I have been informed that the Squiddies, an annual on-line comics poll, has declared “Many Happy Returns”–the return of Kara storyline–to be the best multi-part story of 2003.
I appreciate the validation, although it does remind me of Tony Randall’s five-second acceptance speech upon winning the Emmy for Best Lead in a Comedy for “The Odd Couple” the same year the show was cancelled: “I’m pleased I won. Now I just wish I had a job.”
PAD
• 
Another good one is John Nash’s acceptance speech of 1/3 of the Nobel Prize, where at one point he said something along the lines of, I just wish that the grant was for more because I could really use the extra money.
I’ve wondered, since the original Supergirl died way back in 1985’s Crisis, how many pseudo-Supergirls and Supergirl revamps we’ve had since then.
Don’t know if I can remember all of them, but here’s my version of the list:
1) Power Girl
2) Laurel Gand (Kara’s replacement in Legion of SH)
3) The Lana-Proto-Angel-Supergirl of PAD’s series
4) Kara of “Happy Returns”
5) Kara of the Superman/Alien mini-series
6) Kara, the girl who met Deadman in Mark Waid’s great Christmas story
7) Supergirl (Clark and Lois’ “daughter” recently in Superman)
8) Kara in SUPERMAN-BATMAN currently out.
The girl is like Hydra, for cripes’ sake! Kill one and 8 more take her place!
David
My take on it; Mr. D did a great job in trying to rescue a character that was not selling well. His chosen method was to make good for the injustice of killing off the original Supergirl in the first place. (Something that Gerard Jones complained about in his book; by killing off Supergirl DC assured there would be no super-comics girls would want to read, turning comic books into a He-Man Women Hater’s Club.)
Although I’m only a very minor light in writing, I know one truth of the profession; writing is like spaghetti. You throw it against the refrigerator door and see if it sticks. You accept the momentary regret if it doesn’t, then go back to cooking. The Kara revival didn’t stick. So you keep cooking.
“The Kara revival didn’t stick. So you keep cooking.”
Except it did stick. Sales climbed exponentially even though DC didn’t put a scintilla of promotion into it. They then canceled it, took the same concept, did it in Superman/Batman with the full weight of the PR department behind it, and boom, the number one book.
PAD
I just wish we’re going to see Linda again.
DC should reintroduce her as Superwoman.
Halfway through my statistics class I realized that my last statement was just plain wrong for two reasons, the first being that they don’t give acceptance speeches at the Nobel Prize ceremonies, and two because he didn’t get any cash and in fact said, “Money would be nicer”.
My bad
Gotta admit I bought the trade about 3 weeks ago… Could NOT put it down until I was completely finished.
I thought every single thing about the whole storyline ROCKED!
Um, Nobel Prize winners do get a fair chunk of change. I’m sure the amount per Prize (split if multiple winners for a single one) is over a million dollars at this point. And several decades ago, Richard Feynman considered one of the best thing about winning the Prize being able to use the money to buy a SoCal beach house.
Actually, I’m one of the few who thought Supergirl ended so wonderfull, we should never see Linda Danvers again. We should just assume that she became terminally. Having what she had the best man in the world and then loosing him, she eventually just gave up and went back to shacking up with Buzz, or Comet. Or both.
Or maybe, just maybe, PAD could take over one of the Superbooks next year and bring her back in a story where Lois wants to have kids, finds out she has only 1 in 4 billion chance of carrying one of Clark’s kids. Since Linda has already done it once, there is little reason she couldn’t again… so Lois and Jimmy try to track her down to serve as a surrogate.
Well, since no one else has said it yet…
Congratulations on the Squiddy win! Sure, it’s something of a bittersweet prize, but it’s recognition nonetheless.
TWL
Just to add that the Squiddy was well deserved. And that I prefer PAD’s Supergirl over the incarnations that followed her. And that I want to see Linda again.
Just to add that the Squiddy was well deserved. And that I prefer PAD’s Supergirl over the incarnations that followed her. And that I want to see Linda again.
Tom,
Yeah, you’re right about that. They do get money get a chunk of change that’s intended to be used for further research, so I’m having internal conflict on exactly what the reason was for Nash’s not getting any. I don’t have the book on hand so I’m a bit stuck, but I am sure that Nash said it in that context.
PAD, mad congradulations on the Squiddie. Sorry for using so much space on this thread for something that’s completely irrelevant.
At a Princeton University FAQ page, the following is said:
At the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony, His Majesty the King of Sweden hands each Laureate a diploma, a medal, and a document confirming the Prize amount. The Laureates do not give acceptance speeches. The scene in the movie A Beautiful Mind in which Nash thanks his wife Alicia for her continued support during his illness is fictional.
Laureates are each invited to give an hour-long lecture; however, the Nobel committee did not ask John Nash to do so, due to concerns over his mental health.
Let’s say
1) The Nobel Prize is 1 million dollars
2) You know you have been nominated with 2 other individuals.
3) There’s a 50% chance of your getting caught
4) There’s a 60% chance of an “insanity plea” being successful
5) There’s a 70% chance of your work being awarded
6) There’s an 80% chance your two colleagues are having the same thoughts
Would it be worth it to eliminate your 2 colleagues prior to the committee’s decision, and prior to them eliminating you first?
(I know I could have come up with something more creative given more time.)
(Note: Nash won the prize for his work on Game Theory)
my God, Peter, you are such a whiney baby. Give it a rest already.
You’re right, John, and you just jumpstarted my memory a bit. He said the “money would be nicer” part in his interview to the King himself when they were talking about something off the wall. Since I’m obviously content with blindly fumbling around this subject(rather too lazy to get the book back from my friend) I’m going to have to go on not knowing why it was that he would say something like that if he were bound to get at least some money.
The movie was completely wrong about a whole lot of things, that speech at the end being one of them. John Nash was, and is, hardly the man that they made him out to be despite his inhuman mathematical intelligence.
I’ll say this much: Between the cancellation of SG at #80, and Catwoman at #96, one can’t help but wonder if there’s some sort of glass ceiling that keeps solo super-heroines from reaching the 100-issue mark. With the exception of Wonder Woman, of course.
Anyway, congrats on the sqiddies win. It was indeed one hëll of a storyline.
Posted by Thomas E. Reed: (Something that Gerard Jones complained about in his book; by killing off Supergirl DC assured there would be no super-comics girls would want to read, turning comic books into a He-Man Women Hater’s Club.)
I have to take exception with this comment in your otherwise eloquent post, Thomas (and by extension, Gerald Jones as well). I think it’s dangerous to make the assumption that ‘girls’ only want to read super-comics featuring female protagonists. (Or, to put it conversely, that only girls would want to read them).
Congratulations, Mr. David. The news is somewhat bittersweet for me, as your Supergirl was my favorite comic for a large portion of its run. I can only imagine how you, yourself, must feel.
David wrote:
I’ve wondered, since the original Supergirl died way back in 1985’s Crisis, how many pseudo-Supergirls and Supergirl revamps we’ve had since then.
1) Power Girl
—
For what it’s worth, Power Girl existed long before Crisis as a member of the JSA on Earth-2. Although she was basically Earth-2’s version of Supergirl, she wasn’t created in reaction to Supergirl’s death.
::slinks back to lurk in the shadows::
I couldn’t honestly be more pleased to hear that PAD’s Supergirl is getting a little bit of post-mortem recognition.
I just got a package today that contains all the issues I needed to fill the “holes” in my PAD-penned Supergirl collection (as well as the entirety of PAD-penned X-Factor). Well, technically, I still need the first nine issues for completeness sake, but in terms of content, I’ve had the first Supergirl trade for a few years now.
I can’t wait to dig in and reread the whole shebang from start to finish. When this series was coming out, it was honestly my favorite book. (If anyone is curious, just check out the letters page in issue 41 or 42, I believe…I had a letter printed containing my praise for the book.)
I especially loved the wonderful period between approximately issue 14 and issue 50. Fantastic stuff. To this day, I think Leonard Kirk and Robin Riggs were two of the very best artists with whom Peter’s ever collaborated.
I loved them all, but that whole era of the Earthborn angels, Andy/Comet, Ðìçk Malverne, Atlas Corp., it was all phenomenal. Now that I’ve got all the issues, I’m going to dive right in tonight.
🙂
Fanboy mode OFF. 😉
“my God, Peter, you are such a whiney baby. Give it a rest already.”
Okay, since you appeared out of nowhere and all you’ve done in your posts is bìŧçh at me, I will go on the assumption that you’re the same jáçkášš as has appeared elsewhere.
Shrouded.
PAD
Maybe I’m not understanding the idea of shrouding, Peter, but wouldn’t it mean that the post you quote immediatey above should be simply ignored without acknowledgement in the least?
“I’m pleased I won. Now I just wish I had a job.” (Do I put double quotes around that, being a quote of a quote?)
Maybe not a job, but not useless either.
I had a chance encounter with a friend’s copy of Many Happy Returns last November — hadn’t read comics in well over 20 years. I was impressed enough that I’ve tracked down all the back issues of Supergirl to #1. Excellent writing.
While that may not help you as such, it did get me reading Fallen Angel (which is splendid). Tracked down all of those as well (new, not used). My wife and brother-in-law — neither of whom have ever read comics in their life — had the same positive reaction as me, and are now getting FA as well. The FA TPB will also make a nice birthday gift for several people come this July/August.
And I got my own copy of Many Happy Returns for Christmas. 🙂
How wonderful that MHR gets recognized.
I loved the Supergirl series and thought it was the most innovative and interesting comic out at the time. I, like a prior poster, especially loved the issues through #50.
Thanks again for the series PAD!
Huh, I guess what has been said about comics is true. “Waiting for the trade paperback” seems to be where comics are going. I’d like to run a mini-poll if I can.
How many people here read the Many happy returns “first-run” (like me)?
How many have read either the trade or got back issues?
P.S. I only pick up the book because I heard Ed Benes was going to pencil it (I really didn’t like the art before hand (except for Gary Frank’s stuff, which is the only other Supergirl issues of Peter’s run which is availible in trade form(got the “first-run too!)))
Vote Quimby!
ugh…Picked up.
I read SG first run. I like trade paperbacks and buy them when something interests me that I may have missed when it came out monthly, or my tastes have changed and am now more interested than I was then. But there’s nothing like a monthly. I love the fact that every month I get to catch up a little with the characters in the titles I currently buy. If I buy the monthly, I don’t get the TPB. Now, I have dropped titles recently due to finances, so I may pick up a TPB on one of them eventually. But they were titles that were easily dropped since the quality wasn’t as high as in the past. I buy almost everything of PAD’s. (Tried Spyboy but it wasn’t my cup aof tea.) JMS and Joss Whedon are must buys also. I tend to follow writers rather than artists. As long as they keep selling them monthly, I’ll keep buying them.
Um, one final thing on the Nobel money. It’s not “intended to be used to further the research”. In many cases, the work that got the Nobel was done several decades before and the field and research have moved on considerably. Also, for the Literature prize, well, I can’t think of a single winner who used the money to finance their lifestyle while they wrote a sequel. 🙂 Like the MacArthur grants, a Nobel Prize winner can do whatever they feel like with the monetary part of the prize.
Side odd factoids: I met three sons of Nobel Prize winners before ever meeting a winner. I was also used as a practice dummy to show several Laurates how to dance the Macarena.
Um, can I ask a question?
I’ve been meaning to ask this, and since this board now provides the perfect opportunity, I have to ask:
First, what happened to Linda, and who was this new Supergirl in Superman/Batman #5?
Second, if this new character in Superman/Batman #5 was the new Supergirl, what happened her to make space for the new Supergirl that later appeared in #8?
Lastly, how can that Supergirl in #8 come back if she died in Crisis? Superman matter-of-factly tells Batman at the end of #8 that she’s his cousin, but no one seems to recognize her as the character that died in Crisis.
Can someone fill me in? I was a Marvelite, and aren’t as well-read with DCU history.
Thanks.
Peter:
Congratulations on the Squidie.
I grew up (so to speak) with the original Kara Zor-El, and actually got mad at DC for Crisis on Infinite Earths #7.
While not perfect (ie: being the original) your Supergirl was a pretty good substitute.
Thanks for the series.
Congratulations. I do not consider accepting with a witticism to be “whiny baby” behavior.
Could this award possibly affect the fate of Fallen Angel? I really would like you to get around to that girl’s story. (not rushing, just hoping she lives long enough)
Pete
Do you know what I wanna read? The Adventures of Rick Jones! Do you know who I want to write it? Peter David! Do you know when I will win the lottery and buy Marvel comics, so that I can make this happen? OY! what was that all about?
I read SG first run, and have all the issues except one: one of the Young Justice crossover issues. I’m still looking, however (for that and for the two YJ issues that complete the crossover.)
I’m always worried about the “waiting for the trade” mentality. If that applied to TV series, too, and people decided to “wait for the DVD collection” rather than watch the show when it first aired, wouldn’t it go off the air, and the likelihood of a DVD all that smaller?
Actually Supergirl was a good chick magnet for me back when i was …younger…many a fine young lady would ask what i was reading and when they saw it was Supergirl, well….
And I swear after every girl read the current issue I was on, they would ask the same question…”Are these books always this good?” and I’d reply “ya baby, ya”
What an interesting idea. Seems like it might have kind of a Buckaroo Banzai feel to it; make the first arc or three about the adventures of Rick’s traveling band. His bandmates could be the initial supporting cast, and each new town has some neat story, alternating between genre-oriented stories about aliens or vampires and less fantastic but cool stories like when Rick was locked up by his crazy “mother”.
Pete
Luigi:
>First, what happened to Linda,
In Supergirl #80, due to her trauma at losing her child in the parallel universe where she’d spent several years (her time), Linda basically walked off into the sunset, leaving a note explaining her reasons for leaving everyone she knew and giving up the Supergirl role.
>and who was this new Supergirl in
>Superman/Batman #5?
Supposedly Cir-El, Superman’s daughter from the future. Frankly, I never heard of any of the readers really liking the character. In Superman #200, it was revealed that minions of Brainiac in the future had merged Superman’s DNA from a strand of hair with a Terran homeless girl to create her. In a convoluted story, she wiped herself out in a sacrifice to save Superman, with it being unclear if the wiping out was done in such a way that anyone remembers her or not. Since all of the writers on the Super-books have changed, and #200 wrapped up that writer’s storylines, I suspect she’ll never be refered to again.
>Lastly, how can that Supergirl in #8 come back
>if she died in Crisis? Superman matter-of-factly
>tells Batman at the end of #8 that she’s his
>cousin, but no one seems to recognize her as the
>character that died in Crisis.
The pre-Crisis Supergirl never existed in the current DCU (modulo that the other Supergirl in the Many Happy Returns story in Supergirl 76-80 was supposed to be her, and that “Kara” in an excellent one-shot by Alan Brennert back around 1989 was clearly here [there, it was a plot element that no one could see her except Deadman and he didn’t remember her]). So, when the Supergirl Mark VIII or so landed on Earth, it was from her Kryptonese dialogue saying her father was Zor-El and why, yes, he did have a brother Jor-El that Superman deduced that she’s his cousin.
This isn’t the first time DC has made an absolutely boneheaded decision.
Remember when they decided to cancel Young Justice by mooshing it together with Titans in the worst-written miniseries since Secret Wars II? And how right afterwards WBA released a Teen Titans cartoon that was tonally the same as Young Justice?
Oh wait, of course you do.
It’s not a glass ceiling for female characters so much as that all sidekicks and “B-list” heroes get short shrift by DC. For a long time most comics critics considered Flash, and Starman DC’s best comics, and yet DC only ever gave PR to Batman and Superman.
I was first run. It’d be great to find out what happened to Linda someday.
Congratulations on the Squiddie, PAD.
Also chiming in with congratulations of the Squiddy win, PAD. It’s wonderfully reassuring, in light of the publisher’s more recent ‘sweeping it under the rug’ continuity blunders.
KET
PAD:
Only now noticed that the title of the story arc was also that of a “Prisoner” episode. Safe to say that this is a sly reference?
George Guay
Peter, I’m also glad you won the award. And I also wish I had a job.
I got most of “Supergirl”, all first-run, and i loooooved the “Return of Kara” storyline.
Congratulations on your award PAD.
That’s all i have to say right now.
You know, it only just occurred to me reading this, but has anyone mentioned the flipside of your Fallen-Angel-is-it-or-isn’t-it-Linda semi-marketing ploy (and before you worry… I’m not dissing the plan, I actually like the idea; you yourself said that it was part of your plan to draw in readers)?
Namely, now we don’t get to see Linda. If Lee is Linda, that’s understandable, but if she isn’t… or if we as readers choose to think she’s not, we’re left missing this character we’ve come to care about. If someone else wanted to use Linda in a story, could they? Or is she comic-book-limboed for the next ten years while FA runs?
Douglas Barre:
“If someone else wanted to use Linda in a story, could they? Or is she comic-book-limboed for the next ten years while FA runs?”
Douglas, that’s an interesting point, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing and also don’t think that it’s likely to be an issue.
I don’t think it’s a bad thing because I’m not really eager to see what another author would do with Linda. She was such a living, breathing person under Peter’s pen. I remember when Dan Jurgen’s Titans were conducting a poll of characters that readers wanted to join, I was worried that Supergirl was on the list. It was my opinion that if the writing of Supergirl in Titans did Linda any justice, she’d have totally overshadowed the rest of them.
I don’t think that it’s an issue, because DC has shown that it’s been perfectly willing to create hoards of new Supergirls since the moment Peter’s series was torpedoed. Well, not “hoards” just yet, but two in about a year’s time. And who knows what’s going on with Power Girl in JSA right now. Pretty soon, they’ll be darkening the sky when they fly overhead. DC seems perfectly content to let Linda sit in Limbo while they try to figure out how to have a “not-quite Kryptonian” Supergirl that reminds us of the one from before the Crisis, but still let’s Superman be the Last Son of Krypton…except for a dog.
And I wonder if any of these “Almosts” will still be around after seven years (the approximate amount of time Linda sustained her own book).
As to the Fallen Angel, I find her rather interesting. She reminds me of Linda in that Linda herself was quite a mystery through the first year of her run. I look forward to finding out more about both her past and how it will shape her future.
“Pretty soon, they’ll be darkening the sky when they fly overhead.”
And then we’ll have to blow up the planet to end a war, and feel guilty about killing off all the Avi- I mean, Supergirls, and then start slavishly following the advice of transdimensional aliens… 🙂
(Sorry – guess I heard one too many “darkening the skies” lines from the Xindi…)
>Posted by Peter David at June 9, 2004 02:16 PM
>
>They then canceled it, took the same concept, did >it in Superman/Batman with the full weight of the >PR department behind it, and boom, the number one >book.
*nod* I’m gonna hold that against DC for a LONG time. ‘Cause, you know, the current Supergirl storyline? Doesn’t even come CLOSE to “Many Happy Returns” in terms of quality. With all due respect to Jeph Loeb, PAD’s Supergirl has always been and will always be the definitive Supergirl to me; and sometimes I just wonder if the Big Two actually recognize talent when it’s staring them in the face… 🙁
Re :Diana “i just wonder if the big two actually recognize talent when its staring them in the face”Umm ,i would have to say no for the most part.I base this on the fact up until recently when for various reasons i stopped going to the comics store i found myself searching more and more for quality comics from the big two.Either the story was good /artwork bad or vice versa.The comics i read and enjoyed seemed to be less hyped and as a result left by the wayside by fans and in some cases the retailers.Love The Savage Dragon but my local store stopped carrying it,(not selling enough)Black Panther(cancelled),Birds of Prey(no hype),Batgirl(went to crap).
Its pretty much why i dont watch a lot of network TV,little creativity or originality and please dont make someone think.
I may be in the minority but im underwhelmed by the return of Claremont to the XMEN.I felt he pretty much shot his load with the characters a long time ago.But Marvel will due it to hype a comic that needs no more hyping and make money.
Understand its a business ,but doesnt telling good stories count??
Sorry to rant and ramble but again remember just my opinions …..I could be wrong:)
I just read the NEWSARAMA interview,with PAD and a couple of rants by Micah Wright.Funny they both have some of the same view points on the marketplace.Specifically how the retailers and companies would rather hype the same old,same old
or the “surefire” product rather than hype a new project that may attract new readers or god forbid be unique in the market.
NEW ULTIMATE DAREDEVIL,XMEN,XFACTOR,XFORCE,XCALIBUR,and oh by the way check out captain marvel if you have any money leftover.
Christopher Priest speaks about his horror story with the books XERO and STEEL( poorly advertised,non commercial,and oh by the way they feature black main characters so who no one will read them anyway)on his website.
Its a shame good stories suffer and die cause they are noy considered “hot” by the powers that be.