Friday, February 26, 2016

Supergirl and Ms. Marvel in "D-Day for the Danvers Duo!"



Supergirl is a mixed bag as a TV series.  The teenage angst and romantic subplots do nothing for me and come off a bit formulaic.  They have a guy who acts and looks like Jimmy Olsen who is actually the son of the Toyman, and a hunky confident heartthrob that is named Jimmy Olsen and sometimes has a camera but is otherwise nothing like the comic character, which makes no sense to me. Still, when I want to give up on the show, they give me some cool Martian Manhunter action, or feature a DCU character like Red Tornado or Reactron to keep my interested.  The effects on the show are respectable for a TV budget, and the Melissa Benoist does a fine job with the title role. I will say I am definitely looking forward to the crossover with The Flash.

The Danvers Twins have shared a few adventures together before on the blog:

The were at odds in Issue #763...

They played a trick on the world in Issue #520...

...and they were first revealed to be sisters way back in Issue #152

15 comments:

Ed said...

I feel the same way about Supergirl. It is ok but it could be so much better.

John Small said...

With all due respect, you're wrong. Supergirl is one of the best shows on TV right now - and so much superior to that rotten "Man of Steel" fiasco from a few years back and its upcong sequel-slash-Avengers wannabe.

cgl66@aol.com said...

How is an opinion wrong, and how can you tell that something is better than something else that hasn't yet been released?

Unknown said...

I remember the original of this cover! Adventure Comics, during Linda's days as a photojournalist in Frisco. It was the very early 1970's; she had on-again/off-again powers because of some kind of kryptonite trap engineered by Nightflame of Kandor; and Lex Luthor was revealed as having an apparently Amerasian cousin named Nasthalthia. "Nasty," for short!

Martin R. Thomas said...

Love the cover, as always!

I actually like Supergirl the TV Show, mainly because it's "tame" enough that I can watch it with my 6 year-old girl, who loves superheroes. "Arrow" and "Flash" are good but too dark for her age. And she loves seeing a strong girl character as the main character on a show.

The acting and the effects are pretty good, and I love all the Easter Eggs they sprinkle in.

Carycomic said...

@ MRT: You mean, like Helen Slater (the original Salkind Supergirl) as Mrs. Danvers? Yeah, me too! But, I have to admit; my curiosity is piqued as to why they named Kara's foster sister "Alexandra." Is she supposed to be a 21st-century tweak of Lena Thorul (psychic sister of the Silver Age comic book Luthor)? Like, say, a namesake niece?

Bob Buethe said...

@Cary Killingbeck: It has been a long time since that Supergirl era, and I liked that period very much. It was one of the few periods when Linda had a decent supporting cast. A couple of minor details: it was a gang leader named Starfire (or technically, her handsome henchman Derek) who slipped Supergirl the serum that caused her on-and-off powers, not the Kandorian criminal Black Flame; and Nasthalthia was Lex's niece, not cousin (but I don't remember her being Amerasian).

Carycomic said...

@Bob Buethe: it was the way DC's artists drew her. They gave Nasty's eyebrows the same exotic look as Fah Lo Suee in Marvel's SHANG-CHI, MASTER OF KUNG FU. But, without the dark yellow inking normally used to depict someone of full-blooded Asian descent.*


*Ling, the martial artist who aided Batman during his first globe-spanning run-in with Ra's Al Ghul (the same adventure that introduced "Matches" Malone, btw), springs prominently to mind.

Carycomic said...

The second such (now politically incorrect) artistic rendering would be I Ching. The mysterious Chinese elder best known for being Wonder Woman's martial arts sifu during her super-powerless Mrs. Peel period.

Bob Buethe said...

That's interesting. I never noticed anything exotic about Nasty's eyebrows. Actually, I thought from the start that she looked rather like a young Valerie Harper... maybe because she first appeared just before the Mary Tyler Moore Show debuted.

Unknown said...

In most on-line duplicates of that Seventies artwork, Nasty appears to have what optometrists call an epithelial fold. Giving her pictures the same kind of eye-catching allure as Kristina Kreuk of SMALLVILLE fame.

Bob Buethe said...

Could be, but I think that was just Mike Sekowsky's style. Most of his female characters had similar eyes.

Unknown said...

In the immortal words of Jerry Colonna:

"I can dream, can't I?"

Simreeve said...

Nasthalthia turned up again in Grant Morrison's 'All-Star Superman'.

Anonymous said...

That colouring was not obvious in the black and white versions printed outside America!

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