Drinker's Chasers - Is The James Gunn Party Ending?

 hate supergirl as a concept with the burning passion of 1 million suns times decillion, but i'm 100% game for that film to possibly be better than Superman 25, deadass. It has the advantage of being second, to learn from the previous mistakes-

 it's possible.

Supergirl: ALL his powers, none of what makes him interesting. Not in the slightest. (original post : 2023)

 ugh, that dialogue just maps out what her problem is.

All his powers, none of his legitimacy.

Some articles want to argue that her having memory of Krypton and dealing with it being gone makes it more interesting than Superman.

Seems desperate, if one difference is what you're going with and that only works IN CONCEPT when you actually do something with that.

I repeat, the concept alone doesn't make her interesting you have to actually DO SOMETHING with it- and not retcon it in 4 years.

Kill her, have her death mean something then bring the bimbo to life anyway to just "exist", that's not doing anything, that's using her as a novelty, which is all she is.

Point being, there's another knockoff with the exact same premise as SupergirlNextDoor, but somehow ended being more interesting than Supergirl even as she's had decades of history on him:

SUPERBOY-PRIME

Dude's entire Universe, not one Planet, his UNIVERSE. was erased like a scent in the wind. Gone forever.

Did he become a by the numbers cheap knockoff sidekick? Hopping from team to team, looking for any ounce of relevance in the shadow of the original article? Writers galore wanting to carve an identity discovery narrative for this same character over & over again because they know she has no identity, so the constant theme is she has to find herself or get out of Supermans shadow because that shadow is why she's relevant in any respect. Eternal inferiority complex.

Nope, thats Kara, not SB-PRIME

 

Even though being a sidekick is exactly what he wanted, the kid was manipulated, he started trouble, he snapped, and gave the entire DC Universe a run for it's money.

Was imprisoned, beaten, humiliated, killed (a lot), came back with a vengeance again, then lost again.

Then saved everyone, and got his ending. A PERFECT finale for his arc, full circle arc of violence, hate, delusion, then redemption.

My question for years has been: Why couldn't that have been Supergirl? 

People have this idea in their head that she's interesting when at best she reads like a self-insert than an interesting person with a stake or belonging anywhere. 

kara should've been SB-PRIME in the first place. I would be simping for Kara at that point because her story would've been worth the hype, that's doing something with that pain and anger.

Then Supergirl would be something worth looking at and taken seriously. She becomes a Red Lantern, but ofc that doesn't stick. The more compelling Alt versions of her are not even canon. So what's the point?

So the one thing people attach to to say she's more interesting than Superman- What to ya know ANOTHER Superman did it better, damn near the same origin as her (so she's not unique in the respect that she wasn't a baby when the tragedy happened, so was Prime) and he's canon too. I'm genuinely surprised no one points this out more.

I'm impressed with Tom King's "Up in the Sky" for Supes, and i know he's got a Supergirl run out there "Woman of Tomorrow" (cringe, more coattail riding) Can't even get a tagline of her own.

But i'm going to try the first issue and see what's up. (years later & i'm still fighting to get through issue 1)

I WAS NOT impressed with her Rebirth #1, it was so basic, i almost fell asleep on my keyboard. And the cliffhanger made me bust out laughing like: "I'm supposed to want more of this shit?"

I'm going to "try" (W O M A N of Tomorrow), it's Tom King, so i genuinely hope he does something different for her. (he didn't, she ended up in a cape anyway)

I got spoiled a year back and saw she got a costume change and now looks like a 40 yr old cosplayer from the 30s, and somehow looks worse than before.

"Superwoman", ugh. The reason why Oracle & Red hood works because they're not riding Batman's theme.

They're doing their own shit, i've been saying this for years now. Supergirl doesn't work for me & clearly not in the grand scheme because she has no agency. She needs to break off and lead her own life.

The essence of Kara is she is unnecessary, she is the fat that needs to be cut off.

Superboy-Prime should have been Kara Zor-El-- the alternate Clark from another Earth, not a duplicate Kryptonian in the same fucking universe as Superman trivializing Kal surviving the tragedy at all. I have ZERO clue why people aren't catching that little detail more often.

Think about how contrived her origin is ad infinite:

Unlike evil Kryptonians like Zod who add depth & layers to Krypton's darker elements, like ghosts of the sins of the planet Kal idolizes and honors. 

Instead of that narrative hook, Kara's very existence reduces the impact of Kal surviving because she survived too, in most takes, the exact same way. 

So why is Jor-El & Lara's sacrifice a big deal, if some other jackoff had the EXACT same idea, oh btw that person just happened to be Jor-El's brother, who just happened to be a Scientist too who just happened to have the exact same idea but for some reason didn't go with Kara or at least send his wife with his daughter if the pod was big enough for a damn teenager but another woman who was no taller than Kara, could not go with her, or at least put them in stasis to save oxygen. 

Plot holes, contrivance, FANFIC tier writing, garbage.)  

No idea why WB can't get Kara's stiffy out their mouths but refuse to give Starfire or Cassie Cain the light of day, leagues better characters. Make it make sense. 

Superman: The Last Family of Krypton

Supes has a little sister in this universe, "Valora-El", instead of being "female Superman" homegirl decides to go into politics, went to Harvard, she serves her years as secretary working for a Congressman; she earns her seat as Congresswoman in the later years.

That's what i mean, by "living her own life", that shit's badass. 

Valora-El is how you Supergirl without being a knockoff, and OF COURSE she isn't canon because DC hates me sometimes. 

"What if Supergirl was a baby and not a teenager when she left Krypton? Who do you think will find her? What do you think things would be like?" - I repeat, Make Kara a Lantern

if i’d do something with her,

Ideally she’d be sole survivor in a universe without Kal (As Superman) so her very existence isnt therefore redundant like in the canon, I’d have er be raised by a species not of Earth, like the Tamaraneans, have her be Kori and Komand’rs adopted sister. Blackfire Hating Kara even more than Kori due to the parents showing the same favor to Kara as they did Kori

Tales of the New Teen Titans #4

• So not only is BlackFire 2nd to Kori despite being first born but ALSO last to the adopted kid. whomp #Seething

BlackFire would brutalize Kara in some way during their enslavement trials after Tamaran falls

So this Kara wears a permanent scar from Blackfire, their youngest brother would’ve died honorably protecting them, his life & death would be a forceful motivation for the both of them to survive

• Parents dead, & on the run from Big sis who is on her own warpath to re-take Tamaran (which is worth a series by itself)
• We get to see a sisterly dynamic with just Kori and Kara in various situations with them eventually finding refuge with the corps
• She uses her Kryptonian ship to help them get away, and find safety in a functional fortress of solitude ship in space

I always pitch this and imma pitch it again- Make Kara a Lantern, NOT red lantern because edgy teenager mad durrrr, no none of that shit. (cause if its not gonna be permanent dont waste our time then)

This is actually Earth-7129 Carol Danvers edited into a Green Lantern Kara. i like how how the armor looks.

Kara specifically finds a home & safety with the Blue Lanterns first & a means to get stronger (Blackfire would be characterized as a legit force of nature, terrifying for Kara to even think about), every fight they have she barely survives and a fellow Lantern dies, she has to get stronger. Kori does not want to be a Lantern, hangs around for some time and the two part ways so they are harder to find. Choosing to hide on earth (becoming a Teen Titan)

Kara in time cross-trains to the Green Lantern Corps later after she masters the Blue (during which she learns heaps about her Kryptonian heritage & Argo, and maybe switch it up and have Kal-El be HER father which always should have been the case vs that cousin bullshit)

• Kara would take after Corpsman Laira. One of many mentors.
• After she & Starfire go through their various development in a 2 year span (for Kori its longer due to time lapses over space time)

Kara eventually becomes the Ion of that universe after she proves to be worthy vessel for the space whale entity, no cape, no S, no KNOCKOFFS, she has her Ion crest.

• Making Sodam Yat proud, one of many of her mentors.
• This would be the visual culmination of her completion, now ready for Blackfire.

Final epic battle being the two sisters in their final forms vs Blackfire who pretty much has ruled Tamaran and single-handedly conquered the Gordanians as revenge for The Gordanians destroying Tamaran in the past, now she is using both empires combined to conquer instead of sharing prosperity. Reason being that’s where she found Starfire, and taking the planet is one more thing to take from Starfire.

And in the end Kara wouldn’t be Supergirl or a version of Superman, she has her own shit.

1. In her own league as The Ion
2. trained by the same masters that taught Starfire & Blackfire and other master lanterns & more.
3. Experience as two different Lanterns
4. Genetic augmentation so her power is amplified & mutated
5. Plus the Kryptonian upgrades

• So by the end of that 2 year span she’d only be 18 years old. All that, from slavery to decorated Lantern Duty. Began at 16 year old kid.

The entire point of this is not making her a Superman derivative yet her journey puts her on a similar powerlevel to his anyway, in many ways, a blatant rival. Between the Training, the gene augmentation, the Ion power, the Lantern ring. (As Ion, she wouldn’t need it anymore)

Karand’r would be a serious problem. If she snapped, she’d be a JL level threat.

---

Just a genuine attempt to try to salvage whatever intrigue this blackhole of a character is capable of without coattailing Supes per usual.

• Divorcing her from Supermans drip as much as possible, and giving her a serious power level by taking advantage of the other aspects of DC as a universe & have her specifically use Kryptonian tech in her fightstyle and use it to rebuild ravaged worlds, creating New Kryptons in a way.

Which most writers refuse to do with this character, INNOVATION.

Her going to earth at all would happen during her years as a Green Lantern, not by her choice or even curiosity, but duty.

• No secret Identity bullshit either. She lives on Oa, successful, educated, respected. Has a career lined up when she retires from Corps duty, she has her own goddamn life divorced from Earth and Superman, who doesnt exist in that universe.

We see different sides of Starfire, a street smart Kara with an A.I Papa Kal acting as her guide to master her powers & comfort her during her steep depressions, and the experiments that gave Kori and Komand’r their others powers, Kara also suffered those experiments but more extensively because she was more resistant, so now she has Kryptonian +hence genetic augmentations mentioned earlier.

Fun stuff.

Tales of the New Teen Titans #4

• OP Kara except its not cringe because “cell density” or some vague bullshit just to say she’s stronger than Superman without her having to earn shit.🖕 This Kara would have suffered to get this powerful, trained to get that good, she’s a professional, career galactic cop that’d impress the shit out of Buzz Lightyear himself. So it feels earned when she masters all of it.
• So basically if Katara or Judge Anderson from Dredd was a cosmic Superhero

Making Kara cool for once. She’s had badass moments as Supertoken over the years, yet never once have I took this chump seriously or thought she was ever cool. Supergirl works better in concept, its why she has history but no independent legacy. None.

• If Kara was a baby blasted off into space at the moment of world boom, I’d have the Tamaranean “r” family take her in and just go from there.
• Otherwise, making her completely divorced from any mainstream established characters? Fine, have a nun from Oa raise her or something; Have her be shot into the Phantom Zone with her parents as a baby and only she made it out alive.

TL;DR Still make her a Lantern, the reason why I specifically push the Lantern angle is it covers multiple story fronts. It gives her a place to belong, a melting pot to meet a diverse array of backgrounds that can teach her soooooo much.

• And being a Corpsman would put her in ironsights of so many threats outclassing her powerlevel as a Kryptonian, tests for her to get stronger.
• For this stale piece of toast of a character, her being a Lantern does 80% of the work for me as the writer, all I gotta do at that point is just decide what the epilogue looks like and just fill up the events.
• Not re-skin Superman stories but dumb them down and put a chic in it as the main character

And no SuperCapeshit, all of this belongs to her. She’s not copping Supermans situation, Period. At best whatever references happen would be easter eggs.

For the Tamaranean pitch— It’s mainly to give Starfire a place in the plot (because Star is awesome) and that gene augmentation the two of them went through, that same procedure on a Kryptonian ??? Is interesting to me.

Karand’r in a few words would be a studious, sassy, hardheaded prick a with soft spot for kids, sad movies & animals.

She knows she’s stronger than everyone until her then augmented big sis humbles her hard (despite Kara’s own upgrades, Blackfire outclasses her & Kori put together/ Offsetting how Blackfire was considered disabled not being able to fly, now shes the apex predator of Tamaran), Komand’r puts the fear of God in Kara, then she learns (with Starfires help) how to build herself up, learns from the Lanterns how to take orders & instruction without having to run her mouth like she knows shit (she developed an ego from both being royalty, smart as shit, and one of the most powerful beings in the galaxy starting at just 5 yrs old), she matures, gets her ass kicked alot on Lantern duty, trains, trains, trains and becomes an inter-galactic reknowned leader, pioneer in the near future and one of the most powerful beings in the universe.

Her arc isn’t realizing how special she is, her arc is humbling herself and growing the hell up.

All from some lonely baby in a wandering rocket ship.

Not a pet cousin, but a warrior/princess/Commander that runs shit on her terms, whose earned respect from even the guardians (if she didnt have their respect she wouldnt have been allowed to be Ion) and Kilowog (if you know GL Lore & Kilowogs personality, that’s a big deal).

Thats a Kara I’d want to see in a goddamn Movie or animated epic.

"What are your honest thoughts about Kara Zor-El" (Same as the canon, Kara Bore-El is a redundant, but tragic waste of potential) - My Adventures with Lois-Chan

same as the canon:

mediocre/ forced/ entire existence trivializes the miraculous- touching impact of Kal surviving at all, so really-- thanks to her, the LACK of impact of him surviving at all.

(Because most of the Kryptonian villains/extras that survive either get incarcerated, die or killed or were explained to be in the Phantom Zone anyway, so Kara is the main constant that breaks the impact of the "Last Son of Krypton" being "THE LAST", because the way she survives in PC already trivializes Kal's survival once over before her existing at all trivializes his survival twice over)

And most people miss that because most don't truly get the point of Kal's connection to Krypton's memory specifically. And neither do DC writers apparently. Style over substance.

Writers were/ & are still terrified of taking chances with Kara Bore-El & even more allergic to committing to it; god forbid doing anything interesting with this NPC avi of a character. Thats the box she's been in for the past 20 years since Superman/Batman #8, as of 2025

At face value, you could write her off as an innocent/uninspired marketing gimmick, like in the 60s, which she still is somehow- but it's different when writers try to marry her into serious storytelling. Then it gets messier.

But Loeb inserted a unique element of grit in 2004 for her (not a brand new take btw, but the way he did it was fitting for a modernization) that if committed to: could've made Kara something special, tragic & even contradictory even, in a good way. The same opportunity My Adventures, New 52 , & others had.

Even then, Loeb made some mistakes, one of which is making her his cousin again. Fan-fic tier writing, insulting even.

Now she's a basic bih anime extra in My Adventures with Lois-Chan, as I predicted the day Episode 2 of Season 1 dropped.

I knew exactly what was going to happen when they announced Season 2 before Season 1 could get comfortable, these cats truly overestimate her importance in the Superman lore. She's a part of it, not essential to it.

Now, to be fair--- I didn't see the genocide angle coming, & yet it surprised me just as much as Horikoshi's good concepts in My Hero Academia, meaning it works better as an aesthetic because that's all it amounts to.

And with that in mind-- I knew exactly what to expect: Solid concept, whack execution.

An edgy concept with wasted potential is as useful as a cup of purified water for someone drowning to death. Style over substance.

• And before her trauma could be explored or tapped into, developed, milked even: we've moved on; before this version of Kara could finally maybe raise the goddamn bar for the Supergirl ARCHETYPE as a whole, this could've been it for her & all takes to come after her- but instead they did exactly what Supergirl writers do and that's backtrack, domesticate her & maintain status quo cause that's easier to manage, it's safe.

As if the mere prospect of the genocide alone was supposed to be enough; and never mind what a revelation like that would do to a person all at once, let alone long term- the reality that their body was repeatedly ventriloquized/violated for the cause of deaths of civilizations, WHAT?!

Before she could even properly process that, here comes Lois-Chan, James & the plot, just in time to ruin the scene and prevent introspective development.

These writers can't commit or cook anything. ADHD writing since season 1, in a rush to avoid making a competent story.

It amazes me how WB can sleep on goldmines like Cassie Cain & Starfire but Supergirl gets all these chances. She's likable, yes- yet the LEAST interesting of their heroines. Super-Nepotism.

• people like the idea of kara, they love the novelty of a girl with the powers of Superman.
• Novelty. This has been the case before the century turned, however: Wasted potential, that's the most consistent element about Supergirl since the beginning. Wasted potential / Mediocrity. And that element is represented consistently in this mid show.

"Honest Thoughts"?

Kara is garbage overall, but with good intentions. The end.

But this version of Kara Snore-El specifically is a Dollar Tree attempt (keyword: "attempt") at The Iron Giant, X-23, Winter Soldier, Zuko, Cassie Cain, or even Chase from Kamen Rider Drive or accurately? SON OF DARKSEID from Superman The Animated Series (which came BEFORE Loeb's Evil Kara take in 2004) because Kara is literally nothing without Superman.

(Kara In-Ze-- well rounded attempt, easy to follow without deep homework, not Kal's cousin, outsmarted Zod/ she's clever, some missed opportunity but decent enough; still knockoff but tolerable, solid)

So if it's solid, it's solid. This Kara is not one of them, a messy, tumblr fan-fic attempt at a Supergirl and it shows in both the execution to how she looks.

Could you get anymore uninspired?

Android 18 was no total victim, she was all in for being a menace until she was the one getting hunted (Cell), which was sweet karma. But Android 18 was 1-3 of public enemies and she was neither 2 nor 3. Why can't we get a Kara that just embraces not having to be a DLC Superman? Why does she always have to be attached to this man & why does she always get thrown in universes where a Superman exists already, thus forever making her existence redundant, holy moly. I don't like the concept of this character let alone the character
on mass, period, but even I have to question why DC keeps doing that to her in mainstream.

And then they give her this little facial scar at the end of the season, ooooh she has a scar guys, really making the most of that "Adult Swim" brand lmfao.

Lightning Lad loses an entire arm in a kids show, but the best they can do here is a glorified tattoo. "Adult Swim" Cowards lol.

Otherwise, Kara consciously committing such crime because she knew what she was doing because of bad nurture vs Making it all Brainiac's doing-- takes the agency & accountability off of her (PREDICTABLE, I thought this was "ADULT SWIM", not KidsWB)

Which negates more intrigue she could've had, which is what ALWAYS happens to this character, because writers insist on PROTECTING her instead of writing her worth a crap through blisters.

Even Tom King couldn't pull it off

• For him, yet another self-discovery re-tread because thats all Kara is worth nowadays, grips constantly where her place is or purpose; the best DC can do every 9-10 years is edge bait or Kara re-learning & Re- re learning again self-help "identity" themes, because she DOESN'T organically have one. Otherwise you wouldn't need to try that hard to justify a character thats almost 100 years old.

This is why she has always been Kara BORE-EL, and it bleeds into the show.

• The show wants the money shot of Kara floating over burning city
• it wants the tease of her being an obstacle, but not entirely an enemy (because then she's not a victim)
• then it wants the tsundere kawaii "she's awkward & doesn't know how to be normal" moments to attract all the smooth brained monke's ready to adopt a new pet waifu, max cringe,
• the show wants all of that without any of the consequence or work, when that baggage, that controversy is exactly what the writer NEEDED to exploit while the iron was hot- to make this Kara the best of them all, in just under 3 episodes, if not 1.
• She could've been the best that Kara should've been since her debut in the revamp in 2004. But nope, "Style over substance." Modern Anime syndrome.

In the history books, this Kara gets points for edge (not unique, its been done already), just like her post-crisis version getting rimjobbed back in the day because Kara's more "angry" than Kal because of her memories of her home and that made her more interesting than him (Bullsh1t, no it didn't. If anything, that's actually Zod & Superboy-Prime. But nobody's tryna have that conversation)

• Otherwise, unless they did something of substance with said edge (Red lantern arc/Daughter of Brainiac) +AND COMMITTED (which they didn't), the edge is actually a strike against her, cause all it did was just set her up for being put in a status quo box, yet again.

In her defense, she was seriously robbed here, because this show's writers specifically- constantly prioritize cheap /quick payoffs over development (this literary quirk of theirs agitated me since Season 1's premiere); The show successfully modernized her (yet again) & did her zero favors anyway (yet again), when this could've been the turning point for how Supergirl should be written across all her media & DC meta, if done right. It's Adult Swim, there's zero excuse for this.

Not enough commitment & drive to mold her into something believable----ESPECIALLY if they decided to go with GENOCIDE of all things....they didn't have to take it there but they did, now they don't wanna do the work in the season relevant to the matter THEY themselves chose to introduce. Sloppy, hence the series.

tl;dr As she is now is what she's always been, mid/redundant/wasted potential/forced/robbed/& forced

Too much protection & "not her fault" syndrome- to get anything interesting / or legitimate done.