As a long time DC reader, I am really enjoying DC Universe Legacies and its stroll down the history of the DC Universe. Unlike the History books produced by Wolfman/Perez back in the day, Legacies isn't just a rattling off of the major events of the DCU, instead anchoring it to a perspective of an 'everyman' police officer Paul Lincoln.
That narration by Lincoln also means that we aren't going to see Anthro or Oa or (I assume) the Legion. This is the Earth-based history of the DCU running basically from WWII to the present.
Now as a comic reader for over 3 decades and an amateur comic historian, one of the best things about this issue is seeing stories that I have read before again, albeit in a new light or a new focus. So to see the original Hawkman telling Congress that he won't have the JSA unmask themselves, I can nod knowingly. I can't remember where I first read this scene, but I can remembering reading it and see it in my head with Joe Staton's art. And when I see a one page homage recapping the Fleisher/Aparo Spectre stories from Adventure Comics, it makes me want to pull those issues out of the long boxes and reread them. I love this sort of stuff.
DC Universe Legacies #5 came out last week and began to show how the DCU was becoming thematically darker. It also reviewed one of the seminal events in comics, Crisis on Infinite Earths. I was in my early teens when Crisis came out and can remember waiting for the next issue to come out as DC was rewriting history. Heck, back then I walked to the local drug store to spin the rack and find the issues.
We all know what happened in Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 and how after the 'one universe' was created in Crisis on Infinite Earths #11 that Supergirl was basically erased from history and the minds of the characters in the DCU.
So it was a twinge of both nostalgia and melancholy and a smidge of happiness that I saw this panel in Legacies #5.
Yep, that's the headband wearing 'Earth One' Supergirl, saving people with help of the Metal Men!
It's hard to know what this exactly means ... if anything. If Lincoln recalls this Supergirl, does everyone? Or is Perez a big fan of that Supergirl and wanted to shoehorn her in (remember we saw several incarnation of Supergirl in Final Crisis:Legion of Three Worlds #3)? Or is Perez not as big a continuity nut as me and remembered Supergirl was a big part of the Crisis and didn't think people would make a big deal of this cameo?
The bottom line is I have always thought that that Supergirl was sort of erased from continuity rudely, DC's version of throwing the baby out with the bath water. So it was nice to see her again, acting heroically and saving people ... even if it was in one tiny panel.
Now don't get me wrong. While I couldn't say it early on, I have come to love the current Supergirl, looking at the current Kara as the Supergirl, putting the past behind me and realizing the current Supergirl is a worthy reboot of my favorite character and well ... the heir of the Supergirl legacy.
Prehaps they are trying to think of a way to bring the old Supergirl back while keeping with the new?
ReplyDeleteI sure hope they address this.
ReplyDeleteGranted I haven't read any of Legacies, but I've already got a bone to pick with it. Between this, glossing over the origin of Donna Troy (as I understand it), sticking Plastic Man back in the Golden Age ... it seems that Legacies is not explaining DC continuity so much as telling a story. This would be fine, except that I thought we understood Legacies was a thematic sequel to History of the DC Universe, which did work to explain DC continuity; I feel the last thing we need right now is something else muddying the waters.
There were a few nods. The narrator moves to Midvale which is pretty connected to our girl. I like the idea that the new Supergirl is a kind of reincarnation of the old one. They are the same person for me. I also like that perhaps pre-crisis Kara's legacy still filters through into the new world into Linda Danvers or her meeting with deadman (in continuity or not)like an echo.
ReplyDeleteIf we go all Morrison-ian, we can erase a pencil mark but its never really gone we still have the indentations and the smudges.
I didn't even see her as I was so busy wondering if somehow her death would be shown and spazzing over Midvale's existence!
ReplyDeletePerhaps this isn't from his viewpoint so much as what the actual viewpoint was at the time. In any case, it's a nice nod to having Kara recognized.
As for Kara today, I've never thought of her as a "second" Kara but the one and the same, just rebooted like Earth-1 Kal, as Infinite Crisis seemed to suggest. (I really loved that she and Power Girl shared the same heart beat since they are the same person really.) When she fought "herself" SA style, and she proved that she wasn't an anomoly, it just enhanced the idea she was the same but different if that makes any sense.
I actually like to think of it that when Kara died in the Crisis that somewhat like Barry Allen being himself the lightning that gave him his power, so then did Kara had a second chance as it were, and her essence went through space and time and became every other incarnation of a Supergirl, whether Leela Linder, Kara In-Ze, angel Matrix, Linda Danvers, the totem Super-Girl, or even Carol Danvers.
Anyway, enough of my drivel.
Thanks for pointing that panel out!
I'm thoughroughly enjoying this Post-Final Crisis continuity retelling of it's main DCU history!
ReplyDeleteI think it's just the current Supergirl. Since, at that point in the Crisis, heroes/villains were being pulled from all time periods, it could easily be the current Supergirl from some point in her future where she has changed her costume.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing more answers will be coming in the Supergirl Annual featuring her "history" with the Legion.
I'm taking it that it was the Earth One Supergirl, but as he narrates we see the whole picture, which he may not. Supergirl was there, so she's shown.
ReplyDeleteOr, perhaps he does remember this Supergirl, but considers her one of the heroes he'd never seen before or since (see #6).
@collectededitions, I thought Plastic Man had been acknowledged as the Golden Age, long-lived Plastic Man for years?