Supergirl (television series)

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Re: Supergirl (television series)

Post by Tsyroc »

In the Man of Steel comic Kryptonite was formed by the same process that eventually caused Krypton to explode. Kind of implying that a very big chunk of the planet was essentially Kryptonite. When the planet exploded a few chunks of Kryptonite went into hyperspace when Kal-El's ship opened it to begin his journey to Earth. So, for a time there wasn't much Kryptonite on Earth. I think the main bit had probably lodged on the back of his ship.

In this continuity I would imagine/guess that the majority of the Kryptonite that appeared on Earth probably came through the Phantom Zone with Fort Rozz. It does appear that the humans can simulate the radiation that Kryptonite generates to some degree going by the training room and the restraints they have available.

Since we didn't see it happen I'm assuming that Krypton's sun didn't explode. I think it did in the Donner movie but IIRC most other continuities have Rao (I think that's the Krypton sun's name) still existing. I wonder if they plan on using the idea of red sun wavelengths in the show. They might have thought it would be too complicated a thing to introduce early on in the show but I would have preferred that to the dial-a-Kryptonite-radiation-level room as a way of depowering Kara so she could train. But then, how red sun energies have been used in the comics/films/tv has been less consistent than how Kryptonite has been used.
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Re: Supergirl (television series)

Post by Tsyroc »

Batman wrote:So no female Zod afterall, superspeed is in (if only transonic for now), and heat vision is still blue.
Kara hasn't mastered freeze breath yet (as evidenced by her failure to blow out the fire), and I liked her boo-boo with the ship. She's been at this for all of a week.
Plus she's clearly straining to move the ship (if we take 'almost a million barrel' to mean 750,000 or more she's moving upwards of 95,000 tons plus whatever the ship weighs) and comes straight from a rigorous training exercise, might have been fatigue making her slip up. That's what it looked like to me anyway.
Bouncy bullets are in (that always annoys me but it's a staple of S entertainment so that was probably inevitable) but her solution to the guy with the shotgun was...ingenious.
'You said it was a cat!' 'Who names a snake Fluffy?' :)
The kryptonite being a surprise to Astra was nicely done I think.
I liked the way she set up the interview. :)
Astra still seems to be filling a Zod type niche even if she isn't Zod. I do wonder if perhaps she had been allied with him in the past or if they are just going to try and stay out of any Superman(ish) continuity.

I was a little surprised, and disappointed, that all Kryptonians appear to have the bluish heat vision. I kind of liked it as something that was different for Kara or at least female Kryptonians.

The bouncey bullet warning was kind of a nice thing, but I assumed that James as warning her to be extra careful because in the first episode it appeared that most bullets that hit Kara strait on tended more to fall around her than deflect away. It was the glancing shots that went careening off to where someone might get hurt.

I was a little surprised that Henshaw only stabbed Astra in the arm, but maybe he was mostly concerned about making her let him go.

A couple of quick things. Henshaw's glowing red eyes. ???? Maxwell Lord.
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Re: Supergirl (television series)

Post by Crown »

Bad acting, bad writing, bad directing and poor production. For those reasons; I'm out.
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Re: Supergirl (television series)

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Crown wrote:Bad acting, bad writing, bad directing and poor production. For those reasons; I'm out.
It certainly has its issues but I thought there was significant improvement from the first episode to the second.

I tend to have trouble separating bad writing/bad directing/bad acting since they all tend to impact similar parts of what ends up on the screen and can just look like bad acting a lot of the time.

The production values seem decent enough for a TV show of this type. I used to cringe watching Lois and Clark whenever they did the superhero/villain stuff. It was generally awful, but that show as supposed to be mostly about the two characters. Personally, I'm more interested in the character stuff on this show too but they do have quite a bit of the super hero stuff. It just happens to fluctuate all up and down the spectrum of Great for a TV show to Yikes!, that didn't work so well.
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Re: Supergirl (television series)

Post by RogueIce »

I think it's rather interesting having Jimmy James Olsen as a mentor figure. Haven't really seen that before and it's an interesting take on the character.

And hey it's the same company doing Arrow and Flash, even though they're not in continuity (which is probably a good thing) so I have confidence.
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Re: Supergirl (television series)

Post by mr friendly guy »

Wow. They really depowered Supergirl and her villains for this show. Reactron's blasts could be stopped by a car door.
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Re: Supergirl (television series)

Post by Batman »

Full-on Silver Age level kryptonians are a bit hard to do on a TV budget :)
The dreaded Signal Watch is in play, Clark apparently is available for backup (at least on occasion), but Kara wants to pull a Batman and do it all by herself (yeah, that worked out so splendidly for me). Her solution to taking Reactron's power source without nuking the city certainly was...interesting ( I doubt the physics behind it work out but if I were worried about that I wouldn't be watching superhero entertainment). And if it weren't for the character's Name I'd say Henshaw is JJ.
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Re: Supergirl (television series)

Post by mr friendly guy »

I get the impression Henshaw is going to do for Supergirl, what Harrison Wells did for the Flash. This is mainly because he actually helped Supergirl figure out how to stop Reactron even though its out of his jurisdiction. Although is the US government only has special ops to deal with aliens, but can't deal with human supervillains, that is one big oversight.
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Re: Supergirl (television series)

Post by Batman »

They obviously can (as evidenced by this episode, in which they did), they're just not supposed to. For all we know there's a seperate organisation for dealing with human supervillains we're just not told about.
Would that be stupid, inefficient, and pointless? Why yes it would, especially as whether or not a supercriminal is meta is irrelevant, relevant is the amount of damage he can do so who cares how he does it?
But when was the last time something being abysmally stupid stopped DC from doing it?
'Next time I let Superman take charge, just hit me. Real hard.'
'You're a princess from a society of immortal warriors. I'm a rich kid with issues. Lots of issues.'
'No. No dating for the Batman. It might cut into your brooding time.'
'Tactically we have multiple objectives. So we need to split into teams.'-'Dibs on the Amazon!'
'Hey, we both have a Martian's phone number on our speed dial. I think I deserve the benefit of the doubt.'
'You know, for a guy with like 50 different kinds of vision, you sure are blind.'
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Re: Supergirl (television series)

Post by The Romulan Republic »

I'm of two minds about Kara not wanting Clark's help.

On the one hand, I get that she wants to prove she can do it on her own. And the point about not wanting her home to appear like an easy target is valid. And of course, from the writers' perspective, they have to have a reason why Clark doesn't show up all the time, so it doesn't just become another Superman show.

On the other hand, sometimes Kara might find herself facing a villain she can't handle on her own (which really is what happened this time). And to refuse help you need out of stubbornness and pride is irresponsible.

As is often the case with superhero, Kara seems to think rules don't apply to her and she doesn't have to work with other people. Like the government guys she works with saying its not in their jurisdiction and her going and getting involved anyway.

Of course, their's the female empowerment/sexism issue as well. I suppose they don't want to portray Kara as needing a man to save her. Certainly Kara would want to avoid that impression. But personally, I don't think their's a weakness in accepting help when you genuinely need it. The villain she was facing was a Clark-level threat, and it could have been the reverse of what happened- Kara needing to save Clark.

Let's take another female superhero as an example:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer had a recurring theme that even though Buffy was the best fighter in the group, she still needed her friends, and was at her best when she had their help. That didn't make Buffy any less of a hero.

And in fact, we see here that Kara needs her friends, at least for emotional and technological support. So why the stubborn refusal to ever accept Clark's help?
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Re: Supergirl (television series)

Post by Tsyroc »

It is a little contradictory on Kara's part that she doesn't want to accept help from Superman because the episode before she made a point to James about the whole House of El moto being the phrase "stronger together". I think she makes some valid points about needing to prove that she can protect National City on her own, but in the same token dying while trying to prove a point isn't going to do anyone any good. I did find her text conversation with Clark amusing, especially him promising never again to make the mistake of saving her. :) I did wonder if they maybe should be using some code names to hide their identities while texting but oh well.

One random thing I liked about this episode was when Kara and Alex were eating and Alex made the comment about how Kara was going to get fat. Her response was, "not on this planet". I don't know how prevalent it is in the comics because I don't recall running across this phenomena, but in Lois & Clark during one of the early episodes it was shown that Clark's kitchen was packed with junk food. He ate it all the time. Lois even said that he ate like a 12 year old, or something like that. Supposedly something in how a Kryptonian's metabolism works under a yellow sun allows them to eat pretty much any sort of food without the drawbacks. I mean, if we're going to go with wish fulfillment why not go all the way and have your superhero be all ripped and fit without having to do any sort of work for it. :D

Someone needs to teach James that he needs to refer to Superman as Superman, or Kal when there are people around who don't know his other identity. Kara is kind of screwed in that regard. She pretty much has to use Supergirl as her alias since she stuck with her Kryptonian name on Earth.
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Re: Supergirl (television series)

Post by The Romulan Republic »

Tsyroc wrote:It is a little contradictory on Kara's part that she doesn't want to accept help from Superman because the episode before she made a point to James about the whole House of El moto being the phrase "stronger together". I think she makes some valid points about needing to prove that she can protect National City on her own, but in the same token dying while trying to prove a point isn't going to do anyone any good. I did find her text conversation with Clark amusing, especially him promising never again to make the mistake of saving her. :) I did wonder if they maybe should be using some code names to hide their identities while texting but oh well.
Yeah, I couldn't help thinking about the NSA or someone like that reading their texts.

I don't know, maybe privacy rights are still a thing in the DC universe.
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Re: Supergirl (television series)

Post by Batman »

I dunno. Doesn't that presuppose the ones reading their texts already know they're Clark and Kara, and if they already do, what exactly would them using those names give away?
Clark (or even Kara) aren't exactly unusual names unless you know the context and if the NSA (or whoever) already does know the context the secrecy angle is done for anyway.
'Next time I let Superman take charge, just hit me. Real hard.'
'You're a princess from a society of immortal warriors. I'm a rich kid with issues. Lots of issues.'
'No. No dating for the Batman. It might cut into your brooding time.'
'Tactically we have multiple objectives. So we need to split into teams.'-'Dibs on the Amazon!'
'Hey, we both have a Martian's phone number on our speed dial. I think I deserve the benefit of the doubt.'
'You know, for a guy with like 50 different kinds of vision, you sure are blind.'
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Re: Supergirl (television series)

Post by The Romulan Republic »

Not at all. It would be apparent, I think, to anyone reading those texts who they were. They discussed their adventures and Clark referred to Kara as Supergirl.

Of course, you can make the argument that superheroes' identities should be known to the government, what with the whole accountability/rule of law thing.

Edits: And Kara's, at least, already is.

That doesn't address the risk of a random hacker/supervillain or some sleazy corporation getting a hold of it though.
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Re: Supergirl (television series)

Post by Simon_Jester »

It occurs to me that in a universe where there are godlike superheroes zipping around, getting into the habit of covertly reading their mail might be dangerous even for government agencies. If Superman or the Flash or someone like them decides they're allergic to the continued existence of NSA server farms, the NSA is going to be shopping for a lot of servers in a hurry.

Of course, the converse is that there are plenty of private and public privacy-breaching organizations portrayed in comics.
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Re: Supergirl (television series)

Post by The Romulan Republic »

I doubt Superman would be quick to essentially attack the US government.

On the other hand, comics Batman probably could and would run circles around the government in the espionage game without doing anything as overt as smashing their servers. ;)
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Re: Supergirl (television series)

Post by Batman »

Especially as there is a good chance their servers are built by WayneTech so even money they automatically filter out anything related to me anyway.
And if 'Man of Steel' is any indication I wouldn't be too sure about Clark not defying the government. Besides, even in the comics, we did go up against a legally elected POTUS.
'Next time I let Superman take charge, just hit me. Real hard.'
'You're a princess from a society of immortal warriors. I'm a rich kid with issues. Lots of issues.'
'No. No dating for the Batman. It might cut into your brooding time.'
'Tactically we have multiple objectives. So we need to split into teams.'-'Dibs on the Amazon!'
'Hey, we both have a Martian's phone number on our speed dial. I think I deserve the benefit of the doubt.'
'You know, for a guy with like 50 different kinds of vision, you sure are blind.'
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Re: Supergirl (television series)

Post by RogueIce »

As far as Kara not wanting Clark's help, I can dig it. Not only does it help keep him out of the show, but there's no readily apparent reason she should not be just as powerful as he is. If she can't (physically) take on someone, Superman probably can't, either.

The only thing he has on her is experience - experience fighting and experience at using his powers effectively. And for that, she is training with the DEO, although some training sessions with her cousin wouldn't hurt either; although obviously those would need to happen off-screen. In that respect she could, in theory, come into her own quicker than Big Blue did, since she's not figuring it out all on her own.
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Re: Supergirl (television series)

Post by The Romulan Republic »

Even if they're equal in power, two fighters is better than one.
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Re: Supergirl (television series)

Post by Batman »

But that means Clark is not available anywhere else. Sure they're more powerful together, but they're also limited to that single fight. As Long s it's something Kara can handle on her own (which should mean anything Clark could), having Clark assist her would be a waste of assets.
Overkill is nice when you can afford it. With an apparent total of two superheroes available in this continuity, I don't think they can.
'Next time I let Superman take charge, just hit me. Real hard.'
'You're a princess from a society of immortal warriors. I'm a rich kid with issues. Lots of issues.'
'No. No dating for the Batman. It might cut into your brooding time.'
'Tactically we have multiple objectives. So we need to split into teams.'-'Dibs on the Amazon!'
'Hey, we both have a Martian's phone number on our speed dial. I think I deserve the benefit of the doubt.'
'You know, for a guy with like 50 different kinds of vision, you sure are blind.'
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Re: Supergirl (television series)

Post by The Romulan Republic »

I agree, presuming their are no other superhero in this continuity (though on the plus side, they've got a mostly friendly government agency that can capture a Kryptonian).

However, if its a case where one is likely to have problems alone (as with Superman saving Kara), then better to work together and risk not having anyone available somewhere else for a while rather than risk losing one of them and being down to one superhero.
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Re: Supergirl (television series)

Post by Simon_Jester »

The Romulan Republic wrote:I doubt Superman would be quick to essentially attack the US government.
It's not that Superman would, it's that he could... And anyone in the NSA who thinks Superman is actually a threat must, ipso facto, consider him to be the kind of threat who might react to provocation by attacking the NSA.

In real life the US doesn't have to worry about things like this because no foreign country or other powerful entity has the ability to unilaterally launch a targeted strike aimed specifically at neutralizing the US's ability to spy on them. The Russians or French or Chinese could start a nuclear war, but that would lead to massive destruction on both sides.

Whereas if Kal-El of Krypton decides he objects to the continued existence of a single bank of computers in a single building... those computers are going to be gone in short order, and the odds are good that nothing else in the area will get so much as a scratch unless he wants it to.
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Re: Supergirl (television series)

Post by The Romulan Republic »

Fair enough, I guess.
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Re: Supergirl (television series)

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One thing of noticed a bit on rewatch, and it might not be something they mean to draw attention to, but I think the audience is supposed to get the impression that Kara resembles Superman enough that she wears glasses and bleaches/dies her hair in her civilian identity so people won't tie them together.

When she's 13 she has fairly dark brown hair and in the first episode James Olsen comments that she looks a bit like Superman in a portion of her face. Otherwise, I can't see why she starts out wearing glasses in the show before she becomes Supergirl. I'm assuming that with dark hair and her face not hidden by glasses it was thought that she might draw the wrong time of attention.


On a more recent episode I was a little surprised that this show went in a certain direction. They used a "shock jock" to state a few things that I actually like about this Supergirl character but they also had touched on her sexuality (or lack of, according to the DJ). The surprising thing was that they cleverly worded things to imply that Supergirl is a virgin and because of who she is there probably isn't a man (the public doesn't know about the other aliens) on Earth who would be able to deflower her, and there probably isn't a line for people even willing to give it a try. I rather enjoyed Cat dressing down the DJ for what she said about Supergirl.

I'm also starting to wonder just how much Cat Grant does or doesn't know. I'm find it unlikely that she doesn't know that Clark is Superman, and I waffle back and forth about whether she knows Kara is Supergirl, but doesn't know much about her and had made some assumptions that she's starting to reconsider. I certainly get the idea that some of Cat's hardass/asshole persona is put on for business reasons, while other parts of it are her way of pushing those around her to become better. She does occasionally show that she has a heart. I guess I find it a little hard to believe that someone who started out as Perry White's assistant and worked herself to the CEO and owner of giant multi-media conglomerate wouldn't have been observant enough to eventually catch on to the Superman/Clark Kent thing.

I'm not really sure where they are going with Hank Henshaw or Maxwell Lord. I really hope that Lord isn't going to be Lex Luthor stand in but it seems they might be going that way, although with more charm. Clearly there's something going on with Hank Henshaw and I have a feeling it ties into whatever happened to Jeremiah Danvers, but I really would like if they don't take him down the villain path. The show is essentially an alternate Earth if not an Elseworlds so I'd like to see the show be willing to make changes to big character arcs even if the fanboys end up crying "that's not how it is in the comics". I had really wished that Smallville had been able to do that and have Clark and Lex remain friends just to be different, especially since most of their problems came from the two of them never trusting each other enough to talk things out.
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Re: Supergirl (television series)

Post by Omeganian »

The latest twist with Hank was certainly nice. And people really seem to like the scene.
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