A Brief Aside

I've got to leave the cave and head out into the plagueworld to forage supplies. So just a quickie for now -
 

I get my main propeller-head fix from the Arrowverse tv shows. How far we've come from ol' Jeff asking to put the Flash in a jogging suit instead of that weird costume.

But, i've given up on Supergirl. 

And that's sad, because not only does the show sometimes feature my lifetime favorite superhero group (the Legion Of Super-Heroes), but Jon Cryer has been giving us the best live-action Lex Luthor the world has seen in a Long time.

But, i just can't watch the stumbling stupids any longer. For a year and more we've watched a silly soap opera storyline about how Lena Luthor is going to the dark side because she feels betrayed by Kara and friends over Supergirl's secret identity. Soap Opera dreck has always been the Berlanti shows' weakest point, but this whole thing has just been too moronic. It all hinges on nobody bothering to mention that Lena did know Kara's identity but had to have it wiped out for security reasons, by her own request. We were warned that just flat telling them that they're memories were purged could be damaging, but each recovered the knowledge over time until only Lena was still in Forget mode.

One stupid sentence and the entire year is mooted. But nobody can bother to mention it, and now they don't seem to remember either. By the time they hit their "It's A Wonderful Life" episode i couldn't watch past 5 minutes. The alert on the stupidometer was ringing too loud to pay attention to anything else.

If the writers have to dig that deep into frelling stupid, they obviously don't want anyone with intelligence to be watching.

I'll honor their wishes.

So long, Kara. 
See you next Crisis. 

The Movie Sucked, But The Girl Was Super

Now that Melisa Benoist's television version of Supergirl is a hit, can we just pause a moment to reflect on Helen Slater's movie version of Kara?

She may have been given a bad movie with a terrible script that had her fighting a witch over a boyfriend, but Helen Slater sure gave us a good looking Supergirl-

Heck, she even knew how to be a true DC movie hero in the important ways, too -
Product placement!

Her earnest performance and true-to-character looks were the best part of the film, by far. It's good to see she's a part of the show that follows in her footsteps. (Not to mention to see a show that treats the character with some respect)

all images from Supergirl or promotional materials for the movie (1984)

What The Haney?

Do you remember Prez!, the "Imaginary" DC series about the USA's first 18 year old president?
Groovy surrealist fantasy & social satire in a private little world?

so....       Nope. Just - Nope.

Snell, over at Slay, Monstrobot...!, pointed out the existence of this book a few years back. It's just wrong. What sort of reality bending/dimension hopping/rift breaching could bring about this situation?
Let's look, shall we?

Wait -what? So many things wrong on this page that we can't even go into all of them here!
Prez Rickard is now president on Earth One? And no one thinks this is odd? Is that Geraldo Rivera? Those Pants!
Who's responsible for this? This kind of IDC reality bending - it's Bob Haney, right?

NOPE. Supergirl goes ape courtesy of Cary Bates (a known breacher!), aided & abetted by Art Saaf & Vince Colletta. Not a Haney hiney in sight. And yet, still we have this kind of wtf science happening:

...um, what?

Either televisions on Earth One are vastly more sophisticated than any technology we can as yet begin to imagine, or NO! It Doesn't Work That Way! X-ray vision shows you a photon cannon shooting back at you! (Inside the cathode ray tube that forms the tv screen. I miss CRTs just because we don't have photon cannons in the house any more.)
Supergirl and Prez greet each other with familiarity, both seeming to be quite at home in this odd universe...

... and Prez, being Prez, fixes a time piece...

...before they split up and go on with their lives...

Right On. But this was not an isolated attempt on Pres. Prez's life. Along his travel route they find an antique clock auction, and Prez finds the only broken clock in the place...

They quickly realize that not only is this part of an ongoing plot, but the plotters also have access to restricted information, like Prez's route. In short order, it's decided to abandon plans, and Supergirl will fly him to the White House instead.
Of course, that's exactly what our baddies expected:

 

But mere magic isn't enough. It's augmented by...

Is that a Photon Cannon? You mock me, sirs. Mock me!
ahem...
Reinforced by science, the curse is fired at Supergirl, leading to her King Kong moment:

So.... to top things off - science dilutes sorcery, making it ineffective on Kryptonians?
Are we sure Bob Haney wasn't involved? Mentoring Cary or something?

Well, obviously the thing to do is to jump ahead a few issues and see how the responded to the barrage of questions from the readers.
Oh. That was the last issue of the series. Clever bastards.
But fine. I can roll with this.

Bring On the epic Batman Vs. Boss Smiley mega-series!

true madness by Cary Bates, Art Saaf & Vince Colletta from Supergirl #10 (1974)