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[sc:mstop]Welcome, Bizarros, to Maid of Steel! We are a podcast dedicated to the television series Supergirl. This week, I (Miss Ice) was unable to participate in the episode discussion due to a business trip and so the Scarlet Cougar recruited her trusted Gotham Undercover co-host X-Force 11 (Geoff) to join in the fun! They are discussing Season 1 Episode 12 “Bizarro” which originally aired on February 1, 2016.
Anyone who missed the homework assignment last week, I want to give this one another shout-out because I genuinely loved it. Granted, as of writing this blog post I’ve only made it halfway through—I intend to read the rest on the plane tomorrow, if the snow ever lets up—but what I have read is not just relevant to this episode, but very enlightening to a character aspect that I don’t think I would have really understood otherwise. Thus far, the series has set Kara/Supergirl up as a different sort of hero. Vulnerable, compassionate, kind, and naive (in the way that you want your daughter to grow up). But the comic illuminated this character aspect through the lens of a version of Supergirl who was wanting to give up the mantle of her birthright because of a series of events leading up to the start of the comic. So go read it now! Remember, it’s Supergirl Vol 9: Bizarrogirl!.
Bizarro
Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll
I first studied Charles Dodgson (a.k.a. Lewis Carroll) and The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland when I was doing a literature segment for Golden Spiral Media’s LOST Podcast. My discoveries were fascinating; aspects to Dodgson’s life I’d never known or considered, and the degree to which his profession played a role in his imaginative storytelling. Alice also first introduced me to the concept of chirality, which has effectively changed my life forever. For the better, of course.
Chirality is a property of asymmetry used in various disciplines. Our hands and feet are chiral compositions of each other. Mirror images. Caraway seeds and mint have a molecular chirality. And, as it seems, Bizarrogirl is, indeed, the molecular opposite of Supergirl.
At least, that is what Maxwell Lord is aiming for.
Due to Max’s bizarro perception of reality, he sees it in his best interest to take the molecular composition of something inherently good (Supergirl) and corrupt it, attempt to control it, so as to have a man-made creation of a property that used to be totally alien. By re-animating the bodies of brain dead women, infusing them with concentrated doses of Supergirl’s DNA, he’s found a way to bring the dead to life. Or at least a facsimile of life. He is Dr. Frakenstein. Then, using rudimentary and cliched brainwashing techniques, he hopes to taint the perceptions and memories transferred into his creation in order to purport his claim on a super heroine.
Max’s increasing boldness worries me. As I usually leave the history of comic book characters up to my lovely co-host, I can only speculate that Maxwell Lord’s desire for autonomy from superheroes, his lust for power and frustration at being bested by aliens, all contribute to this increasing boldness. An eccentricism fueled by a frenzy toward some arbitrary finish line. He thinks he’s too smart to be untouchable, and slowly he becomes more unhinged. It’s only in retrospect that I can truly appreciate the evolution of his character in this way, but it has also made him the perfect overarching villain for Supergirl. He slowly gains a footing until the Good Guys realize just how far he has his hands dug into the pie.
Now Max is in a big glass box, which I also can’t help but worry is where he expected to end up (or, even worse yet, wants to be). But I’ll be honest, I expected Hank/J’onn to transform into Max and assume the responsibilities of National City’s most eligible philanderer. I mean, philanthropist. After Hank went on about Max not long in being missed, and then Alex’s insistence that she’s willing to cross that line for the people she loves, I really expected the closing scene to be Hank, disguised as Max, making a public statement about “taking a step out of the lime light”, or something ridiculous.
The closing scene we got was so much better, though! I’m looking forward to a true freak-of-the-week episode, and the return of Aunty Astra!
Honey, If You Love Me…
In spite of Melissa (Kara) and Blake (Adam) possessing palpable on-screen chemistry, which is no doubt a result of many days (and nights) of practice, there was just too much baggage. And not from the kid who gets to call Ally Cat “Mommy”. Unfortunately, Adam was a very one-dimensional character with no real promise of an established arc, so I felt like his time with us would be short (albeit with room for him to return here and there). But for the time being, he was a sweet guy who made Kara feel special, and maybe even gave her hope for the future!
My only complaint with the whole treatment of this relationship was the rather…anticlimactic way Kara and Adam reconnected after each badly ended dated. The first, when she skipped out with the grandmother-in-the-hospital excuse, was followed up the next morning by, “Oh… I totally forgot to call you back.” And the second, when she was literally abducted by Bizarro in the midst of a liplock, was followed up by her waltzing into Cat’s office claiming dumb luck, only to, moments later, break up with Adam.
What actually helps me accept these follow-ups as plausible is Cat’s speech to Kara when Kara wants to explain why she broke things off with Adam. I can’t help but get the distinct impression by Cat’s behavior in this episode that she thought, perhaps, that by being nice to Kara and encouraging the relationship, Adam would find an excuse to be around on a more permanent basis. The effect of this desire is a natural tendency to care about someone a little more, namely her son, and an awareness of underdeveloped life skills, namely Kara.
She’ll pretend like she doesn’t care, for now, but Cat won’t be able to help but criticize Kara in episodes to come that will only stretch and grow Kara for the better.
Next Week
Season 1 Episode 13: “For The Girl Who Has Everything” – a parasite called The Black Mercy has Supergirl trapped in her perfect fantasy. Dun dun duuunnnn!
Watch Promo
Cougar’s Comic Corner
This week the Scarlet Cougar ORDERS you to read “Superman Annual” #11 by Alan Moore (Author), & Dave Gibbons (Illustrator)
From Karen: Next week’s episode, “For The Girl Who Has Everything”, is loosely based on this issue of Superman, so it goes without saying that that’s why I picked this issue for this week’s Corner. However, there are SOO many other reasons to read this book. It’s written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. The team famous for “Watchmen” and their groundbreaking run on “Swamp Thing”.
Moore changed the comic industry forever in the 1980s by making it more accessible for adults, and is cited by people like Neil Gaiman and Frank Miller for being an inspiration. He’s also responsible for creating the character John Constantine in the pages of “Swamp Thing” (he moved on to his own comic: “Hellblazer”), and such famous works as “Batman: The Killing Joke”, The Eisner Award Winning “From Hell”, “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”, and “V for Vendetta”
Dave Gibbons drew for Doctor Who Weekly/Monthly, and contributed to both “Who’s Who in the DC Universe” and “The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe” in the mid-80s before pairing up with Moore for “Watchmen”. He has since worked with Frank Miller, Mark Waid, Stan Lee, and Geoff Johns.
Since this story is a one-shot, I don’t really want to give away much by writing up a description, I’ll just offer the pedigree as a testament to how awesome this book is. Read it, and be ready for next week’s “Supergirl”!
Superman Annual #11 at Amazon for Kindle and ComiXology
News!
The Flash & Supergirl Crossover Officially Confirmed
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[sc:ms]
I’m sad Emilee missed the chance to call Karen out over her use of the “h” word aka “hiatus” for those who don’t remember that joke.
Bizzarette was definitely an interesting character. Kara definitely didn’t want to fight Bizzarette, again that was a great scene between she and Alex where Kara champions Bizzarette being just as much a victim as them. Carlisle Cullen is smooth. 😉
I wouldn’t call it immaturity by Kara to try and keep people away to keep them safe it’s more over caution. I agree with Karen, “I would have liked to have seen it (Adam/Kara) go for a few more episodes, but I get what they’re doing.”; it was rushed, but I get where Kara was coming from in her reasoning. I hope they keep these reasons in tact for a good bit and don’t have her rushing to Jimmy or Winn because it would make the break-up scene here feel hollow to me; if she can’t date Adam for Supergirl reasons she shouldn’t date them yet since those reasons are still there. “Adam shouldn’t have left just because of Kara.” – agreed. It’s true Jimmy knowing Kara is Supergirl would be one less worry between them, but it doesn’t change the fact Kara would worry about him being hurt because of her; she already has to worry with their friendship and Jimmy’s with Superman so putting a bigger target on him by dating him doesn’t seem like something she’d want since that’s part of the reason she broke up with Adam.
The Danvers sisters are awesome. I think James and Winn are too scared of Alex to ever date her. Ha. I still feel Alex writing Max off as harmless was in part more plot device than organic to the character; given Alex’s cautious of others I don’t understand why she would see Max, who has been against Kara since day one, as harmless. It just felt out of character; I believe she can be mentally beat, but not that she would be that naive regarding him as harmless. I disagree, Alex is a good agent and I could understand her being temporary Director; again the stuff with Max is out of character really. I agree Cat’s lessons are interesting. I hope we see Cameron and Alex interacting in her upcoming appearance. “The Killing Joke” would be my pick; I have to say I didn’t like “Watchmen”, visually it was pretty and there were some interesting moments but overall I didn’t like the movie.
Nice guest host job by X-Force today!
Some blog post comments…
“but it has also made him the perfect overarching villain for Supergirl.” – I’m definitely enjoying bad guy Maxwell Lord.
“Unfortunately, Adam was a very one-dimensional character with no real promise of an established arc, so I felt like his time with us would be short (albeit with room for him to return here and there). But for the time being, he was a sweet guy who made Kara feel special, and maybe even gave her hope for the future!” – I definitely liked Adam, but I disliked the rushed feel to their relationship – flirt, date, break up in basically one episode; I understand why Kara did it, to save herself and arguably Adam (because she doesn’t know how he would react) hurt, but I would have liked to have seen it play out a bit more since Adam was willing to try with Kara and her disappearances. It just felt very rushed, still I’m sad to see them apart. I do hope Adam returns, maybe in an episode with Toyman since Karen teased that connection when the two were announced. As for giving Kara hope, I think she may stop dating for awhile figuring if she can’t make it work with a seemingly great guy like Adam who can it work with?
I also have to say I disliked this episode being the episode Jimmy seems to doubt his relationship with Lucy, it felt very cliché; I don’t mind him wanting to be with Kara but I need to see him having a consistent issue with Lucy leading up to this and post this for it to feel organic, as it is it felt like him longing after Kara was more for drama and love triangles than organic story telling. I know he and Lucy have their issues, but they seemed to be doing fine until this scene, yes James has always been crushing on Kara but it was like hardcore in your face wanting her when he saw her with Adam and it felt again cliché because he didn’t seem to care about splitting with Lucy until that moment…either he wants to try with her or he doesn’t because now it feels slightly like he’s using Lucy and that makes him look bad to me. Again I know Jimmy has been flirting with Kara since the start but he’s never really made hardcore moves on her like Adam did and he has to know she likes him too, but he chose to give Lucy another try which spoke well of him, but this scene it felt like he was being unfair to Lucy and that’s not a good thing. It’s most likely the timing of the look and discussion with Winn, because had they shown him wanting to part from Lucy when Kara was still single and then he told Winn basically how he too loved Kara that would be one thing, but I just didn’t like that scene romance wise. It was a great bonding scene for the boys, but beyond that I wasn’t a big fan of that event.
“I can’t help but get the distinct impression by Cat’s behavior in this episode that she thought, perhaps, that by being nice to Kara and encouraging the relationship, Adam would find an excuse to be around on a more permanent basis.” – Cat definitely wanted him to stay; I felt sad for her because it’s kind of like she wasn’t enough to keep him there which is ironically probably what Adam felt at times – “Am I not enough for you?”/”Why don’t you want me?”. I hope they have her mentioning they kept in touch because they made some good progress in their relationship.
“She’ll pretend like she doesn’t care, for now, but Cat won’t be able to help but criticize Kara in episodes to come that will only stretch and grow Kara for the better.” – love their relationship.
“The Flash & Supergirl Crossover Officially Confirmed” – I’m not going to immediately yell “No!” yet, a crossover is what introduced me to the awesome character of Felicity Smoak so I’m going to give the episode a chance, but I have to say currently I’m not thrilled by this announcement. I personally wanted to see Kara have her own season first before doing crossovers so I’m not jumping for joy like a lot of fans might be doing right now, but again I’ll give it a try. I hope they don’t go crossover crazy though, they’re fun at times, but I like seeing the characters in their own rights. I especially don’t like this crossover being the season one finale if that’s true, again let Kara have her own season one and do the crossover in season two; not a fan of the timing for this crossover at all! Reserving judgement of the episode until I see it, but I’m shaking my head now.