Just as Tony Bedard, K.Perkins, Mike Johnson, and Emanuela Lupacchino had righted the ship and despite consistent and relatively solid sales numbers, DC decided to pull the plug.
Some, including myself, have theorized that the appearance of a Supergirl show on the horizon was one of the prompts to shelve the character.
Would DC decide to create a Supergirl book based on the TV show? A digital first book like Flash Season Zero? Or would they try to somehow soft reboot the Kara on Earth 0 to make her more like the TV character?
The New 52 Kara was a teenager, 16 or 17 years old, just learning her way around Earth and just starting to make a name for herself as a hero.
The Supergirl character on the TV show is 24 yrs old, has been living on Earth for 13 years, and is immersed in Earth culture. She is working and trying to make a name for herself as a young woman in the city and only in the pilot does she embrace her powers and become a hero.
It wouldn't be easy to make the New 52 Kara into something like the show Kara.
I wondered just how DC might pull this off.
And then Convergence happened.
It is hard for me to necessarily wrap my head around what happens here. But Brainiac either sends the pre-Crisis Supergirl and Flash back to the Crisis to make sure that history repeats itself or he sends them back there to rewrite the Crisis and bring back infinite worlds while ending the Anti-Monitor threat. Throw in Parallax and a pre-Flashpoint Superman and maybe there is enough firepower to stop the Crisis without the death of Kara?
And if there are infinite Earths and the pre-Crisis Kara is alive ...
Well maybe that Supergirl is going to be the star of the new Supergirl book.
Because if any DC Supergirl is a decent match for the show Supergirl it is the original.
Both are in their early 20s. Both grew up on Earth, living with the Danvers. Both are inspired by their older cousin.
Heck, take away the headband and red shoulders and even their costumes look similar.
When we last saw the pre-Crisis Supergirl she had just moved to Chicago and was trying to acclimate herself to the big city. She was a grad student then but that could easily be switched.
I mean, I know it is one panel, but I thought this side by side was fascinating.
Both are trying to find a way to satisfy a side of their lives that they feel they haven't explored.
The pre-Crisis Supergirl at this time was trying to make something out of Linda Danvers, bettering herself while maintaining her life as a superhero and force for good.
The show Supergirl is embracing the Kryptonian side of her, trying to become Supergirl as a way to help others.
So I wonder ...
Could we be getting a pre-Crisis Supergirl book, morphed slightly to mirror the show, taking place on some other DC world?
Now the pattern isn't perfect.
So much of what I have seen from the show borrows liberally from the Sterling Gates/Jamal Igle run.
Kara Danvers looks similar to Linda Lang. Kara's sort of innocence, impetuousness, fierceness, and even smidge of dorkiness all in the show feels so much like this Linda/Supergirl.
And the elephant in the room is Cat Grant, the ruthless self-promoter and journalist who wants to make Supergirl into a household name.
So maybe the tone of the book is Gates while the setting of the book is Kupperberg?
Of course all of this will mean that the ending of the Crisis, and therefore Kara's heroic death will no longer be in continuity. And while I still think the reasoning behind the death was flawed, there is no doubt that Supergirl dying in Crisis #7 is a huge moment for the character, impacting subsequent incarnations and resonating throughout all of comics. I don't know if I want to see that go away.
Regardless of my theory, I think it is only a matter of time before we get a Supergirl solo book, one more in line with the show's Kara Danvers.
21 comments:
I think that it's interesting that the new 52 earth where Superman and Supergirl come had been destroyed by the end of convergence.
Where will they go now? And where is the new 52 earth? Or have I missed something?
@Saranga: The New 52 version of Earth-0 is safe.
@Anji: I believe it's the Convergence Supergirl that takes the bullet for the Sliver Age Supergirl. (That way those who like and hate Supergirl can have their cakes and eat them.) At the end, Parallax and the Anti-Monitor have a fight in the Big Bang with Anti-Monitor with their powers resulting changing the multiverse with Parallax winning but the cost of his own life giving DC Comics a entire new multiverse with infinite Earths.
Now I'm really confused!
Isn't the Convergence Supergirl also the pre-Crisis Silver Age Supergirl?
@Anj: I'm assuming that comic Brainic got all of Convergence cities from similar Hypertimes.
I gave up trying to figure any of this out last week, the editors and writers at DC themselves sound completely confused....which might not be a bad thing short term, in a process this unsettled beware the creative who knows what they wanna do....
Its long been my contention that the TV show and the book's cancellation are entwined creatively, if the show does business then it seems logical that the book might be "aligned" in a general sense with the TV property but that is surmise on my part. In general I think it can be inferred that the New 53 SG is being superceded by another incarnation or else simply "soft rebooted".
This is one of those situations where I wish a DC creative would parachute in and at least plant some rumors....
JF
> So I wonder ...
> Could we be getting a pre-Crisis Supergirl book, morphed slightly to mirror the show, taking place on some other DC world?
As mentioned in your other thread last week, a return of a Supergirl monthly title is STRONGLY demanded
and desired. I certainly hope TPTB at DC headquarters are making moves towards that, they'd be stupid
not to.
Having had the weekend to ponder things, my personal theory remains the same : DC will likely start off with a
miniseries / short run of "what happened between X and Y" to tie into the pilot episode, just to guage audience
response and reaction. If the reaction to the TV character remains postive, I strongly suspect DC will continue
the monthly version based on the TV rendition of the character. The universe'll likely stand on its own though,
much like the Berlanti-verse Flash and Arrow are seperate from their respective comics' universe--obvious reason
being to allow the writers to not be tied to any sort of previous or existing continuity.
Just my wild guess on this. All we can do is hope and wait...
Regards
Unless, as JF mentions, someone in DC comes up with a devastatingly brilliant idea to align things
again to "make sense."
...oh to be a fly on the wall in the DC editorial planning session right now...
Regards
I want the current Supergirl back in a solo book. Simple as that. I think this is the most likely outcome given that her story ended on a cliffhanger, but I can't be bothered trying to second-guess DC right now when the whole of their continuity is as clear as concrete. Until and unless there's a Supergirl book announced I'm not giving it any thought because clearly they didn't.
It's definitely only a matter of time until DC finally release a new Supergirl series to coincide with the TV show, but what kind of series, its premise, where it takes place, which version of Kara and its cast of characters are wholly unclear at the moment. A shame The Crucible Academy story got rushed, that was a solid status quo for Supergirl IMO.
Louis
Anj: interesting theory. It could explain the age differences for the character. We know Supergirl wasn't killed in COIE when she was only 16. Which means, without dying, say she was 19 or 20 in COIE, she could easily be 24 on the show. Though explaining her being on Earth for 13 years seems odd.
I still can't figure out the end of Convergence. And, sadly, I think most comic fans will have forgotten this whole mess before the TV series airs. And a SUPERGIRL: SEASON ZERO is a must!
Thanks for ongoing discussion.
I do think a digital 'season 1.x' version of the show is inevitable. (Would be cool if Sterling Gates wrote it).
Also now would be a great time to get the Walker/Jones Cosmic Adventures all ages stuff up and running again.
But I am probably asking for too much!
That's not a bad theory...
I miss Linda Danvers, but, I'm glad to spot some throwbacks, while subtle, or not, from the various eras I've known, of Supergirl, in the pilot.
:)
I'm pretty sure they'll do a digital-first a la Flash.
If that does well, they'll probably bring back the new 52 Supergirl in a new costume, and probably age her up. Maybe she'll visit the Legion for a few years and return in her early 20s?
Or maybe DC just doesn't know what to do with Supergirl and is using the nascent TV show as an excuse to let the character lie fallow for a while
Of course that does not explain the core book's cancellation (which was selling reasonably well by DC standards) which in turn spurs so many theories....
JF
"So maybe the tone of the book is Gates while the setting of the book is Kupperberg?"
Sounds like a winning formula to me! :)
Now if we could only add a dash of Landry Walker!
Gene
> Or maybe DC just doesn't know what to do with Supergirl
I think that's the crux of the whole thing right there, at least based on my following of the Supergirl solo title
over the ages. Silver Age, think you said it before Anj of how many careers and "striking out on her own" stories
they went through but couldn't decide which one to settle on?
Then came COIE and while powerful and poignant, for reasons of not picking off a scab from a wound, I won't discuss
much further.
Then Supergirl lay dormant for nearly 20years till Matrix came along and someone handed her to Peter A David and gave
him carte blance to write her how he saw fit.
Then came the 2004 reintro of her... but other than the general editorial directive "make her a contemporary teenager
with teenage problems" the title was so rudderless and directionless from issues 6 till Sterling Gates / Jamle Igle
took over, as we can all agree. Of course I won't forget the Landry Walker and SBFF super fun spots during this time
as well :)
Then came New 52 and again the general editorial directive "make her bullheaded / loner" and the complete mistreatment
till Red Lanterns and K Perkins, et al.
One wonders what's going on in the heads of TPTB at DC sometimes.
Regards
From what I understand the original Multiverse never died, nor did Kara or Barry. The only reason the original Earth-1 is not seen today in-universe is because of Flashpoint. When it comes to Supergirl, it's not Kara who was wiped from existence but Matrix and Linda Danvers (Kara wasn't killed so she wasn't reincarnated into Linda), and thusly, Pre-Flashpoint Kara didn't exist either. The only Supergirl in the DC Universe on the prime Earth has been Kara Zor-El who was transformed with everyone else due to Flashpoint.
Of course, this may not be the case. There may be an earth in the Multiverse that is "Pre-Crisis" which would suggest that the original Earth-1 still exists but it just isn't the prime Earth anymore and is known as something else, OR, that if this earth exists, it's not the original but one very similar to the original.
The Multiversity's multiverse handbook seemed to suggest that only earths that Morrison, Moore, or other big sellers, are on the list, but maybe the "unknown" earths in the 52 were the earths who "survived" Convergence.
I still don't understand why they chose Elseworlds: Supergirl & Batgirl as the "genderbent" earth, when that was not the case.
As for the new comic series, considering we never have had any really good wrap up for any Supergirl series, I don't think we will for her latest. I think it may be a Digital First featuring the TV Kara ("Karra"). They won't give Supergirl two comic book series because DC as a whole as never cared about her that much. I think that if a new series comes out it will also depend on how popular the TV series is.
As for Kupperberg's Linda Danvers, I loved reading about Kara's secret identity more than as her alter ego. He really fleshed her out. I know we had a sort of resolution to Dick Malverne proposing to her in the "Solo" series, and it was covered briefly when "Back Issue" discussed the Supergirl/ Superboy comic book that never was. We saw her dismiss Dick, but I really, really want to know what the secret was of her conductor boyfriend.
In any case, I think Supergirl is iconic enough that she should always have a series. Even if it's mini after mini. She warrants a presence as much as Dick Grayson does, if not the "trinity" itself.
Oh, as for Kara's sacrifice, well it did happen but it didn't. Just as Post-Crisis, Shazam (the wizard) commented on how there was a Marvel Family once but they never existed, and even for one such as he, thinking about such matters would only bring about insanity.
Dan DiDio had commented after Barry was first back that "the real Supergirl and Flash are back." While his treatment of Kara overall may not be great, I think that as a part of this "band-aid project," undoing Kara's death, and the end of a multiverse," this was DC's way of fixing what was wrong about Crisis. Kara should not have been killed off and wiped out of continuity. The multiverse was not a bad idea and shouldn't have been wiped out. What happened after was confusion and anger over the new continuity, as has been with the New 52, amid the praise of new readers. I don't know if we will actually see "Pre-Crisis" Kara in a book again, but at least DC has allowed it possible that we can.
I would like to point out that the period between COIE (1985)and the first appearance of Matrix (1988) was only three years. Matrix appeared in a variety of stories until the Death of Superman (1993) which led to the Supergirl miniseries which led to the Peter David Earth Angel series (1996) which led to the "Linda Danvers Supergirl" adventures (2000 - 2003) which ended with issue #80. One year later Jeph Loeb and Michael Turner put out a revived Kara Zor-El, which ended when the New52 started and the New 52 Supergirl stories apparently have come to a close with Convergence #8 and that brings us to the present. Where we wait for new developments, possibly a revived Pre-Crisis Supergirl, possibly stories based around the TV Supergirl.
well the wait is over Kara Zor-El of Earth 1 surivived COIE!!!!!!!! as revealed in Superman: lois and clark 1
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