Jack Knight, Starman: “Fathers and Sons”

When Kyle was old enough, when he was beginning to understand the world around him existed, and one day mentioned to his father having seen Stargirl on TV, Jack Knight remembered.

He remembered the old days. He remembered when he used to parade around in a leather jacket and goggles as Starman.

And he wondered if it had been the right thing to give the rod and mantle to Courtney Whitmore.

He wondered that, now, because he’d begun to think, had he given away his son’s birthright? At the time he’d just wanted the story to end, to walk away, to start over fresh. But as time had made clear to him, there was such a thing as legacy, and he had honestly not thought of his own son as a part of it until that moment.

He wished he had his father to talk to about it. Or his brother. But those times had passed.

He’d built a new life with Sadie, in San Francisco, that was unconnected to Opal, to all of it. He really had moved on. He’d raised his son in what he’d thought of as true innocence.

He’d been wrong.

He struggled to find words, to have something to say about Stargirl, about superheroes, about his son’s clear fascination. Which felt like a knife. An accusation.

He sat there mute. The TV blared. He wished he’d never let Kyle watch the thing. Jack Knight had never been a TV kind of person. His thoughts drifted to the attic.

In previous eras the attic was symbolic of the past. It contained treasures. Jack had run a business that emptied attics of such things. He’d been very content, surrounded by them. All he had in his attic was a leather jacket, and a pair of goggles. If he showed them to Kyle now, he wondered how his son would react.

If he did it now, before Kyle had traveled too far afield, he might understand. If he waited his son would only scoff. But he would never really be able to understand. Jack had made sure of that.

Yeah.

It had been a mistake. All mistakes come from the best intentions, like the road to Hell. He couldn’t just ask Courtney, either. And he couldn’t build himself a new one. That was his father’s magic.

And what was his? What did Jack Knight have to show for himself? He’d been so certain of such things, before. When it didn’t seem to matter anymore.

Now he wondered.

And then Kyle ran off, bored, his mind on something else entirely, into the backyard, on another grand adventure. Jack watched. Sadie caught him wiping his eyes. He claimed ignorance.

She knew better.