Tagged: Supergirl

Happy Birthday: Linda Danvers, Supergirl

Happy Birthday: Linda Danvers, Supergirl

Kara Zor-El was born and raised in Argo City on the planet Krypton. The entire city survived the planet’s destruction, separating itself and floating to safety, but most of the inhabitants were soon felled by their homeworld’s remnants, now transformed into deadly Kryptonite.

Kara’s father Zor-El sent her to Earth for her own protection, hoping she would be found and protected by her cousin Kal-El, better known as Superman. Kara landed on Earth on April 11 and her cousin welcomed her with open arms. He also helped her create a secret identity — that of orphan Linda Lee.

As Linda, she was adopted by Fred and Edna Danvers, and it was as Linda Lee Danvers that Kara attended high school and college and later began several careers. Her Kryptonian nature gave her the same powers as Superman, however, and Kara often fought crime both at his side and on her own, becoming renowned and admired as Supergirl.

Sadly, Kara sacrificed herself during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, bravely giving her own life to protect her cousin and the rest of the multiverse.

Jim Mooney: 1919-2008

Jim Mooney: 1919-2008

Paul Kupperberg tipped me off, Mark Evanier has the news: Jim Mooney, the incredibly prolific penciller and inker of everything from A-Team to World’s Finest, passed away over the weekend.

Jim was best known for his work on Supergirl and the Legion of Super Heroes in the sixties and Spider-Man in the seventies, but his career spanned from the forties to the nineties, as early as the Eisner-Iger shop and as late as Astro City.

Here, we have a self portrait of himself that he slipped into The Spectacular Spider-Man #41.

He will be dearly missed.

Residual Effects, by Elayne Riggs

Residual Effects, by Elayne Riggs

I was going to continue my review of art I like, but since last week the new DC comp box arrived and I want to catch up before I write any more about that. Plus, I had a fairly major lifestyle change, more about which later. Meantime, the Writers Guild of America strike is into its second week and, while a resolution still seems fairly far away, I think it’s done a lot of good already in terms of consciousness raising. As with other recent revelations a lot of Americans have had, many people are starting to question why such a modern and powerful country seems so backwards when it comes to its citizens fairly sharing its bounty, whether that means providing health care for all or living up to its humane ideals in its treatment of captives or celebrating and supporting the collective strength of productive workers.

I think the WGA strike has resulted in a lot of folks who’ve never heard anything but anti-union talk since before Ronald Reagan fired the PATCO workers rethinking that knee-jerk (but craftily cultivated) attitude. They’ve learned that about half of WGA members are unemployed or underemployed in a given year, and they don’t buy the studios’ insistence that the strike is “millionaires versus billionaires.” They’ve learned that professional writing, like a lot of other entertainment-related professions that seem all-fun from the outside looking in, in fact represents a lot of hard work and long hours. They’re learning to deeply mistrust the line they’ve been fed for so long, a version of the famous Peter Stone dialogue from 1776 that “most men with nothing would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich than face the reality of being poor.” Nowadays it’s become imperative to protect the reality of being able to survive. And they understand that residual payments are the way most WGA members survive between the relatively few successful gigs they’re able to score.

(more…)

Unrealistic body types ain’t just for superheroines

Unrealistic body types ain’t just for superheroines

If you worry about the unwholesome imagery and unhealthy body types being portrayed in comics — corsetted Wonder Woman, bare belly Supergirl, fishnet clad Zatanna and Black Canary, leather wearing Storm, and so on — and are worried that it could provoke problems when people try to squeeze into outfits like that for Halloween this year, just know: it could be worse.

There’s this number to our right, which the seller labels as “Anna Rexia.” And yes, those are tape measures for a belt and choker.

Guess she won’t be having much candy… or she’ll be throwing it up right afterwards.

Behind The Big ComicMix Broadcast

Behind The Big ComicMix Broadcast

As the days roll by, I have two stacks of paper here on the Big ComicMixBroadcast Desk. One is labeled “Before San Diego,” the other is marked “Whenever.” That pretty much stands as a metaphor for things here right now as well. However, that doesn’t mean I have lost ANY of the notes I need to share with you from the week:

  •  If you are looking to (*ahem*) familiarize yourself with the actress cast as the new Supergirl on the CW’s Smallville, I found the best place to be here. It is much better than sitting through My Mom Has A Date With A Vampire – trust me!
  • The “test version” of Disney’s new free (with ads) gaming site can be seen here,  but BE CAREFUL. There are still links up fore the old subscription based site.
  • You can get info on all the deals offered & the creators appearing at SDCC from Penny Farthing Press here. A lot of these books can be ordered right from the site, too.
  • If that editorial job offered by IDW Press sounds interesting, you can get a jump on this by going here for more info.
  • You can see samples of Breaking Up by Aimee Friedman and Christine Norrie, you can go to Christine’s site. You get treated to a LOT of Christine’s other work – a real bonus!

Back at you in a couple of days as we continue to edge closer to the San Diego ComicCon, marvel at Harry’s magic boxox office and clear off the shelf for a big pile of new comics and DVDs!!

Betty and Veronica get real!

Betty and Veronica get real!

The middle-of-the-week Big ComicMix Broadcast is up and cooking with a look at the reality make over for Betty & Veronica (Archie‘s publisher speaks!), more variants from Marvel, the latest Late List of comics, and Supergirl clothes take off. Comics fans weigh in on Spider-Man 3 and we trip back to a time when the guy in the Oval Office was seconds away from being caught with his hand on the cassette deck!

You have a choice: you can Press The Button or Tobey Maguire will come to your house and dance!

Genre film costume auction

Genre film costume auction

British auctioneer Bonhams is holding a massive auction of what is believed to be the UK’s largest collection of film and television costumes on March 6th. The collection comes from Angels The Costumiers, a fifth generation family firm that has been doing costumes since 1840 and worked on 26 movies that have won Oscars for Outstanding Achievement In Costume Design.

Items going under the hammer include costumes from Superman, Supergirl, six of the Doctors from Dr. Who, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Highlander, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, James Bond’s suits from Thunderball, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Tomorrow Never Dies, and Alec Guinness’s Obi Wan cloak, pictured here.

In recognition of the popular appeal of the items, Bonhams’ saleroom will be allowing interested customers the opportunity to try on selected costumes. So if you can’t afford to bid, you could just try flying to London — but you probably won’t be able to nip off somewhere and play with your significant other unless you win. (Hat tip to Craig for the story.)

She’s Spartacus

She’s Spartacus

Former DC editorial assistant Valerie D’Orazio, who caused quite the stir late last year with her multi-post series "Goodbye to Comics," has written her second post about Supergirl wherein she expounds upon her belief that the best way to change a System for the better is from without, not within, particularly if the System perpetuates institutionalized sexism (and she does a nice job of differentiating between that and actual individual sexism).

One of the more eloquent voices working on changing institutionalized sexism from without belongs to Mely of Coffee and Ink (hat tip to Michelle Bacon for the pointer), who’s worth quoting in full (beneath the fold).