• Supergirl Surprise #14: Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #5

    Since the Supergirl movie is coming out at the end of this month, I knew I wanted to cover an issue of Woman of Tomorrow for this month’s Supergirl Surprise. For those unaware, Supergirl Surprise is a monthly look at a random Supergirl comic from my collection. Normally all my Supergirl comics are fair game but because I wanted to confirm a WoT issue this month, I instead picked a random issue exclusively from that series. The randomizer landed on Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow chapter 5 “The Lake, the Trees, and the Monster” written by Tom King, art by Bilquis Evely, colors by Mat Lopes, and letters by Clayton Cowles. For the most part the issue takes place on Barenton, a planet with a green sun which causes Supergirl to be powerless. Also there’s dinosaurs. Shenanigans ensue.

    Supergirl and Ruthye do not start on Barenton, actually they start hot on the heels of Krem of the Yellow Hills who they’ve been chasing for the past few issues. Instead of finally catching the fiend that murdered Ruthye’s father and poisoning Supergirl’s dog, Krem instead hits the heroines with a Mordru Globe which launches them across the galaxy via magic and whatnot. The Mordru Globe exposition is a good way to set the girls back after catching up to Krem (which lets the story last a few more issues) as well as helping Krem seem even more awful since to use the Mordru Globe, Krem must’ve purposefully slain thousands of innocents.

    After being subjected to the globe, the pair find themselves on a wastland of a world and Supergirl is immediately showing that her powers are dwindling before Supergirl looks up and reveals to Ruthye (and the reader) that the sun is green. As we all know, the color of the sun affects Kryptonian’s powers with yellow suns giving them spectacular powers, red suns making them powerless and human, and green suns weakening them. This specific planet, Barenton, was specifically made to weaken Superman and while I’ve always just taken that at face value, I figure now is as good a time as any to actually look into this planet and see if this is a specific reference to an earlier comic.

    Turns out Barenton first appeared in a story titled “Superman Under the Green Sun!” from Superman #155. While this story doesn’t specifically name the planet as Barenton, it is generally sited as the green sun planet in reference to this issue of Woman of Tomorrow because of the planet also having a green sun. I will counter that however because, after reading, the facts don’t seem to line up. One of the main things that people seem to draw from this book, often from fans that don’t love Supergirl’s depiction in this story, is the “Superman’s a Bitch” line and that of course comes from this issue. As told here by Kara to Ruthye, when Superman was stranded on this planet with a green sun he only lasted for 45 minutes before being saved by the Justice League. These facts don’t line up with how Superman #155 plays out. Superman was there for days suffering under the green rays of the sun and was blind for most of it but still worked hard to free the planet from slavery which makes Supergirl sleeping for 10 hours a bit less impressive. With this new knowledge, this reference to Superman here feels like it’s just an invented scenario to put Superman down.

    In general I do think I prefer the Woman of Tomorrow version of a green sun planet mostly because of the antagonistic threat that’s presented here. Dinosaurs. The Superman story just has him facing off against a benevolent dictator, but the dinosaurs make a much more exciting and thrilling feat for Supergirl and Ruthye to overcome without super powers.

    Dinosaurs are just cool in anything, that is an indisputable fact. I played through the original Tomb Raider game a few years ago (as part of the remastered trilogy collection I think) and at one point you’re in some sort of abandoned subterranean city when suddenly you’re assaulted by a velociraptor and of course being a badass babe with 2 pistols there is nothing else to do but shoot down a previously extinct animal. It was just a crazy sequence to experience blind. This issue of Woman of Tomorrow is equally as exciting in regards to dinosaur killing with Ruthye successfully fends off the beasts to protect the otherwise helpless girl of steel and even Supergirl in her weakened state is able to get the hoard of not quite birds away from her and her compatriot.

    Eventually the green sun sets, and Supergirl gets her powers back and the pair are back on their way to track down the menace of Krem. I’ve gone into my overall thoughts of the story in a dedicated post to Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow but this issue specifically seems like a lower point in the mini-series that only gets bonus points for having dinosaurs, and the absolutely exquisite Bilquis Evely art. I guess my main issue with this specific story is that there wasn’t much interaction between the 2 leads since Supergirl is rather unconscious for the majority of these 24 pages.

    The story is published without any ad breaks which is nice, and after that there’s a 5 page preview of the new (at the time) Batgirls comic which was a lot of fun. The rest of the ad space is filled with advertisements for some of the DC television shows at the time like Doom Patrol, Legend’s of Tomorrow and Batwoman. There’s also an interview with Kelly Sue DeConnick and Phil Jimenez on the last page about Wonder Woman Historia which really got me interested in the book, especially DeConnick saying it’s a “history book for a young Amazon where she learns the history of her people, from the perspective of her people.” As always this month’s entry has been a fun experience and the episodic nature of the Woman of Tomorrow series definitely helps when reading in isolation.

  • Supergirl in the Multiverse: Earth-11: Supergirl (Laurel Kent)

    As we continue on in the 2026 Pride Month coverage on Supergirl in the Multiverse, we take another look at the gender-swap universe of Earth-11. We did take a look at Eath-11 quite a while ago when covering Superlad as part of my initial dive into the Multiverse. With that entry, I went into the history of the universe but this time I’ll instead look at the most recent iteration of the universe. The team that would eventually become known as Teen Justice would be introduced in DC’s Very Merry Multiverse special where they faced off against Starrla and would then go on to star in a miniseries called Multiversity: Teen Justice with the young heroes working together against Sister Blood and HIVE. Teen Justice is the Earth-11 version of the Teen Titans or Young Justice and has members including Kid Quick, Aquagirl, Donald Troy, Klarienne, Robin, and Supergirl.

    Supergirl, as presented in Teen Justice, is Laurel Kent the daughter of Superwoman and the Earth-11 counterpart to Lois Lane (Probably Lewis Lane if I had to guess). As such she is obviously meant to be the Earth-11 counterpart to Jon Kent, further confirmed by her friendship with her universe’s Robin Talia Kane. Her name seems to come from the Pre-Crisis Laurel Kent who was a Legionnaire and 30th century descendant of Superman before she was later retconned into being Laurel Gand, Andromeda, a Daxamite and relative of Mon-El. I will say, in terms of the canonically queer Supergirls I am stretching just a touch. My reasoning here is that the Earth-0 Jon Kent is canonically bisexual so it is reasonable to assume that his Earth-11 counterpart would have a similar identity.

    As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. Laurel Kent Supergirl is sat on the roof of the Daily Planet building drinking a shake that is pink, blue, and purple colored with a smile on her face. Laurel’s scarf is billowing in the wind. An expansive cityscape is spread out across the background. A motif of Supergirl’s S symbol with an 11 on it is in the top right corner.

  • Supergirl (1984): The Maid of Might’s Theatrical Debut

    With a brand new Supergirl movie coming out later this month, I figured now was as good of a time as any to take a look at the girl of steel’s first movie. I won’t be going into a full synopsis of this movie and will instead mostly be covering my thoughts on the film while also referencing some of the special features included in the Blu-Ray set including the commentary with Jeannot Szwarc and Scott Michael Bosco as well as The Making of Supergirl documentary. Generally I try to stay away from right out reviewing works but for this I do plan to convince you to check out the movie if you’ve not already or convince you to give it another chance if you’re not a fan.

    I have long been a supporter of the 1984 Supergirl movie and I can’t see myself ever hating it. This movie was released in 1984 to what can politely be called poor reception. The movie had a $35 Million budget and only managed a $14.3 Million box office easily giving it a status of being a box office flop. I’ve seen this movie quite a few times at this point (heck I watched it twice in the past week) and I still think its a fantastic time. It was probably after the 4th or 5th time watching when I finally took a look at the Rotten Tomato scores and it baffled me. I will admit that this is by no means a perfect movie, but the Rotten Tomato scores are entirely too harsh and I’m sure there is some amount of review bombing that went into the poor score on that review site.

    While there are a lot of things I love about this film, I do have issues and distastes for parts of it. Ethan is probably the biggest problem I have with the storyline, I feel like his inclusion is unnecessary to the Supergirl/Selena conflict, forcing a romance plot into the story didn’t make sense, and the exact sequence of events that lead to the pair falling for each other seems a tad dicey. That being said, there are quite a few pre-crisis Supergirl romance stories that play out exactly like this plot and I could easily see it being a comic story. There is a bit of absurdity to this movie and sometimes the camp goes a bit past what I personally go for, part of that is seen in Selena’s house/abandoned amusement park. It feels just a touch too much for me and it just seems goofy for the sake of being goofy. The last thing that kind of puts me off is Marc McClure’s portrayal of Jimmy Olsen. I don’t mind Jimmy’s inclusion and the connective tissue that it creates between this and the Chris Reeve Superman movies is important, however I just don’t care for how passive he’s portrayed. Jimmy in this movie just doesn’t do much more than act opposite Lucy Lane and his initial lines when he’s introduced just make him seem rather non-heroic talking about how he doesn’t want to help the obviously dazed Ethan wandering in the streets.

    There are 3 things in this film that are undeniably fantastic, Faye Dunaway’s performance as Selena, Helen Slater’s performance as Supergirl, and the brilliant “Aerial Gymnastics”. Faye Dunaway gets top billing in the movie and she definitely pulls her weight. Dunaway has fantastic line delivery and screen presence throughout the entire movie while never trying to overshadow Slater’s performance as Supergirl. This is Slater’s first leading theatrical role and she was just 19 and right out of a performing arts high school when she landed the role. Helen’s acting is even more impressive when considering that she’s in some ways playing 3 characters, Supergirl, Kara Zor-El, and Linda Lee (who Helen didn’t realize was Supergirl’s secret identity until her 4th audition).

    Lastly the Aerial Gymnastics, the flying sequences, which according to Szwarc was a different and new process to what was seen in the Chris Reeve films and it really shows. Durring the documentary Szwarc said “Superman is more power and strength and Supergirl [is] elegance, grace, and style” and the way that the flying differs between the 2 super cousins in these films really shows this. Supergirl’s flying sequences in this movie (and there’s a lot!) are brilliant and show a grace and excitement in Supergirl’s portrayal that help explore the character as a fun-loving teenager that suddenly has a new world to explore and new super-powers to try out.

    There is something that comes up a lot in the commentary and documentary about this movie taking a more fantasy approach as opposed to the sci-fi approach that Superman took. There’s a lot of easy comparisons to Snow White particularly especially Selena’s mirror, similar to the Magic Mirror, however the commentary also brought to my mind the young/old parallel here that both Snow White had with the old witch and Supergirl has with Selena. This fantasy inspiration is further expanded upon in the commentary with Szwarc’s mention of The Wizard of Oz. The Oz connection is much less obvious but you can definitely make comparisons after knowing this fact.

    With the fantasy elements we also get the ability to show off a new threat to Kryptonians. At this point, the public had been exposed to 3 Superman movies where he faces off against a criminal mastermind, aliens, and super computers so letting Supergirl face off against magic, which had long been a threat to Kryptonians in the comics. I think this was a brilliant choice by the creators to help set Supergirl apart from her cousin and give the audiences another look at what can take on a Kryptonian without resorting to Kryptonite.

    Speaking of, Kryptonite isn’t in this movie at all, not even a mention of it. However, the Omegahedron is similarly affected by lead like Kryptonite would be. Lead of course blocks the radiation of Kryptonite and is often used in Superman stories to block the Kryptonite from harming the man of steel. In this movie, the Omegahedron is kept in a dragon box that is made out of lead when Selena is not using it and being in this lead box prevents the signal of it from being noticed by Supergirl’s bracelet.

    I have long since know that there was a early version of this story that included Chris Reeve as Superman, but it was in the commentary that Szwarc expanded upon his inclusion. Apparently it would’ve replaced the scene at the corm where Supergirl faces off against the Shadow Monster which is one of the cooler scenes of the movie. According to Szwarc, there would’ve been events that happened that caused Superman to loose his powers and become old. It’s possible Szwarc’s description of the scene just wasn’t very good or that it would’ve played out much better if it was actually filmed, but to me it just doesn’t seem very good and I think the movie is better off without that scene, especially if it would’ve replaced the Shadow Monster scene.

    Part of what makes this movie so impressive to me is the honestly fantastic effects. I’ve already touched on the wirework that was done for all of Helen’s flying scenes but the effects throughout are really spectacular. The film relies a lot on practical effects which helps the movie stand up 40+ years later. One of the craziest parts of the documentary was learning that the town of Midvale was built from scratch as a massive set. I’m sure having a full city built as opposed to filming on location helped a lot in the extensive destruction done by the bulldozer, which in itself is a fantastic sequence. The only effect that, in my opinion, aged poorly was near the end when the Shadow Monster has Supergirl in its hands and is pulling and twisting the girl of steel. This is accomplished in the movie with green screens and stretching some elements but it comes off as cheap and ineffective. In the commentary there is mention that if it were to be done in modern times it would’ve been much more successful with CGI.

    Somewhat related, is the stunning set pieces presented here. There are 3 major sets that all have drastically different environments. The aforementioned Midvale quite successfully presents a mid-west American town complete with a Popeye’s fast food chain. Argo City, a staple of Supergirl lore, makes it’s film debut here and it’s quite an interesting presentation. The city is full abstract shapes and open rooms that sets it apart from the cold crystalline Krypton that was shown in the Superman movies. The most impressive location however is the Phantom Zone. Not only is the Zone fantastically rendered as a desolate helpless place, it also has some great scenes where Slater is able to stretch her acting a bit where she is able to act devastated and hopeful in such drastic and extreme directions.

    I’d also like to talk about Zaltar. An original character created for this movie who hasn’t shown up in comics since (for what seems to be legal issues). Zaltar is the creator of Argo and the reason that this section of the doomed planet was able to survive into inner space. It’s weird that Zaltar is shown as the creator/founder of Argo in this movie when Kara’s father, Zor-El, normally fills this role. Perhaps they didn’t want to show Supergirl’s father sentenced to the Phantom Zone, but it still feels odd. The opening of the movie has a sequence of events where Zaltar is telling Kara about exploring past inner space and into outer space and eventually visiting planets like Saturn and Venus and Earth. When he mentions his plans to Kara and how the events played out, it seems like Zaltar’s actual plan was to explore the Phantom Zone. Between him so easily showing Kara how to use the Omegahedron and his willingness to be sentenced to the Zone really makes me think that was the unknown he wanted to explore as opposed outer-space.

    I could probably go on and on about this movie for much longer talking about all the things I love about it (like how thoroughly Supergirl’s powers are shown even including Super-Intelligence), but I think I’ll keep it here for right now. Before totally signing off, listening to the commentary of the film let me know that the film had a drastically reduced run-time when initially shown domestically from it’s initial International theatrical run. I think to some extent this could’ve contributed to the general poor reception that this film has. Since the International Release is the main feature on the Blu-Ray set that’s the version I generally watch and what my love of the film is based on. This is by no means the last time I’ll talk about this movie, I have the comic, novel, and storybook adaptations of the movie that will probably each get their own post in the future. I’d also love to take a look at the Director’s cut that’s included with the Blu-Ray as well as taking a look at the shorter American theatrical version if I can find a nice way to watch it. I might also take deeper dives into specific scenes of the movie like the Phantom Zone. I also already covered something of the movie last year when looking at the Supergirl (1984) Press Packet. If you’ve gotten this far into me rambling about this movie and you haven’t seen it, please give it a shot, don’t let the hate keep you from checking it out.

  • Supergirl in the Multiverse: Earth-0: Steel

    We have so far in the series covered a couple other Earth-0 entries so I won’t go too far into what this universe is. Earth-0 is the main universe of the DC Multiverse and has at various points been called Earth-1, New-Earth, Earth-Prime, and Earth-0 but in short its what most of the comics published every week take place in. This entry is the start to another theme month like we did for Black History Month earlier in the month. For June we’re celebrating Pride Month by looking at 5 canonically queer Supergirls throughout the Multiverse.

    Our first Supergirl for Pride Month comes in the form of Natasha Irons, Steel. Natasha first appeared as John Henry Irons’ niece in his own title with Steel #1 in 1994. She is the super genius and would go on to become a hero in her own right as Steel in the storyline Supergirls told through a few issues of Action Comics. Natasha also had a brief stint as a meta-human under the Everyman Project using code-names Starlight and Vaporlock mostly during the events of 52 and Infinity Inc. (vol. 2). Her meta abilities have since been swept under the rug. In regards to Natasha’s sexuality, her pre-Flashpoint appearances, she was for the most part written as heterosexual having a few romances. It was in the New-52/Rebirth eras where she began appearing as a queer hero and is generally, at this point, seen as a lesbian. Her on-again-off-again relationship with Traci 13 is her most prominent relationship and from what I could tell that relationship first showed up in the pages of Superwoman, although the pair did meet for the first time (along with Cir-El) in the aforementioned Supergirls story.

    As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. Natasha Irons, as Steel, is shown casually floating in the air. She has a hammer draped across her shoulders and is flashing a peace sign with her right hand. Her boots are blasting rocket boosters. The background shows clouds in orange and purple and a motif of Steel’s logo is in the top right with a 0 on top of it.

    To check out the rest of the series, check out the Supergirl in the Multiverse page on the site.

  • Supergirl’s Family Vacation and References Galore

    A couple weeks back DC released a brand new Supergirl Graphic Nover targeted towards young readers. Supergirl’s Family Vacation was written by Brandon T. Snider with art by Sarah Leuver and letters by Becca Carey, and before I get too far into this post I want to say this book was absolutely fantastic. A few months back I covered Supergirl’s Zoo-Per Heroes and that book definitely leans more towards elementary age readers and a while back I covered Supergirl Being Super (my personal all time favorite Supergirl book) which sits more along the High School age readers. Supergirl’s Family Vacation sits somewhere in the middle although probably leaning more towards Being Super, but even so I personally think this is a book that can be enjoyed by readers of all ages and I would easily recommend it to anyone. This is a fun family road trip adventure and Kara and Nat have a great Girl-Best-Friends vibe that I always love to see. This won’t be a synopsis of the book or really a review, but instead I’m going to take a different approach and run through all the references I can find that the creators seemed to cram into this book.

    To start off, I’ll cover the main cast and where all these characters got their start. Of course we have Supergirl, and this is in fact the Kara Zor-El version of Supergirl who first showed up in Action Comics #252. We also have Superman and Lois Lane who have been in comics for nearly a century first showing up in Action Comics #1. Also in the main crew is Natasha Irons (also known as Steel) who first showed up with her uncle John Henry in his book Steel #1, and she would debut as a superhero in her own right in Action Comics #806 (I covered that along with the rest of the Supergirls story here). And filling out the cast is Jon Kent, now known as Superman (Tomorrow Man now) but this seems much more like his Superboy era. Jon first showed up as a baby in Convergence Superman #2 and would grow into the Superboy role during the 2016 Superman series.

    The opening scene of this book gives us a quick look at Jon Kent’s bedroom and we get to see some fun little details. He is very clearly playing a green Gameboy and there in a Nintendo 64 in the corner. Also the stuffed animal on the ground is definitely a legally distinct purple Pikachu. This room of course exists in the apartment of Superman and Lois which has long been established as being 344 Clinton St. Apt. 3-D.

    Next we get a view of Kara’s vacation plans which are to go to Argo City, the board doesn’t specifically reference anything else aside from the mention of the dome that the city has. Kara also holds up a sign that says “Join me!” in both english and Kryptonian (using the standard Kryptonian alphabet that started use in the early 2000s). In a further effort to convince her family, Kara talks about her personal feelings in regards to Krypton and we get a couple flashback images include a very clear homage to the cover of Action Comics #252 and while the Supergirl costume here matches the classic appearance, the rocket itself feels much more like the one designed by Bilquis Evely in Woman of Tomorrow. Kara also has a sunstone here and I’m pretty sure sunstones first got added to the Kryptonian mythos with the 2005 Supergirl series, although I could be mistaken. Sunstones are in fact pretty frequently used in both the 2005 and 2011 Supergirl ongoing comics.

    There is a shot of Kara’s room and a shot of the Fortress of Solitude in pretty quick succession and both of these set pieces are full of goodies. Kara’s room has a signed and framed picture of Nightwing (which I can only assume Clark got for her) and it’s something I need in my room too. Her suitcase gets filled with SPF 1000 which I’m sure Krptonian skin needs, and a notebook that has a Legion logo sticker as well as a sticker based on the logo of the hero Vibe (probably most known now from the Flash TV show). A brief look at Kara’s phone shows a little orange cat charm which is almost certainly a reference to Streaky the Super Cat. The fortress is mostly labeled but there are a few specifics I’d like to break down. The costumes shown in the “Costume Vault” are (from left to right) Kal’s costume from Superman and the Authority, Superman’s costume from the early issues of the New 52 Action Comics, and the iconic Electric Blue suit. The interplanetary zoo up in the top right is showcasing a Kryptonian thought beast and most exciting to me is the inclusion of an omegahedron in the bottom left in the Trophy Room.

    As the team’s road trip begins they stop at a gas station that is probably more full of references than I’m catching. This guy at the bottom of the page is clearly modeled after one of the aliens on the space bus in Woman of tomorrow, and the purple things that Jon wants feel sort of like Tribbles from Star Trek, although I could be wrong. There are also alien versions of sncks like the Pocky analogue named Perez (likely after George Perez). We also get a quick scene with Lobo (surely you know who he is) as well as aanother major character in this story Rori Dag. Rori was a character that definitley felt like a reference when reading initially, although I didn’t recognize them. Upon further research, Rori Dag is a member of the Green Lantern Corps who dates all the way back to 1969. The very brief article I skimmed about this character from the DC Wikia seems to line up with what is shown of them and their planet Rojira so I applaud the deep cut and research that the creators put into their inclusion.

    Once we get onto Rojira, the references don’t seem quite as rapid fire, but they have by no means stopped. The hotel room the Kents are staying at feels a little like the hotel room from Superman II where Lois and Clark stayed while at Niagara Falls but it could just as easily be a generic hotel room. Kara also reminices here about the idea to change her name to Power Girl as well as Jon Kent doing a dance that seems to be flossing.

    As the crew explores Rojira, we get a few more cute nods, they eat at a restaurant that seems inspired by Applebees or O’Charleys or some other American style restaurant named “Meat Disc Billy’s”. Nat and Kara go clothes shopping and the oufits they pick out feel like they’re referencing a specific anime but I couldn’t quite place it. My initial thoughts are either Utena or Sailor Moon. At the pool we see a Starro sunbathing, and Lois seems to be reading her own book “Life in the Fast Lane”, before pulling out a towel with branding from the 1989 Batman movie.

    Later as Lois and Clark are getting ready for dinner, we see Jon wearing a Metropolis Monarchs baseball jersey. Kara is wearing a “Space Girls” shirt which is likely a reference to the band of the same name that showed up in the Peter David Supergirl series in the 90s. Kara also seems to be reading a book here but the text isn’t legible. It kind of looks like it could be Kamen Rider. A few scenes later we get Kara having super-charged powers and having flaming wings which is once again a reference to the earth-born angel era Supergirl from the 90s (although a similar reference also showed up in the Woman of Tomorrow book).

    We also get a nice trio of Sailor Moon references near the end of the book. Both Kara and Natasha have a magical girl transformation sequence which isn’t strictly a Sailor Moon thing, but when paired with Kara wearing a shirt clearly styled off the Sailor Moon logo, it’s gotta be modeled after the Sailor Scouts.

    There are 2 surprise villains that show up in the last chapter but I’ll leave those for you to discover when reading, but I was really impressed with the characters that showed up. We do also get a look at Rori Dag beginning his Green Lantern career once again referencing his mainstream comics continuity.

    This was a fantastic read and I really enjoyed going back through it again searching for fun little Easter Eggs that the creators left. I’m sure there are plenty of little references I missed but I think I’m going to dive right back in and re-read looking for more after I finish up here. If you noticed anything I missed or think I got anything wrong, let me know, and if you’ve gotten this far without picking up this book, what are you waiting for?! Go to your local comic shop or bookstore or library and get your hands on this book! In the past few months we’ve gotten a plethora of Supergirl stories and, even with all the competition, this book might very well be my favorite one for the year.