‘Stargirl’ Villain Neil Jackson Is Cool With Icicle’s Agenda

Stargirl is shaping up to be the summer’s biggest scripted hit so far but a chill is about to settle in on our high school heroine.

Last week, newly minted superhero Courtney Whitmore (Brec Bassinger) got a taste of the challenges coming her way now that she’s picked up the mantle (and cosmic staff) of Stargirl from the late Starman when she faced off with baddie Brainwave (Christopher James Baker). The high-action throwdown left the mind-controlling reprobate in a coma and Court feeling pretty sold on the idea of taking down the Injustice Society for killing Starman.

In the June 2 episode, she gets a second shot at avenging the man she thinks is her dad when the ISA’s coldhearted leader Jordan Mahkent, aka “Icicle,” sets his killer sights on the teen titan.

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“It was kind of the thing that really hooked me into this,” admits Absentia alum Neil Jackson of Mahkent’s numbed-out persona, which we learn tonight, is the result of a tragic past. “He fell in love with this woman, they had a kid and this idyllic life, he was a businessman, everything was going good… and then she ended up getting this sickness as a result of a negligent pharma company,” he explains. “And so she ended up dying and that highlighted the injustices that were going on in the world — that is why he formed the Injustice Society.”

Neil Jackson as Icicle (Smallz & Raskind/The CW)

Now, the frigid single dad is single-minded, as well. “He’s got his kid Cameron (Hunter Sansome) that he loves more than anything and he now wants to make a world that is ultimately better, where things that happened to his wife wouldn’t happen.” Part of that plan is this “Project New America” that was mentioned by Brainwave last week. And thanks to his dying wife’s final words, anyone who gets in his way is dead meat. Like the original Starman.

“He sees himself as a hero,” continues the British actor and writer. “So when [his wife] says do whatever is necessary and destroy anybody who gets in his way, it’s her saying, ‘Look after our kid and make sure that what happened to me never happens to anybody else.'” Armed with “not just financial and business acumen,” Mahkent is more than willing to decrease the population of Blue Valley, Nebraska, if need be. “He’s Icicle! I mean, if he can’t achieve anything through diplomacy and at the business table, then he puts on his Icicle outfit, freezes his skin up and goes and takes care of it in another way,” laughs Jackson. “So by hook or by crook, he gets what he needs done.”

(Jace Downs/The CW)

So what’s his gripe with our (Star) girl? “She’s a fly in the ointment,” Jackson offers casually, adding that their initial meeting leaves Mahkent less-than-impressed. “He doesn’t see her as a credible threat. She’s a little girl with a glow stick.”

By the episode’s shocking end, Icicle will have a much better understanding of exactly who he and his cadre of Injustice Society supervillains are up against. “Because of his hubris, she ends up slipping through his fingers and he’ll live to regret that.”

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Complicating things even further may be the fact that Mahkent’s ominous “Project New America” initiative will put him on a collision course with Courtney’s mom (Amy Smart).

“Since the death of his wife, Jordan has had the blinders on. All he’s been thinking about is how to achieve a better society and use the considerable powers at his disposal to make that happen,” Jackson notes before hinting at what’s to come. “And then along comes Barbara Whitmore, this wonderful ray of sunshine who’s optimistic and hopeful and reminds him a little bit of his late wife… and he starts getting those feelings again.”

Sounds like things are about to get hot!

Stargirl, Tuesdays, 8/7c, The CW