Stargirl’s Icicle has been a meticulous and, well, rather icy villain thus far. Over the course of Season 1, Icicle has shown how much of a lethal baddie he can be — he even killed a man with his powers without leaving his hotel room chair — while also giving viewers insight into what drives his evil actions. According to actor Neil Jackson, Stargirl’s big bad was actually influenced by a major Marvel villain.
As a member of the Injustice Society of America, Icicle (a.k.a. Jordan Mahkent) has been scheming alongside Dragon King and others to create an idealized society within Blue Valley. We know that Icicle’s wife died, and Stargirl revealed that her illness was actually brought on by a company dumping chemicals into the local water supply. Icicle was angry that no one at the chemical company ever took responsibility for it when Blue Valley citizens got sick.
Interestingly enough, Neil Jackson has revealed that Icicle and his actions were inspired by those of Thanos, the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Infinity Gauntlet-snapping villain. Here’s what Jackson told Collider about those parallels:
He wants to create that Norman Rockwell ideal of America that has communities and apple pie, and all of those things that we talk about. So, it’s not a bad idea, it’s just that he’s willing to sacrifice other people, as collateral damage. One of the things that me and Geoff talked about, as a touchstone for this, was Thanos from the Marvel series and Avengers. He’s a guy who firmly believed that all life on Earth is doomed because of overpopulation, and that if you could indiscriminately eradicate 50% of the population of all life, then the rest of the life will thrive far better, as a result of that moment. That’s an incredibly hard decision, but he knows and believes in his heart that this one 'evil' is ultimately for the greater good. In many ways, that’s what Jordan believes, as well. He’s a very easy character for me to relate to, and I really hope that audiences end up becoming conflicted because they end up emphasizing and understanding who he is, and therefore, in part, are rooting for him to succeed.
Neil Jackson went on to say that the more “interesting drama” for him is when the audience can start empathizing with the villain once they realize that what he’s attempting to achieve is not necessarily bad, so to speak. Jackson is not wrong about Icicle having that polarizing depth. He’s not a one-dimensional villain at all, and even that alone is exciting for Stargirl as it moves forward toward a second season.
All that said, the comparison to Thanos is chilling even despite Icicle’s virtuous-adjacent intentions. We're talking about the thick-jawed monster who intentionally took out billions of people at the end of Avengers: Infinity War. The reasons behind Icicle’s actions may be understandable, but they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Icicle, like Thanos, seems to be walking down a dangerous moral path no matter what his...endgame...plans are for “the greater good.” We all know what happened to Thanos in the end, just saying.
New episodes of Stargirl air Mondays on DC Universe and Tuesday nights at 8:00 p.m. ET on The CW. Stargirl has been picked up for Season 2 and the superhero series will air solely on The CW moving forward. For more on what to watch, be sure to check out our 2020 summer TV premiere guide.
