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| “ | Icicle: William...you stumbled into your powers. You killed your master before his lessons were complete, and it shows. That wand of yours , it's capable of so much more, but instead of thinking big, you just continue to think small. Even now you're still performing the same old tired show. You've just changed one stage for another. You spend your days making promises to people, but much like every politician, you don't keep them, in the same way you didn't keep your promise to me. Wizard: Jordan, that is - Icicle: You seem to think that power comes from other people’s perception of you. From recognition or applause but… that’s not true power. No, William, true power doesn’t need to be seen. I’ve traveled across this country. I’ve hunted down everybody who played a part in Christine’s death. Everybody who exposed her to a toxin that led her to get sick. And I did this because I too made a promise, William. To my wife as she lay dying in my bed that I would combat injustice. For our son. For everyone’s children. |
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| ~ I loved this exchange, foreshadows what'll happen later. |
Affable CEO by day. Anti-villainous mastermind by night.
Since I recently finished watching Stargirl, I thought I'd do a candidate from it, the Big Bad of the series. Without further ado, let's discuss Icicle.
What’s the Work?[]
Stargirl is a live action TV series that debuted in 2020 and finished in late 2022. The show is the first piece of media outside the comics starring the Justice Society of America. Specifically, the plot is about how high schooler Courtney Whitmore takes up the mantle of Stargirl and reforms the JSA to avenge the original JSA’s demise a decade ago at the hands of the Injustice Society of America and stop their plans while protecting the world from other threats afterwards.
Who is He/What Has He Done?[]
Disclaimer: Some of this is copied from Icicle's VW page, but I made it, so there's no plagiarism.
Jordan Mahkent, also known as Icicle, is the main antagonist of Stargirl, serving as the main antagonist of Season 1, an unseen antagonist in Season 2, and the main antagonist of Season 3.
He was the son of Norwegian immigrants that fled to the United States to escape centuries long persecution from their home country due to their bloodline's cryokinetic powers. After learning to control his powers, Jordan became motivated to rid the world of injustices to give the next generation a better future. Seeing that America was on the decline due to various social and economic issues, Jordan founded The American Dream company in the small town of Blue Valley, Nebraska to rebuild America one town at a time starting with Blue Valley. Secretly underneath the building though, he founded the Injustice Society of America, recruiting a diverse group of supervillains, to accomplish his true goal: Project New America where a machine would harness Brainwave's mind control power to permanently brainwash a significant portion of the country into adopting Jordan's New Constitution that would solve climate change and end discrimination based on race, gender, and sexual orientation along with being an army that'd force the rest of the country into complying with this should they refuse. Meanwhile, his company would restore Blue Valley to its former glory and Jordan became a beacon of hope to the small town.
The Injustice Society eventually ran afoul of the Justice Society of America and after countless battles, Jordan led the JSA into a trap in an abandoned mansion on the outskirts of Los Angeles on Christmas Eve of 2010, successfully leading the ISA in destroying their heroic counterparts, with Icicle personally laying the killing blow on his archenemy Starman, ending the Golden Age of Heroes. Shortly afterwards, Jordan's wife died from toxic poisoning due to corporate negligence and he left the country to hunt down all those involved in her death, leaving the ISA in the hands of the Wizard until he returned. A decade later, Brainwave called him to inform him that a girl attacked his son with Starman's staff and Jordan decided to return to Blue Valley, warning Brainwave not to do anything until he returned...
Unfortunately, Brainwave ignored him which along the Wizard's indecisiveness as a leader, led to Brainwave accidentally being rendered comatose in a duel he provoked with Stargirl, massively derailing the ISA's plans, which Jordan learned after confronting the Wizard in person as he'd been avoiding Jordan's calls and initiates the exchange I put above in quotes. Afterwards, he returns back to his company and introduces himself to new hires like Barbara, who Jordan decides to take her advice of restoring the community theater despite it not being profitable since it brought families together, quickly befriending her. Later, he takes matters into his own hands on the Stargirl front and lures Stargirl into a confrontation and nearly kills her until Pat, in his robot S.T.R.I.P.E mode, launches a flying fist that knocks Jordan to a bridge across the river, temporarily disorienting him. As he recovers and notices a schoolbus is about to run him over, he derails it across the bridge, distracting the heroes with trying to save it while escaping. After he realizes that the schoolbus was for Blue Valley High, which the Wizard's son Joey attended, he uses his power to orchestrate a "car accident" that kills Joey, but makes it obvious enough to Wizard to provoke him into barging into his house, where Icicle promptly and discreetly killed him, promising what he did for Joey was also for him as he'd use the two's deaths as martyrs for his company's plans and killed the Wizard's wife to cover up loose ends.
Later, Icicle deals with the impulsive Sportsmaster and Tigress killing yet another of Artemis' coaches before it becomes suspicious and satisfies the two by giving them their first mission since the fall of the JSA to help the Gambler recover satellite codes for Dragon King's machine while he invites Barbara to go with him for help with an acquisition for the company. After learning from a meeting with ISA that Stargirl had formed a new JSA composed of teens, he postponed their plans until they could discover their identities and kill them. After killing a corrupt businessman involved in his wife's death, he calls another ISA meeting where Dragon King comes out of his lab and sits (making everyone uncomfortable lol) to inform them all that Brainwave's son had the same powers as him and they could use him instead for Project New America. Following this, Barbara goes to Jordan's office to apologize for bailing on the acquisition as her daugther had been severely injured though Jordan tells her not to apologize for looking after her family and confesses that trouble with his son due to his travels and (secretly Project New America) makes him doubt what he'd doing a bit, leading Barbara to offer him and his family to her house for dinner with her family, which he accepts.
The dinner is pleasant, though a slipup from Icicle handling a scalding hot plate Courtney had gotten out of the oven leads her to figure out who he is, though she can't do anything and Jordan leaves with his family though not before telling Courtney the real reason he came was because he knew the two had crushes on each other and he approved, thanking her for her hospitality. Afterwards, he meets with Brainwave, who had miraculously awoken from his coma, and poor Jordan finds out Courtney is Stargirl from him. Just then, the two are attacked by Cosmic Staff though they are able to overpower it and Jordan freezes it to take back to ISA HQ.
After Brainwave informs him that his powers had grown ever since he killed his son (long story) and he would now be able to reprogram half the country, Icicle reluctantly signs off on killing the whole Whitmore family. Project New America begins as the Gambler causes a communications blackout across the country and Dragon King starts up the machine for Brainwave to do the reprogramming, which affects only adults. However, the new JSA launches a last-ditch assault on the ISA HQ while Beth Chapel/Dr. Midnite attempts to break into the system with the Gambler soon informing Icicle of this, who leaves the battle to stop her. Unfortunately for Jordan, Stargirl destroys the machine and the ISA is , leaving him the last one standing. Kidnapping Barbara after defeating Beth, he tries to convince her to see his point of view and join, deciding to kill her when she refuses and incorrectly states that his wife wouldn't have wanted this, before promising to kill Pat and Stargirl for foiling his plans just as the two arrive to stop him. Icicle and Stargirl engage in a climatic duel that ultimately results in an explosion sending them both tumbling off the building, with Stargirl being saved by her BFF Wildcat while Jordan is presumed dead. Just as the heroes celebrate though, Jordan reveals himself to be very much alive and is about to kill them before he is suddenly smashed to pieces by Stargirl's younger brother Mike driving a pickup truck, killing him...
Or so everyone including Jordan himself thought. In reality, Icicle's powers preserved his consciousness in the ice pieces/water droplets and using all his willpower, Icicle was able to reform his body. Allying with Ultra-Humanite and a Dragon King, Jordan came up with a new plan. The trio recovered Starman's body from his grave as they'd deduced the Cosmic Staff had imbued him with energy that would slowly revive him and drugged him awake, with Jordan revealing that he'd make Starman his puppet to run for president and implement his policies since the American people love him, but he concedes Starman's will is too strong for brainwashing. So instead, Ultra-Humanite would transplant his brain into Starman's body while Dragon King would get Ultra-Humanite's body in his continuing quest to become something greater via experimentation. The procedure works and Jordan sets out his plan to gain the heroes trust, forgiving them and actually wanting to make peace, albeit while keeping this under wraps. As Voyeur, a mysterious figure with a black trenchcoat with a mask to hide his face, Jordan set up cameras all across Blue Valley to spy on the people and heroes for months. Eventually, a reformed Gambler was onto this, so the trio had Dragon King assassinate him and use Ultra-Humanite to inflame tensions between the JSA and reformed ISA members. Jordan helped cover up his tracks by murdering Sportsmaster and Tigress when they were getting too close. After, Jordan made his public return to reunite with his family and state to the heroes that he did want to reconcile by offering to help them take down Ultra-Humanite (really Ito in the gorilla's body). He and UH also take down Pat Dugan when he proves to be a problem.
Unfortunately, thanks to Ultra-Humanite's sadism making the heroes suspicious of him, they end up realizing what the trio had done to the real Starman thanks to Pat Dugan turning up alive when the two claimed he was dead and exposing them. A massive battle ensues as Icicle tries to offer up a truce, but Stargirl refuses, and thanks to the intervention of Cameron finally turning against his dad with his newfound powers, Jordan is killed for good while DK and UH are also defeated...
Or so we thought again as a timeskip three months afterwards reveals that Jordan had faked his death, having fooled everyone...except Artemis, daughter of Sportmaster and Tigress. While traversing through the capital of Denmark at night, Jordan hears his name and goes down an alley to investigate only to get stuck...and look down at a sticky gray goop as Artemis reveals herself and the goop to be a combination of petroleum jelly and highly flammable chemicals that Sportmaster used in his hockey pucks that burns even water before lighting it with Icicle trying in vain to escape the highly sticky goop as he burns to death with Artemis avenging her parents and ensuring Icicle was not escaping death this time.
What Makes Him Magnificent?[]
He is the mastermind behind the ISA's creation and success, luring the original JSA into a trap and leading the ISA in annihilating the organization. Keep in mind, the Justice Society defeated the cosmic entity Eclipso and were the greatest heroes of the world for decades, so the fact Jordan was able to wipe them out and end the Golden Age of Heroes based on his wits is even more impressive. He pretty much would've won the first time if Brainwave's implusiveness hadn't massively derailed the ISA's plan and came close to victory the second/final time as well.
He is also a master tracker who tracked down all the people responsible for his wife's death across the world and tracked down surviving JSA member Hourman to eliminate them all. Not only is he a master long-term planner, but he's also a good improviser and opportunist, derailing a bus about to hit him to not only escape and distract the heroes, but also kill the Wizard's son Joey to make the Wizard predictably barge into his house for vengeance so Icicle could kill him discreetly and use the two as martyrs for his plans. As Voyeur, he secretly sets up cameras all around Blue Valley locations including the heroes' houses to spy on everyone without any of them noticing for nearly a whole year.
Charm wise, what makes him refreshing is that he's genuinely affable and friendly, it's not just a facade. He's a benevolent boss to his company's employees that goes out of his way to take new hire Barbara's suggestions even though they may not be profitable and is humble enough to admit her plan is better than what he had in mind. He's also pretty polite to his fellow ISA colleagues and is the charismatic glue that holds the team together, being the only person everyone else respects to one degree or another. Despite ultimately killing both the Wizard and the couple Sportmaster & Tigress for differing reasons, both times he makes sure to gently lay them down on the ground and offer some comfort. He holds no grudges against the heroes for his first defeat/death, acknowledging they were doing what they believed to be right and attempting to make peace with them, even adopting far less heinous means to achieve his goals, despite still ultimately being a villain.
His affability is just one of the plethora of redeeming qualities that make him magnificent. He is a sincere anti-villain/well intended extremist that nearly brainwashed half the country to...adopt renewable energy & universal healthcare + eliminate racial, gender, and sexual orientation discrimination. He felt a little remorse for killing Joey after his son tells him he was a good natured kid beloved by everybody at their high school and was disgusted by the Wizard being a mealy mouthed politician that makes promises he doesn't keep, but also by the Dragon King asking to experiment on the Wizard's corpse.
His Deaths[]
Alright so this show is fond of giving the main villains rather anti-climatic and at times humiliating deaths and Jordan is no exception to this.
His first death is him abruptly getting smashed to pieces by Mike driving a pickup truck. It's pretty anti-climatic and kind of funny, though in-universe, it's played mostly for shock. His second death is three months after the final battle as he faked his death, when Artemis traps him in gooey flammable liquid and burns him alive till he collapses dead.
Now, are these great deaths? No, but I don't think they (especially his final defeat) are too humiliating/detracting as they're not really played for laughs as the first is used simply for shock and for Mike to finally get some respect while the second is played as karmic justice for the Crock family and it is more sensible. Plus, when you compare it to other main villains: Dragon King being turned into a gorilla plush toy and Eclipso being turned into a literal piece of toast, Jordan's fate looks like the most serious and dignified defeat ever, so I don't think it's detracting all things considered.
Is He Too Much of a Baddie?[]
There's a reason why I'll propose him for IH in the near future. Dude's Project New America involved permanently reprogramming 75 million people and another 25 million people would die as collateral damage. He crosses the M.E.H in his first present day battle when he kills the Wizard's son and famously is responsible for the destruction of the original Justice Society of America. He's responsible for the death of about half his ISA colleagues, nearly all of whom were reformed. In short, he's quite heinous.
That all being said, he isn't too much of a baddie at all. All his crimes were not only done for pragmatic purposes, but his plethora of redeeming qualities including his genuine anti-villainous and extremist motives far overshadowed them. He never takes pleasure in the crimes he commits unlike say the mind-rapist Brainwave or bioterrorist/mad scientist Dragon King and has buttloads charm that really highlights how awful those those other two are. It only helps that the final season reveals that he took Stargirl's words to heart somewhat even if he still didn't redeem with his new plan to save America being far less heinous than before. I mean, compare 100 million people either being subjected to mental slavery or death versus turning one dude into your puppet to become president and implement your genuinely good policies. To summarize, he was never too much of a baddie and only gets less bad with time.
Final Verdict[]
Yes to him imo.