The Batmom

CBV Reads Supergirl #4

COVERGIRL: The Supergirl covers are not boring, per se. They always serve to hint at the narrative inside, but so far, they’ve failed to excite me on their own merit. The most enticing item on this cover is the text (which you can't see here): “They took their best shot … now it’s Kara’s turn!”

INSIDE STORY: Mighty Supergirl suffers mightily because evil Simon Tycho has strapped her down next to a hunk of Kryptonite. One of Tycho’s minions rebels, breaking her free. Another minion shoots him dead, but the brief time away from the Kryptonite proves long enough for Supergirl to regain her strength. WHAMM WHOOOOOSH and she’s escaping … but wait.

Simon holds up the red crystal I thought was Kryptonite. It’s a “sunstone” and Supergirl assumes her dad put it in the pod to send her a final message.

Properly using her previously confusing new skillset, Kara blasts a hole in the spaceship, wrests the now-damaged sunstone from Tycho’s hands, and zips away.

The ship half-explodes and Tycho half-explodes. His minions meld what bits are left of their scheming boss with his superfighter machine The Brain. And a super villain is born!

RAMBLE: I was so excited to witness the birth of a super villain, I laughed out loud at the last page.

Comic Book Dad bred in me, his eldest, an appreciation for villainy. A great villain — Voldemort, the Wicked Witch of the East, Darth Vader, Cruella DeVille, a cackling cotillion of vile stepmothers — can make a movie/book/comic strip.

I cheer (inwardly so no one throws popcorn) when a great villain delivers a line of evil comic genius, thrill as she schemes, and delight in the melodramatic last moments when he dies/is hauled off to the slammer/falls to a messy, unseen death on the sidewalk/rocks/water below.

I’ve appreciated my comic book malefactors so far. Batgirl’s The Mirror rocked the classic villain look with his black hooded cape, while Batwoman’s Llorona offered a sea-scented, maternal twist on the bad. But actually getting to witness Simon Tycho’s transition from a human scoundrel into a super villain … I crowed with delight.

(Sidenote: Crowed with delight? Weird turn of phrase. Crows cackle and, to my ear, sound like nags, not celebrants.)

CBV Reads Supergirl #3

COVERGIRL: Not loving the expression on Supergirl’s face. It’s supposed to read horror, but actually suggests fauxrror, like an SNL actress playing a slash movie victim. Having said that, the idea of Supergirl horrified is enough of a hook to pull that cover open.

INSIDE STORY: Superman tells Supergirl that her home, her loved ones, and her way of life are gone, destroyed years in the past. Part of her believes him, but part of her hopes he’s wrong, and it’s this part of Supergirl/Kara that drives her to find her travel pod.

Ditching her cousin, Supergirl meets Simon Tycho, a slick young space tycoon who lures her to his space station and tests her strength, skill and wiles. First she battles a fluttering squad of killer butterflies, then faces a strange gelatinous man-like Tycho-creation called The Brain. She eventually slams The Brain through a wall and out of the space station. In the vacuum of space, he’s powerless.

The Brain brain-dead, Supergirl heads back into Tycho’s HQ for her pod which is, unbeknownst to her, leaking Kryptonite. As she nears it, the Kryptonite renders her, in Tycho’s words, “worse than someone who just chugged a few gallons of motor oil.” As she goes all green-eyed and weak, Tycho assures her “I have your best interests at heart.” Mwah ha ha.

RAMBLE: Compared to Batwoman, where every centimeter is crammed full — beautifully crammed, but full — Supergirl has felt vast from issue #1. Whether vast tended toward the spacious or the empty remained to be seen until this issue. The comparatively straightforward narrative here proves a sturdy backdrop allowing Supergirl’s character to emerge more surely than it has the previous two issues.

While the two books have a different vibe, as do their heroines, Supergirl and Batgirl share some similarities. Their creators both use action sequences to reveal inner psychological truths. For different reasons, Supergirl and Batgirl are struggling to find their strides as superheroes and still figuring out the physics of the fight.

To my mind, at least one in three superhero flicks never reaches beyond popcorn movie status.

Now that I’m a comic book reader, and not just a superhero movie viewer, I realize how rich are the psychological journeys undertaken by superheroes. They are yin to the action-packed narrative yang, the quiet internal drama counterbalancing frames full of kapow.

Kapow translates readily to the big screen, but the accompanying inner action is necessarily harder for the big-screen moviemaker to convey than it is for the efficient small-frame comic book creator. The movies, I think, suffer for the lack.

Once I catch up with my reading (hopefully by the release of issue 6 of my 5 books), I’d like to sit down with some well-regarded superhero flicks and see how various filmmakers attempt the translation. Suggestions requested.

WHO THE HELL ARE THESE PEOPLE?

Supergirl/Kara Zor-El: Recently arrived to earth from her home planet, Krypton. Older cousin of Superman.

Superman: Superman. Younger cousin of Kara on Krypton; older cousin of Kara on earth.

Simon Tycho: A young bossy britches of a bazillionaire tycoon who gathers space debris and barters with various governments around the globe. Determined to discover what makes Supergirl tick so he can reproduce it and sell it.

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? (AKA Last Time on Supergirl)

Supergirl crashes to earth. Metal-sheathed men take her travel pod. She’s confused. Superman tries to help, but she keeps smashing his face in. She’s surprised at her powers.