"Thinking Hasn't Really Been My Strong Suit" (Supergirl #14, Cover Date April 2007)

Characters

Main Heroes: Supergirl
Minor Heroes: Robin, Captain Boomerang, Jr.

Main Villains: Batgirl, Power Boy

Linear narrative is problematic, as we have a lot of scene-jumping and the standard flashback scenes to Kara on Krypton with evil daddy Zor-El. Nonetheless . . .

P'Shat


Supergirl and Power Boy are out on the town fighting bad guys together and flirting, when Power Boy asks Supergirl out on a "date" and the two kiss. Supergirl says she's going out alone to find out who is trying to kill her, and brushes off Power Boy, who tries insistently to go with her.

Supergirl is found by Robin in the Bat Cave, where she is trying to use their computers to track down Batgirl, who she believes is trying to kill her. Robin gives her the information begrudgingly.

Batgirl, previously seen chatting with a distraught Boomer and with the (unidentified?) woman who hired her as an assassin, is now waiting for Kara to arrive for their big fight. In flashbacks, Kara recalls her father calling her "special", and in real time Batgirl is saying that Kara is nothing special as she uses her advanced planning to take the upper hand in the fight. Meanwhile, Boomer is hanging up like a tortured masthead, begging for help in a pose semi-reminiscent of Stephanie Brown's murder scene.

As Cassandra comes up from behind for the kill, however, we see that Kara has somehow internalized some Krypton-esque crystals, and they choose this time to spike out of her back, impaling Batgirl.

Kara, victorious, calls Power Boy for help, who is busy covering his wall with pictures of Kara.

Drash

So, this is the first issue of Supergirl since Eddie Berganza's empassioned "Girls Should Read Supergirl Because, Um . . . Well, Is 'Mimbo' A Word . . .? " So, how did we do?

Badly, I'd say.

First, the good, because there is a quite a bit of good to build on.

1. Tim and Kara in the batcave was cute, especially the part where Tim realizes that Kara and Cassie had talked about the "kiss". Okay, it was more of a good "Tim moment" than a good "Kara moment", but I'm not picky. It was a good scene. Up until the end.

2. The well-choreographed fight scene with Batgirl: "For every kill there is a weapon. Diamond dust. Red wavelength UVB lights -- and me!" It's the sort of fight you expect to see if Batman is planning to take down an evil Supeman. You know that, given enough planning, on Batman's home turf, Batman can take him down pretty easily. It's that sort of fight for a few pages. Up until the end.

3. The flashbacks to Krypton every time Kara hears the words "special." I know some people don't like the sepia-toned flashbacks, and I agree that they've gone on too long, but I guess I'm just a sucker for long, drawn-out suspense. Up until the end.

So, three "good" scenes. And all end poorly.

1. Robin warns Kara not to underestimate Batgirl.

Robin: She's a special case, Supergirl. You should think this one through.

Kara: Thinking hasn't been my strong suit. What button do I press to Mapquest this chick?

Apparently, as with any real teenaged girl, math is hard.

2. The fight scene with Batgirl goes well for Cassandra -- but too well too quickly. The obvious problem might have been that Kara is so powerful that it won't be much of a fight at all. But Cassandra has done a good job of evening the odds, resulting in . . . Kara giving up after a few failed punches? And bursting into swollen eyed tears? And being easily and lengthily distracted from the killer by the shirtless Boomer on the Masthead?



And then, Cassandra comes in for the kill, and what the heck was that? Some sort of prolonged lesbian, spooning, interlocking-legged death hug? Try picturing THAT scene with Bruce and Clark instead of Cassandra and Kara. (See, Agenda Items 7 & 8.)



3. Which takes us to the flashbacks. Kara is being called "special", and something unidentified is being done to her. This merges with the present when, apparently, both sides have given up the fight. Kara is crying and ineffectual. Cassandra is chatty and snuggly in an assassin-esque kind of way. So which of the girls wins the fight? Well, I guess Kara's Dad Zor-El does, since he's the one who installed the latent exploding-crystal thingie. In a fight between two girls, the winner is a long-dead man. Hm.

Is this the issue that will "attract women to read Supergirl"? Signs Point To No.

The Socialist, The Capitalist, and The Internationalist, Thoughts on the Origins of the Big 3 (Wonder Woman #3, Cover Date October, 2006)

Characters:

Major Heroes: Wonder Woman, Nemesis, Hercules
Minor Heroes: Robin, Wonder Girl, Donna Troy

Major Villains: Circe
Minor Villains: Giganta, Cheetah, Dr. Psycho

P'Shat

After a brief recounting of the birth of Wonder Woman, Hercules single-handedly saves Diana, Donna, and Cassie from the triple-threat of Giganta, Cheetah, and Dr. Psycho. When Agent Prince stops Hercules from killing Dr. Psycho, however, the trio of villains disappear. Hercules proclaims himself Wonder Woman's replacement, but when Agent Prince and Nemesis sneak in to his place, Nemesis and Hercules are turned into bestiamorphs, leaving just Diana and Circe. Circe acccuses Diana of not doing enough good for women, and then turns her into a mortal.

Drash

I'm going through a "Golden Age" phase, inspired by my recent purchase of Wonder Woman Archives, Volume 1, and am going back and reading all of the earliest adventures of the Big Three. My summarizations are as follows:

Superman: The ultimate passivist socialist. He stops all violence from war to spousal abuse. He protects the proletariat (soldiers, miners) from the destructive powers of the military-industrial complex. (Action #2-#3)

Batman: The ultimate capitalist. Portrayed as a rich playboy, Batman fights his fight to preserve the status quo. A prototypical adventure is the Joker announcing that he will kill Henry Claridge and steal the Claridge diamond. Batman then must protect the wealthy, and ensure that their wealth remains concentrated. (Batman #1)

Wonder Woman: Started on the cusp of World War II, Wonder Woman is the structural internationalist. She's not fighting for the rich or the poor, she's fighting for "America", assisting against the Nazis. A prototypical adventure has her foiling a German spy ring and protecting the launch of a new, secret submarine. (Sensation Comics #6).

If I could re-imagine the 1940 Presidential election, with Superheroes, my picture is Superman campaigning for Franklin Roosevelt, Batman supporting (and funding) Wendell Wilkie's candidacy, while Wonder Woman is a non-partisan, chairing the League of Women Voters, moderating the debates, serving on the Federal Election Commission, and ensuring that the ballot box counts are accurate. (In the end, the election is unchanged. It remains a landslide even if Batman is able to deliver Gotham's electoral votes for Wilkie.)

I was thinking about these origins and how well they still hold true while contemplating Circe's accusations of Wonder Woman, which Amy addresses well, here, such that I do not feel the need to reiterate, except to re-emphasize that there is more than one method to the same goal. ("I did not renounce my mission -- Just the means --" WW). Where one method may certainly be saving individual women from anti-feminist assault, another equally (or even more) effective approach may be the protect the elements of the political system that allow women and other people to help themselves.

Would "Women" be better off if Wonder Woman stopped a dozen attempted rapes or sexual assaults while the Germans took over America? Sixty-five years later, the advances so many groups have been able to make toward equality emerged with renewed force from America's desire, after World War II, to distinguish ourselves from the Nazi system or strict hierarchy. Sometimes the best way to help women is to make sure that everyone is free. If you do that, the women can take care of themselves.

So, is there really a duality between fighting for "women" and fighting for "the ol' Red, White, and Blue"? Not really, and the accusation that Circe makes is actually answered before it is asked, by Nemesis.

Nemesis: She served in the interest of justice. She didn't mete it out.

And I think that's the point.