Star-Spangled Kid

Teenaged Courtney Whitmore was born and raised in Southern California, and was the quintessential Valley Girl. The daughter of Sam Kurtis and Barbara Whitmore, after her parents divorced, her mother found a new husband named Pat Dugan. Together, they moved the family out to Blue Valley, Nebraska, the childhood home of Flash Wally West, and a far cry from the hustle and bustle of living in LA. Courtney was very unhappy with the big move, and she didn't like her stepdad new all that much either.

One day, while going through some of her new stepfather's personal items, Courtney found the old crime fighting equipment of Sylvester Pemberton's, once better known as the Golden Age hero the Star-Spangled Kid. Soon, she realized that her stepfather Pat was once Stripesy, who was famous for being the only adult sidekick to a teenage Super Hero ever. Being a teenager herself, Courtney found the perfect way to humiliate her step dad with this new found knowledge. Wearing a star-spangled costume of her own to a school dance as a way of making fun of him, but they were soon attacked by the villainous Dragon King's henchmen. It was then that Pat Dugan debuted his new S.T.R.I.P.E. Armor to stop them, and along with his Courtney, they saved the day together.

Putting aside their differences, the two decided to become a crime fighting team, Star-Spangled Kid and S.T.R.I.P.E. As it turned out, Courtney's arch rival in high school, the ever popular mean girl Cindy Burman, was the daughter of Dragon King's, and took the codename Shiv. The two became arch enemies both on and off campus. During her Blue Valley adventures, she teamed up with the current bearer of the mantle of Starman, Jack Knight. When Jack decided to retire from the Super Hero life, he passed down his cosmic rod to Courtney, after having seen her in battle. Carrying on the Starman legacy, she changed her codename to Stargirl. She became a junior member of the newly reformed Justice Society of America not long afterwards.

As Stargirl, Courtney finds that she must deal with the legacy of Sylvester Pemberton, whose Super Hero name she carried. She confronts the monster Solomon Grundy, who murdered Pemberton. Courtney also encounters Merry Pemberton, the sister of the original Star-Spangled Kid who went by the name Merry, Girl of a 1,000 Gimmicks. Although she was at first leery of this teen hero taking on the mantle of her brother, Courtney eventually earned her respect, and received her blessing.