I find it interesting that people are comparing the “Supergirl” trailer to the Black Widow spoof on SNL.
This despite the fact that the Supergirl trailer is actually evocative of the feel of the Silver Age Supergirl: the story of a young girl trying to adjust to using her powers in an environment that doesn’t know her, and figure out her place in the world. The Black Widow sketch spoofed some of that attitude, but the series is starting there and will ideally grow from it. What in the world is wrong with that? Yet some people actually seem to believe that a sketch that aired three weeks ago influenced a TV pilot that was shot three months ago.
Been there, done that. I got SO sick of people claiming that I was ripping off “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” when I was writing the Supergirl comic. People declared that Buzz was a rip off of Spike even though his creation preceded Spike in the series. One guy declared that I ripped off an episode of Buffy that had aired THAT WEEK for the first time in an issue that came out the next day. Because I had no idea what to put in that issue and, after watching Buffy, I stole the story and we got the entire book written, drawn, colored, lettered and printed in 24 hours to make shipping.
I’m sorry, the Supergirl pilot looks fun and I’m personally looking forward to it.
PAD
I had something similar happen, although it was only one unpleasant person who I don’t think I ever convinced when I let them read some of my older stories, including one where, after the death of the main antagonist, they meet up with pale, unemotional types in large, cube-shaped ships who only want to add on to their own selves. After being accused of ripping off Q Who, I told them I’d first written that particular piece four years before TNG ever aired, and five years before the Borg. He didn’t buy it.
I seriously want to smack some people with the “It ripped of my favorite show/story/movie!” attitude. Mostly because they seem to think that since they liked it, it was the source from which all similar ideas flowed. And they often seem connected to Trek…
I wrote something in high school that was a dark spoof of a property that I later pulled out and used for the basis of something we were doing in a college course. If you were familiar with the original property, you immediately got what it was. One yak-brained mouth-breather started telling me that I had (A) ripped of the Borg from STNG, and that (B) I had totally gotten everything slightly enough off that it was just wrong, wrong, wrong.
I informed yak-brain boy that (A) it was actually a dark parody of Who and the early days of the Cybermen and their general appearance coming off as if they raided a kitchen and home appliance store for parts and that (B) it was spot on according to anyone who know Who.
Yak-brain boy’s response was to declare that he had never heard of Doctor Who, it couldn’t be very well known if he (a self proclaimed expert in science fiction who I would later learn had never picked up 90% of the classic books in science fiction) had never heard of it, and it shouldn’t be ripping off Trek with such obvious Borg clones to make up for its lack of originality.
It was one of the few times in what would become years of knowing that instructor that I would ever see her bust out laughing at a student.
That is the most magical story I have ever heard.
Who in the world has stated that the SNL sketch influenced the Supergirl pilot??
Actually, you and I both know someone who made the comment on Facebook that their first thought upon seeing the Supergirl promo was that it reminded them of the Black Widow spoof on SNL.
Well yeah, but that’s a long way from saying one begat the other.
Who was this?
I loved the pilot, and I’m hoping the show lives up the what the pilot promised.
Screw the haters- if the show is good it will find an audience. At the very least, it will silence haters.
“Screw the haters- if the show is good it will find an audience. At the very least, it will silence haters.”
I strongly believe in the first part of the sentence. The second part? Maybe. if there is one thing The Haters have shown, it is a propensity to cherry-pick reasons to maintain their bile.
Looking forward to it as well. There was an interesting comparison I read on a website about how the Supergirl’s trailer hits many of the same beats as the Flash trailer from last year. With the Flash trailer, everything was praised for giving the show a light feel. With Supergirl’s trailer, it seems that every bit was over analyzed because it didnt fit many people’s preconceived notion of what a strong female character was.
Every now and then a show comes along that I immediately say “they made that one for me, didn’t they?” The last time I felt such joy about such a show was Once Upon A Time (actually Once Upon A Time in Wonderland hit me in all the right spots). This one had me at hello. I was hoping you’d feel the same way about it too, Peter. As you probably know, I have a very, very soft spot in my heart for this character, and particularly your run on the title, as it was at my 40th birthday party that Leonard Kirk and my now-husband met and their 4+ year collaboration with you grew directly out of that. This show just seems to have the same joy about it. Love all the new touches, the association with Jimmy Olsen and her having a sister and her actually embracing her powers… wow, am I looking forward to this one!
I thought the trailer looks fun as well. I just hope they get all the “I can lift a tank, but I can’t pick the right outfit to wear, or get my boss coffee’s perfect” out of the way in the first episodes.
I had a feeling PAD would be posting something about the Supergirl trailer and backlash.
It certainly did feel a bit like Black Widow: Age of Me in the civilian identity scenes. But I don’t think it was a ripoff thing (beyond the point of that actually being impossible).
What I saw in the trailer was a hero’s origin. I will say that some of the stuff felt as if the series itself was flailing in terms of their creative direction but that could just be how the trailer was cut.
I’m looking forward to checking out the show and will judge it when I can actually see the whole thing play out.
I don’t know, the trailer looked a lot like Sex in the City and Supergirl
Maybe because those are the exact things Kara is least able to manage?
It’s difficult to be a fan anymore. It was bad enough when the NetHate was shrill and reactive; lately, it is shrill and preemptive.
It looks like goofy fun. I’ll at least give it a chance.
I liked the Supergirl trailer an awful lot. I had the same reaction to the African American Jimmy Olsen that I had to the Vulcans on the first Abrams Star Trek: “Okay, that’s their Jimmy {Vulcans}.” If I can get used to Samuel Jackson’s Fury, this is a cakewalk.
The only time I ever found Supergirl to be a strong female character was when PAD wrote her. I have great affection for the character (having read comics, especially DC, for over fifty years), but a strong character? No.
I found the trailer evocative of the best of the Silver Age Supergirl comics: upbeat, optimistic, and cheerful.
I suppose ‘cheerful’ is redundant, but I’ll live with it.
I’ll watch the pilot and probably the first episode. After that, it depends on how cool the show is.
I’m hopeful.
What is it with the studios that they feel an apparently irresistible need to screw around with existing characters for the sake of ‘diversity’? Same thing with Johnny Storm (which I’ll be giving a pass – Reed looks as though he’s barely out of his teens, Grimm is too big, they just couldn’t seem to get the characters right) where they had to change a long established central character rather than bring in a new one to fill the desired niche. The comparison to VOYAGER doesn’t work, though. Tuvok was a new character. Pink, blue, black, who cares? If it had been Spock (in the new movies), then the analogy would fit and you can bet there would have been howls of disapproval.
AT least it’s better than when they make the cast less diverse, like when they made Jubilee Caucasian for the Generation-X pilot, or all the characters who became American in the X-Men films.
You mean like Ultimate Fantastic Four (in which Reed was barely out of his teens)?
Miles Teller is actually close to 30.
And isn’t the Ultimates line where Reed went off his rocker and tried to take over the world from a hyper-evolved city? Not the best Marvel has to offer in terms of story lines to follow. I’ll stick with the classic version, thanks.
They’re not threatened by change.
I actually did think of the Black Widow spoof when I watched the trailer, but I knew there was no real connection.
Anyway, it’s really not much different from Lois And Clark, focusing on the normal day-to-day life of the hero. And that was a pretty good show most of the time.
I was mostly worried because some of the supporting characters looked a bit stiff and clichéd, but that’s not unusual for a pilot. It usually takes a few episodes at least to get the proper feel for everybody (for some shows it can take a few seasons to get everybody right).
Having now watched both of them, they do strike me as being bizarrely (and somewhat humorously, considering one is a satirical spoof) similar, especially with respect to the Devil Wears Prada-esque boss in both of them.
I dunno … Supergirl looks to me like every bad CW show (redundant, really) combined into one CBS show. And it just seems weird to do a show about Superman’s cousin, when Superman himself doesn’t have a show. It would have made more sense to excise Clark’s existence from it entirely, instead of having this constant elephant in the room (i.e. this is a world in which Superman exists, but we never see him, except in silhouette or whatever).
What made the Black Widow parody funny is the incongruity of the approach with the basis of the character.
With Supergirl, this approach is not that incongruous; in fact, it may be quite suitable as it pinpoints the exact areas where Kara is least able to handle with her superhuman powers.
I will admit that the first thing that cross my mind as I was watching the trailer was Ugly Betty with super powers. It seems that while the Clark Kent of the original movies was “goofy” as part of the secret identity persona this Kara is “goofy” for real. At least that is my impression for the scene when she is getting nervous for meeting Jimmy – sorry, James.
I will watch hoping the character gains confidence and the goofiness turns into an act fairly early in the series. Also, how many people know her secret? it seemed like a lot.
Overall, I think there was a lot to like and I am glad the character is getting a shot.
An in regard to the controversy: this is the trailer for a pilot, not a movie. A movie usually tells a full story. A pilot is just setting up the story so the characters can take their journey. Watch a few episodes and then pass judgment.
The SNL thing was just a bizarre funny coincidence.As for Supergirl, I’m sorry, but Jimmy Olsen should not look like he can play in the NBA. Why can’t just name the guy something else and give us a more accurate Jimmy? I’m not against diversity, but really? I would just like the characters to look like they do in the comics.
Yeah, I don’t get it. Do they think they’re being cute by having a character named Jimmy Olsen who is completely unlike Jimmy Olsen? What is the point of that?
Maybe nothing more than the best actor who auditioned for the role. JO is far less culturally iconic these days than Superman. I know Superman “fans” who actually forget he exists, so they have some leeway on it.
It’s not that he’s black. It’s that he isn’t the amiable goof that Jimmy was at his best (at his worst he was an idiot).
If Clark Kent was, as Tarantino said, Kal-El’s commentary on the human race, Jimmy was the sad reality. (and I maintain that Pete Ross was humanity at its best. Small wonder there never was a comic called “Superboy’s Secret Pal, Pete Ross”).
But this desire to increase Jimmy’s cool factor has been with us a while–wasn’t Chris Rock slated to play him in the Tim Burton dodged bullet?
So if Robert DeNiro auditioned, they would have cast him?
Outside age range is a greater factor.
If the call was for males age x to y, he could easily have been the best audition for how the role was written.
“It’s that he isn’t the amiable goof that Jimmy was at his best (at his worst he was an idiot). “
Which I think was a problem with some of the show’s character concepts. They wanted a stronger character to be her support mechanism, but they also wanted a character to link to Superman. It’s like they wrote the character outline they wanted for the one in the story bible and then transplanted JO over into that, blending the two, rather than having both in there.
To Jerry Chandler:
I hate to nitpick (well, maybe I don’t) but Tarantino was quoting Jules Feiffer from his introduction to The Great Comic Book Heroes (I think that was the title). Bill’s speech comes very close to being Feiffer’s comments word for word.
For my part, I hated that whole idea. It’s a really cynical view of the Clark Kent persona.
To Bill Mulligan:
I hate to nitpick (well, maybe I don’t) but Tarantino was quoting Jules Feiffer from his introduction to The Great Comic Book Heroes (I think that was the title). Bill’s speech comes very close to being Feiffer’s comments word for word.
For my part, I hated that whole idea. It’s a really cynical view of the Clark Kent persona.
What, exactly, makes this new Jimmy Olson “look like he can play in the NBA”?
His bald head and ripped abs for one.
Also he’s hung like a horse.
I like the trailer. It’s the best video treatment of Supergirl I have seen. ( not that there have been many). and unlike in the versions DC comics has done after Peter’s run, she isn’t a šlûŧ.
I like that she went with the more traditional costume. It gives her dignity.
Slûŧ? Really? I’m pretty sure the current Supergirl is a virgin.
The current new 52 Supergirl (the one you said is a Virgin) is not the one after Peter’s run. The one after Peter’s run was introduced by Jeph Loeb in his Superman/Batman run.
I wouldn’t say she was a šlûŧ but she had a more revealing outfit than the classic version and one of the first things she did was join Dakseid and wear skimpy outfits with very high heels.
I know, but she did say “versions,” plural. The Jeph Loeb version wasn’t a šlûŧ, either. I just don’t think (especially in light of the Black Widow hullabaloo) we should be šlûŧ-šhámìņg here.
I missed the plural and we are in complete agreement that we shouldn’t be calling anyone a šlûŧ. I was just trying do specify the version I wrongly though Kathy was talking.
This could be a good show, it certainly deserves a chance. I rather wish they had gone for something a bit closer to the original idea of her as a secret weapon in Superman’s arsenal because it begs the question–Why does Superman need a secret weapon??? what possible Big Bad would make Superman so fearful? And there are some interesting potential answers to that.
But that would require far more appearances by Superman than the creators intend.
The thing is, Jimmy in the comics is a red headed white guy, with a personality somewhat similar to Cisco on the Flash. Maybe if they really had to change that, Someone like Donald Glover would have worked they could keep the basic character. As for Superman, I doubt they want him for anything more than a sweeps guest star.
That comment puts the scene from Fallen Angel (IDW) where “Lin”(da Danvers) is in an asylum and watches Buffy while questioning her reality in a whole new light (although it could as well have been DS9 on that TV)
OT: I really enjoyed Secret Wars 2099. All the characters felt fleshed out in the pages they had (well maybe not Hawkeye) with Cap and Widow in particular cumming off well.
It was great to see Miguel continue where he left off at the end of PAD’s original run as the cool boss of Alchemax. Hopefully Spidey appears sumwhere down the line.
One thing I didn’t get was the interaction btw Iron Man and Cap at the end. It’ll prolly get fleshed out later, but as of now it just felt like a weird random moment with no explanation.
My friend Angela Pritchett, fangirl par excellence, snagged the leaked copy of the pilot and was raving about it on a panel at ConCarolinas. I trust Angela like few others so if she says it rocks this is my new default expectation (all the more so since, like me, she had reservations about the preview).
Hello Mr. David —
I didn’t know how to do this on the Epoch Times site, but I wanted to thank you for your kinds words following my write up on Tomorrowland. This was especially gratifying, as I have admired your work for many years, and great appreciate positive feedback from you.
Continued success to you.
Hello? Is anyone there? Peter?
I’m starting to worry – it’s been almost a month with no new posts, not even “BID” reprints…