch Stargirl: Summer School Tuesdays on the CW, and streaming the day after on cwtv.com
RECOMMENDED READING:
House of Secrets #61 [1963]
Eclipso: The Darkness Within [1992]
Eclipso [1992-1994] JSA: Princes of Darkness
Justice League of America: The Rise of Eclipso
Justice League Dark #23.2 [2013] Justice League vs. Suicide Squad #4 - #6 [2017]
Ruth Kotsalos spent her Saturday mornings as a kid fully invested in Batman: The Animated Series. Since then, she has been a fan of all DC animated cartoons and movies. Ruth currently works in the nonprofit sector, has a masters degree from The New School, and lives in New Jersey with her husband John, and their German Shepherd puppy, Athena.