Spoilers Supergirl - Season 1

[gblews]

Gonna have to read this thread to maybe get a handle on how to watch this show. I've only seen bits and pieces of some Flash episodes, Supergirl has a similar tone, right? Haven't been able to get into Flash (or Arrow either).

I found myself wishing this had been a Joss Whedon joint, with a young Amy Acker as Supergirl. It just seems like a show where there just isn't much beneath the surface. We'll see.

Agree with comments about Calista Flockhart. She all "shapely", now. Still got those great legs. Didn't know that was Dean Cain and Helen Slater. The actor playing SG certainly has that "adorability" factor.

 

[Admiral2]

-If the show lasts a few years and Marvel premieres a movie with another blonde superheroine named Carol Danvers, who sues whom first?

I don't think either side would sue over something like a last name for a character.

I meant the whole sound-alike names, Kara Danvers vs. Carol Danvers, and the blonde superhero-age as a whole...

But, it was a throw-away comment anyway, so what-evs...likely no lawsuits.

And the important part is if the show lasts a few years. If it does, I'm totally fine with that.

I can understand how the Cat Grant character could be grating for some people, but I actually think her bitchy Devil Wears Prada act is a lot of fun to watch.

Not if she becomes the "boss caricature" seen in so many comics--like nearly every animated & live action version of J.Jonah Jameson.

And it should be even more fun to see her reaction when she finally learns the assistant she's been treating like shit all this time is Supergirl herself (and knowing Berlanti, I'm sure she will eventually learn that secret).

I hope not. The world of Supergirl should remained as closed as possible, so the main characters do not seem to be some pack. Its enough that there's two co-workers & one government agency aware of her.

About that: the last time I spent money on a Supergirl comic - pre New 52 - Cat Grant hated Supergirl for some reason and was in the middle of a media smear campaign - ala JJJ - targeting SG. Anybody think that could happen in this series?

 

[The Old Mixer]

One bit of Chris Reeve channeling that I noticed is the way she moves around in costume..."letting the costume do the acting" as Reeve put it.

but it's also clear that she does, in her own strange way, care for Kara and her other employees, even if she'd never admit it to them.

I don't know...she was very close to firing Kara for disagreeing with her. I think that goes past "tough love".

So - reading over the Wiki entry for Vartox, it seems that the creators of Supergirl did a rather radical redesign of the classic character.

He's basically the Persuader with Vartox's name.

And if they would, they would've done it back in 1977 when Carol Danvers was created.

Carol Danvers was created in 1968, as a Captain Marvel supporting character. She became Ms. Marvel in 1977.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Marvel and DC were probably still reeling from the 12 rounds they did trying to figure out who was allowed to make Captain Marvel Comics.

 

[Kirby]

I cringed a little when that guy started talking about lesbians (not ready for that conversation yet),

Why not? It's only a big deal if you make it a big deal. When we talk to my daughter about family we always include the various possible family configurations. We've been doing this since she started asking and she doesn't bat an eye at it. Just my two cents.

I'm not going to force any conversation about sexuality on her at her age. She's seven, and just barely seven at that. She has absolutely no concept of sexuality, has never asked a single question about it, and I really don't want to force the topic during a show about a super hero. If she asks questions, sure, we'll talk about it with her.

 

[Warped9]

I missed the premiere (it conflicts with Murdoch Mysteries), but I gave this a watch on Global TV online.

I found myself liking it in a fun way. I think Kara/Supergirl is well cast and Cat was amusing as the pain-in-the-ass boss.

I found myself disliking Alex and Hank Henshaw, but I can see where these characters could go either way in becoming (somewhat) villians) or Kara's dependable allies.

I drifted from Gotham given it couldn't hold me. And I don't watch any other superhero series. But I think I'll give Supergirl some more time.

It was fun.

 

[Greg Cox]

And if they would, they would've done it back in 1977 when Carol Danvers was created.

Carol Danvers was created in 1968, as a Captain Marvel supporting character. She became Ms. Marvel in 1977.

Exactly. At the time Carol was first created, as a security chief at NASA and potential love interest for Mar-Vell, there was no intention of ever making her a superhero in her own right. That happened nearly a decade later--at a point where Marvel was making a deliberate effort to launch some new female heroes. (See also Shanna the She-Devil, Night Nurse, The Cat, all of whom were introduced around the same time as Ms. Marvel)

The fact that we ended up with two flying superheroines with the same last name is just an accident of history.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Oh at that age it's definitely silent running about everything sex related.

Lies are told.

"Sex is when you hold hands for too long."

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

About that: the last time I spent money on a Supergirl comic - pre New 52 - Cat Grant hated Supergirl for some reason and was in the middle of a media smear campaign - ala JJJ - targeting SG. Anybody think that could happen in this series?

I would prefer that to everyone marveling over Kara, like a fan club. Conflict in her life should come from more than the obvious--her sister (probably down the road) and the villains.

 

[Christopher]

Carol Danvers was created in 1968, as a Captain Marvel supporting character. She became Ms. Marvel in 1977.

Oh, sorry. I had the niggling thought that I should double-check that date, but I got distracted before I could.

I'm not going to force any conversation about sexuality on her at her age. She's seven, and just barely seven at that. She has absolutely no concept of sexuality, has never asked a single question about it, and I really don't want to force the topic during a show about a super hero. If she asks questions, sure, we'll talk about it with her.

You don't need to talk about sex to talk about love and relationships. If she can understand that men can marry women, she can understand that men can marry men. If she can understand that a kid has a mommy and a daddy, she can understand that a kid has two mommies. It's actually a lot simpler if you don't address the sexual aspect, because then it's just about feelings and not how parts fit together. The only thing that's different is the pronouns.

I found myself disliking Alex and Hank Henshaw, but I can see where these characters could go either way in becoming (somewhat) villians) or Kara's dependable allies.

Alex is Kara's sister, so it's perfectly appropriate that she's as much rival as ally. I really loved Benoist's performance toward her in the post-rescue scene in her apartment and the post-capture scene in the DEO HQ -- the deep, genuine pain and anger she felt toward Alex, like you can only have for family, yet tempered and subdued because there's love there too. You could see the complexity of their relationship in Benoist's expressions and voice. She's really good.

 

[theenglish]

I'm not going to force any conversation about sexuality on her at her age. She's seven, and just barely seven at that. She has absolutely no concept of sexuality, has never asked a single question about it, and I really don't want to force the topic during a show about a super hero. If she asks questions, sure, we'll talk about it with her.

You don't need to talk about sex to talk about love and relationships. If she can understand that men can marry women, she can understand that men can marry men. If she can understand that a kid has a mommy and a daddy, she can understand that a kid has two mommies. It's actually a lot simpler if you don't address the sexual aspect, because then it's just about feelings and not how parts fit together. The only thing that's different is the pronouns.

My daughter who is 8 and her friends saw a lesbian couple on a movie or television show a year or saw ago. They asked my wife if to women could be girlfriend and girlfriend and my wife said yes or two boys could be boyfriends. The group of them literally shrugged their shoulders and went back to watching television. Kids are much more accepting than adults because every day the learn something different about the world.

 

[Christopher]

My daughter who is 8 and her friends saw a lesbian couple on a movie or television show a year or saw ago. They asked my wife if to women could be girlfriend and girlfriend and my wife said yes or two boys could be boyfriends. The group of them literally shrugged their shoulders and went back to watching television. Kids are much more accepting than adults because every day the learn something different about the world.

Right. Kids have no preconceptions. Whatever they see around them, they accept as normal. They'd only have trouble accepting sexual or gender or racial diversity if they aren't exposed to it early in life, if they're raised with the fiction that uniformity is normal and then have to discover later that the world doesn't really work that way. Hiding reality from them when they're young will just make it harder to accept when they're older.

 

[Greg Cox]

My daughter who is 8 and her friends saw a lesbian couple on a movie or television show a year or saw ago. They asked my wife if to women could be girlfriend and girlfriend and my wife said yes or two boys could be boyfriends. The group of them literally shrugged their shoulders and went back to watching television. Kids are much more accepting than adults because every day the learn something different about the world.

Right. Kids have no preconceptions. Whatever they see around them, they accept as normal. They'd only have trouble accepting sexual or gender or racial diversity if they aren't exposed to it early in life, if they're raised with the fiction that uniformity is normal and then have to discover later that the world doesn't really work that way. Hiding reality from them when they're young will just make it harder to accept when they're older.

It probably depends a bit on where you live. My nieces and nephew in Seattle have probably been to as many gay weddings as straight weddings at this point. Families with two daddies or two mommies have always been part of their world. They just take it for granted.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

Why did Kara wear glasses before she was Supergirl?

That, too.

She shouldn't be doing so unless she's playing Linda Lang, though. If they're going to do the Kara/Linda Danvers version, she should have blonde hair that's covered by a brunette wig as in the original comics.

About that: the last time I spent money on a Supergirl comic - pre New 52 - Cat Grant hated Supergirl for some reason and was in the middle of a media smear campaign - ala JJJ - targeting SG. Anybody think that could happen in this series?

The reason that happened was because she felt that Supergirl wasn't as good as Superman (possibily owing to Toyman killing her son in one story) and she felt that Supergirl should not be a hero.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Winn killed Cat's kid?

Wow.

That's messy.

 

[davejames]

Why did Kara wear glasses before she was Supergirl?

Well she had clearly been wanting to reveal herself and her powers to the world for a while now, so maybe she concocted her nerdy secret identity look really early on (or at least when she joined CatCo), knowing that it might one day come in handy.

 

[Guy Gardener]

No she didn't.

There was no plan to ever reveal herself.

Lexxie had been programming Kara to stay low and act human since she got her job at the DEO.

"I don't remember what it feels like to fly"?

####.

I remember Dean Cain's Clark Kent using the power of flight to change light bulbs.

 

[Christopher]

Why did Kara wear glasses before she was Supergirl?

Well she had clearly been wanting to reveal herself and her powers to the world for a while now, so maybe she concocted her nerdy secret identity look really early on (or at least when she joined CatCo), knowing that it might one day come in handy.

No, she wasn't planning to reveal herself. She'd chosen to hide her powers and aspire to be "normal," and that included hiding behind glasses and shapeless clothes. She was chafing against the limits she'd imposed on herself, but she didn't actually decide to move beyond those limits until the plane crash forced her to, and then she was surprised by her own unwillingness to go back within her shell. It wasn't premeditated at all.

What's noteworthy about the first act is how little Kara used her powers before the plane crash. She didn't use superspeed to be a better assistant or use heat vision to make Cat's latte hot enough; the only power she used in that act was her hearing. Compare that to, say, the pilot of Lois and Clark, where Clark uses his powers repeatedly before becoming Superman, whether to save a runaway bus or to get a good story or just to float up to the ceiling and fix a light bulb. And when he arrives in the story, we learn he's been using his powers to travel the world and help people secretly where he could. Kara, by contrast, has spent the past dozen years trying not to be powerful, trying to deny her potential and conform to the limited role that society expects of her, because it was "safer" for her to blend in and not assert herself. Which is a pretty effective allegory for society's preconceptions about male vs. female roles.

 

[Scout101]

was starting to get mildly annoyed at the lengths they went to to avoid saying Superman. Forget whether they said it the once in Cat's office (when arguing over supergirl's name), but in general lots of twisting around talking about her cousin, Him, the big guy, etc. Felt odd that they weren't just saying Superman occasionally. Especially if he's been active that long in this story.

Dunno if it was contractual or what, but felt off that they avoided the name-drop, even when it was the obvious choice.

Dean Cain got...round. Fun to include him, just guess I haven't seen him recently. Got big, not gonna fit in those tights

 

[Christopher]

was starting to get mildly annoyed at the lengths they went to to avoid saying Superman. Forget whether they said it the once in Cat's office (when arguing over supergirl's name), but in general lots of twisting around talking about her cousin, Him, the big guy, etc. Felt odd that they weren't just saying Superman occasionally. Especially if he's been active that long in this story.

The only time "Superman" was spoken was in Kara's opening narration. Cat referred to Metropolis having "a superlative man" in explaining how the Daily Planet could stay in business, but that was before Supergirl emerged. (It foreshadowed it, though, by having Cat tell Kara to "find me a hero" if she wanted the Tribune to be saved.)