Milly Alcock Hired To Play Supergirl

The news broke on Monday of this week that Milly Alcock was hired by James Gunn to play Supergirl in his upcoming slate of DC movies. There are many links out there covering the story. Here is one from Variety: https://variety.com/2024/film/news/supergirl-milly-alcock-james-gunn-1235891230/

That is pretty much the extent of the news so now it is time for opinion. 

As a longtime Supergirl fan, I like that Kara is going to look like the classic character, as a blond. I have just started watching House of Dragons and have found Alcock to be a very good actor, holding up her end of her scenes. 

So I think the casting is great. 

I also like the reports that Supergirl will appear in the Superman Legacy movie, thus introducing her to the world before her solo movie gets released. Let's see the super-cousins actually interact on the big screen!

The Supergirl movie is scheduled for down the road so who knows if it will actually get made although it now has a star and a screenwriter. 

What I still have an issue with is the source material - Tom King's Woman of Tomorrow.

Remember this quoate?

That makes the character “much more hardcore,” Gunn explained in 2023 when presenting the first 10 titles in the new DCU slate. “She’s not exactly the Supergirl we’re used to seeing.”

I found much of Tom King's book to be terrible, showing us a depressed, angry, isolated Supergirl. She brings a child to witness (and not stop) an execution by stoning. She puts Krem in the Phantom Zone and then allows him to be beaten after he repents. She cries in the sun. Not a lot of heroism there.

But maybe Alcock will bring some pathos to the whole thing. 

One last note. I want to again thank Sasha Calle from playing an excellent Supergirl in the Flash movie. Her look wasn't classic but given the 'Flashpoint' feel of the whole thing, her looking more like Clark worked. And she played Supergirl with a steely determination and one with heart. 

Will I like the James Gunn Supergirl movie? I can only hope.

Review: Power Girl #8

Power Girl #5 came out this week and is a Streaky focused issue written from the super-cat's perspective. He doesn't understand the human language outside of his name. The word balloons from the humans are therefore gibberish. In essence, this is a sort of silent issue.

I have struggled with this title since it's inception in Action Comics. I have been reading Power Girl since the 70s and I have never seen her portrayed in this way. Writer Leah Williams presents us a character who is almost the opposite of the strong, confident, brash Karen Starr. Instead we have the non-confident, nervous, out of touch 'Paige Stetler'. And 'Paige' doesn't have much of an opinion, kowtowing to Lois and being saved by Omen. 

So while I have enjoyed animal issues like this before ( Super Sons Annual for instance - https://comicboxcommentary.blogspot.com/2017/12/review-super-sons-annual-1.html ) and I don't mind breather issues between arcs (like Mark Waid is doing in World's Finest), I don't know if this title has earned a silly issue so early. 

Do I like Streaky? Yes. But as Supergirl's cat. Not Power Girl's. Did I find it a little off-putting that she calls Streaky 'Stinky' in this issue, given that PG had an actual cat named Stinky in her history? Yes. Do I think that I am not going to be buying this title much longer? Yes as well although a Supergirl crossover means I will be on this book for the next couple of months.

David Baldeon is on art here and brings a sort of cartoony feel to the proceedings which works for a cute animal issue. I think this style fits the tone of the book perfectly. He draws animals very well.

This will be a brief review. Hang in there.

Review: Superman Lost #10

Superman Lost #10 came out this week, ending this mini-series which had a solid main story premise but lost it amidst any number of detours, feints, and confusing subplots. It's a shame. Because that primary plot could have made for a solid 4 issue mini. 

Superman has spent 20 years on a doomed planet and couldn't save it from the divided populace. This world, dubbed Kansas by Superman, is filled with entrenched political sides unwilling to save themselves. Returning home only weeks have past and he is suffering PTSD. How can he come to grips with his life? Give me more of this. Heck, given the premise of the story was set up entirely in the first issue, it could have been a solid 6 issue mini and a decent trade.

Instead, writer Christopher Priest has injected a lot of other side plots. Lois investigating a crooked Senator. Lois asking Lex to help her save Kal and Lex giving her phony cancer. A murderous GL trying to seduce Superman on Kansas and killing an innocent. A side issue where an alternate timeline Superman retells a classic Action Comics tale. All of it sort of wanders about. 

The problem here is that none of these other stories really gel within the main plot well enough for them to bolster the main story. They often felt like a distraction. 

And the overall ending is a little bit underwhelming, a mash of comic book science and a possible misunderstanding of the Superman character.

As usual, the Carlos Pagulayan art is solid but some pages are fill in from Jose Luis Soares Pinto. 

On to some notes.

Review: Batman/Superman World's Finest #23

Batman/Superman World's Finest #23 came out last week, the penultimate chapter of the Kingdom Come storyline Mark Waid has been crafting. And therein lies the conundrum, one I have trumpeted throughout the arc.

Mark Waid and Alex Ross created Kingdom Come back in 1996. It is a masterpiece, an Elseworld's possible future, a sacred comic text. I love Kingdom Come, one of those stories that I go to and reread frequently. 

Now in World's Finest, the Earth-0 World's Finest head to that world and have a rollicking adventure, exposing the world to the multiverse, fighting their doppelgangers, and battling Gog. 

How can this story have taken place and the events of Kingdom Come unfold the way it did? Can such a major incursion from the multiverse, a discussion about Magog's origins, and a cliffhanger with a major DC baddie not impact that story-telling?

Now, in and of itself, this story is fun. The plot twist that Waid brings to Gog is great and completely unexpected. Seeing our World's Finest pairs team up to fight the big bad is fun and cool. And that cliffhanger! Add to the the standard excellent Dan Mora art and you have a winner.

Mora brings in some Earth-22 sensibility to an action packed fight issue. What I like the best is his warping his lines and stylizing his art as the madness increases. Brilliant stuff.

Still ... how can Kingdom Come remain Kingdom Come? Is some time travel erasure in our future?

On to the book.

Review: Superman #10

Superman #10 came out last week, a sort of 'done in one' chapter in the Dr. Pharm and Mr. Graft vs Luthor storyline. I have been enjoying this title a lot and this chapter is really fantastic. The overall plot in the present in nudged forward. We get a 'Superman in the Old West' story complete with a Bronze Age villain in the perfect environment. And we get the story and art that perfectly complement each other. 

Writer Joshua Williamson is having a ball here. He has Superman square off against Terra Man in the Old West. His Superman is spot on, including a set of morals and some sly strategy. We learn a more about Marilyn Moonlight, Pharm, and Graft. We get a solid cliffhanger. And best of all there is a sense of Bronze Age fun here too. 

Bruno Redondo is on art here and brings such a bright clean style to the whole book that the whole thing just shimmers in my hands. I love the Western stuff in particular. And how could I resist this Lee Bermejo cover. You know this is going to be a hoot just based on this.

On to the book.

Review: Justice League Vs Godzilla Vs Kong #4

Justice League Vs Godzilla Vs Kong #4 came out this week and was another funtastic romp through this Elseworlds tale mixing the Monsterverse with a sort of Super Friends style DCU. Without a doubt, this has been the most bananas and therefore most entertaining book I have read in a while. And this issue keeps up that frenetic pace with some great character moments.

Writer Brian Buccellato continues to mix the two universes well. The Justice League are trying to deal with these souped up kaijus who seem able to stand up to the most powerful of them. With Superman off the table, Supergirl remains a focal point which makes me smile. We get a rather emotional Batman and a solid Lois moment as well. But the best part of this is the insane Legion of Doom, who act like old school robbers rather than world conquerors here. Only Lex seems to rise above it all.

Christian Duce splits art with Tom Derenick. Each have a unique style making the pages easy to discern. Duce bringing a finer line and a more refined touch to the proceedings. This works well with the Supergirl pages and the insane Atlantis scenes. Derenick is on the Fortress scenes and brings appropriate gravitas to the Lois scene. I had to pick up the Whilce Portacio cover seen above. Is this the first time Portacio has drawn Supergirl?

On to the book.

Matrix Monday (On Wednesday): Jerry Ordway's Matrix Design

As a long time reader and a longtime Supergirl fan, I really enjoy peeking behind the curtain of the creative process. 

After the Crisis, we went a while without a Supergirl. And then Matrix came around, a sort of stand-in Supergirl. Matrix was the protoplasmic creation of Lex Luthor in the pocket universe, based on Lana Lang. I was a little skeptical of Matrix when she first arrived but her character journey was fantastic (one I chronicled about 4 years ago with Matrix Mondays).

I assumed that the plan was always to have Matrix become Supergirl (even though she pretended to be Clark and sort of disappeared for a while). 

But over on X/Twitter, I read this Jerry Ordway tweet and his ideas about Matrix. I figured this was Supergirl adjacent and therefore worth re-posting here. See the pic above and then his thoughts on this 'new character'.