Now if you were a member of the fabled Justice Society of America and knew you were going up against a foe who thrives in the dark and can manipulate shadows, would you confront him in the dead of night?

Yeah, maybe that wasn’t the best plan.

And the Shade (Jonathan Cake) was waiting for them – with tea.

“I hope I have enough biscuits,” he said.

On the latest “Stargirl,” “Summer School: Chapter Three,” written by Turi Meyer and Alfredo Septien and directed by Lea Thompson, the team may well have muffed a chance to make a powerful ally.

The Shade, like his comic book counterpart, lives by his own rules, and though he might deny it, he is offended by senseless violence.

Not that he can’t dish it out.

When Mike (Trae Romano) bounced in with his newly discovered magic pen and ordered the powerful Thunderbolt genie to blast Shade (“not to be confused with the lamp or the window shade”), Shade retaliated with his shadow tendrils and easily subdued the team.

Shade is after that Eclipso black diamond, for reasons we don’t know yet, and he’s the only one who really understands the threat of Eclipso.

“He’s going to kill those children.”

And in that battle, will the Shade be friend or foe?

In flashback, we spent some time with Johnny Thunder (Ethan Embry) and his Thunderbolt (voiced by Jim Gaffigan), who lived up to everything any comic book lover could hope for and then some. The genie is wild, zany, and hellishly literal, making him as much a threat as a support in any battle.

Mike is so not prepared to command the genie. His wish to stop some bullies meant a cascade of stop signs falling from the sky.

The genie was not Mike’s ticket into the JSA, as much as he hoped it would be, and his careless wish, that the pen would be in better hands, meant the Thunderbolt at last found a home with Jakeem (Alkoya Brunson).

Random thoughts:

Some nice, unexpected interactions here: Mike confessing to Yolanda (Yvette Monreal) that killing Icicle was an accident; Rick (Cameron Gellman) convincing Beth (Angelika Washington) she can talk to him because they are friends.

Anyone else think Brainwave must be alive? Yolanda’s seeming headache in school suggests she’s being attacked long-distance.

The Shade denies killing the original Dr. Midnite in that battle, so what did happen to Chuck? And will we find out this season?