While my con season is right around the corner, the monolith of conventions Sand Diego Comic Con is in our rear view mirror. This convention, while on my bucket list, is really more about pop culture and mega-media approaches to our beloved characters. The big screen and small screen celebrities descend and give us all the sneak peeks.
Now there is a ton of coverage everywhere for you to deep dive. I'm going to just give some high level gut reactions to stuff that I saw. And clearly the biggest news to drop was about Season 4 of the Supergirl show. And I am both interested and a little worried. Bear with me. We'll start out with the official trailer.
Here is a link to the trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=2ra4U5K7pHU
There is a lot of reused footage from past seasons in here. But the one new visual that really caught my eye was of this armored Supergirl person. This really grabbed me. Is this the 'Soviet' Supergirl we saw at the end of Season 3, acting incognito? Will we have a sort of 'Who is Superwoman?' sort of mystery to help sort this out? Is this Kara who, afraid her secret identity might be discovered, opts for a masked look? Regardless, it looks cool, ripe for an action figure. It has enough Johnson/Asrar armor and Flamebird look to it to 'feel' right.
What am I worried about? Well the voice over, I guess by Agent Liberty, is clearly the show runners using aliens as a metaphor for illegal aliens. From the 'take our jobs, our money' to the culture war, this is blatantly obvious.
Now Supergirl has clearly been the most politically charged of the CW shows. It wears its politics on its sleeve. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work. I have said many times before a story with an agenda is fine. An agenda with a story tacked on seldom works, often comes off preachy, clunky, immature, or all of the above. Think of the 'James race issues' episode or the 'gun control' episode of last season. Even if I agree with the sentiment behind what they were saying, both of those episodes were as subtle as a gut punch. So I am hoping that the show can somehow make this an enjoyable season and not a 22 episode diatribe. Please, make it a story first.
I honestly hope that we get a daffy Supergirl season in the mode of DCLOT, just silly super-heroics.
The other big news was Supergirl hiring transgender activist Nicole Maines to be Nia Nal, the Dreamer:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/supergirl-taps-transgender-activist-nicole-maines-as-tvs-first-trans-superhero-1128979
Obviously the inclusion of a transgender performer is progressive and fits into the politics of the show I applaud the show for pushing the envelope. I do hope that there is some connection to the Legion given the character sounds like Dream Girl, down to the moniker and last name.
Does this mean we probably will get some episodes focusing on transgender issues. The answer is most likely yes. I just pray they are done in a way that works.
I'll also add that we learned Manchester Black will also be on the show this season. And, as I said, there are plenty of side interviews with the stars out there.
https://supergirl.tv/the-new-cw-sundays-promo
This was thankfully a more light-hearted take on matters. I hope there is some joy this season.
Okay, onto to non-show stuff.
I have to thank blog friend Cori ( @CoriMarie21 on Twitter) for tweeting throughout the con.
I didn't hear anything about the upcoming comic. But I did see this preview of Maguire art on Cori's feed.
This looks like Kara annoyed/ignoring Superman. I can only hope that the loving relationship that Bendis gave us in Man of Steel isn't ignored.
And Cori also forwarded this pic on the new take on Supergirl in the rebooted Lauren Faust run DC Superhero Girls.
Shea Fontana's DC Superhero Girls Supergirl was shy, awkward, and kind, finding her way in the world.
Faust's is much more akin to the Kara we saw in Faust's Super Best Friends Forever. The Muscle! The Rebel! Aggressive? Tough? Confident? This is a very different Kara. I don't mind a sassy, pro-active Supergirl.
The things that stuck out for me was the 'stands up for the little guy' sentiment. A Supergirl who protects those who can't in a fierce manner? I'm in.
And a big thank to blog friend Firebird who also attended. Firebird owns a piece of storyboard from the 1984 Supergirl movie and got it signed by Supergirl Helen Slater at a Supergirl movie panel!
He also was able to send me shots of Supergirl merchandise coming soon. That Artgerm statue is gorgeous but the price tag of $525 is just too much for me. I don't know much about that middle statue of a Supergirl busting chains while flying out of a fireball is sweet looking. I'm not usually a 'belly shirt' fan but that is great. And then there is a Chris Uminga mini-statue sculpt in the works too.
And speaking of Helen Slater, I saw this picture of her and Sterling Gates on Twitter and it made me smile. That is like some cosmic nexus of Supergirl goodness right there. I wish I was there to thank them both.
So that's all the news ... I think ...
Did I miss anything big??
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