Friday, February 12, 2021

Review: Future State Kara Zor-El Superwoman #2


Future State Kara Zor-El Superwoman #2 came out this week and I did not enjoy it. Not at all.

I know I should probably stop there. I usually want to praise comics, not bury them. 

But there is a lot not too like here.

Let's start with the basics. This isn't a Kara Zor-El book. It is a Lynari book. It is a book made to promote the new character that the writer has created. Kara isn't the star here. She doesn't end the conflict. She doesn't grow. She doesn't say a word after the middle page of the book. Not one word.

Next, this is the usual crime of a creator not understanding the basics of the character they are writing. Last issue, Supergirl was a passive, unloved drone. Here she is an angry, hate-filled lunatic. She is a self-proclaimed 'villain to loathe, a tyrant queen'. Sorry, that's not Supergirl.

Lastly, there is this odd relationship this version has with Krypto, from saying that the super-dog was the only being in her life who taught her anything (so much for Zor, Alura, Fred, Eliza, Kal, etc) to literally being buried in the backyard next to him (spoiler alert). 

I enjoyed writer Marguerite Bennett's first year on Bombshells but since then not much of hers has grabbed me. I think she wants to be edgy, political, cute, and profound ... and that is simply hard to pull off. 

The one part of the book which I did like is Marguerite Sauvage's art, a sort of ethereal, breezy, fairy tale look to the proceedings. I don't know if the style necessarily works here but it is quite delightful.

On to the book. Read on if you dare.


Last issue, Lynari talked about having the Starfall jewel in their possession, a powerful artifact for their people which grants super-powers. Crashing onto the moon, they befriend a pacifistic Kara, protector of those seeking sanctuary there.

Now Lynari's relatives have come to retrieve the jewel. They claim that Lynari is a killer and doesn't deserve protection or the jewel.

And a rusty Supergirl, who hasn't been very active on the moon, isn't a threat.

So I am having a little bit of a hard time determining what the jewel does. It seems like these relatives can shapeshift already. And apparently fly. And maybe travel through space.


We then get a two page origin story of Lynari's family and the importance of the Starfall jewel. This attacking alien is Lynari's aunt. Lynari's father held the jewel inside him. To protect his offspring, he killed himself, pulling the jewel out of his body (thus killing himself) and putting it into them.

Lynari's aunt thinks she deserves it. And so the chase was on.

Now I suppose giving Lynari they/them pronouns might mean this is a story about a trans person escaping abuse or a toxic family relationship. But it seems like Lynari was loved. 

The page is well constructed with nice borders. 

But it is two pages trying to explain a long family feud, both too short to explain what it all means and too long for a book where we are supposed to learn about Kara's future.



Regardless, the story and the banter infuriates Kara. To prove she means what she says, Lynari's aunt detonates a bomb, destroying a chunk of this moon colony. It spurs Kara to the point that she finally springs into action.

Nice action shot here. Finally, Kara is being active in her own story.

 
As the fight goes on, Kara becomes more and more enraged.

She sounds exceptionally petty here as she compares Lynari's plight with her own. But in that comparison she calls Jon a usurper who steals power, legacy, and a story she should have had.
 
She looks like a pastel version of the 'infected' Supergirl we saw last year.

An angry, jealous Supergirl? If that is what the future holds, I don't want to read it.

This is terrible.


But it gets worse.

She seems to lose her mind and her way, bashing this thing and saying that if the universe wants her to be 'a villain to loathe, a tyrant queen' then she is more than happy to be that.

I don't know about all Supergirl fans. But I can say that I would rather read about the 'help, hope, and compassion for all' Kara Zor-El and not the fury-stoked 'tyrant queen'.

This is terrible. 

 
But before Superwoman can do something she might regret, Lynari grabs Kara and drains her. Now an amped up Lynari can battle her aunt. And Lynari would rather do this than see Kara throw away her recent life of peace.

I include this picture (including the emphasized staple to show where this falls in the actual book) because this is the last line that Superwoman utters in the book. 

The star in her own book, a brief 2 issue story to tell her fate, and she has no dialogue in the back half of the final issue. 

This is terrible.



But Bennett is a bit stuck here. We have been told that removing the Starfall jewel kills the person who had it. 

So she simply says that somehow the mix of their own powers and Supergirl's allows Lynari to drain her aunt of her powers, remove the jewel from themselves, and destroy it.

Poof.

Just like that, magically, the conflict is over.

Lynari faces their depowered aunt and talks about how tilling the land will make her see the universe differently.



Kara also remains depowered for some time.

And without her powers, Kara is finally accepted by the people on the moon. 

So the place becomes a perfect Eden, with everyone holding hands and building and farming. And Kara lives to an old age as a friend to Lynari. And when she finally dies, she is buried next to Krypto in the back yard.

I don't know what to say.

This being labeled a Kara Zor-El book seems like false advertising. This angry, jealous, villainous character isn't the Supergirl I want to read. Bennett seems uninterested in telling Kara's story. She likes Lynari and wants to tell their story.

But then I wonder if the problem is me. For the most part, the last 20 years have given us this sort of Supergirl. Fans in their teens are more used to seeing an angry, petty Kara than a helpful, compassionate one. Maybe, unfortunately, this *IS* Supergirl now. 

If that is true, I wonder if I should still be buying new books.

Overall grade: D

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

The story title is "Two Graves," something I didn't pay attention to until the end. Krypto's grave is just as important as Kara's.

Bennett has written awkward stuff before, and I never loved or even liked most of her work. I like the concepts of Bombshells, the reinvention of characters, but the stories are for the most part strange. Shells to hold her characters. Perhaps fitting, as the comics were created based on action figures.

This story has a bizarre plot, in all the ways you observe, and there is much else that is simply poorly written. (And why do the shape-shifting fish talk like Texans?)

Bennett has amped up something that never really existed - that Supergirl was dismissed by not just earth, but by both her cousins as well. As far as I know, the only time she was really hateful and feared was in the final Infected/Batman who Laughs arc.

A natural reaction to being dismissed all of your life, by everyone, is deep-seated anger, a seething resentment.

So this is a false background to create this resentment-filled Supergirl.

Another mistaken premise - that there are only 3 Kryptonians. What happened to Zod and New Krypton? But this lets the shape-shifting Texan fish say "Nope, never heard of this one, just the other two." Nobody has heard of her.

The moon inhabitants are indifferent to her, or dislike her.

And then - her powers are taken away, and - for Reasons that work for Bennett's thesis - somehow don't come back right away.

And now, the point of the story - guess what? The moon refugees now really, really like her!

Agenda Message: No one likes a powerful woman. Not even her own relatives. Take away her power, and now she is likable. Or as Bennett puts it, "She shouldn't have to be less than she is to earn their love." But Bennett's point is "But she does, cause that's how strong women are treated."

And, her mantle isn't passed down the way the Superman mantle is.

Bennett had quite a message story pitch here, and Brittany Holzherr and Jamie Rich, after shepherding the Infected arc, decided to buy it.

Those editors had plenty of time to know how poorly the Infected arc was received. It was so bad they didn't even ship the final 2 issues (one of the handful of titles DC didn't print in the spring), and then they dumped it all in an overly large and expensive TPB -- too expensive in general, and forcing readers to buy at least two arcs of material they already owned. Knowing all this, and proceeding with this story? Unreal.

I don't know whether to blame Holzherr or Rich for greenlighting this, but Rich has the Editor credit on Superman of Metropolis, too, so he's the connecting link between the two lousy presentations of Kara Zor-El. And these are the same editors who keep giving us "such a good boy" Krypto, too. The dog that is always Kara's teacher.

Editors decide what stories are going to get published. They hire the writers and approve the work. Bennett didn't self-publish this.

T.N.

Martin Gray said...

It’s not you, it’s DC. This was a horrible supposed Kara story, as you note. If you’re changing her name from ‘Supergirl’ to ‘Superwoman’, you should be giving the readers a slightly different version of the character - less prone to mistakes, most lessons learned. But this isn’t an empowered, confident woman, it’s a sad, bitter, jealous loser who has question marks over her head as the new kid takes over the sanctuary she’s supposed to be running.

Just awful.

Anonymous said...

Editors should just have given them a Lynari book. False advertising and trashing a character in the book with her own name is just going to make fans hate it. Lynari as a character is dead in the water now. Supergirl fans could have loved that character and taken Lynari to our hearts. She is a great fit for us. But not like this. Never buying a Lynari book after this. The bitter taste of her introduction will last forever. Zod this book, Zod Lynari and Zod DC, the editors and the Marguerites.

Loved Bombshells, but she is dead to me after this.

Anonymous said...

I share your opinions on this book. It is a bad comic and a terrible Supergirl book. And to be honest, after reading DC Bombshells and the solicits, I did not expect anything different or better from Bennett.

"If that is true, I wonder if I should still be buying new books."

I wish I could help you, Anj. I... hardly care for current comics. And the more I read Pre-Crisis comics, the more I grow convinced that is "my" DC universe, despite all its flaws.

Anonymous said...

You aren't missing much for not looking at new books Anj, at least not new ones by Amy Wolfram and her SHG books. But even those have stopped now. And going by your previous post, it's better to just find old treasures like that black'n'white collection of Supergirl stories from across the ages. Much better.

This whole thing is disgusting in general. Even if it was just a Lynari story, it would still be abhorent. Using old, legacy characters as vehicles to prop up your Donut Steel creations is ALWAYS a horrible idea. It just shows how utterly devoid you are as a creator and it always reveals how hollow your character is.

It's not like the editors know any better at this point.

Anonymous said...

I have really enjoyed the DCSHG books. Sure its not really Supergirl, it's more Powergirl in a Kara suit. But its still a good read and respectful to the characters and readers.

This book to me is more like the restoration of Ecce Homo. The person doesn't have the skill, knowledge or care to do it properly and it's so bad you can't even tell it is a Jesus picture anymore. It's a monkey. It's now Monkey-Jesus.

This is Monkey-Kara, a smudged unrecognizable horrible thing wearing Kara's clothes.

Monkey-Kara is an angry person that hates everything and her family. The Super- in her name doesn't attest to good character. She wields an axe and kills things. Monkey-Kara is now dead. Monkey-Kara is missed by noone.

I am tired of Monkey-Kara. From now on I will use that name for angry Kara. She is Monkey-Kara - the spirit animal of unsuitable editorials and teams.

- "A new Supergirl book has been released."
- "Real Kara or Monkey-Kara?"
- "It seems to be Monkey-Kara."
- "Alright, I'll be skipping it then."

Anonymous said...

The true mercy of Kara's sacrifice in Crisis was escaping the edgy cynisism of the writers of today.

Her legacy lives on as a beacon of hope to inspire new generations. Her message of overcoming life's hardships and go beyond them to make a better world is bigger than us all. It lives on in those who will embrace it. It lives on in storytellers like Sterling, Mike, Shea and Steve. It lives on in amazing people like Melissa and Helen.

That is what it means to be Super. To inspire people, to be humble, to seek and create love. To not run away when life becomes hard. To not delve into anger, jealousy or hatred.

This is the person I want to be. I read Supergirl stories because she inspires me to stay on that path.

This Supergirl does not do that. She makes me not better, but worse. She falls to humanities worse tendencies and drags me along. She drags her reader base along. This Kara makes us worse. She infects the community.

It is time to let her go. Can we not as a community move on? When the right Kara comes along, we will be there. Read the stories, spread the news, discuss and revel in what we love.

When this version comes along. Let's just walk away. Letting these stories into the community makes none of us happier or better.

Anonymous said...

Hello from a french fan of supergirl,

Power or family life ? why a womn can never have both unlike men ? Why ?

Anonymous said...

I don't want to sound conspiratory but Kal is only getting boy children. Almost all famous kryptonians are men. Kara gets no daughter and her lineage is written away.

Most of DCs lineup are men. Almost all movies and comics are about men.

DC thinks "Men sells". Lets have a universe that "just happens" to have mostly men in it.

There's a statician on youtube that calculates whether things are possible to happen by chance or whether bias was used. I'd like for him to check DC:s roster for mysogyni one day.

Anonymous said...

Clark having daughters is cursed in a way, due to the history of the series where he had children. So far, Jon is the only one that has come out normal, in both Son of Superman(1999) and in his current form. Whenever Supes has a daughter it's either from a title that will get cancelled(Supergirl of Peter David) or as a way to hit the man in the gut(his child in Injustice, his imaginary life with the child in Injustice comics, his daughter from Frank Miller's books etc) really not a good show.

Kara not having a daughter is weird but not entirely a bad though. We saw how absolutely crap the idea of giving Power Girl a child was and some heroes really shouldn't get children. Just like how some heroes should absolutely have kids to continue their legacy. Just like Iron Man shouldn't have kids but Spider-man should as evidenced by Spider-Girl, just like how Superman should have children as it completes his arc as Clark Kent, becoming a Pa Kent himself, in the same vein, Modern Batman died the moment Damian existed and now we have...I dunno what kind of Batman.

To put it simply, I don't think Kara should have kids, or we shouldn't see it. Same with Karen but at least we've seen Power Girl taking dating with much more humour compared to the more innocent Linda and that's fine.

Anonymous said...

Every time having a daughter ends poorly, that's a decision made by DC. It's not a reason for only creating male kryptonians. Justifying misogyni through storytelling is still misogyni. They know what they are doing when their roster, lineup, and movies are filled with men. They know what they are doing when The Snyder Cut has more than double the count of men than women. They know what they are doing when they give a boy the Earth and ships the girl to the moon to die.

Anonymous said...

" They know what they are doing when they give a boy the Earth and ships the girl to the moon to die. "

Excuse me, what?

Travis Bickle said...

Great review, this expressed a lot of thoughts and sentiments I have about this mini/elseworld. To complement the debate about this comic I share here my review in spanish:

Escribiré esta review en español para expresar mejor mis opiniones, sentimientos sobre este cómic.

Si bien me parece genial que al final se haya superado esa trama sin sentido de Kara sintiéndose triste por no ser Superman. Sino reconociendo que ella es la única e inigualable Supergirl, y que ese es su nombre o su manto. Que los mantos no existen, y cada uno puede formar su propia persona, su propio superheroe, nombre de superheroe, alterego. Y que cada uno puede ser grandioso o grandiosa siendo uno mismo, sin querer ser otro. Y como ella al final acepto la luz y continuar ayudando a la gente. Todo esto fue un elemento acertado en el cómic.

Igualmente, el arte me parece bueno.

Sin embargo el cómic continua con la narrativa de poner a Supergirl en contra de su familia, de Superman, Superboy y el resto. Poniendo una historia innecesaria de hacer que estos se peleen y dejen de llevarse. A pesar de que Kara, Kal, Jon, Lois y el resto de su super-familia se han llevado muy bien a lo largo de los años, en décadas de desarrollo. Siendo una familia fuerte que lucha por el bienestar del otro, por resolver los problemas y tristezas que puedan vivir. Por ayudar a las personas, el planeta. Lo cuál incluso en el último run de Bendis en Action Comics fue visto. Donde permanecía la Kara alegre, jovial y optimista que todos conocemos y amamos. Luchando en familia y con sus amigos contra las amenazas que afectan al mundo y a su familia. Incluso en el cómic de Superman of Metropolis, Kara y Jon hacen las paces y retoman su relación familiar y parece que trabajarán juntos en el futuro por defender al planeta y a cada uno.

PERO NO. Todo eso fue destrozado en este mini comic elseworld. Creí que al final acabarían con ese narrativa de Kara, Superman, Superboy alejándose de cada uno. Pero continuaron con esa historia, incluso con Kara llegando a fallecer sin su familia. E incluso llegando a fallecer sin sus amigos, sus parejas del pasado, como podría ser Brainiac 5, Mon-el y otros. Simplemente todos esos personajes que alguna vez fueron amigos/cercanos/amigas de Kara desaparecieron por siempre de su vida, así sin más. Eso y lo anterior realmente me entristeció de este cómic.

Regresa en parte el optimismo al final, pero continuando con la historia de Kara sin su familia y amigos. Incluso falleciendo sin ellos.

Bennet se ve que es una buena escritora en sus otros trabajos. Pero realmente deseo qué, en caso de que alguna vez vuelva a haber un cómic de Supergirl (mi superheroína favorita), Bennet no sea la escritora de esta. No entiende al personaje, y se decidió por seguir la ruta oscura, edgy. Ojalá esto quede solamente como un mal recuerdo de un elseworld que se le ocurrió alguna vez a alguien. Y ahora que se respete su canon.

Arte: 8
Historia: 3
PUNTUACIÓN FINAL: 5,5

Pd: Regresa Sterling Gates, o Peter David, ustedes escriben muy bien a Supergirl, ustedes la entienden y conocen, saben lo importante que es su familia para Kara. Incluso Marc Andreyko escribió una mejor historia (divertida con su amigo/interés Znd'r y con su mascota Krypto). La cuál fue desachada luego por otra historia oscura de Kara, que medio mejoró al final de su último volumen. Solo espero que el siguiente o la siguiente escritora que tome el cómic de Supergirl conozca al personaje y respete su canon, lore.

Pd2: Y ojalá que si alguna vez Supergirl vuelve a tener un cómic en solitario o sus futuras apariciones, ella siga siendo la Kara esperanzadora, optimista y con grandes lazos con su familia, amistades y parejas. Y ojalá se vaya al futuro con Brainiac5 y la Legión de Superheroes. Ellos eran geniales juntos, una pareja poderosa, inteligente y llena de esperanza.

Esto último más lo pongo por qué los dos son mi ship favorito xD jaja (junto con mi otro ship favorito: JayKara)

Anj said...

Great discussion and comments.

As always, I feel Supergirl has been done wrongly more than not in last 15 yrs. I’m sure we can all think of the good runs.

But with no title on the racks and Infected and Future State the Kara centric stories, these are truly lean times.

Anonymous said...

Marguerite Bennett, basically made SuperWOMAN a grumpy spectator in her own book some other female's apotheosis, then depowered her, which made her more likable and she she died childless and alone and was buried next to her treasured dog like a 19th Century New England Spinster. What else am I missing here?
This is bad writing in short, very bad writing, from someone who can't write a character they either don't like or don't care about...because these days that what you get when the wrong writer is assigned. Nobody in the industry has any technique anymore they can't write a comic they don't themselves somehow love, its appalling and amateurish.
Don't ever mock the paint by numbers scripts that Bob Kanigher, Cary Bates etc turned in on Supergirl's tragically mediocre 1972 solo book, it was all IBSEN compared to this junk. If Marguerite Bennett wants to write a Lynari book let her do that, but please from now on keep her away from Supergirl, she is toxic on that character.

JF

Anonymous said...

Uh, Kara HAD a daughter in Kingdom Come. Do you remember that green-skinned, blonde female alien in Superman's side? Called Brainiac's daughter? She was Querl and Kara's daughter.

As for Superman having daughters, I can think of several alternate univeres where he and Lois had a daughter, and she did not become drama fodder. Superman Family 200 and Lois Lane... 92? come to mind.

Anonymous said...

We know about those. Those were ephemeral and never developed. Kara's daughter and Cir-El has lived on in consciousness through community love and efforts not by DC.

Martin Gray said...

Cir-El has a fanbase?

Anonymous said...

She is often mentioned when listing the Supergirl's through history. Together with dreamed up Supergirl and Lois Lane Supergirl. Without the Supergirl fanbase she would probably never be mentioned at all.

Anonymous said...

"As for Superman having daughters, I can think of several alternate univeres where he and Lois had a daughter, and she did not become drama fodder. Superman Family 200 and Lois Lane... 92? come to mind."

And by the end IIRC, Superman actually depowered himself by marrying Lana and living in Kandor or something, while Supes blue with Lois did have a super son and super daughter with Lois talking a super-serum but I don't remember what exactly happened with them. Did they get depowered too?

Because I remember the end of the issue having Supergirl be the new protector of the Earth because the super-smart Red-Blue Supermen just eradicated anything bad and malicious from Earth and the universe was at peace or something, even used their supergenius to create Panacea and eradicate disease.

Anyways, that was one of the most positive times Superman had a daughter but she never became a heroine.

Professor Feetlebaum said...

Back in what we now call The Silver Age, Sgt. Fury was often referred to as "The War Comic For People Who Hate War Comics".

What we have here is "The Supergirl Comic For People Who Hate Supergirl". Not only does she more or less disappear from the second half of what was supposed to be HER comic, in the end, she's pushin' up daisies. Terrific.

(I don't think that Krypto is buried there. He just got fed up doing the thinking for both of them and took off.)

The Superwoman presented here is the older version of the early New 52 Kara (estranged from family, hating Earth and isolated), and Andreyko and Houser's later post rebirth angry Kara who needed her super doggie to keep her in line. I can't help but think that Brian Bendis's Supergirl is an anomaly, that THIS is Kara as DC sees her. Too bad.

Many of the imaginary stories back in the 60s showed Superman and Lois (sometimes Lana) with a super powered son and a daughter-usually twins. One exception was the story in Superman #166, where Superman and his unseen wife had two boys, one with powers and one without. But that was the whole point of that story.

In the Superman Red and Superman Blue story mentioned above, the two Supermen recreate Krypton and enlarge Kandor there. Supergirl, homesick for Krypton decides to move there too. Superman Red marries Lois and Superman Blue marries Lana. Both families have a boy and a girl. Eventually, the Superman Red family moves to New Krypton, while the Superman Blue family remains on Earth.

Anonymous said...

If we're talking about Superman's daughters, a few I can think of are:

Lara Kent, daughter of Superman and Wonder Woman in Dark Knight Strikes Again by Frank Miller

Lara Lane-Kent in Injustice Gods Among Us Year Three (Unfortunately I think it's only a dream sequence)

Ariella Kent daughter of Superman and Linda Danvers

There's an interesting wiki page that lists all known versions of Supergirl, or known to the authors of the page at the time the page was written - seems pretty complete since it lists some recent appearance in Death Metal:

https: //dc . fandom . com/wiki/Supergirl

And another page of female characters, alphabetized, so one can see every character whose name starts with K (so, all the Karas are listed, and one can also check for all the Laras on the L page):

https: //dc . fandom . com/wiki/Category:Female_Characters?from=K

T.N.

Anonymous said...

I took the liberty of plugging the Spanish comment into Google Translate - it seems to be an imperfect translation, but most of it sounds right. The writer adds some very good observations.

I will write this review in Spanish to express better opinions, feelings about this comic.

While I think it's great that in the end that nonsense plot of Kara feeling sad for not being Superman was overcome. But recognizing that she is the one and only Supergirl, and that that is her name or her mantle. That the cloaks do not exist, and each one can form his own person, hers own superhero, superhero name, alterego. And that each one can be great or great being oneself, without wanting to be another. And like her in the end I accept the light and continue helping people. All of this was a successful element in the comic.

Likewise, art seems good to me.

Yet the comic continues with the narrative of turning Supergirl against her family, Superman, Superboy, and the rest. Putting an unnecessary story of making them fight and stop getting along. Despite the fact that Kara, Kal, Jon, Lois and the rest of their super-family have gotten along very well over the years, in decades of development. Being a strong family that fights for the well-being of the other, to solve the problems and sadness that they can live. For helping people, the planet. Which even in the last Bendis run in Action Comics was seen. Where stood the cheerful, jovial and optimistic Kara that we all know and love. Fighting as a family and with her friends against the threats to the world and her family. Even in the Superman of Metropolis comic, Kara and Jon make amends and resume their family relationship and it seems that they will work together in the future to defend the planet and each other.

BUT NOT. All of that was smashed in this elseworld mini comic. I thought that in the end they would end that narrative of Kara, Superman, Superboy walking away from each other. But they continued with that story, even with Kara dying without her family. And even dying without her friends, her past partners, such as Brainiac 5, Mon-el and others. Simply all those characters that were once friends / close / friends of Kara disappeared forever from her life, just like that. That and the above really made me sad about this comic.

The optimism partly returns at the end, but continuing with Kara's story without her family and friends. Even dying without them.

Bennet is seen to be a good writer in her other works. But I really wish that, in case there ever is a Supergirl (my favorite superhero) comic again, Bennet isn't the writer for this one. She doesn't understand the character, and she decided to go the dark route, edgy. Hopefully this remains just a bad memory of an elseworld that someone ever thought of. And now that her canon is respected.

Art: 8
Story: 3
FINAL SCORE: 5.5

PS: Sterling Gates returns, or Peter David, you write Supergirl very well, you understand and know her, you know how important her family is to Kara. Even Marc Andreyko wrote a better story (funny with his friend / interest Znd'r and his pet Krypto). Which was later dismissed by another dark story from Kara, which was kind of improved at the end of the last volume of it. I just hope the next or the next writer to pick up the Supergirl comic knows the character and respects her canon, lore.

Ps2: And I hope that if Supergirl ever has a solo comic or her future appearances again, she will continue to be the hopeful, optimistic Kara with great ties to her family, friends and partners. And hopefully he goes to the future with Brainiac5 and the Legion of Superheroes. They were great together, a powerful, intelligent and hopeful couple.

I put this last one more because they are both my favorite ship xD haha ​​(along with my other favorite ship: JayKara)

(T.N. - I did the translation only, not the comment.)

Anonymous said...

"And by the end IIRC, Superman actually depowered himself by marrying Lana and living in Kandor or something, while Supes blue with Lois did have a super son and super daughter with Lois talking a super-serum but I don't remember what exactly happened with them. Did they get depowered too?"

What? You are talking about Superman (Volume 1) 162. I am not talking about that story.

Superman Family 200 has Clark and Lois' daughter Laura Kent, who discovers she has inherited her father's powers when she is fifteen.

Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane 91 has Lisa Kent, who took over her father's job after Superman's apparent death.

Similarly, Superman (Volume 1) 215 has Laney Kent.

Martin Gray said...

I’m not sure why we’re getting hung up on who had the best Super-Kids, it’s not like there’s been a decades-long plan to belittle Kara and raise Kal. It’s just been lots of different writers and editors doing whatever they had to in order to get a book filled that month. If we’re playing the ‘who’s the worst?’ game, it seems that writers hated Superman far more than Supergirl, with 20 years of Superdickery under Mort Weisinger while Kara avoided head games with her loved ones.

Lola Kent, Lois and Clark’s teenage daughter Supermaid from Jimmy Olsen #61, she was my favourite - smart, gorgeous, perky, great costume! But DC could just as easily have made her Kara’s kid, it’s all pretty random.

Anonymous said...

Agreed. Original argument was about DC only evolving the sons and lack of letting Kara form a family. It seems to have turned into a discussion one how many undeveloped daughters Kal has had. Not sure we need to delve into any of those topics more. We all know DC struggles with female representation. Always had Always will.

Anonymous said...

Thanks to the anonymous super-friend from above, yeah, I was confused and mixed the stories in my head. And I looked at SF200 and to my Surprise Supergirl was "Superwoman" there, with the bike shorts costume and a "mysterious husband" that I'm sure was Dick Malverne. Was surprised to re-discover that issue again.

Steve said...

CBR ran an article praising this issue as a perfect end to Supergirl. I tried mocking it but no browser I have allows my comments to post....

Martin Gray said...

Thanks for the heads-up Steve, I managed to get a comment up... it won’t last long, I know CBR, so here’s what I wrote:

A 'pitch-perfect ending'? More like pitch black. She's clueless, estranged from friends and family, dies off-panel, is buried in a pet's graveyard, and doesn't actually get to speak more than a single line in the second half of the issue as Bennett's new character takes over the moon colony, and the book.

Yay, this is what Supergirl fans want.

And this ISN'T the Arrowverse hero, that's an entirely different proposition - this is a version of comic book character, but with all spark and agency removed. Cut it out with the clickbait headlines.

Travis Bickle said...

Thank you anonymous for translate my comment in spanish. I hope my thoughts about this mini/elseworld will contribute to the discussion. :D :)

Pd: That's very sad that some writers of "popular" sites like CBR thinks this is a perfect ending. This is horrible, a total disrespect and destruction of Supergirl/Kara's legacy. But I think most of fans don't liked this comic, for what I saw recently here, in Twitter and in other sites.

Professor Feetlebaum said...

Martin...hope you don't mind a quick correction, but the story with Lola Kent, Supermaid ,"The Son of Jimmy Olsen" was in Jimmy OLsen # 56, not 61 (I had to look it up).

And yes, it was a great costume. Nice Kurt Schaffenberger art, too.

As far as I know, DC never did a follow up, which is too bad, as things were not so neatly wrapped up in the end.

Martin Gray said...

Thanks so much, Professor! I could see me writing #57 by mistake, that happens sometime when I have a figure in my head and by the time I write it down, I’ve counted one further up without noticing. But #61? Oh dear. Still, if I’ve sent someone there, they can enjoy Jimmy Olsen’s Wildest Adventure!