The New Supergirl

[Figserello]

Looking at Lee's list now, the one that interests me most as a concept is Supergirl.  Sad to think that when Supergirl launched in 2005 to such hype and fanfare, she quickly went from being an oversexualised laughing stock to a badly managed, largely unloved, marginal character.  Her few frames in Final Crisis, hanging about her bedroom like a normal teenager, were the closest she got to her potential. 

 

She has now run her course, at any rate!  Nice knowing ya, Loeb and Churchill's panty-flashing, sense-of-entitlement Kara!

 

It's a pretty damning indictment of DC over the last few years that a flagship property like that should have been so mishandled, and rebooted so soon.  I'd say that this new Supergirl will only work if they can show us reasonably why she looks down on Earth people.  There are two routes they can take if they want to use science fiction as a way to examine our world today. 

 

One approach is that Krypton was run as a fascist state where power and physical superiority are what counted, and Kara has internalised this attitude and expresses it towards Earth people.

 

The other approach is that Krypton was a beautiful, enlightened Utopia, and Kara has genuine reasons for looking down on our benighted backward society, blighted with war and greed, pollution and corruption, poverty and injustice.

 

Either would make for years of good stories, although I'd prefer to read the latter.  Modern DC comics however, insist that Earth people are the very finest in creation.  It’s one of the many soothing lies comforts that Geoff Johns and co like to purvey in the GL series for instance.  Earth is now the centre of the Universe, isn’t it?  How many DC stories over the years has the situation on other planets being solved by the Earth person arriving to show them how the proper application of good old Earth violence will solve their problems?

 

So I doubt the Supergirl stories will show Earth, and Western Liberal capitalism especially, in a bad light. 

 

To take the fascist Krypton angle, that would sully Superman’s heritage, which may be problematic.  Also it would make Supergirl a very unloveable hero for her first few years.  DC and its readership are way too fickle and short-termist to do that.

 

Either approach would involve DC taking a stand on what Krypton was, and a big part of what dragged the 2005 Kara down was that they kept changing what Krypton was like, and Kara’s backstory, so that there was no backstory by the end.

 

So that leaves Supergirl sneering at us because she’s a TEENAGER.  Gosh, I so don’t want to read those stories.

 

I think they've got the costume and look right this time though.  I like this picture!

 

[Chris Fluit]

Figs, I bought it and came away with the same impression you did.  It wasn't bad.  But it was fairly standard (alien falls to earth, fights locals) and slight.

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

We've all commented on books we've gotten from the library for free, so I don't see paying for it as an issue. I can't help but think about the bang for the buck, though, even when it's a library book. I suppose if I ever completely stop buying comics and graphic novels I'll stop looking at it that way.

[donovan5]

She has a bit of a Power Girl look about her,maybe they're throwing a bone to PG fans now it seems she no longer plays a part in DCU(which is a shame as she's the only "supergirl" I ever found interesting)

[Captain Comics]

Those are her actual knees showing through boots. Which, barring super-powers, would not remain in place on a normal person (and looks dumb). And call me dirty-minded, but the red on the front of the blue looks designed to exaggerate and draw attention to the mons veneris. And the wraparound cape? Same as the boots -- wouldn't stay on in a stiff wind.

 

Other than that, though, I think the costume looks fine.

[Figserello]

I think they designed a costume that looked good enough in a few publicity drawings.  It's futuristic and different while still being somewhat stylish.  However, in the comic, with her moving about and in lots of different action poses, the red in the 'lower leotard' does have the effect you've so daintlily stated Cap.  (So it's not just me being a perv.) 

 

Hopefully they'll change it once the reactions start coming in.  In the comic she explicitly tells us it's a uniform that only girls who have  'come of age' somehow can wear, so maybe it's some kind of marker of 'the onset of womanhood' - and the colour red 'down there' is very much associated with that. 

 

Somehow, I don't think they've consciously thought through the anthropological semiotics of the costume that far, though...  :-)

 

Looking forward to what you'll have to say about this little comic in your next roundup, Cap*.

 

It's interesting that they are linking up the comics right out of the gate.  Supergirl hears lines from other comics as soon as her super-hearing kicks in, and Superman has several cameos even before we see him in his first 'modern day' comic of the DCnU.

 

*Oops!  I see you've just posted it.

[Emerkeith Davyjack]

...Okay , I have bought DCNU SUPERGIRL now , belatedly , ! & 2 . On two consecutive days .

  I liked #1 enough to go back the next day ( Magic Wednesday - as it happened . ) to my LCS and get #2 - and SUPERMAN #2 and ARCHIE & FRIENDS #158 , as it happened .

  I will read the line now , but do people actually make their " home " in the Great Wall of China ?

  Perhaps , much like the Swiss Guards at the Vatican whose stationed-there wives give them enough children being born that Vatican City actually DOES have an officially recognized birth rate ( Along with pregnant fenale tourists who unexpectedly go into labor there . ) , there are living-there guards stationed by the People's Republic of China whose spouses and children may be stationed there as well ?

[Emerkeith Davyjack]

...SPOILER point...........

  The idea that she is ACTUALLY older than Kal-El , was the teenage cousin of infant Kal back on th' big K , is interesting !!!!!!!!!!!

  Actually...Look , Supergirl is a " protect DC's copyrights/have something for merch/have a ' girl ' character to point to " " eternal - will never go away , not for long " character . It is inevitable that she will , basically , have a civilian identity named ( or something like ) Linda Lee , fall in with some Danvers , hang around at least a Midvale College and probably meet a male name (Richard) Dick Malverene (perhaps he could be an elderly , semi-retired gay college professor , an Gore Vidal/Edmund Wilson type) !

  Given that they were going to throw the old one out , I rather like the changearound here !

[Rich Lane]

Even if they don't in the real world, we can claim that changed with Flashpoint.  

 

And all the Chinese residents sport lots of seams.

Emerkeith Davyjack said:

...Okay , I have bought DCNU SUPERGIRL now , belatedly , ! & 2 . On two consecutive days .

  I liked #1 enough to go back the next day ( Magic Wednesday - as it happened . ) to my LCS and get #2 - and SUPERMAN #2 and ARCHIE & FRIENDS #158 , as it happened .

  I will read the line now , but do people actually make their " home " in the Great Wall of China ?

  Perhaps , much like the Swiss Guards at the Vatican whose stationed-there wives give them enough children being born that Vatican City actually DOES have an officially recognized birth rate ( Along with pregnant fenale tourists who unexpectedly go into labor there . ) , there are living-there guards stationed by the People's Republic of China whose spouses and children may be stationed there as well ?

[Ron M.]

In some panels her costume looked like it was just painted on. And the bikini from the previous series looked like she needed to pull up the skirt all the time. Who would have thought the ultra-short miniskirt of the Silver Age would end up one of her more modest outfits?