Superman Through the Ages! Forum

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=100707


"I approach her for what she is – a somewhere between 16-18 years old, bitter, jaded teenage girl."

Yeah, because there is such a shortage of jaded and bitter in comics today. ::)

This is a shame because I kinda like the art, it even makes Michael Turners awful costume design kinda work but this is very wrong headed IMO.

I don't understand why DC allows writers who do not come even close to understanding their characters to write them, it just doesn't make sense.

Kara's been through a lot since her reintroduction. So much so, there is no stability. If it isn't Darkseid or her evil doppleganger, it's writers and artists jumping on then off. Readers already don't like her due to PAD's Supergirl. Her costume is too revealing for some and her characterization reminds many of a superpowered Britney Spears. By the time, she's given a chance to grow, no one will read Supergirl....


What a challenge!  ;D ;D ;D
    

I shed no tears for the loss of PAD or the previous convoluted incarnation. I miss Ed Benes though. Sure a little *too* cheese cakey at times...okay alot of times. But overall I thought he drew a good looking Supergirl.


I was also insulted that rather than learn anything from what the animated series did in terms of having a streamlined origin for Supergirl that gave you all the benefit of Kara while still keep Superman as the "last son", they just slapped the Kara In-Ze costume on Linda Danvers. So DC watches STAS and what do they get out of it? "Hey, bare midiffl! We can use that!"


But leave it to DC to take the perfectly straight foward idea of Supergirl and find a way to screw it up.

Kuuga, Kara In-Ze was introduced in 1998 during "Superman: The Animated Series".  Peter David's "Supergirl" series was already in its second year, so it was far too late to change Linda Danvers' origin to an updated "Silver Age" version.

It was "Supergirl #51" (December 2000) when Linda was forced to cobble together a new costume after losing her ability to transform.  (Matrix and a majority of her powers were stripped from Linda in the previous issue.)  I highly suspect DC noticed the growing popularity of Kara In-Ze and decided to standardize the Supergirl "look" in order to boost sales of the comic, totally disregarding that Peter David's series was far darker and convoluted than what fans of the animated Kara might have expected.  Peter David probably did the best he could to justify the costume change, incorporating it into his (overly long) "Search for Supergirl" arc that preceeded the final "Many Happy Returns".

But DC had earlier dismissed a more "traditional" Kara -- in Dan Jurgens' "Superman vs. Aliens" (July - September 1995), we met a "Kara" from "Argo City".  Apparently Dan Jurgens (who was also writing the "Superman" titles at the time), planned to introduce Kara into the mainstream DC Universe after this crossover, possibly first in his new "Teen Titans" series (the short-lived version featuring Argent, Joto, Risk, etc.).  But DC declined, maybe because she was either TOO similar in concept to the original "forgotten" Kara Zor-El, or perhaps her debut in an "Aliens" crossover made this Kara too closely connected to non-DC characters.  (One could imagine sticky licensing issues every time her origin was revisited.)  And then there was the problem of how to replace Matrix, who was around since 1988.

So Peter David's idea to merge Matrix into a dying Linda Danvers was green-lighted instead, and the new series began in 1996.  Meanwhile, any plans to use Dan Jurgens' "Kara" was abandoned.

Had PAD called it Fallen Angel instead Supergirl at the get-go, it would've fared better.  I think it suffered only with people who were expecting some rendition of Kara.  (By contrast, Matrix Supergirl just unconditionally sucked.)  It didn't help that about a year later, S:TAS's Kara In-Ze came in and the reaction was "why are you wasting time shoving this to us as Supegirl".  For younger readers coming in fresh, it was pretty well-liked, but that wasn't enough to sustain it as a Super* comic.  (It has been quite enough to keep it going as Fallen Angel, AFAICT.)

Some thoughts on the current Supergirl and DC's mishandling from a female former DC employee:

http://occasionalsuperheroine.blogspot.com/2007/02/supergirl-redux-so-proverbial-st-has.html

 

Simply look who edits the book. Other than the fill-in issue (and the new co-writer), every writer on the title worked under Berganza during his abysmal run on the Super-titles.

The solution is simple: Replace Berganza, bring all the Super-Family titles under one editor, and try to get Mark Waid, Kurt Busiek, or Jim Krueger (the guy currently writing Justice) on the title.

I think treating Kara as a strong young female character instead of as a lost Gen-X(Y?Z?) cynical teen would be a very good move on DC's part.

It's possible to write good quality girl-oriented comics for young people - just look at some of the stories in "Archie" or "Katy Keen."  The Krypto cartoon is intended for young kids, similarly Supergirl could be a family friendly book intended for young teenagers.

Last I heard, Archie comics were dominating newsstand and supermarket sales.  There's probably a reason for it.

That blog posting was pretty insightful - it shows that comics books are being destroyed for the same reason that all other media is being destroyed - short sighted bean counters pandering to visceral thrills, resulting in short-term gain but massive long-term loss.  They're forgetting that they need to invest in creating a market - ie enjoyable quality material that people will want to come back for.

true....what's considered a tremendous best-selleing title these days, 100,000 ?

10% of what Captain Marvel sold in the 40's

So I blame *you* for consuming an hour of my life reading the above blog!  :)

What interests me is that the decision she's criticized for that led to all this, Ed Benes on Supergirl, makes perfect sense.  Sure, Benes Supergirl(s) had sex appeal and cheesecake in spades.  But quite aside from that, they were also actually -cute-.  You didn't look at Supergirl's face, quite aside from any other attributes, and think she was a guy with long hair, which was what I would see in Leonard Kirk's work.  That "generally cute" look is something that's largely been missing from the Paris Hilton/Tara Reid waif rendition.  I don't think Supergirl needs to be some pneumatic figure to succeed, but I don't think you capture the Supergirl people want to see unless you can do "cute". 

"Catering to the tastes of the lowest members of society- the people who want sex, violence, razzle-dazzle, and constant titillation of their
senses-is what makes civilizations go down the drain. History proves this; when literature and art start to degenerate, it's a sign that the
public is not getting what it needs but what it needs least: pandering to the wants of the lowest, most mindless of its members." - C.C. Beck



SUPERGIRL #17
Written by Joe Kelly & Mark Sable
Art by Alé Garza & Marlo Alquiza
Cover by Garza & Richard Friend
Guest-starring the JLA and Wonder Girl as Kara battles friends and foes who have been taken over by evil entities from the Phantom Zone!
On sale May 2 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

http://images.newsarama.com/dccomics/May07/b/SG_Cv17_solicit.jpg

ohh..so that's why  they screwed around with  Kara's origin.....i get it..Matrix needed to be replaced...just wondering...why can't they get the original artists from the Peter David sereis to do some of the art?...i actually liked Gary Frank and Leonard Kirk's stuff...Ale Garza is an interesting choice after Ian Churchil.....but the thing that confuses me is why is he (Ale Garza) making her look younger, (like 16-18) , while Ian's work looks like she's 18-21?.. .