Monthly Archives: October 2010

Jimmy Palmiotti talks about POWER GIRL at Comics Bulletin

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Power Girl just hasn’t been fun since Judd Winnick and Sami Basri took over, you know? I doubt Winnick had a choice in integrating the series with Justice League: Generation Lost, but did he have to throw her life completely down the tubes and kill all the fun wackiness?

Jimmy Palmiotti reflects on his and Amanda Conner’s creative take on the character and the series in an interview at Comics Bulletin dated September 25. The interviewer is kind of shite, but I found Palmiotti’s comments on their characterization of Power Girl to be interesting.

(The interview starts off with Palmiotti repeating the easily debunked urban legend about Wally Wood increasing Power Girl’s size over a series of issues. Yeah, no. Having seen the 8 issues that Wood inked and/or pencilled (All Star Comics #58-65) in Justice League Vol. 1, it just ain’t true. Power Girl’s breast size didn’t take off until years later, after her origin change post-Crisis. Blaming that on Wally Wood is a bit of revisionist history that excuses what other artists did.)

When we got the book we — me, Amanda and Justin — sat there and said, alright she’s this character that’s always angry, with giant tits and she’s muscular. Let’s go against the grain, let’s make the book a little silly, a little fun — she’s normal, but everyone around her is a little nuts. So we wrote twelve issues, and what we wanted was for the reader to like this girl, feel for this girl, relate to her cat problems, relate to her job problems; we’re going to give her a personality which I felt she never had.

She’s the normal one and everyone else is nuts – I loved that!

And they’re right about her not having a well developed personality before that. Bam, they just defined one.

Pinter: So she’s not just superpowers and a pair of breasts.

Palmiotti: And our biggest challenge was that we were going to make girls want to read it.

Oh, so that’s why the quality picked up :)

Pinter: I have to say I spent, I think, an entire year before I actually picked up the book, just making fun of it. I was just “oh my God looks at this. There’s cheesecake all over the cover. Who the hell, what the hell is this character? All she is, is a white outfit with a window cutout of her boobs.” And then a friend of mine who also works for the site (Chris Power, I’m pointing at you) said if you read Gotham City Sirens then why aren’t you reading Power Girl? And then another friend of mine told about the issue with the pregno ray and the contraceptive bomb. Then, well!

Palmiotti: Ha ha, Vartox.

Pinter: Well, the minute I heard that I thought maybe I’ll have to check this out. And so now I am I huge fan.

I had mixed feelings about the Vartox storyline, but it was a lot funnier and less 70′s-sleazy than the interviewer makes it sound. Having seeing the horrifically misogynistic Zardoz which Vartox satirizes, I hugely enjoyed the mockery. It needed to be done :)

Palmiotti: I think the book is sweet.

Pinter: There’s a lot of heart. Good action, but still some emotion going on.

Palmiotti: Yeah, and with Terra, we created Terra, and Justin, Amanda and I thought Power Girl is new to this world, but we all want to have that power to show someone else something new, and having Terra hang out with her was Power Girl finally being able to step up and show someone else something in the world. So we showed them going to the movies, and IKEA, we did all these goofy things. I’m not so sure the company loved all the things we did, but the fans got where we were going with it.

I’ve very curious about that comment about the company possibly not liking the “goofy things”. I think perhaps they should get their heads out of their asses and stop taking themselves so seriously? It’s not like they’re spinning gold everywhere else.

Pinter: I appreciate it. You get to see more of a human side to her.

Palmiotti: And she never had it. I honestly think she was written so angry and muscular, and her breasts were weird. Guys can’t — Amanda understands the gravity of breasts. When you lay down they go to the side kinda and guys, they just draw them like BAM and BAM you know? Amanda never put a nipple on Power Girl. Amanda’s funny, she’s like “no, she’s going to have real girl stuff.” Sometimes Power Girl’s going to be on the toilet, sometimes the cat is going to put it’s ass in her face. Like real human moments. For a year our job was to make people feel like they know this girl, and watch her going through all this crap and come out of it. So much so that with Vartox, he’s kinda like a male chauvinist, but deep down he’s just a guy. He doesn’t really know what else to do and Power Girl sees through it a little bit, and it’s actually very sweet and it makes for a lot of funny moments. We set out to make a really sweet, cute book, and I think we did.

And we put her in a business, and we put her in an apartment and we’ve spent time with her shopping. When I was a kid I used to read Spider-Man. I loved the Spider-Man/Peter Parker and Mary Jane stuff, and I loved that he was getting a job. I have a tendency, when I write superheroes, of going there. It’s probably why Justin and I aren’t more popular writers, because we do what entertains us. I don’t really know how to write the other books; I don’t know how to do the fight fight fight books or their art because it’s exhausting to me. I like human moments that happen all day.

I don’t like the “fight fight fight books” either :) That’s what so many people so much liked about Power Girl.

Palmiotti: I loved the idea of Power Girl going to a comic store. And in the book we do the T&A stuff, but we do it charmingly. We don’t do it in a disgusting way. Amanda can’t help but make it look charming. She loses her clothes running down the stairs and it’s funny, you know?

Amanda’s art does render the casual sexism of the book a lot less potent, but I have to disagree with Palmiotti’s assessment of that sexism as “charming”. Some of it was quite insidious (the blackmailing teenage boy was truly awful).

I wish we could have that playful nature, minus the sexism, back on the book. Hopefully Power Girl will get back to being fun after Justice League: Generation Lost wraps up. Sami Basri’s art is beautiful and can be quite charming when the story gives him the chance. I would love to keep seeing it.

New York Comic-Con: Sterling Gates Interview – his thoughts on Supergirl

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Biggest and best Sterling Gates interview evar! Podcasts are great, but videos are even better. Comicvine: Sterling Gates Interview at NYCC 2010

At 6:46m it’s a bit long for me to transcribe the entire thing (folks, always provide transcriptions of your video/audio media – not everyone can hear them!), but here is the bulk of it:

Babs (interviewer): Reflect on this series for me: how do you feel like you changed the character, and how do you feel about her, before and after you worked on her?

Sterling:
I really tried hard to make the direction of that character about the hero’s journey, and about her maturing into that role, the ‘S’, the super S on her chest, and living up to that ideal. I’m not sure other people keyed into that before me, and I don’t know if people after me will key into it, but for me that was – the touchstone that I always went back to is she’s always striving so hard to be super. She can be born with powers, but that doesn’t make her “super”. It’s a much harder ideal to live up to, and all of us wanna live up to that ideal, I think. All of us as people would like to be the best we can be, and that’s what that S symbol means, for me.

Yes. This. That journey should be what future writers focus on. (Although past experience shows that not everybody knows how to do that well. Future writers really need to pay attention to how Sterling did it.) The powers don’t come with an instant knowledge of how to use them, but Supergirl wants to be super and that’s her story. She should want to “be the best she can be” and live up to the ideal. And she can set her own template for that ideal. I don’t want her simply trying to live up to Superman’s ideal.

And so for me, it was about taking Kara and moving her to a spot where she was really starting to realize…being that hero. And Jamal Igle and I tried really hard to make that happen.

She had realized that point recently, and damnit, I was looking forward to seeing what happened next!

Babs: Do you feel differently about the character now that you’ve worked on her? Did you always like Supergirl, but did you fall in love with her?

Sterling: I always liked Supergirl. And it was the movie’s fault, because Helen Slater was so great in that movie, that I had an affinity for her, to a point, to an extent.

Did I fall in love with the character? I think we…Yes and no, because as writers we put so much of ourselves in these characters. I couldn’t fall in love with it because I was trying so hard to write her as – this is going to sound weird – I was trying to write her as a version of myself. And again, going back to that ideal, I really worked hard to make her a character that you the reader could fall in love with. I don’t know that I can ever say that I fell in love with her – I loved writing her. Her internal monologue is…a lot of my internal monologue on the page. And so no, I put so much of myself, it’s hard to “love”…yourself..? Uh, that sounds…

(joking and laughter follow :)

So cute! That Sterling wrote Supergirl as a version of himself and that much of her internal monologue was his own just makes me love him more.

When you read our last issue, and you get to the last page of our last issue, you will see it bookends our first issue, I think, really well. I feel like I had an arc, and I started here and I ended here, and I am satisfied with how that plays. Are there more stories to tell? Absolutely. People will be telling stories about Supergirl for the next hundred years – I pray to god, I pray. Do I have more Supergirl stories to tell? Well yeah, we all have more stories to tell about every character. It’s just, I hit the point where I said: when and if we leave, this is exactly what I want do, the last story, Supergirl and Cat Grant. Because we started with Cat Grant talking about what was wrong with Supergirl, why the world doesn’t need Supergirl. And so, for me, that final story was always going to be, well what if Cat needs Supergirl’s help and there’s no one else who can help Cat? And Superman’s gone, and Jimmy Olsen isn’t wearing the signal watch or whatever, who does she turn to? And the answer is Supergirl.

YES. Been waiting for this.

And it’s a really fun two-part story. We introduce a new villain, and we kind of dig into why Cat is, why Cat is. I think it’ll be a lot of fun to read.

I kept wondering why we didn’t get resolution of Cat’s antagonism with Supergirl sooner, and some explanation of Cat’s change in personality. I’m surprised this is a story that Sterling saw as the final story. Although maybe if he’d had more time than two years, he would have gotten to that story sooner than later.

In a September 21, 2009 interview Sterling said that

She still is learning how to be a superhero. That’s my whole take on Supergirl: She’s the most powerful teenager in the universe, and she has no idea how to handle it. So every day — every adventure — is a learning process to teach her different things.

That’s where she was a year ago. Supergirl #59 will find Kara in a much stronger place, much more sure of herself and comfortable with being Supergirl.

Are you listening, future writers? Continue that story.

It’s not about villains or guest stars or high stakes monster action set pieces – and those have their place – it’s about how everything that happens to Supergirl, every adventure, helps her grow as a hero. Make me care about the character. I don’t care about the crazy shit and random guest stars/villains – they could appear in anyone’s book. However! A rival or foil whose story I care about like Superwoman’s, give me more. I didn’t care about Reactron but I cared about Lucy and Alura as people. There are a lot of stories left to tell about Lucy.

Kara’s supporting cast – Lana Lang, Alura, Thara Ak-Var, Cat, Superwoman, Dr. Light – are/have all been integral parts of Kara’s story. Don’t lose that cast. Continue that life as Linda Lang that Gates and Igle set up. Have her team up with the Teen Titans (if you must…sigh) but don’t ditch that life she has with Lana. It would be a crime not to keep Lana on as Kara’s big sister/aunt. (And they could adopt Cass Cain, or another of DC’s many abandoned female characters! ETA: I’m kidding about Cassandra: she should be Batgirl again and part of the bat-family. Go Batgirls!)

Teri Hatcher posts about her upcoming Smallville appearance

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Teri Hatcher wrote on her Facebook October 7,

I shot my Smallville part. While I’m sworn to secrecy, I can tell you that it was a blast from the past and it was with love in my heart that I tried to deliver something that served the part, honored the show in it’s 10th season, and gave a tip of the hat to all the deserved fans who’ve supported me all these years. Many thanks. It was lots of fun. Check out this photo from the set. Can you believe it? Ah…Lois. I love Susan but I’ve missed you:) Stay tuned for info and air dates.

Hat tip to Comic Hero News

Jamal Igle’s reason for leaving Supergirl

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It makes all the difference in the world to know that Jamal Igle chose to leave the book. Thanks Duncan and Elayne for pointing me to this post on Jamal’s blog – I hadn’t checked it since Saturday.

To all things.. an ending and a new beginning.

I just wanted to write a quick note and address the news that was released at NYCC 2010. Yes, Sterling and I are leaving Supergirl with issue # 59. The book however will continue on with Nick Spencer and Bernard Chang, who I have every confidence will continue what we started, so be nice to them, okay?

It’s going to sound cliche but the truth is, at least for myself , I chose to leave. I approached Matt Idelson about 4 months ago right after we finished War of the Superman and let him know I wanted to move on. Two years on a series as an artist is a long time creatively, and like any artist, you feel the need to stretch and do new things. There was no malice, no secret agenda on DC’s part. There were discussions of what I may do next but nothing finalized, including Birds of Prey. So when that news leaked out I was a little befuddled and didn’t know how to respond to it and I chose silence on the subject. I know a lot of people were hoping I would take over BOP. Sadly when they would have needed me to start conflicted with finishing my Supergirl run. I’ll get to work with Gail again one day, LOL.

Read the whole thing at The Official Jamal Igle Blog.

I’m still terribly sad about Jamal leaving, but knowing it was his choice is a relief (unfortunately it seems to have led to Sterling Gates being pushed off the book, which I’m sure was never expected). Like I said on Twitter, I’ll try out anything either Jamal or Sterling do next.

As for me, have no fear. I’m still at DC and an announcement about my next project is coming in the next few months. It’s gonna be fun.

I am SUPER EXCITED ABOUT THIS!!!

(And that’s a lesson to me on not spreading rumors. I held off saying anything about Bleeding Cool’s rumor about BoP for a few days, but once someone posted a comment on my site and other sites had posted about it, it felt like I *had* to talk about it. Lesson learned.)

Now, what about Jon Sibal and Nei Ruffino? Inkers and colourists don’t tend to fair well when this happens, from what I’ve seen, and I do hope DC puts them on another project right away.

This doesn’t change how gutted I am about Sterling leaving, obviously. I wish he could have continued Supergirl with a different artist. It wasn’t his time to go. But that’s not what this post is about.

Supergirl comments from NYCC, Day 2

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Nick Spencer on what’s to come in his issues of Supergirl, more Dark Supergirl in JLA, and a Supergirl & Phantom Stranger issue of Brave and the Bold.

Per Newsarama:

Next was a slide reiterating yesterday’s announcement that Nick Spencer and Bernard Chang take over “Supergirl” with issue #60. Spencer, speaking from the audience, said that there will be many teenage guest stars and a new villain in the first arc.

A new villain? We’ve still got Lucy as Superwoman to deal with. Also, “many teeange guest stars” sounds like a return to the early, boring issues of the series which is an incredibly bad idea. Can we follow through with the threads started by Gates, please? I would hate another abrupt shift in the series.

A David Mack variant cover to “Justice League” showed Dark Supergirl with Batman, which relates to the story arc beginning in #50 against the Crime Syndicate. “Out of all that we get a new villain, but one of the ramifications for that is that Supergirl in the Justice League will be Dark Supergirl.”

I would have been happy to never see “Dark Supergirl” ever again. Are they saying that the only version of Supergirl in JLA for a while will be the “evil” one? Do not want. I sure hope this is a quick storyarc, because I’m not reading the book until it’s over.

“Brave and the Bold” will feature Lois Lane and Adam Strange, and Supergirl and Phantom Stranger “set near the end of her life” and dealing with the evacuation of Earth, Straczynski said of the series.

I can’t tell whether that’s the end of of Lois’ life or Supergirl’s. Huh. Weird.

The ‘Superman/Batman: Supergirl’ Movie Is Good!

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I just finished watching Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, and it’s WAY better than the comics! The ending is so much better, it really surprised me. Also, many of the really excruciating lines and annoying bits were either cut, fixed or softened which I really appreciated.

Director Lauren Montgomery did a fantastic job of improving on the source material. I’m going to have to check out her other DC animated movies. This was nothing like Superman/Batman: Public Enemies.

Read an interview with Lauren Montgomery on bringing Supergirl to the screen.