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The Legacy of Supergirl for me will always be friends. The friends that I would not have found if I hadn’t entered the superhero world. I began as many did with Arrow. Having no comic knowledge. I sought out a podcast to help understand this new world. The adventures of Oliver Queen were always a little dark for this butterfly, but I kept watching. Not as much for the show itself but for the Arrow Squad and the people it was drawing into its ranks. Green Butterfly was technically born on the Central City Underground which celebrated The Flash. The brighter, more humorous tone suited my personality better, but I was still waiting for my hero. I had never heard of Supergirl. I had seen a few superhero movies when I was younger, but my memories were hazy. Almost everything I knew was coming from these new CW shows. Then I met the Scarlet Cougar and Miss Ice. They both helped me understand the multiverse that was beginning to unfold in front of me.
I knew from the very first episode that Supergirl was going to be my favorite show. It was funny, light, and full of hope. I was immediately drawn to the characters and the bond I could already see forming between them. The podcast was super fun too. I often invented a role for Green Butterfly to play in that week’s plot. I always wanted to make people smile so I let my silly side come out. I love that the characters on our show are not bonded by blood but by something stronger. A deep emotional connection and commitment to each other. They support each other through this life all while keeping the world safe. I also felt my friendships getting stronger as the show continued. Friendships that I feel may not have existed if Supergirl had not come into our living rooms.
There were aspects of the story that mirrored my life in ways that made the show even more meaningful for me. One example is when Kara is exposed to kryptonite she is weakened and sometimes nearly paralyzed. I have Cerebral Palsy so when my muscles get sore and tired moving can seem like a monumental task. Supergirl always fights through and I do too. When they had Alex come out in season 2 I was moved by how much that story resonated with me. The words and emotions Alex was expressing echoed mine from a decade before.
The stories entertained me every week. However, the people in the real world that I met because of the show will always mean the most. In the years that have passed I have learned so much about my Superfriends. I understood which story elements would excite them and which one’s would drive them crazy. When Miss Ice said she had to step away I was really sad because I was worried Maid of Steel would not continue. Immediately I started praying for a hero and I was rewarded. I can’t imagine my life now without Silver Vox. He swooped in when we needed him most. National City got a new voice to speak the truth about what was happening there and I got a treasured friend. I could never fill the Scarlet Cougar’s shoes. Karen taught me so much about superheroes and really ignited my passion to know more. It was with her encouragement and the help of John, Geoff and Emilee that I found the bravery within myself to let my voice be heard on a weekly basis. I can’t be Scarlet Cougar, but I will always honor her and be your eye in the sky. The Legacy of Supergirl for me will always be one of fun, friendship, and hope. Whatever our next adventure holds, I hope you all will join us. Because the most important thing to remember is tv shows will come and go but Superfriends are forever.
Cougar’s Comic Corner
SUPERGIRL: WOMAN OF TOMORROW (2021-) ISSUE #6 and #7
Written by Tom King released December 21, 2021 and January 18, 2022
The traumatic secrets of Supergirl’s past are revealed as our heroine races to the edge of the universe to escape Krem and his latest weapon! The murderer of young Ruthye’s father has gotten his hands on a Mordru globe and plans to use it to make our hero disappear forever. Can she save herself and the young girl’s future in the process? She’ll need the help of her trusty steed, Comet the Superhorse!
It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for…the capture of Krem! With the fugitive in custody, Supergirl must now deal with his allies, the ungodly Brigands! To stop them once and for all, she must leave Ruthye behind with the man who killed her beloved father. Can she trust the young girl to let the villain of our story live long enough to stand trial? Or is this the tragic end of his story and ours?
$4.99 each on comixology!
Next Time On “Dive Into DC!”
We’re doing something a little different, and a lot new! Join The Green Butterfly, The Silver Vox, and our SuperPets as we endeavor to Dive Into DC! We’re going to be flutter-by-ing all different aspects of the DC Multiverse looking at films, character runs, DCTV series, comics, and everything else you dare to throw at us. We’ll be sharing the details soon but let’s just say you should probably start thinking about “The Batman” really soon. We look forward to having you all join us in our next new podcasting adventure!!
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Honored to have guest hosted on the podcast during the show’s run. Glad I could encourage Green Butterfly and Silver Vox along the way. So grateful to be a part of this family!
Some blog post comments…
I’d say the legacy of Maid Of Steel is friends which we would have not met otherwise and is having a group, a family, who doesn’t judge you and is more a safe space than anything else in your life might be…”Supergirl”‘s legacy is still that of wasted potential I will say.
AWE to the old school Alex and Kara photo…..I miss you black pillow! And you good writing! And you most of all care for the series; we lost it all when the creatives left you behind. ?
“He swooped in when we needed him most.” – and he brought the most adorable sidekick in K Vox! ? I mean saving MOS, because that’s what it was, is huge and we shouldn’t diminish that accomplishment because as you say without him we wouldn’t have a place to discuss the series but like let’s not forget K Vox either okay. She is the best Vox after all. ?
“flutter-by-ing” – I see what you did there.
My Batman is Michael Keaton; my Bruce Wayne is Val Kilmer…yes Bruce sees Bruce as the cover and Batman as his true self so there’s a difference and I’m allowed to pick both. 🙂 Best luck to Robert but Keaton all the way! There’s not a lot happening in DC films to me really; I’m just over here waiting for Wonder Woman 3 because Gal as Diana is perfection. Can we do another Justice League movie just so we can get more content with her?! Another Shazam would be fun too but yeah for me right now DC films is all Gal and Diana…well Margo Robbie as Harley too because she’s amazing in that role and I’ll always take more of her; give her the Harley/Poison Ivy movie she wants already WB! Also seriously where is either more Birds Of Prey content or at the very least Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s solo Huntress movie because I NEED THAT IN MY LIFE ALREADY!!! If they won’t give me the Alex spin off I want with Sam on the DCTV side then I will take that instead; ideally both is awesome but there needs to be at least one or the other seriously people.
On to the podcast…
You HAVE to watch this deleted scene and I’m going to share the link now because it’s SO good – https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RlvSrSA6hFQ ! This comes from “Manhunter” and is an alternate take of Alex telling how she was before meeting J’onn. Now the scene they aired of course worked better because it involves J’onn and how he met Alex personally, “Car shut up!” – oh drunk Alex you never get old hahaha, but this to me is still something that should have aired between Kara and Alex later on because it’s really a good scene to show how far they’ve come at points. They actually have changed the music for some reason with this scene because on the DVD it’s “Poker Face” by Lady Gaga, but to the scene itself you can see how Alex has lost her way still and you see that Kara’s beloved apartment was actually hers first which to me says it’s always really been Eliza’s investment because no way a college kid affords a place like that. 🙂 You also can see a surfboard at one point in the background to nod to Alex living on the coast and enjoying surfing.
Ugh Mon. ?
Even in audio I can feel Melissa cringe with the commercial. Lol
#NotMyLucy lol.
“Superman” disrespecting “Supergirl” even though without her there’d be no him, let me acted shocked. ? This just saved me a hour a week so yeah no lost cause here. I know Tyler cares but Tyler doesn’t write the show and they’ve done nothing to really give me a reasons to watch so yeah I’m very much still passing on this. It’s not fine John; #alwaysbeangry. CRISIS SUCKS!!!
How cool would it be if one of the boys was a fan of Kara if nothing else because originally they loved someone beat their dad because they have personal feelings about him? It would of course grow into genuine love where they have posters of her and her achievements and how we had to put up with him on our series and Kara fanning over him he has to hear one of his kids fanning over her achievements and it drives him to push himself? It’s simple easy things as you say and none of it requires Melissa ever stepping foot on the set or being heard on the set. But no they continue to not acknowledge us and it just enforces for me that once they got him they stopped caring about us and it sucks. ?You can Crisis excuse everything but she still exists and deserves respect! All this says is Clark never cared about Kara because he never saw her as his real family and it’s fully believable because he doesn’t see Krypton the same way no matter how much he learns because he didn’t experience things like she did and that’s not a bad thing to say because it’s his truth but it’s annoying as a SUPERGIRL fan to have us be saddled with so much of him post season one and Kara is forced at points to be a female stand in him instead of allowed to be herself but yet they can’t put a photo of her up in his house or Lois mention stories and competing with Kara since she’s some Noble Prize winning reporter for CatCo…just…middle finger to them – two big middle fingers back to them.
?????? to John for saving the day! You’ve been a good addition too Justina for sure. ?
Shout out to Cougar and Emilee!
Season one is the bomb; easily the one you can rewatch all the episodes (at least majority)! WELL said Daryl in regards to how it’s a slap in the face SUPERMAN can’t even give us a picture on a wall yet we’ve been weighed down by him for years. ?Season one is awesome I would extend to say because it’s the last time Kara was really Kara…everything post season one is her slowly being forced to become him so they could get their hands on a show for Superman in this world. They forget the whole thing about the CW was they couldn’t get the big names – that’s why we started with Green Arrow instead of a Batman series; and like season one showed how Kara was different from him and you can do things with her you can’t with him because he comes with so many preconceived attitudes that lock him down…heck maybe they did it because it’s easier to crack out stories for something people have seen a million times before and they just lost their creativity to actually do new things like Kara requires but then again that’s freedom and supposedly creators love that but no they threw it aside for some reason and ? they just make me so angry with their choices!
“Winn never had a chance” – facts. Mon is just so poorly handled after his like 3 appearance on the series it’s ridiculous; he had the potential to be a good character who shows Kara Krypton isn’t all that and to challenge why she does things but no they had him trying to get in her pants instead because she’s hot. Really it’s just because she’s hot because he didn’t respect her wishes 9 times out of 10 and he kept pressuring her more than not when they did break up – they’re just toxic together and he was toxic to have to sit through because being bored by him just gave me time as a viewer to see all the other flaws moving forward and man were there sadly a lot. I’m fine with Alex proposing because she was doing it more to please Kara than anything but Maggie should have said no, they knew Floriana wasn’t going to be there long so having her say “yes” is more annoying than anything. You talk about simple fixes – you leave that question asked with Maggie giving her smile then season three starts with them talking about a future and you still bring in Ruby and start the kid talk and we learn Maggie doesn’t want them and it devolves from there to where they still break up and literally the plots stay the same but it’s just better quality than having to sit through the mess that was that engagement. Season 3 was good for Sam and Sam alone! Nia – the only consistent person from her premiere until the end! Nxy as the only villain would have been way better. The worse is Alex putting the suit on period as that just spat in the face of her character and the hashtag they loved to use for her and to boost the show’s connection to fans.
Casting was never an issue with this series.
My seasons rank goes as the following – (top) season 1, season 3, season 2, season 4, season 5, and (worst) season 6; as BORING as season five is at least people were still in character so I have to put it over S6 by default.
13 episodes is never enough; at minimum I can give you 18 because I want Alex and Lena and Nia to have some time to develop also and thus we need those “filler” episodes…it still gives Melissa the focus but also gives us some breathing room for others. Also I’m just very anti-short seasons – this isn’t Britain, ha. I come from the school of 22 to 24 episodes a season so 13 just hurts my soul to think of even if I can see why you’d want to do it with writers who aren’t fully dedicated to their project.
I’d say if they were going to drop big plots then they needed to pay them off before starting another because again you have things like “look everyone Eve killed Jeremiah and you know how Alex will be learning this” and then she never does so that’s pointless. Alternatively stay consistent to the characters because you wanted to be so real world and the real world was screaming about how therapy was important and we had a shrink but she’s too busy to help because she has to go punch someone in the face even though she just said that was the wrong way to handle things. The mishandling so poorly of such easy to fix plots is just infuriating the more you think on them!
I hear dog collar jingling, I am taking that that K Vox agrees with me – Alex fight scenes are the best. ?
Sorry for the grammar errors in my message, my fingers get ahead of my eyes at times and sometimes things don’t add up English wise. Ha!
If it’s natural we had Clark on our series John then I would submit it is unnatural that Kara isn’t in “Superman & Lois” at least via comments. There’s a double standard happening here and that’s not cool! The show let me down, but the podcast never did. 🙂
“I feel it’s unfair it’s off the air” – ? Leslie! Seconded, we NEVER needed Lex! “Nxy should have been portraying Jor El all the time and he never should have been alive” – this; GREAT feedback for sure Leslie!
No passes for COVID Phoenix! 🙂
Pour one out for Monty ?.
Submit via the blog post Dreamweaver as we’d love to hear your thoughts!
? to the clip of Kara saying people have been with her always…you fight dirty John, just like Alex…I’m proud of you. Ha!
Two topics a month? There’s four weeks in a month though! Who’s doing this math…tell Count John he’s off on this accord.
Can the non-main brand named social media people get a list of the upcoming topics to get prepared for them? 🙂 At the least DM is on Discord. Ha
i like the deleted scene because it shows a detail a lot of fans might not know about with kara’s apartment originally belonging to alex. “I know Tyler cares but Tyler doesn’t write the show” exactly! tyler can say all the nice things he wants but at the end of the day he has no creative control on how much his show can reference supergirl.
Honestly I feel like the apartment is actually owned by Eliza because no way a college kid gets a place that nice. Eliza Danvers makes money, I feel this just adds to that confirmation. 🙂 See the family home and how Midvale was supposedly the town of rich kids; Alex may have had the place first but it’s always been mom paying the bill…Kara probably gives some towards rent each month but given her food bill I feel that’s like $100 at best on a $1000 (National City is in CA afterall) rent unless Eliza got it rent controlled. Ha
If he ever becomes a producer for his series maybe we’ll get some references but until then it’s all just talk by Tyler and talk is not good enough for me. We had to waste time on Clark’s villain even though we had a way better roster without Lex ever on the series. We had to watch them turn Kara into Clark to nod to him to the point we really only have 1 year of “Supergirl” about Kara Danvers…it seriously wouldn’t kill them to have her up on the wall of family photos at least! ?
it’s the cw. a college kid can definitely get a place that nice *wink* it is rent controlled. kara called it the rent controlled side of town when her lady friend lena came to visit. i read because i definitely didn’t see it that in the scene where lois left the daily planet she gets a picture that has kara in it off her desk. that moment isn’t even in the extended episode. they know exactly what they are doing
I agree with you about Kara’s feelings towards kryptonite. She only had a huge problem with it after Clark showed up with his opinion. And just because Clark has the no killing rule doesn’t mean she has to have it. I understand why he has the rule but I have no idea why Kara does. She certainly killed parasite and those white martians.
She only has it because they made her him.
You can even extend it to again saying that killing isn’t her go to move because that fits the character but to never kill…ugh as you said she 100% killed Parasite! Depending on how you view alien DNA she totally snapped Master Jailer’s neck on screen which would usually leave someone dead! Killing isn’t her go to move but Kara was never naive to the fact sometimes it had to be done for the greater good; it’s not like she enjoyed it but the bad guy wasn’t going to stop otherwise (see Parasite) so it’s kill or let them kill basically and which then is worse. And it’s the same with kryptonite – she doesn’t love it because it sucks when it’s used on her but she knows without it no one can stop Astra, Non, Reign, or an effected her (see Falling)…she’s not a dumb person despite how much they took her from learning to punching her way out of problems more often than not.
She shares biological DNA with Clark and they have the same powers yes but she’s NOT Clark and to see her be treated that way was horrible each week.
And yeah, “Superman & Lois” are actively annoying us which just makes me want to not watch them more.
While Clark might have been the hot stuff for Kara growing up and the fact that’s her family had her falling over him as a kid his kids are growing up in a time when there should be an Internet clip of her beating his butt (Crisis probably took that back too ?) so it would make sense one of the boys might actually fan over her more than Superman and what a message that would be for once – the men talking up the female hero instead of a male one because some people think they’re the default just because they’re the majority forgetting women can be awesome too. Especially once they learn who Clark is and you tie to it your dad is Superman but you’re always mad at your dad, rebel by putting up Supergirl content in your room or saying “This is why people like aunt Kara more”. They literally have to pay Melissa nothing to use the Kara Danvers name since she doesn’t own that and they made this huge deal with Crisis how everyone is in the same world but they don’t even mention her via dialogue? Forget you S&L writers…I will happily continue to not watch your show as you happily ignore us. ???
They’d only put content about her in too if they needed a ratings boost or were called out about it more which might have happen had they not murdered “Supergirl” by focusing so much on his stuff it basically took her out of her own series. I swear the moment they got access to his show it feels like any care for us went out the window and this is just a continuation of that. ?
Alrighty, so I transcribed my voicemail and am sharing it here now for you all to enjoy!
——-
Hello John & Justina
This is Abbey AKA Dreamweaver here with my overall reflection thoughts on Supergirl. This is mostly a reflection of the series as a whole and what it’s meant for me personally.
So I may be on the younger side of most of your listeners, but I have mostly the pleasure of being able to say I grew up with these DC shows. A whole decades worth of them. When Arrow first began, when the Arrowverse began – it will always be the Arrowverse to me – I was 16, I was in high school. In 2015, when Supergirl began, I was 19 and about to enter my sophomore year of college. So I’ve had these characters alongside me for the ride for a large chunk of my formative years as I entered into the world and into adulthood. They’re one of the biggest fandoms I’ve had interaction with, found a community with, and have been able to meet a few and get involved with outside of just watching on my TV every night or binging in between my exams.
Having Supergirl come to life as part of the ‘Big 3’ of the Arrowverse – when it was in its prime – was really meaningful, putting the spotlight on Superman’s less known but just as powerful cousin instead of the Big Blue himself. As someone who was never a huge fan of Superman, but enjoyed the Kryptonian mythology, I was really interested in the prospect of getting a female-led show diving into Kara Zor-El.
I really enjoyed the first season and getting to getting to know the Danvers sisters, the DEO, Catco, Winn & James, and having a Kryptonian character that had actually lived on Krypton and lived through its destruction. While yes, there were some heavy-handed dialogue already and it tried too hard to be female empowered when all it needed to do was be and let Kara do her thing, I still enjoyed it and what it brought to the DCTV, with this being the first alien-driven show.
My favorite season is probably Season 3 – it had the most compelling and interesting villain in Reign and the Worldkillers, especially after they unnecessarily killed off Astra too early in the first season. The third season had some of the best writing and individual episodes, dove more into Kryptonian myth and culture, actually built good reasons for Supergirl to be out of her depth and overpowered, had actual stakes with everyone, and laid the groundwork for Red Daughter, which was my favorite aspect of Season 4 (boo you Season 4 for killing her).
While I can’t say much good about the series as it continued on unfortunately, I did stick it out to the end, as this series started with characters that were fleshed out and grew, with characters that you wanted to invest in and root for, even if the powers that be behind them stopped believing in them. We never did.
While they never got found their footing with letting Kara be strongheaded and superpowered together, or really get to lead her own show and team in the latter 2 seasons, and they stunted her powers along with Martian Manhunter’s most of the time just to make conflicts or plots fill out whole hour-long episodes of TV, they did have a foundation for a great character who was just trying to find her way and her identity in the world, a world she so optimistically believed in and hope for, even when the odds were against her and her family.
And now, at the close of Supergirl’s chapter, I’m now 25 years old, out of college, in the working world, trying to find my way, just as I’ve been able to watch Kara do so for all these years and know that I’m not alone, as even invulnerable aliens from other planets don’t have it all together and have their own enemies to fight, just as I do. Comic books and subsequently comic book digital media have always been a great source of comfort and inspiration to me alongside just being entertainment and there is a sense of joy I find in being able to say I’ve grown up alongside these beloved characters.
And so, I’ll leave you with one story that I love that shows the power of connection a show like Supergirl has.
As a filmmaker and general all-around lover of all things film & TV making, I’ve had the privilege to be able to go to certain hotspots for the industry, one of those being the Warner Brothers studio lot out in Los Angeles. Now, the first season of Supergirl was filmed there prior to being turned over to the CW, back when National City was full of palm trees and we had a desert base. Now when you get to do a tour of the lot, your guide asks you what shows/movies/etc you know and like so that they can personalize the tour to point out specific sets and facts about those properties mentioned.
Well, I had, from what I could tell a relatively new guide and she was a bit nervous, and there’s only two groups on her tour – me and my friend and another family, so I think she’s afraid that there won’t be much to talk about or if we won’t be a very engaging group. When she asks what we’re fans of and from my knowledge that has filmed on the lot, I say “Supergirl.”
My guide immediately lights up, saying, “Thank you! I’ve been wanting to point these things out. No one ever wants to talk about Supergirl!” To which I said, “I do.”
And from there she was more at ease and confident in the tour, we saw a few of the filming spots and got onto a larger conversation about the Arrowverse and DCTV.
The Supergirl Seasons 1-3 suit is also on display in the Gift Shop at the lot and is one of the first things you see when you walk in the door for the tour, along with the Arrow and Flash suits. It’s pretty neat.
So, has it had its ups and downs and had its rough seasons? Yes. But Supergirl does leave with us a legacy of hope, of a story of young women everywhere trying to find their strength and voice in a world where it can be hard to find your place. It leaves us with characters that believe in hope, even after feeling like the world is ending, especially for a character who quite literally saw her own world fall apart.
And to that, thank you Supergirl. And thank you John & Justina for continuing to show up and care for this show and characters, and for the fans as well.
Until next time,
El Maryarah
Your friend Dreamweaver
“with characters that you wanted to invest in and root for, even if the powers that be behind them stopped believing in them.” – this so much Abby!!! The characters, for the most part, were well done and the acting was awesome (again that was never an issue for us) so despite the garbage plots they were put through at times you still wanted to watch because what if the series returned to its prime. We could put up with a lot as long as our characters were there and it’s only when they changed them all via Crisis or just not caring so they made them out of character to fit the plot rather than continuity that we called foul; season six if it was more in character might not have been so bad, but no one felt like the characters we had come to love except Nia in my opinion so yeah why would we want to cheer for that.
They never truly went all in with J’onn’s powers and you can argue that’s because they couldn’t and still have Kara in the spotlight because Manhunter is pretty powerful in the comics and show so you could create a question of “why do we need Supergirl when we have Martian Manhunter” and that could be a fun topic to explore for a bit just as that question would have be raised if Sam stayed and helped up – “what does Kara do with time off” but they for some reason avoided good drama for the sake of manufactured content. 🙁
“The Supergirl Seasons 1-3 suit is also on display” – I’m glad it’s getting the credit it deserves. 🙂
Thanks for posting this so we can read it Dreamweaver! ??