There was a time when I used to head to Bleeding Cool almost daily for comic gossip and previews. I'll admit that I head there less and less. But I was sent there last week for an interesting news about Supergirl in Dark Crisis.
Not to bury the lede, she has replaced Mary Marvel as a member of the new Justice League. Here is the link:https://bleedingcool.com/comics/new-justice-league-pictures-whos-in-whos-out-dark-crisis-spoiler/
Bleeding Cool even had some pics to share of a splash page introducing the team and Kara now penciled in where Mary Marvel was originally.
I won't guess exactly why it happens.
Although I think the original schedule for the Campbell/Shaner Mary Marvel mini-series was supposed to be done by this time until it was pushed back to better align with the release of the second Shazam movie. My understanding is that in that mini-series, Mary picks up the full mantle of Shazam/Captain Marvel.
Perhaps with Mary's main story still yet to be told, DC decided a pinch hitter was needed.
And if you need a character to simply slip into Mary's role without undoing a script, Supergirl fits the bill. After all, she seemed to be modeled off Mary to begin with back in the day.
As a Supergirl fan, I thought for sure the melancholy drama of Supergirl:Woman of Tomorrow was a death sentence. Hard to tell meaningful super-hero stories when your main character is as damaged as she was there. So this seems like an emergency reprieve, a phone call from the Governor stopping the character execution that Tom King (in my opinion) committed.
Plus, Supergirl has always been a strong member of the League when she has been part of it, either in a guest spot or as the muscle (like in James Robinson's run.)
So I feel sorry for Mary's fans. But I am glad Supergirl will have some role in this company event. Of course, you say 'Supergirl' and 'Crisis' in the same sentence and it does conjure up some bad memories.
So I feel sorry for Mary's fans. But I am glad Supergirl will have some role in this company event. Of course, you say 'Supergirl' and 'Crisis' in the same sentence and it does conjure up some bad memories.
Interesting here how he seems to have modeled this off of the costume Kara wore at the end of the King mini-series. That scene took place seemingly hundreds of years in the future given the age of Ruthye. I don't mind this look and the short hair is rather fetching.
"There was a time when I used to head to Bleeding Cool almost daily for comic gossip and previews. I'll admit that I head there less and less."
ReplyDeleteNo wonder. That clickbait site is a cesspool.
"So this seems like an emergency reprieve, a phone call from the Governor stopping the character execution that Tom King (in my opinion) committed."
I highly doubt this. I hate saying it, but I doubt DC thinks Tom King created a trouble which needs to be swiftly and decisively corrected. Undoubtedly, they will regard the fact that WoT has been nominated for an Eisner as a good sign.
Mary Marvel was unavailable, so DC replaced her with the closest thing they could think of: her actual derivative. That's all.
Regardless, I am sorry for Mary but happy for Kara, who has not been in a team since... Justice League United? God, that was back in 2015.
I am also intrigued by the prospective of Superboy and Supergirl joining one team at the same time. It only happened in some few Legion stories, and it was a different Superboy altogether.
But I really hate that costume. Can she go back to the red skirt, please? Or the 70's short pants, at least?
Justice League 3001 ran a few months beyond Justice League United into 2016, so maybe that was the last team membership? The books overlapped.
ReplyDeleteI think that was Silver Age Kara Zor-El, sent into the future, while the current Supergirl is the same person that was in Justice League United.
It was pretty funny in that Keith Giffen way, and I really liked Howard Porter's style back then, too.
T.N.
Wow I Have Lived Long Enough to see Mary Marvel become the DCU’s next big thing...or maybe their big debacle who knows? Glad to see Supergirl finally reel in a team affiliation, lets hope she does not get overshadowed by Superman Jr or whoever that is....boy howdy though it has been a long time eh? I am not sure she has had a fixed team affiliation in decades. It certainly has not been a hallmark of her 2004 revival. I would call this hopeful, but I have learned to set the bar low with DC and Supergirl...
ReplyDeleteJF
Thanks for comments.
ReplyDeleteI love the red skirt and hope it returns.
I covered 3001 here back then. I was thinking JL proper.
And yes, my guess is his team gets trounced to make way for something else. Hope Kara isn’t treated too badly.
I don't expect the first league to survive. Or too many other heroes, as time passes.
ReplyDeleteBut I wonder if DC has thought through killing Kara in a Crisis. And were they ready to kill Mary Marvel at this time either?
T.N.
Not a fan of the bodysuit tbh, but more importantly, the ability to switch out a character like that tells me everything I need to know about the script. Mary was there only to fill out one of the token female roles to make it less blatantly obvious that DC is still absolute shit at representation. You couldn't switch out a character if the writer was truly writing a story for her. Expect her to be in the background, do a little fighting, say a few words, but this story won't respect her as a character. There will be no DEO, there will be no interaction with her parents, it will not contain any meaningful connection to her past beyond a throwaway line. This is just DC trying to do bare minimum to cash in on the customers that aren't part of their core strategy who will eat scraps if they throw them. I'm out until I see evidence of respect for the character.
ReplyDeleteGood writing is like Arcane where each individual character's desires, quirks, behaviors and actions come together to create a deeper plot with more value as a whole. If characters can be switched out like toilet paper, it's going to DC writing where most characters just will be tag-alongs doing what the plot needs them to do without the character perspective. It's nothing new, DC writers most often don't get this, but as long as we keep paying for trash DC will continue to deliver stories without basic fundamentals of character's living their own lives. With their core strategy being Batman, batman, batman, batman, superman, the female characters will always be shafted.
DeleteGreat comments to the last two anons.
ReplyDeleteYes, simply being able to swap out Mary and insert Kara leads me to believe that there isn't anything intrinsic to their specific characters in their roles.
Yes, I have my ideas of what Supergirl is in terms of her desires, quirks, behaviors. I have been shown that my vision isn't the company's over and over.
I guess I am just happy to see her rather than shuttled away into limbo after the character assassination (at least how I read it) by King.
Yes, give me a Supergirl with some substance please. I want it.
But I'd rather have something bland with her to soothe the lingering aftertaste of King's horrific presentation.
And when Jon reaches out to her to join, she seems to initially defer because 'i JUST got back'...which reads to me as likely drawing on the King arc to at least some degree.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with the above sentiments that switching out Mary for Kara pretty much indicates Kara is not playing a big part in this series at all, this seems largely due to the fact that storytelling in the floppies is being dictated by decisions made in TV, Movie and Gaming Suites...it is also a damning indictment of the status of legacy females i DCU, it could have just as easily been Vixen or Catwoman on a babyface streak.
ReplyDeleteThe latter though does open good grounds for debate IMHO.
JF
Well, small bit it seems as it is at the moment, cool to see Supergirl in the League. For me I prefer the red skirt as well, just have her do the Skort if people are worried about that aspect being promoted. Otherwise just sort of accept that bodysuit look as kind of standard. Main issues with those looks is a lack of other colors. Like she needs some red stitching or maybe highlights along the legs to break up the blue. Also, not sure why this has become a thing with several more recent version of a Kara but, why the giant belt? I get doing the gold/yellow there in the middle, but why is the damn thing nearly a corset.
ReplyDeleteTo the previous anonymous before me, if DC were committed to aping TV, we would have had a hopeful Supergirl ongoing with an updated classic Supergirl long ago rather than Jokerized or Kingified abominations.
ReplyDelete