True Blue

You know, I believe James Gunn likes comics. He may even love comics. But there’s a difference between someone who loves comics and someone who grew up loving comics. When a character imprints on you at a young age, and you track that character’s journey over the course of many years, you have a very different understanding of that character then say, someone who picked that character up in their 20s or 30s. 

So if you happen to pick up Tom King's beloved Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow comic (meh), and that was your first impression of Supergirl, well, that’s not really Supergirl, is it. That was a version of Supergirl, but definitely not the version. And while it’s hard to point to any single “definitive” take on the character, there’s a strange truth in that clunky 1980s movie. Szwarc & Slater actually did a good job of capturing the essence of Supergirl. Simple. Sweet. Uncomplicated. A bit of an ingénue, sure, but that was always the point. Just as Superman’s defining trait has always been his unwavering moral certainty, Supergirl’s has been her kindness. It’s really not that complicated.

OK, sorry for the rant. I guess what got me thinking about that was Gerry Conway passed away a couple weeks ago. For the uninitiated, he created a lot of cool superheroes, including one of my all-time favorites: Power Girl.  Personally I kind of think Power Girl was created exactly because they wanted a more complicated version of Supergirl.

So yea, it was bad enough what the last Gunn movie did to Superman, but honestly that legacy is pretty well cemented. A bad movie or two isn’t going to tarnish it. But it bothers me a little bit that a whole generation of people are going to be introduced to Supergirl through Gunn’s movie. Pity.  Anyway, those of you thinking “hey Nerddy why don’t you just shut up and draw some tig ol bitties“ well… that’s probably good advice. Cheers.