The main strength of the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover has been mainly the impressive number of more or less expected cameos, and the last part aired with Legends of Tomorrow makes no exception. By the end of the episode, discovering the newly formed Multiverse, many characters from current and upcoming tv shows are shown, including the new Justice Society of America we’ll see in action in Stargirl. We got a good look at the entire formation, and we’ll start focusing on the truly unmistakable one: the massive S.T.R.I.P.E., who’s actually not a robot, but rather a guy in a 15-foot armor… a guy we already know, as inside the impressive armor we’ll always find Luke Wilson‘s Pat Dugan, just as in the comics. Let’s take a look.
The mission with Infinity Inc. to avenge his fallen comrade Sylvester and put a stop to the Injustice Society‘s crimes was the last one for the seasoned hero out of time Stripesy: with everything connecting him to his past as a heroic sidekick gone, he could now focus on his new life as a family man, with his new wife Barbara, his troublesome son Mike and his step-daughter Courtney. Things, of course, couldn’t be that easy, and even if the Dugans moved to 
the middle of nowhere, in Blue Valley, Nebraska, a teenager like Courtney could always find a way to get herself into trouble (luckily enough, Mike was still in military school by then). The relationship between step-dad and step-daughter was far from idyllic, and the girl spent her time testing her parent’s patience, finding always new ways to annoy him… until she found a spectacular one, getting hold of the Cosmic Converter Belt belonged to the Star-Spangled Kid, found among Pat’s old stuff. Despite his remarkable efforts, Pat found himself unable to prevent his step-daughter from becoming a teenage superhero, so he resolved to do things his own way, and imposed himself as the girl’s “sidekick”: he used all his engineering skills and inventor’s genius to build a massive robotic armor, that he called Special Tactics Robotic Integrated Power Enhancer, or S.T.R.I.P.E. in short. Donning it, he could accompany the young heroine in her adventures against regular and superhuman crime, keeping an eye on her, advising her (everytime she allowed him to, that didn’t happen often) and most of all protecting her from any harm. S.T.R.I.P.E. accompanied the new Star-Spangled Kid, who soon after became known as Stargirl as she was entrusted the Cosmic Rod by Starman, and together they were welcomed into the Justice Society of America, even if Pat always insisted to act more as a guidance and a counselor, rather than a fully active member. His request, of course, wasn’t listened to most of the time, either because Courtney needed him, or because the world itself did.
Pat Dugan spent most of his time teaching engineering to his son Mike and taking care of his infant daughter Patricia, but he also accompanied Stargirl in her adventures donning the S.T.R.I.P.E. armor, being also entrusted some missions on his own by the JSA. When the fallen angel Asmodel formed an army of demons to attack Earth, S.T.R.I.P.E. was sent with Starfire and Captain Marvel to retrieve the one weapon that could stop him, the Spear of 
Destiny; it was S.T.R.I.P.E. himself who ensured the accomplishment of the mission, as he incapacitated Starfire the moment she fell to the Spear’s corruption and attacked her teammates. Believing he could come back to be a full-time superhero, and that he could also be a successful businessman with all his stolen patents back, Pat moved along with his family to Metropolis, where he became friends with Steel, even assisting him as a fellow mechanical superhero, but he soon realized that this world wasn’t for him anymore, and the Dugans came back to Blue Valley. S.T.R.I.P.E. was also among the heroes involved by the machinations of Klarion the Witch Boy, and he was de-aged to the point of pre-adolescence: in this state, he was forced to battle mystically-created demons, and most of all he had to do it with his bare hands, since his armor had become too big for him; luckily, when Klarion was forced by the heroes to revert the process, he returned to his actual age, and could resume his family life. Finally sick and tired of being involved in world-scaled problems that took him away from his family, he obtained to limit his role in the JSA to a supporting one. He found an old design by Ted Knight, and used it to build the Steel Eagle, the team’s aircraft, and he offered many advises to the new generations of heroes recruited in the team, as well as technical support. As also Mike became involved in repairing or even updating the armor, Pat found away to unite his wish to be with his family to his commitment to his responsibilities as a superhero: maybe, this was finally the balance he had been looking for.
Pat Dugan is a hero who’s been in the business for much more time than he wished to (considering time travel and all, more than seventy years in total, despite he still looks like he’s in his forties), and now only wish for a normal, tranquil family life. As S.T.R.I.P.E., his robotic armor grants him superhuman strength and invulnerability, sound-speed flight and augmented senses; the armor also is equipped with an arsenal of missiles and ballistic weapons, laser guns, energy shield generators, and even a fridge and a satellite television. Still hoping for a peaceful retirement, S.T.R.I.P.E. doesn’t shy away from the battlefield when duty calls, being it a response to his responsibilities as a superhero, or merely those of a worried step-dad who wants to keep an eye on his over-enthusiastic step-daughter.
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