****Spoilers for Stargirl: The Lost Children #4 are included below****
Holy exposition, Batman! In issue #3 of Stargirl: The Lost Children, readers were given an abundance of exposition and thought that was the end. However, Issue #4 proves readers should never get too comfortable with the amount of information they have—things are always changing, lies are being told, revelations being unearthed. So, here is everything in Stargirl #4, you need to know.
This issue is a culmination of every big event Geoff Johns has done at DC since 2011—Flashpoint, Flashpoint Beyond, Doomsday Clock, DC Rebirth, etc. Literally everything contributes to this narrative. It starts with Corky Baxter—the young Time Master who is allegedly a protege of the legendary Rip Hunter—explaining how he was actually in the time stream when Barry Allen created Flashpoint. He saw time change, witnessed 5 years of time be stolen after Barry reset the timeline. In this sense, Corky is a Pariah figure (Crisis on Infinite Earths reference), witnessing these magnificent events but unable to alter them in any way.
Corky, along with Quiz Kid, reveals the island is not only cut off from the world, but also cut off from time. Which is why no one ages and time feels irrelevant and malleable to the lost children. None of the kids were meant to be on the island, naturally, because they were supposed to be dead—wiped from the timeline completely. However, instead of being erased from history, the Time Masters pulled the kids from the timestream with the intent of reintegrating them with their timelines once the timeline settled, but an attack on their lab sent the kids back into the timestream prematurely. This is how the Childminder found the kids, gathered them, and brought them to the island.
At the end of the issue, the buyer of the children comes to the island.
The children, led by Corky and Stargirl, attack their captors and invade the castle of the Childminder. Yet, they are too late to stop the buyer—his interdimensional doorway opened by the energy gathered by forcing Judy Garrick—Jay Garrick’s long lost daughter—to run on something similar to a cosmic treadmill.
And the buyer is revealed to be: Hourman (Matthew Tyler, the android).
That was a massive plot twist! The buyer being the Hourman android from the future! For those who do not know who the Hourman android is, his name is Matthew Tyler. He is a time traveling android created by Tylerco in the future for an unknown purpose. The original Hourman, Rex Tyler, traveled to the future to help in the construction of the android. Matthew Tyler was a JSA member in Geoff John’s 1999 run of JSA. He also starred in his own series, titled “Hourman”, in 1999.
The ending was great, though I am getting some Flashpoint Fatigue, where I feel it is getting overused. More on that later, but overall, the rest of the issue was epic. It felt like important things were happening.
Rating: ⅘ Stars. When the story was moving, it was fantastic. Hourman the android showing up was amazing—a huge hug to long-time JSA fans. Though, it may not have had as huge an affect as non-fans. Additionally, all the exposition at the beginning of the issue, while necessary, felt hard to swallow. New readers may have felt lost and dazed. Even experienced readers may have been confused by the concepts. For the sake of new readers, I have to recognize the accessibility to this issue and give a 4/5 .
Suggested reading:
JSA Vol 1 (1999) by Geoff Johns/James Robinson/David Goyer: This series features the Hourman android and is a great way to familiarize yourself with the character.
Hourman Vol 1 #1-25 (1999) by Tom Peyer: This run focused around the android and is another great way to learn about the character!
Double-Sized Issue Reviews! 
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