Day 1424 - Supergirl

I blame Cary Bates and Neal Adams.  World's Finest #176 is called "The Superman-Batman Split!" and co-starred Batgirl (on Superman's team) and Supergirl (teamed up with Batman).  It's one of my favorite stories, and I attribute my reading of it at such a young age (probably around 11 or 12 years old) as to why I like both Batgirl and Supergirl as much as I do as characters.  I'm also not going to discount Yvonne Craig's performance as Batgirl in the Batman TV series, either.

But as or Supergirl... I saw the movie with Helen Slater in the theater back in the day.  It wasn't good.  But there was a blog I read years ago (that I wish I had saved) where the person who wrote it listed 99 reasons why you should never watch the Supergirl movie again.  It was really funny.  But at the end, he said there was one reason to watch it every day - Helen Slater was perfect as Supergirl.  I'm hard pressed to argue with him.  And I'll say that the extended version of the movie still isn't a perfect movie, but it's a lot better than the theatrical version.

All that is a lead-up to the new Supergirl TV show.  My goal tonight is to write my thoughts as I watch the show.  This isn't live, since I had to tape it, but it's going to be live for me.  So here we go.

Gotta love the spit curl on little baby Kal-El.

The Phantom Zone is introduced.

Helen Slater and Dean Cain!  Yup! 

"Aliens are out there."

Super powers at work.

Intro to Jimmy Olsen.  Sorry, I'm calling him Jimmy no matter what he says.

Melissa Benoist is channeling Christopher Reeve's Clark Kent pretty well.

Nothing like using your super powers to prove men are scum.

I like the flying effects.

So, all the stuff before the commercial break - Character introductions, power set defined, and only the tiniest bit of angst.  This is why I'm going to enjoy this show.  Kara is going to enjoy using her powers and have fun.  And we don't see "fun" enough.

So this time, I'm struck by Calista Flockhark.  The closer the shot, the more frightening she is.  But she looks fine in the longer shots.  No more close-ups, please.  And Kara says that Winn will be only the fourth person who knows about her powers.  Let's keep it that way.

Well, guess Hank Henshaw is number five.  *sigh*

And now Jimmy's number six.  Grrrr.

Super fight!  She's a rookie and fights like it.  I appreciate that.

This series has a real Buffy vibe to it.  If we can get some of these characters to be as potent as the Scooby Gang we might have something really strong going.  I'm also not disappointed that the bad guy chose death over capture.  I am a little disturbed that the super-secret military organization had everyone clapping at his demise, though.

I'm also impressed that the big bad is Supergirl's aunt, and that the aunt, with no hesitation, tells her flunky to "find her and kill her."  That tells me everything I need to know about her.

Yep, I'm in.  But we all knew that anyway.