Tagged: Supergirl

Supergirl Power, by Martha Thomases

At Wizard World Chicago last week, I was struck by how many girls came dressed as Supergirl. Grown up girls wearing the new version of the costume, showing off their toned abs, to be sure, but also lots of girls younger than 12 wearing the classic outfit.

Supergirl was my first favorite super-heroine. Wonder Woman was awesome, but she was so powerful, so confident, that I could only aspire to be like her. Invisible Girl was too passive. She seemed to fade away in a fight, not nearly as active as Invisible Kid in the Legion. From the moment Kara first flew out of that rocket and introduced herself to her cousin, Superman, I wanted to be her.

Superman, being older, more experienced, and male, decided he was the one to tell Supergirl what to do. She would be placed in an orphanage, and no one would know she had super powers. She would disguise herself with a mousy brown wig, even though no one was to see her with blonde hair. She would wear drab clothes, even though her mother had made her the cute outfit with the S-shield so her cousin would know her.

As Linda Lee, Kara learned about American life in a small-town high school, as an orphan. Later, she was adopted by the Danvers, but had to keep her secret from them as well. By some amazing coincidence, I, a young girl on the verge of adolescence, found myself suddenly needing to keep secrets about my thoughts and feelings from my own parents. I might have been more open with them if they’d found a way to get me a super-cat for a pet. (more…)

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Interview: Geoff Johns on the Return of Brainiac in Action Comics

  • News
  • June 11, 2008

action-comics-866-200-8349182Writer Geoff Johns is best known for re-imagining some of the most beloved heroes in the history of the DCU.

With his work on such books as Infinite Crisis, 52, Green Lantern, Booster Gold, Teen Titans and Justice Society Of America, Johns has “re-booted” some of DC’s most beloved classic heroes, including Hal Jordan, Booster Gold, Power Girl, The Teen Titans and The JSA.

But Johns’ ability to restore characters to their original glory does not stop with DC’s greatest heroes. No, he has left his mark on the villains as well, creating and revamping some of the scariest villains in DC’s arsenal. From his work on The Sinestro Corps War, and his run on The Flash he has placed Sinestro, Superboy-Prime, Cyborg Superman and The Rogue’s Gallery of The Flash back atop DC’s roster of its most dangerous bad guys.

Now Johns is reintroducing the most evil super computer of all, Brainiac, in the pages of Action Comics. Along with artist Gary Frank, the new arc, entitled “Brainiac” begins in Action Comics #866, in stores today.

First appearing in Action Comics #242 as a bald, green-skinned humanoid, Brainiac is the machine responsible for destroying Krypton and shrinking the city of Kandor down to bottle size. This five-issue arc will attempt to reintroduce the character who is arguably one of Superman’s most dangerous enemies back into the DCU.  

I had a chance to speak to Geoff Johns about the new arc in Action Comics and the experience of working with his mentor, Richard Donner.

COMICMIX: For starters, tell us about the upcoming “Brainiac” arc in Action Comics. What can fans of the book expect?

GEOFF JOHNS: Gary (Frank) and I are reintroducing Brainiac. The character has been around for a while now but he’s kind of been in a lot of different forms. Our goal was to create a villain that represents… well, we actually say it in one of the issues. For us, Luthor represents the worst of humanity and Brainiac, for us, will represent the worst in extraterrestrials. So we’re building off that. We want to introduce a Brainiac who is frightening, powerful and a little bit mysterious. We also wanted him to be very unsettling, very alien and feel different then the other adversaries that Superman has. The idea is to make Brainiac one of the villains that Superman dreads when he has to face him, rather than just another slot in a long line of villains. I think our first issue has a real creepy vibe to it and Gary did a really great design on him.

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Cracked’s Creepiest Comic Book Characters

To be filed under "Hey! that’s OUR thing, man!" Cracked.com recently posted a list of "The 6 Creepiest Comic Book Characters of All Time," leaving me wondering why they chose to make it a list of six characters. Why not five… or ten? "Cracked Six" just doesn’t sound right, while ComicMix Six is practically candy for the ears.

But I digress…

Highlights of the questionably named list include Proty, the "sentient spunk blob" from Legion of Superheroes, and Comet, Supergirl’s bestiality-minded superhorse.

Also, Comet periodically turns into a full human, at which point he does what any horse would do: Try to get laid with Supergirl before she can figure out he is really her horse.

The Cracked crew also gives a nod to Inner Child, one of Grant Morrison’s creations during his Doom Patrol run, which seems like a cop-out, seeing as how 95-percent of the characters created by Morrison are pretty freakin’ creepy.

Check out the full list at Cracked.com.

 

Happy Birthday: Linda Danvers, Supergirl

  • News
  • April 11, 2008

Kara Zor-El was born and raised in Argo City on the planet Krypton. The entire city survived the planet’s destruction, separating itself and floating to safety, but most of the inhabitants were soon felled by their homeworld’s remnants, now transformed into deadly Kryptonite.

Kara’s father Zor-El sent her to Earth for her own protection, hoping she would be found and protected by her cousin Kal-El, better known as Superman. Kara landed on Earth on April 11 and her cousin welcomed her with open arms. He also helped her create a secret identity — that of orphan Linda Lee.

As Linda, she was adopted by Fred and Edna Danvers, and it was as Linda Lee Danvers that Kara attended high school and college and later began several careers. Her Kryptonian nature gave her the same powers as Superman, however, and Kara often fought crime both at his side and on her own, becoming renowned and admired as Supergirl.

Sadly, Kara sacrificed herself during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, bravely giving her own life to protect her cousin and the rest of the multiverse.

Jim Mooney: 1919-2008

  • News
  • March 31, 2008

Paul Kupperberg tipped me off, Mark Evanier has the news: Jim Mooney, the incredibly prolific penciller and inker of everything from A-Team to World’s Finest, passed away over the weekend.

Jim was best known for his work on Supergirl and the Legion of Super Heroes in the sixties and Spider-Man in the seventies, but his career spanned from the forties to the nineties, as early as the Eisner-Iger shop and as late as Astro City.

Here, we have a self portrait of himself that he slipped into The Spectacular Spider-Man #41.

He will be dearly missed.

Residual Effects, by Elayne Riggs

  • News
  • November 14, 2007

elayne100-1758150I was going to continue my review of art I like, but since last week the new DC comp box arrived and I want to catch up before I write any more about that. Plus, I had a fairly major lifestyle change, more about which later. Meantime, the Writers Guild of America strike is into its second week and, while a resolution still seems fairly far away, I think it’s done a lot of good already in terms of consciousness raising. As with other recent revelations a lot of Americans have had, many people are starting to question why such a modern and powerful country seems so backwards when it comes to its citizens fairly sharing its bounty, whether that means providing health care for all or living up to its humane ideals in its treatment of captives or celebrating and supporting the collective strength of productive workers.

I think the WGA strike has resulted in a lot of folks who’ve never heard anything but anti-union talk since before Ronald Reagan fired the PATCO workers rethinking that knee-jerk (but craftily cultivated) attitude. They’ve learned that about half of WGA members are unemployed or underemployed in a given year, and they don’t buy the studios’ insistence that the strike is “millionaires versus billionaires.” They’ve learned that professional writing, like a lot of other entertainment-related professions that seem all-fun from the outside looking in, in fact represents a lot of hard work and long hours. They’re learning to deeply mistrust the line they’ve been fed for so long, a version of the famous Peter Stone dialogue from 1776 that “most men with nothing would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich than face the reality of being poor.” Nowadays it’s become imperative to protect the reality of being able to survive. And they understand that residual payments are the way most WGA members survive between the relatively few successful gigs they’re able to score.

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Behind The Big ComicMix Broadcast

  • News
  • July 15, 2007

benturpin-1110741As the days roll by, I have two stacks of paper here on the Big ComicMixBroadcast Desk. One is labeled “Before San Diego,” the other is marked “Whenever.” That pretty much stands as a metaphor for things here right now as well. However, that doesn’t mean I have lost ANY of the notes I need to share with you from the week:

  •  If you are looking to (*ahem*) familiarize yourself with the actress cast as the new Supergirl on the CW’s Smallville, I found the best place to be here. It is much better than sitting through My Mom Has A Date With A Vampire – trust me!
  • The “test version” of Disney’s new free (with ads) gaming site can be seen here,  but BE CAREFUL. There are still links up fore the old subscription based site.
  • You can get info on all the deals offered & the creators appearing at SDCC from Penny Farthing Press here. A lot of these books can be ordered right from the site, too.
  • If that editorial job offered by IDW Press sounds interesting, you can get a jump on this by going here for more info.
  • You can see samples of Breaking Up by Aimee Friedman and Christine Norrie, you can go to Christine’s site. You get treated to a LOT of Christine’s other work – a real bonus!

Back at you in a couple of days as we continue to edge closer to the San Diego ComicCon, marvel at Harry’s magic boxox office and clear off the shelf for a big pile of new comics and DVDs!!

Genre film costume auction

  • News
  • February 14, 2007

obiwancloak-9989840British auctioneer Bonhams is holding a massive auction of what is believed to be the UK’s largest collection of film and television costumes on March 6th. The collection comes from Angels The Costumiers, a fifth generation family firm that has been doing costumes since 1840 and worked on 26 movies that have won Oscars for Outstanding Achievement In Costume Design.

Items going under the hammer include costumes from Superman, Supergirl, six of the Doctors from Dr. Who, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Highlander, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, James Bond’s suits from Thunderball, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Tomorrow Never Dies, and Alec Guinness’s Obi Wan cloak, pictured here.

In recognition of the popular appeal of the items, Bonhams’ saleroom will be allowing interested customers the opportunity to try on selected costumes. So if you can’t afford to bid, you could just try flying to London — but you probably won’t be able to nip off somewhere and play with your significant other unless you win. (Hat tip to Craig for the story.)

She’s Spartacus

  • News
  • February 12, 2007

Former DC editorial assistant Valerie D’Orazio, who caused quite the stir late last year with her multi-post series "Goodbye to Comics," has written her second post about Supergirl wherein she expounds upon her belief that the best way to change a System for the better is from without, not within, particularly if the System perpetuates institutionalized sexism (and she does a nice job of differentiating between that and actual individual sexism).

One of the more eloquent voices working on changing institutionalized sexism from without belongs to Mely of Coffee and Ink (hat tip to Michelle Bacon for the pointer), who’s worth quoting in full (beneath the fold).

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