InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Bust out the white dragon!"

04nbod (04nbod) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-05-01 20:54:00

Current mood:	tired
Entry tags:	char: lois lane, char: streaky the super-cat, char: supergirl/kara zor-el, char: superman/clark kent, creator: ale garza, creator: joe kelly, publisher: dc comics

Joe Kelly + Supergirl= Loveliness

My favourite issues...So Dark Angel has taken on the appearance of pre crisis Kara in her 50's innocence and with the wrong colour skirt on to test Supergirl to see if she is a multiversial anomoly. You know,because she's dead. So here's the question, what makes Supergirl Supergirl?

Kara decides this new Kara is right and that she is a failure and so...

One of my favourite images of Supergirl ever, Big hair and perky breasts...that is what Supergirl is about!

ahh...you see that was sweet. The artist changed to Ale Garza on the bouffant page to show the change. I adore his supergirl. Cute, Quirky and fun. Look at the next issue

Her expression is gold! Its so sad trigon's people got their first!

The series was often cute!

that is almost Cosmic adventures cuteness there! and it goes on!

i love how her costume cuffs look like amazon bracelets.
This was released in 2007 and its Trade Paperbacked. I don't think '07 is recent but the rules don't really put a number on it so I don't know

(Post a new comment)

	sailorlibra 2009-05-01 03:54 pm UTC (link)
	One of my favourite images of Supergirl ever, Big hair and perky breasts...that is what Supergirl is about! Er... That was a joke, right? Please tell me that was a joke. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	aaron_bourque 2009-05-01 08:47 pm UTC (link)
	It must be. Everyone knows Supergirl's all about the bare midriff. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	04nbod 2009-05-02 08:48 am UTC (link)
	yes. LOL (Reply to this) (Parent)

	sailorlibra 2009-05-01 03:55 pm UTC (link)
	Also, I want to frickin' murder Supergirl's headband. Nobody wears headbands like that anymore. Supergirl doesn't make icky fashion choices. Supergirl has great taste in clothes. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	kagome654 2009-05-01 04:53 pm UTC (link)
	Really? I still see those headbands once in a while. In fact I think one of the girls on 'America's Next Top Model' was fond of wearing them. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	toasty_fresh 2009-05-01 06:46 pm UTC (link)
	Actually, those are popular among the teenaged/young adult hipster set-- like, people who shop at Free People, etc. They're different from Supergirl's sweatband here, but worn in the same way . . . (Reply to this) (Parent)

	irenem 2009-05-01 10:34 pm UTC (link)
	There is a whole SQUADRON of girls that wear those. True Story. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	04nbod 2009-05-02 09:06 am UTC (link)
	heh, funny you say that. I was so close to putting the headband joke in the post. I love the headband, its a classic. She was right though. They are coming back. I can think of a few celebs who wear them, the olsen twins, nicole richie, miley cyrus (Reply to this) (Parent)

	bluefall 2009-05-01 04:38 pm UTC (link)
	Why does the Super family always get the fanbase strawmen? Emoboy, Dark Angel, is there some reason this bullshit "look everything you complain about is wrong because see the bad guys say stuff like that" crap always comes from someone wearing an S? (Reply to this) (Thread)

	majingojira 2009-05-01 05:54 pm UTC (link)
	I think it's the writer buckling under the writing of a percieved paragon. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	filbypott 2009-05-01 06:35 pm UTC (link)
	I thought Dark Angel was a Wonder Woman villain? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	bluefall 2009-05-01 08:58 pm UTC (link)
	Theoretically. But when she's being a douchebag here and "parroting the fanbase" in proper strawSuper fashion, she's in the form of Supergirl, wearing an S. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	philippos42 2009-05-02 11:38 pm UTC (link)
	Well, Wondy had Veronica Cale. It goes around. (Reply to this) (Parent)

nevermore999
2009-05-01 06:06 pm UTC (link)

Yeah, epic missing of the point there, Kelly. Nobody wanted Supergirl to be perfect. She isn't perfect in the Gates run and people love that, including me. I just didn't want her to act all "darkanedgyomg" and be trapped in confusing, trite storylines with hackneyed dialogue. I also wanted her to act like a TEENAGE GIRL and not a parody of one. Being a teen girl with problems, I can tell ya, old Supergirl was...was not someone I could relate to. Not at all.

I love current Supergirl. I love her shorts and her attitude and how she tries hard to be good but still manages to be a relatable girl with problems.

Maybe Joe Kelly should have talked to a teenage girl or something. They could have told them "No. No, I do not relate to Supergirl's dad stripping her naked and sending her to kill people. That's not really a common problem. People who have those problems are probably not reading comics. In fact, I find it lazy writing, and not entertaining at all. Also, give her some clothes and a sammich plzthnks."

Current Supergirl is dealing with trying to be loyal to her mother and her father's memory without sacrificing her own individuality. She's trying to reconcile her own culture with one she's recently become interested in. She's trying to get people to like her and trust her. She's torn between two worlds, trying to keep a bit of both. She loves her friends and family, and has Lana Lang as a cool older sister type. She's also kicking lots of ass. She's trying to build her own life and be her own person.

That? Hell, I can relate to that. I can also relate to her wearing clothes, and not having perky boobs and a wasp waist. I can also say, it's a jillion times more entertaining and less confusing than the Supergirl series before it.

Thank gods above Sterling Gates took the time to understand young women and also construct a good story.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	superfan1 2009-05-01 09:35 pm UTC (link)
	Motto so much motto! (Reply to this) (Parent)

	ashtoreth 2009-05-01 11:11 pm UTC (link)
	Wait, she's wearing shorts now? Scansplz? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	bariman1987 2009-05-02 11:26 am UTC (link)
	Supergirl is now wearing athletic-type shorts under her skirt. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	nevermore999 2009-05-05 04:16 pm UTC (link)
	Here ya go: (Reply to this) (Parent)

04nbod
2009-05-02 09:01 am UTC (link)

1.I think the naked stuff was Loeb and not Kelly

2.I think the the silver age supergirl here works on multiple levels, both as a cipher of the audience and it serves to show how the 'many happy returns' type supergirl just can't work long term for a female audience.

3.As for the Turner/Churchill skinniness, I was really thin when I was 16 and I got a bit offended when I saw comments like 'eat a sandwich'. You shouldn't eat when you are not hungry. Some girls are fat, some girls are skinny and some are in the middle why shouldn't the comic reflect that?

4. current supergirl crys to much (I get the circumstances are sad but leave it off a bit, have her get angry more) and doesn't have half the time devoted to her character that she did prior to Sterling Gates.He's too busy with Superwoman/7734/retconning Reactron etc to focus on her

5. Current Supergirl has lost her independance, she's now roomies with Lana Lang rather than living in her own apartment. She needs permission to stay over when she had her own place. How lame is that?

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	scottyquick 2009-05-02 10:36 am UTC (link)
	3. Because skinny girls are really struggling for representation in the media. 5. But she's 16, she's new to Earth, she needs a job, what's so bad about staying with Lana? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

04nbod
2009-05-07 08:41 am UTC (link)

She's 17 as Hal Jordon reminded us constantly in Brave and the Bold, less than a year away from living in dorms.

She's been perfectly fine on earth for around 34 issues including one year later (its unclear how long she was on future earth in DCU time)

She doesn't need a job she sold kryptonian tech to Bruce Wayne for millions and has a trust fund from him and Diana.

I don't understand how someone would go from financial security and independance to being something of a guest in someone elses house. Especially at that age when the last thing a young girl wants is authority.

As for skinny representation, its better to be skinny than to be fat and while skinniness brought on by an unhealthy lifestyle should be pointed out natural ectomorphs who eat well,exercise and remain thin because of their body type shouldn't be targeted as being unacceptable.

http://www.uh.edu/fitness/comm_educators/3_somatotypesNEW.htm
I think the girl up top looks like Turner's Kara, don't you?
Telling an Ectomorph to eat a burger would be useless. Most super-heroes I would say are drawn as mesomorphs due to the artists desire to make them look athletic

(Reply to this) (Parent)

nevermore999
2009-05-05 04:11 pm UTC (link)

2. I'd buy that if girls had ever actually read the Kelly's Supergirl. Which they didn't. Berganza had to beg girls to read Supergirl when Kelly was writing it (while talking down to them). And one of my clearest memories was going into the comic store, having a female classmate pick up a Joe Kelly trade and go "WTF this is supposed to be for teenage girls?"

3. I can say pretty confidently you were never as thin as Supergirl was in the comic. If you were, you would have been in a hospital bed. Her thinness was grotesque and unnatural.Ingle's Supergirl is very thin too, but she's not completely impossible. ALL Superheroines are thin. Comics don't reflect the middle or fat at all. Supergirl, meanwhile, shouldn't look like she'll break in half if you punch her.

4. Excuse me? She's cried about twice on panel. Which is pretty low key, considering her dad died and her Mom's being a massive horror. And she's gotten angry TONS. She just opened a can on whoop ass on Reactron and Superwoman last issue...out of ANGER. And 7734 is part of the current overarching New Krypton plot, which Kara is involved in. Superwoman is an adversary for Kara, of course some time is focused on her. Reactron's retconning took one sentence. Before her character was a tangled mess of confused origins and shifting personalities, Gates cleaned all that up, which is the most TLC Kara's gotten since her inception. Wherea's Kelly was too busy with phantom things and Kara's EBILfather and mocking the fanbase.

5. She's...staying in an apartment with her friend (and finally has a supporting cast since...ever) so she's not independent? She's underage, and alienated and illegal on earth. It makes sense she's staying with someone who can help her cover stuff while she's gone.

Hmmm...are you the person on Girl Wonder who complained Supergirl wasn't independent in Puckett's run because Superman was always around? What, he's not anymore so you have to find something else to complain about? Relying on other people and having friends doesn't make a person not independent. It's makes them human (or rather Kryptonian) and lets more interesting stories be told.

(By the way, if you are that person, I give up, since there's no reasoning with you)

The fact is: Gates Supergirl is selling phenomonally better than Kelly's ever did. Far more girls are reading it that before, and many girls have come up to Igle to thank him for getting rid of Supertorso (he said this is a 'Rama interview) and many have praised Gates for his work on the character. Whereas Kelly took the job because no one else would, Gates took it because he loves Supergirl (Living Between Wednesdays interview). As to who nurtures the character more, there's no contest.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

04nbod
2009-05-07 08:28 am UTC (link)

I'm no member of Girl Wonder. That place always seems so unnecessarily angry.

Kelly's sales for Supergirl ranged between 44,000 and 85,000
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/9143.html

Gate's last Supergirl issue sold 34,000
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/14743.html

Supergirl hasn't recovered from the tie in's during the Bedard run and the dud that was the Puckett run and take in mind that comic sales on the whole where down. When selling 85,000 Supergirl was in the top 20 and this month those sales would reach #1.

Gates loves Superman primarily and has talked about how he loves working on the 'superman side of things'. Even if Kelly was cornered into doing the job I don't think there is any doubt in my mind he did it well.
I don't think Gates is working with Kara's character with half the nuance that Kelly did.

Gates is drawing Supergirl back in to the Superman world and she is losing both her in-universe independance and her comic independance. I'm beginning to feel like her character is trapped whereas before, her role was all over the DCU with her home in New York. Now she's in metropolis and there is the prominance of Lois Lane and the Daily Planet and she's dressed as human with 'magic glasses'. She's more of a female superman than she has ever been and this is counting the 50's! I'm having trouble finding a difference beyond gender and age anymore.

Thats not to say this run in completely bad, her fight with Reactron was great and touched on a nice character moment. I thought #34 was a cute introduction issue but since the title has been bogged down with too much plot. As for the crying, maybe I'm exaggerating but there is the sense of helplessness. She will not stand up to her mother when in issue #4 of the series she would take no guff off anyone. She isn't the strong character she used to be. I think the biggest insult to her came in the origins and omens back up where Scar said she will realise she is a scared little girl. Why does Kara have to be weak and afraid when she was shown by Kelly and Loeb to be fearless?

It saddens me that Kara came back with the same inner strength she left the DCU with and now the writers are taking her all the way back to her characterisation in the 60's. No, not even that, its worse than in the 60's. At least in the 60's she wasn't in metropolis and didn't wear glasses to hide her identity and yet still had a supporting cast. Kelly's cast of Boomerang and Wonder Girl were perfect but were flung out as soon as he left.

I think DC's current attitude to Supergirl is summed up perfectly in Trinity where Interceptor realises to accomodate Superman in the timeline she would have to be less than what she had become. That whole aspect of character development is the most unfeminist part of comic-dom and we think we've come so far. Interceptor loses her identity completely without Superman, she can't even use her family crest without him. She is defined by the man and that is shocking in this day and age. So yep, I find DC's current take on Supergirl as less progressive than the one where she was supertorso -take that girl wonder :p

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

nevermore999
2009-05-07 08:53 pm UTC (link)

Okay, clearly you are the opposite from me on everything (and are too busy having a vendetta against girl wonder (which is full of very nice people, thanks) to argue the points I've made. So fine, decide supporting cast and Kara actually having villains and doing something OTHER than being Supergirl 24/7 while whining about how she hates being Supergirl= no independence. (and Lois Lane's appeared, what, once? twice?) After this I'm done.

BUT, on sales. Kelly's sales may have been higher initially, because Kara was still shiny and new, but they were plummeting faster than Bush's approval ratings. There's a REASON Berganza did his pathetic "Oh girls, please read my comic" thing. And Puckett made them plummet even more.

Now that Gates is on, sales are actually not only stable for the first time, but increasing. Yes, they're lower, but ALL comic sales are lower. We happen to be in an economic crisis, and that's affecting comic sales.

Here's a pretty good history of Supergirl's sales and the current good sales of the Gates run:

http://comicboxcommentary.blogspot.com/search/label/sales

And here's a good article from there on how the sales declined horribly fast during Kelly and Puckett:

http://comicboxcommentary.blogspot.com/2008/07/publishers-weekly-dc-sales-report.html

And an article on Berganza's bizarre plea and why it happened:

http://www.filmfodder.com/comics/archives/2007/01/berganzas_bizarre_plea_for_sup.shtml

Also, Boomer and Wonder Girl are not a supporting cast. At all. They are two people who occasionally showed up in the title. Wonder Girl was a character who showed up far more in other books. The Supergirl title had no characters that were primarily theirs. And it was ONLY TWO PEOPLE. Who were BORING.

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	nevermore999 2009-05-07 08:04 pm UTC (link)
	As for skinny representation, its better to be skinny than to be fat ....Oh my god. That's just...wow. Well then. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	snugglebitch.livejournal.com 2009-05-02 02:43 pm UTC (link)
	I don't remember all of Kelly's run on Supergirl. I remember liking some of the earlier stuff of his. But this issue? This was just damn unprofessional. Spending a whole issue to be angry at your readers? If I were his editor, he'd either be up all night making rewrites or he'd be out of a job, cuz no way should this be considered publishable. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	snugglebitch.livejournal.com 2009-05-02 03:13 pm UTC (link)
	I did love the Super-headband, though. :D (Reply to this) (Parent)

	04nbod 2009-05-07 08:50 am UTC (link)
	Put it this way, the people he was shouting at weren't reading the title at the time. I like how he isn't backing down and standing up for what makes a good character. Its perfection born from imperfection and that even his pre-crisis Kara isn't really like Pre-Crisis Kara at all. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	silverzeo 2009-05-04 11:30 pm UTC (link)
	Still can't believe he is the same guy who made Superboy into one big MindF**k. (Reply to this)