The Daring New Blog of Supergirl

Author: Kara Lovett

  • Superman/Batman: Apocalypse

    Superman/Batman: Apocalypse

    Superman/Batman: Apocalypse is an animated film released by Warner Home Video in 2010. The movie stars Tim Daly as Superman, Kevin Conroy as Batman, Andre Braugher as Darkseid, and Summer Glau as Supergirl. The film is a sequel to Superman/Batman: Public enemies and both of these movies are fairly accurately depictions of the comic series Superman/Batman from 2003. Apocalypse adapts issues 8-13 of the series a story arc sometimes called The Supergirl from Krypton and sometimes just called Supergirl. The story acts as a new introduction of Kara Zor-El.

    I’ll only touch on the plot briefly because I encourage readers to check out this story either in its comic or movie form. Kara Zor-El’s ship crashes in Gotham harbor and is found by Batman. After a few scenes of Kara experiencing her new powers, Batman is able to track her down and use Kryptonite to bring her back to the Batcave. From here she meets Superman and finds out that they’re cousins to one another. The next chunk of the story shows Kara acclimating to life on earth, she learns English, she learns to shop, and then with the help of Wonder Woman and the Amazons she learns to fight. While on Themyscira, the island is attacked and Kara is kidnapped and taken to Apokolips. Darkseid, ruler of Apokolips, brainwashes Kara to be one of the Female Furies and it takes the combined efforts of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Big Barda to get her back to earth safely. Back on earth she and Clark go to Smallville where Clark has set up for her to meet his parents Jonathan and Martha. However, as soon as they get there they are attacked by Darkseid. A fight breaks out and results in Darkseid getting sent through a boom tube and ending up either in the depths of space or the source wall, depending on if you watched the movie or read the comic. With the threat passed, Kara is now revealed to the world as the hero Supergirl.

    In the comics Kara Zor-El had been absent since her death in Crisis on Infinite Earths but Supergirl had shown up in a couple different ways. First as the Matrix, who was a protoplasmic clone of Lana Lang from an alternate dimension who later merged with a human girl named Linda Danvers and became an Earth Born Angel. The second attempt at a post crisis Supergirl was a character named Cir-El, the daughter of Superman and Lois Lane from the future that was actually just a creation of the Futuresmiths and was removed from continuity soon after her debut. While both of these versions of Supergirl have their fans and are interesting takes on the character, there’s something about the simplicity of a Supergirl from Krypton that, for me personally, works really well.

    This Kara Zor-El isn’t quite the same as her Pre-Crisis counterpart and her origin has quite a few differences (read about the Pre-Crisis debut of Supergirl Here). One of the major changes was the idea of Kara being older than Kal and being a teenager when Krypton was destroyed and being trapped in suspended animation for years as Kal grew up and became Superman. This suspended animation factor to her origin has similarities to the Supergirl from Superman the Animated Series and Power Girl’s origins. This idea of Kara being older than Kal has now become the norm and has been adapted into nearly everything including Smallville and the Supergirl series from 2015. Personally I think the suspended animation angle to her origin is quite good and Kara being alive on Krypton and remembering it before its destruction creates a nice distinction between her and Superman and leads to some interesting stories.

    Another major change to this new version of Supergirl is how immediately she was integrated into the wider DC Universe. This Supergirl didn’t live her first few years in an orphanage in Midvale as a secret weapon for Superman. She was trained by Wonder Woman and her origin is closely tied to Batman which leads to both these characters becoming mentor figures for her along with her cousin Superman. This is expanded upon bit more thoroughly in the comic, during the scene when she is revealed as Supergirl on Themyscira many of the major heroes of the DC universe are present including the Justice League, the Teen Titans, the JSA, and the Outsiders.

    In this movie Batman is very standoffish towards Supergirl and doesn’t trust her and has trouble believing that she is who she says she is. The main question that keeps coming up in the story is Batman asking Kara what the name of her mother is. Kara remembers Kal’s parents, Lara and Jor-El, and her own father Zor-El but doesn’t remember her mother’s name. Batman’s mindset is that all the information Kara has presented about her life on Krypton immediately after coming out of the rocket is that all the information is widely known or information that Superman had told her. It is near the end of the movie when Kara approaches Batman and says “Alura”. I think while the answer to Batman’s question was part of why he started trusting Kara, her evolution as a hero throughout the story also plays a major part in him trusting her.

    There are 2 scenes from the movie that are some of my favorites that aren’t present in the comic or are much less prominent. The first is near the beginning of the movie when we see a montage of Clark taking Kara through Metropolis and she’s trying on clothes and shopping and really exploring her new life as a human girl. There’s something very fun and lighthearted about this scene. The scene is present in the comic but it isn’t as long and is mostly restricted to the hot dog scene and a panel of Clark mentioning that Kara had certainly gotten the shopping part of being a teenage girl down. The second scene that I want to talk about happens near the end in the climactic battle against Darkseid. In the comic Supergirl is taken out of the fight pretty early as she fakes her death to throw darkseid off his game leaving Superman to continue the battle by himself. The movie has Supergirl playing a much more active role and she spends a lot of time actively fighting Darkseid. She is also responsible for activating the boom tube that sends Darkseid into the depths of space. I really enjoy this more active role she plays here and feels like a much better start to her heroic career as opposed to her hiding away for most of the fight.

    There’s a few parts of this movie that I’m not particularly fond of. Kara starts her life on earth and comes out of the rocket naked and she stays this way for quite a while, this coupled with the constant over sexualization of the character never sits right with me especially considering Kara is supposedly 16 during this story. A good chunk of this story has Kara in an antagonistic role, first when Batman is untrusting of her after she arrives on earth, and then when she is under Darkseid’s control on Apokolips. These two factors are both very prominent in the Apokolips portion of the story in the middle when Superman is faced with having to fight supergirl and the outfit Kara is wearing doesn’t leave much to imagine.

    While this isn’t my favorite Supergirl origin story, it is a really easy and fun way for new fans of the character to get to know the Girl of Steel. Also looking at the story without solely focusing on Supergirl, there’s some pretty great scenes and a lot of cool action sequences. This storyline would also lead to an ongoing Supergirl title that started in 2005 which is full of really interesting storylines that further develop Kara and her history with Krypton and her future as a hero. Thanks so much for reading! If you liked my blog post about this movie or just want to hear more about it, fellow comics fan Mike Bailey did a podcast episode about it in his Moving Kryptonian Images maxi series that you can find Here. For any thoughts, questions, corrections, or suggestions feel free to leave a comment or email me at blogofsupergirl@gmail.com.

  • Supergirl in the Multiverse: Earth-18

    Earth-18 is home to the Justice Riders, a Wild West style Justice League based mainly on the 80s and 90s Justice League International family of comics. In their debut appearance, Sheriff Diana Prince gathers up a handful of other lawmen and former accomplices including Kid Flash, Hawkman, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, and J’onn J’onzz and leads them in a quest to Helldorado in a battle against Maxwell Lord. The story ends with the team disbanding with no promise of further stories which seems to be the case. Most appearances of Earth-18 past Justice Riders are brief cameos or the team dying in the pages of convergence. Earth-18 is also the name of a similar universe first appearing in Multiversity that has a similar but slightly different team of Justice Riders but again this universe has been mostly restricted to cameos.

    When finding a Supergirl for this universe, and often for all the universes, I first look to finding the Superman of the given universe. Kryptonians don’t have a lot of presence in Earth-18, Clark Kent is mentioned briefly and shows up at the end of Justice Riders as a dime novelist but doesn’t show any sort of super powers. In the Superboy storyline titled “Hyper-Tension” that ran from issues 60-65 of his title from the 90s featured a hypertime version of Earth-18 and shows Kid Kon-El. Kid Kon-El seems to have similar powers to the New Earth Superboy implying the possibility of Kryptonians on this earth and also Kon’s steed is named Comet, a common companion to Supergirl in many iterations. For Earth-18 I mostly focused on the pre-flashpoint version of the universe and leaned into the idea of JLI in the Wild West. Power Girl was a member of the Justice League during it’s JLI era and showed up in Justice League America, Justice League Europe, and Justice League International and I feel like she would at the very least have been mentioned if Justice Riders ever got a proper sequel. Making her Sheriff of Argo feels like a nice casual reference to classic lore and also her being a sheriff would also help to connect her with Diana who is also a sheriff. And while Sheriff Karen Starr of Argo doesn’t actually exist in Earth-18, her steed Comet does.

    As with all of my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. This drawing depicts Karen Starr, Sheriff of Argo in the foreground standing against her steed Comet, a brown horse. They are standing in a desert environment with the town of Argo shown in the background. Orange and red skies imply the sun is setting on the horizon. The top right features a motif of Power Girl’s symbol with an 18 on top of it.

  • Supergirl Surprise 2: Supergirl Vol. 5 #27

    Back again for my monthly look at a random issue of Supergirl from my collection. For the month of May we’re looking at issue 27 of Supergirl volume 5 written by Kelley Puckett with art by Rick Leonardi, Dan Green, Drew Johnson, and Ray Snyder. This book was released on March 5th 2008. This issue is part of the arc where Supergirl promises to save a boy. At the time she just thinks she’ll save him like she would anyone else, but the boy has cancer and thinks she means that he will beat cancer with her help. The arc as a whole deals with Supergirl coming to terms with the idea of having so many powers but still being unable to save everyone. This is a common trope in Superman mythos most often show by Jonathan (Pa) Kent who dies in a way that Clark is unable to save him. The way this storyline flips the narrative is by having Kara refuse this idea and promising once again, after learning of the boy’s condition, that she would save him.

    Now that we’ve addressed the overall narrative, we can now look at the plot of issue 27 specifically. The story opens with Supergirl promising the boy that she will not let him die. Quickly she notices time has come to a standstill and she notices someone new in the room with her, the only other moving thing in the room is a man in some sort of protective suit pointing a gun at her. He fires off the gun and Supergirl handily catches the bullet not realizing it was kryptonite. Weakened now, she is unprepared for the second bullet but is saved by Superman slowly catching up to what’s going on. Superman, presumably at superspeed, sees into the stopped time and shoots off his heat vision at the attacker rupturing his protective suit. Unknowingly to Superman and Supergirl this activates some sort of teleportation bringing Supergirl and the attacker back to where the attacker was from.

    Now in an unknown environment with more people pointing guns at her and Kara having more questions than answers, she takes her initial attacker away and flies far from where they came from in an attempt to get some answers. Supergirl, now seeing more of her new surroundings, realizes this new place that looks so alien, also still feels like earth. After talking, she finds out that she is 400 years in the future and this man is part of a group that was trying to go back in time to stop Supergirl before she could drastically change the future by saving the boy with cancer. She is told that by doing this action she changes the course of history and in her attempt to make humanity better, she has made mankind feel like they aren’t human anymore.

    It is at this time that she also finds out that the only way back to her time is through the Time Machine that was destroyed upon her arrival and the only person who can fix it has just taken a suicide pill. Rushing him back to try to fix the machine in time they are met with the machine already put back in order. Apparently, while they were out, a group called The Batmen had come in and fixed the Time Machine. These Batmen seem to be descendants or clones of Bruce Wayne and help Kara return home and give her the advice to “do what you think is right”. And this is where the issue ends.

    I’m a huge sucker for alternate universes and possible futures so I’m quite fond of this issue that briefly looks into a future that might be. The story also addresses right and wrong and what makes people people. The narrative is left fairly open and doesn’t tell the reader how to think and more so just asks some questions of the reader and allows the reader to make their own decisions and think about what they think the right thing to do is.

    I really enjoy a lot of the art in this issue, especially the sequence where Kara catches the kryptonite bullet and a lot of the full page images. I do feel that some of the panels, especially the faces and the figure work, seem a bit inconsistent throughout the book and I assume some of the inconsistencies are because of the large amount of artist credits. This is by no means a deal breaker and they seem to consistently get Supergirl right and show her in some great dynamic poses. This story is also from a time in comics where they seemed to have less dialogue and larger panels as compared to comics that came out in the 70s and 80s. This isn’t a good or bad thing but I will say this issue is a fairly quick read with intricate artwork depicting epic scenery. I also think the lighter dialogue helps give the reader time to sit and think about the subjects mentioned before in regards to how Supergirl should approach her current challenge.

    This issue has been reprinted twice, first in the Supergirl: Beyond Good and Evil trade paperback released soon after the storyline finished, and again in 2018 in Supergirl Volume 3: Ghosts of Krypton. It’s been a while since I read this storyline in its entirety but I remember enjoying it and I still feel like it’s a great way to approach the theme of not being able to save everyone.

    Come back on Monday for my next installment of Supergirl in the Multiverse, and next Friday for a brand new blog post about something entirely different. Supergirl Surprise will return again the second Friday of June. For any comments, questions, corrections, or thoughts feel free to leave a comment below or send an email to daringnewblog@gmail.com. Thanks so much for reading!

  • Supergirl in the Multiverse: Earth-17

    “World War III — The Great Atomic War — is over…and in its wake lies an earth in ruins!” Earth-17 is the home to the Atomic Knights, a group of 6 brave souls who, in time of crisis, found refuge from radiation in ancient suits of armor. These 6 heroes have taken on the duty of protecting their home of Durvale and bringing prosperity and rebirth back to the planet after the atomic destruction destroyed the planet in 1986.

    The Supergirl of this universe is Marene Herald, the sole female member of the Atomic Knights. Marene Herald is sister to Douglas Herald, and often love interest of Gardner Grayle the leader of the Atomic Knights. First appearing in Strange Adventures #117, Marene was not part of the initial team that took on the Black Baron who was ravaging the town of Durvale after the war. Gardner Grayle, after realizing the armor he found could protect him from the radioactive weapons of the Baron, gathered other members of the community to wear the armor and take back their town. While there were 6 suits of armor, one was much too small to be worn by a grown man so the team of knights was 5 strong. Marene would then secretly don the smaller suit of armor and help the rest of the knights. Marene would continue along with the rest of the Knights and would help continue to take back the planet.

    As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork and it depicts Marene wearing parts of her suit of armor (breastplate, pauldrons, and boots) on top of her iconic red dress. She is riding on one of the Atomic Knight’s giant Dalmatians. In the background you can see the ruined city of Durvale. The drawing is stylized like a postcard that has been ruined and damaged with faded edges and creases. Text saying “Durvale welcomes you!” Is at the bottom. A motif of the Atomic Knights symbol is in the top right with a number 17 on top of it.

  • Supergirl Season 1, Episode 1: Pilot

    “I’ve always felt the need to help people and tonight I finally got that chance”

    Supergirl is a show that first aired on CBS in 2015 starring Melissa Benoist in the titular role. Along with Melissa Benoist as Kara Danvers, the show also stars Mehcad Brooks as James Olsen, Chyler Leigh as Alex Danvers, Jeremy Jordan as Winn Schott, David Harewood as Hank Henshaw, and Calista Flockhart as Cat Grant. This episode, and most of the series, takes place in the fictional city of National City, California. Episode 1, titled Pilot, aired on October 26, 2015. The brief plot synopsis, provided alongside the dvd release of season 1, reads; “Superman’s cousin, Kara, finally embraces her superhuman abilities to become the hero she was always meant to be”. While this synopsis covers the basis for the plot, it leaves out a lot from this densely packed episode.

    The episode starts with a monologue by Kara Danvers as she explains her life from the day she left Krypton up until the present day, this origin includes her being trapped in the phantom zone, her arrival long after her cousin, the introduction of Jeremiah, Eliza and Alex Danvers, and her “normal” life of being Cat Grant’s assistant. The episode then shifts to a day in the life for Kara as she navigates being Cat Grant’s assistant and coworker to Winn Schott. She then meets new employee James Olsen who gives her a print of the first ever photograph of Superman. We cut to later in the day as Kara is getting ready for a blind date with the help of her sister Alex who is about to leave for a flight. On Kara’s (poorly matched) blind date, she overhears a news story of a plane about to crash and she realizes this is the plane her sister is on. While somewhat of a bumpy ride, she does successfully save the day and enter the public’s eye as Supergirl. Kara is ecstatic at the thought of saving lives and helping people, but her sister doesn’t think so highly of it and a brief fight ends the night for these 2 sisters. Cut to the next morning and CatCo is a buzz with the news of a new superhero in National City. Cat Grant’s is instructing her team to find out anything the can about this new heroine and afterwards Kara takes Winn up to the roof to reveal to him that she was the girl who saved the plane. We then go into a montage of her and Winn working on her costume and her preforming heroic deeds. As this is going on we’re introduced to Vartox, the villain of this episode who witnesses the saves of the maid of might and sets out to go attack her. We then jump to Kara suiting up as Supergirl to go save the day when suddenly she is taken down by kryptonite. Kara wakes up in the DEO and is met with Director Hank Henshaw. To Kara’s surprise, she also sees that her sister is part of this organization that hunts down aliens. Kara is once again told to stop fighting crime as Supergirl, but she refuses and storms off. She then hears a high pitched message that only her superhuman ears can hear and she follows the message to meet and face off with Vartox. Vartox easily takes out Supergirl, but before doing so, he informs her that he was a prisoner of Ft. Rozz and was sentenced there by Kara’s mother Alura. Before Vartox is able to make the killing blow, the DEO steps in to get her to safety. Back at the DEO, they study a shard of Vartox’s axe that got stuck in Supergirl’s arm. Feeling defeated, Kara returns to her apartment and is ready to give up the heroic life when Alex shows up with a Kryptonian hologram of Alura. This message from her mom gets Kara fired up and ready to go back into action. In the rematch fight, Kara is once again overpowered, but with a plan formed by Alex and the rest of the DEO, she is able to take Vartox down. The next day after her success she meets with James Olsen who informs her that he knew she was superpowered and tells her that her cousin Superman sent him to National City to check up on her. James also comes with a gift of the blanket that Superman came to earth in. This extra bit of motivation further elevates Kara to know that she’s doing the right thing in being a hero.

    There is quite a lot in this episode and it very easily could’ve been spread across a few episodes, maybe the first episode would just be her saving the plane, then an episode of her and Winn working together on a costume and doing small saves, and then the Vartox episode. While this approach would’ve worked and I think it could’ve been good that way too, I’m glad it’s all in this first episode because it really helps give a feel for the series. All of the main cast is given something to do and they all play a part in the progression of Kara becoming Supergirl. Winn is a huge support with Kara starting out as a hero, James is mostly keeping to the sidelines but casually supporting Kara stepping up, Cat Grant is Kara’s boss but also helps Kara by often giving her words of advice and speaking up for Supergirl, Alex starts off rather wary of her sister stepping into danger but eventually gets more comfortable and sees that together they can make great things happen, Hank Henshaw seems the most underdeveloped in this episode and is mainly just there as the hard edged and disapproving military agent trying to keep Supergirl out of the skies.

    I really love how this show approaches the girl of steel and I feel like Melissa Benoist really nails the role. The idea of a girl sent to protect her baby cousin but getting there too late and not having a purpose in life is an interesting approach to the character. Kara is shown as someone who really wants to be a hero and save lives but doesn’t know how. This lets us see a superhero who is just starting out, but isn’t new to her powers like so many other superhero shows of the time were doing. Instead of learning how to fly, we see her learn how to save the day.

    I really enjoyed revisiting the pilot to this series and it made me really want to dive in and look back at the rest of the show. If you enjoyed my thoughts or have anything to add to the discussion feel free to send me an email at daringnewblog@gmail.com. Thanks so much for reading!