Cindy Burman doesn’t think her plans through when it comes to villainy. When she pulled the folder out of her former locker containing the files of potential Injustice Unlimited members, our blood ran cold. Seeing Cameron and, to our surprise, Mike on the hit list made us see that no surviving legacy was safe. Not even those in the JSA.
As the idea of Injustice Unlimited manifested, Cindy started to lose momentum as Eclipso continued to grow more powerful. She made a near-fatal mistake that cost her a member of her team. Not to mention, she got dragged through the floor after the prince of darkness betrayed her.
If there’s one thing Stargirl has taught us across two seasons, it’s never take anything at face value or by someone else’s word. If you do, everything comes crashing down before you can stop it.
Before we dive in, this post contains SPOILERS for Stargirl Season 2.
The Disadvantage
Cindy took advantage of Artemis and Isaac due to their circumstances. Bowin was orphaned and put in foster care due to his father being in prison and his mother being dead in what he believed to be a “horrible hunting accident”.
Artemis, however, is in foster care due to her parents being in prison for something she believes they didn’t do. She gets a rude wake-up call when she is told she cannot join the Lincoln football team due to her temper. Not to mention, when Paula and Larry break out of prison to see her tryout, they tell her that everything they’ve been accused of doing, they actually did commit.
For Isaac, the trouble began well before Anaya died. When things overloaded with the school bullies, he went to his mother. Principal Bowin told him about how his dad handled bullies at his age. Moreover, the younger Bowin followed through with the advice.
After Anaya dies, Isaac is in a dark place. He snaps at Paul Deisinger when he calls the roll in Summer School.
For Artemis, she too is in a dark place because her parents are in prison for something she believed they hadn’t done. Even before this, she was a hothead and hot-tempered. Both of these traits she inherited from her mother. Cindy knew she could exploit this and did so by using Eclipso to make her attack Courtney and one of her teammates by making her think they were S.W.A.T.
Injustice Unlimited Wasn’t Fully Developed As A Splinter Group From The Injustice Society
Cindy’s lead problem with Injustice Unlimited was that members she sought out weren’t fully realised. Furthermore, they discovered who their parents were and then decided to fight back against the JSA based on what they’d been told. They didn’t bother gathering evidence. Truth is, Isaac and Artemis were looking to blow off steam and didn’t think about the consequences of what it could cost them.
The Shade did raise a good point when he showed up; it was a teenage gang fight.
Furthermore, Cindy’s attempt to revive the ISA with their offspring was clumsy as not all of her recruits were fighters. Isaac only had a day to learn how to use his parents’ violin. Meanwhile, Artemis had just lost her parents to prison again.
What’s more, this leads us to her failed recruitment of Cameron. Cindy thought by appealing to how he lost his dad she would snag him for her team. However, to her surprise, he turned her down. He remembered how she said in the fourth grade that she never liked her mother. Ultimately, he throws it back at her.
Also, it’s unclear whether Cindy is aware that Cameron has the same abilities as his father. We know his grandmother threatened her by revealing she shares her son’s powers. Ultimately, this means Burman is aware that some of the Mahkents have ice powers.
The portrait that Eclipso conjures up after Bobbie’s death shows Cameron in human form. Moreover, it’s likely even the prince of darkness isn’t aware of his growing abilities. If you look at the ISA portrait, Icicle is front and centre. He was more than just their leader as he was the one who came up with Project: New America. Though, it is implied that the true head of the ISA was Dragon King.
Untrained
Much like the new JSA when they started, the Injustice Unlimited was largely untrained and used their emotions more than their fists. As we mentioned earlier, Isaac only had a day to learn how to play his parents’ violin. Artemis allowed her bottled up emotions to drive her during her fight with Rick. Cindy, meanwhile, drew on her hatred for Courtney.
Dragon King commented in Season 1 that his main concern was the ISA wouldn’t allow his daughter on the team because of her impulsiveness. While he had questionable parenting techniques, he was right about how the group felt about her. Even Brainwave questions her.
Cindy’s impulsiveness has gotten her into trouble on more than one occasion as seen in Season 1. Her father lectures her about taking her armour before her training is complete. It’s here that we see how desperate she is to get even with Courtney. She has no filter and doesn’t attempt to hide her persona as Shiv in public.
She also has no regard for anyone else but herself. However, this doesn’t make her evil like Eclipso. She was raised by a mad scientist who loved experimentation so much he sought to make her similar to him.
Artemis, meanwhile, is known for her violent streak. She has attacked her teammates for criticising her. She’s also been known to wrestle with them in the school halls. However, her parents wanted to keep her away from their life as criminals, which is why they never trained her to fight.
The Bowins were in the same mindset as the Crocks and didn’t want Isaac involved. Anaya even mentions how sensitive her son is. Two words; Massive Understatement.
What Was The Purpose Of Including Mike?
In the premiere, we see Mike is a potential recruit for Injustice Unlimited. However, a few episodes later, we discover that he was never part of the overall plan. He would serve as bait in Burman’s eyes.
We have a small theory that Mike being the bait to lure Courtney out, might not have been intentional. The reason for this is because Cameron was part of Cindy’s plan. But, when she failed to recruit him, the objective changed slightly. Shiv herself told Artemis and Isaac when the younger Mahkent didn’t join them that he was a lost cause, but she still planned on using Pat’s son.
Sending Artemis and Isaac to The Pit Stop was one way to luring Courtney out as Cindy was aware of how close her adversary is to her stepfather. He was, essentially, phase one. Kidnapping Mike was phase two. If you think about it, the only one who has an issue with Stargirl is Burman. All she needed was the backup to hold off the JSA as she knew the others wouldn’t allow their leader to fight without someone watching her back.
Even Barbara was appalled that Cindy would use Mike to bait Courtney into a fight. As they watched over an unconscious Pat in the hospital, she told her daughter to find her brother and to kick her enemy’s ass. At the end, when the Whitmore-Dugans came together to formulate a plan, Mike expressed his need for training. After all, his sister’s biggest enemy kidnapped him.
How The Fight Could Impact Artemis
The only member of Injustice Unlimited to come away unscathed was Artemis Crock. She got away before Eclipso realised she was even there and killed her too. So, this makes us wonder, how is Artemis going to cope going forward? At the moment, we don’t know as she took off and wasn’t seen in episode seven. For all we know, she could be licking her wounds. After all, she did watch someone die before her eyes.
Also, she has nowhere to turn outside of her uncaring foster mother, who cares more about her nails. Her parents are likely locked in confinement because they busted out of prison. Not to mention, Artemis went crazy at her teammates. Oh, and Cindy possibly died when she got sucked in who-knows-where. So, seeing all that traumatic stuff is bound to put any sensible person off their game for a while.
We know that Paula and Larry will have a larger role in Season 3, but we don’t know why. Some sick feeling makes us think that something happens to Artemis, and it’s permanent. Yeah, we’re talking about whether Artemis survives the season. Perhaps, her parents turn over a new leaf and become antiheroes. After all, Crusher is friendly with Pat.
Finally, we wanted to wrap this up to ask whether anything thinks Artemis will become an antihero. After all, in Young Justice she has played both sides at some point.
