#this is why imo writing superman comics/movies is hard for some people but that's another story

[veloursdor]

me, in my nerdiest moment: it's always more interesting to me when people write superman and obi-wan as these people that, despite everything, choose kindness and goodness every day. obi-wan, more than anyone else, deserves to lose his shit and become a sith, but it's him choosing kindness despite everything what makes him great. also, comics with dark superman are boring.

guy at the grocery store: it's 9.50

[bigskydreaming]

@seekingxanadu​

LOL I think you and I aren’t likely to ever agree on the subject of Jason’s role in the show, xanadu, as I actually like him being present and would enjoy seeing him end up more integrated into the team in the future. Yeah, there are a lot more classic Titans that they still haven’t gotten to, but IMO there’s a lot of reasons for that (like Wally and Roy currently being used elsewhere, Vic with the Doom Patrol, others perhaps ‘on hold’ because there’s always any number of projects or potential projects in the works that aren’t even announced to the public yet, etc).

Personally, I think its likely Jason’s role in the show and mythology has been expanded instead of introducing more Titans in his place for the same reason Hawk and Dove are here despite never being hugely present in Titans stories for the most part: they’re cheap.

Like tbh, that plays SO much more of a role than most people realize with shows like this, where budget concerns are constantly an issue, and special effects tend to carry the highest price tags. As far as the showrunners are likely concerned, the more they can bring in non-powered characters and give them screentime, the better....because it saves money.

For that matter, superhero projects belonging to the various live action shared universes love to cheat special effects whenever and wherever possible....and roster choices are absolutely made with an eye towards if any existing properties produced by the same companies have special effects that can be repurposed and used with other characters. Like, creating the special effect for the first time tends to be the most expensive part by far, whereas its often relatively simple and cheap to reuse it in a variety of ways....so they all like to do this as much as possible.

Just as an example, take the X-Men movies (sorry if they’re unfamiliar to you, they’re just the instances I can speak to as a sure example of this).....to most people, a LOT of the mutant characters used in the various films seem random as hell....like Azazel in First Class, and Sunspot in DOFP, etc. Thing is...those two and other characters were picked primarily because of the special effects. Azazel’s similarities to Nightcrawler wasn’t a coincidence, it was the point. The studio already had the special effect they’d created for Kurt’s teleportation power signature, and it’d been easily one of the most positively received and talked about special effects of the original trilogy....so they wanted to use it more. Cheap and easy, compared to making new ones for characters with entirely different powers. So by making Azazel one of the primary villains, they just used Kurt’s special effects and gave it a slightly different tint. Same thing with Riptide, Shaw’s other henchman in that movie....totally random choice given he’s never been remotely associated with the Hellfire Club and what they showed in the movie isn’t even really how his powers work in the comics...but the way they portrayed him in the movies allowed them to reuse some of the tornado effects they’d created for Storm in the original trilogy. Havok’s power displays were just repackaged versions of Cyclops’ special effects, and for Sunspot in DOFP they just reused stuff they’d developed in the original trilogy for Pyro...even though again, what Sunspot was shown doing in that movie isn’t remotely how his power works in the comics.

So like....this is a very very big consideration for studios with any and all superhero projects, both film and TV...its why WB picks nonpowered characters to center TV projects around whenever possible, like Arrow and Batwoman and the reason Hawk and Dove were referenced as being looked at for a possible spin-off pretty much since Titans started...and its not a coincidence that the Flash was the first superpowered character they chose to expand their TV universe with, as superspeed has always been one of the cheaper effects to create (its also why Smallville utilized Clark’s superspeed even more often than it did his superstrength). Same thing why when picking another ‘powered hero’ to add to Arrow early on, they went with Ray Palmer and gave him basically just an Iron Man style suit to start...because even when they eventually had him develop his shrinking power....again, super cheap. Size changing effects just involve shooting a lot of different takes using scale models or messing with proportions in post. Compared to what’s required for a lot of DC’s more high profile heroes....that costs nothing to do.

Odds are, Jason was originally introduced in S1 purely because they could use him to advance Dick’s solo storylines in ways very few other characters could allow for, given a key point of Dick’s story arc in becoming Nightwing over the course of two seasons has revolved around touching on where he’s been and come from, and how he’s now grown past that. To really make the most of that, you need something connected to his past, to Batman, and given its notoriously difficult and complicated to secure approval to use Bruce in any and all live action projects, with the sheer volume of different people you need to get on board with it....Jason was a much easier alternative.

And then once he was relatively well received, they jumped on the chance to expand his role because he enabled them to expand their core cast of characters without dramatically inflating their budget at the same time. Just like that’s why Hank and Dawn were never going anywhere any time soon.

So tbh....he’s very likely not taking anything away from any other Titans’ chances of appearing...since the same hurdles and reasons to take it slow are still there for a lot of the other characters. After Arrow ends, it might be a different story with that freeing up Roy to start making appearances...and who knows with Wally because even though he plays an entirely different version of Wally, bet you anything they’re waiting to be sure Keiynan is definitively done playing Kid Flash or the Flash show is for sure never going to bring him back, before considering either Wally for use elsewhere. Like, I know he already said he was done playing Wally but actors change their minds, so I doubt anyone in the studios took that as an immediate green-light to launch a new Wally project elsewhere.

This almost certainly played a factor in their killing off Garth in just his first appearance....water effects are notoriously hard to make look convincing, and this one’s on the writers too given that I bet people in the writers’ room in general weren’t pushing really hard to make Garth a core character for the show....a lot of TV writers reeeeeally hate trying to write for characters who are intrinsically affiliated with say, the ocean, if they’re not otherwise an ocean-themed show already.....because its just another version of why a lot of comic book writers say they have a hard time showcasing Arthur in JLA books, due to a lot of his most thematic abilities being so location dependent. (I mean, personally I say in both cases this is just a lack of imagination and not a good excuse for not using Garth or Arthur more, lol, but like, it is what it is. This tendency among writers as is still already exists).

And the DC expanded universe and which production companies are affiliated with which properties and studios and stations and all that is a huge complicated mess, so I’m not even going to try tracing the connections to verify for sure, but I’d be willing to bet Titans has access to either some of Supergirl’s special effects or some of Superman’s movie special effects or both (or possibly just to Superman special effects developed for various projects that have come and gone over the years without ever making it to completion). Either way, bet you anything that has as much to do with the decision to introduce Superboy into this particular ensemble, as does just them wanting to have a Super-family character in the mix and Superboy was next on the list, not already being used elsewhere.

*Shrugs* But yeah. Never underestimate the power of the dime even with something as fundamental as picking a core roster. Actually, ESPECIALLY with something that fundamental, since that’s the foundation any and all budget concerns spring from. As much as I love the original Judas Contract storyline, I’m not at all bothered to see Rose kinda shoehorned into Terra’s role in a truncated variation of it here....because first, that story’s been adapted a ton in a variety of different ways, so its not really a huge loss to not have it fully adapted again, but second.....its less likely that Rose took Terra’s role here and more likely that Terra was never remotely an option for the show given how ridiculously expensive her powers would be to render well....so they looked at what else they could make fit a similar role and decided hey, why not bring Rose into this as well, even though she’s not primarily associated with this generation of characters?

And Joey was obviously always a strong candidate to add to the cast as early as this, of course. My bet is other than possibly Roy, depending on WB’s overall plans for him, like, I would guess the next most likely Titans to show up/be added to the cast are Lilith, Mal and/or Karen. Telepathy’s cheap and easy to gimmick up some power signature for.....tbh, I wouldn’t be surprised if the only reason Lil HASN’T shown up yet is because they’ve been saving her for after the Jericho storyline is done, given that her powers would cut through all the stakes and suspense and reveal Joey was riding shotgun in Slade’s head from the very first time the Titans encountered Deathstroke this season. For that matter, it’d be extremely difficult to write her as not sensing the sheer chaos going through Dick’s mind this entire season and cutting off that storyline early, and it does seem they’ve known exactly where they wanted to go with Dick this whole time so I can easily see them having decided early on they viewed this as a necessary part of his evolution into Nightwing, and Lil’s mere presence would throw a spanner in those works.

And as for Mal and Karen, again, the shrinking powerset is relatively easy to pull off and its likely more just not wanting to invest in Karen’s suit/flight just yet that’s been the delay there, and Mal’s sonic powers OR his teleportation powers are both relatively easy and cheap.

And of course, other non-powered characters not usually affiliated with the Titans are always a possibility. I’d put money on freaking Golden Eagle being a more likely contender to show up than some of the other powered Titans, for that matter.

Anyway, just my industry take on the matter in general, lol. You know I’d always be for Jason as a Titan as I think he would have ended up one eventually if he hadn’t died when he did, and I’d love to have just one adaptation that doesn’t stick to his death and Red Hood storyline. He doesn’t need it to be an interesting character, just good writing. Its not like Bruce or Dick are definitively chained to one specific storyline outside of their own origin stories, so no reason Jason should have to be either. (And honestly, in line with everything I was talking about here......IMO the nonpowered characters are always a degree safer from being killed off than the powered characters. Doesn’t mean they’re ever totally safe, and it doesn’t mean the show’s necessarily ‘at capacity’ for powered/expensive characters already, but at a certain point the cast list likely will end up sticking with just the powered characters they have until one of those powered characters is killed or otherwise written off...before adding another ‘expensive’ character to take their place.)

But yeah, anyway, lol. Don’t know if that might make you a little more positively inclined to Jason taking up a slot on the show....all things considered, I truly doubt that it was ever a case of them picking to make Jason a series regular OVER adding another classic Titans character in that place instead. It really is more likely IMO that the cast list we have this season was more or less already otherwise in place and they just looked at things and said ��we can’t really afford to introduce an additional character on top of the other ones we want to add already this season, like Joey, Slade, etc, and especially not one with special effects heavy powers...BUT we can bring Jason in as more of a presence in the ensemble and bump him up to series regular without too much trouble.”

[jade4813]

So, basically you're saying they're keeping DP around due to the cronyism that got her hired and because they think writing for the title character, Barry, is boring now? Well, all of those people need to leave then! Were those first showrunners of Smallville fired or pushed to leave? And why would the WB allow irrelevant characters to damage both shows? I'll even add how Fe ruined Error. Same m.o. Made up or est. character from another hero's story who's white, nerdy, and bland.

I think a lot of times, it seems like CW shows are unwilling to let people go who have been around for a few years, even when it would help the show to move on. I’m sure when you’ve worked with someone for several years and they’re nice and friendly (to you, at least), you like want them and don’t want to write them off before they want to leave (essentially firing them). I don’t know that it never happens - I don’t watch a lot of CW shows - but the CW seems more reluctant to get rid of longer-running actors than other networks or shows I’ve seen.

As for the show runners... I’m not talking about Eric. As far as I can tell from interviews, he does seem more interested in Barry’s story than we’ve seen in the last two years. I don’t know if AJK or TH admitted for finding Barry boring in the same way that AlMiles said they’d always found Superman to be a boring character. But I think it’s pretty apparent in how Barry was treated in S4. And even in S5, IMO. I remember at one point last year wondering - outside of explaining why Barry’s gone and Nora had powers, how much did it really matter that Barry was the Flash? How much was S5 about Barry’s growth versus, say, Nora’s? I know some don’t agree with my assessment of S5, but I certainly didn’t feel the compelling interest in his character in the writing last year. But unless TH comes out and talks about his perception of the character as AlMiles did, we may never know for sure.

As for why the show runner’s left Smallville...depends who you ask, I suppose. They left when KK did, and they clearly saw the show as the telling of the tragic romance between Clark and Lana. So maybe they decided to leave with her. But at least one article back then claimed “inside sources” said they left because of friction with the cast, specifically Welling. That Welling was burned out and unhappy with the writing for his character and he kept talking about wanting to quit. But the WB made boatloads is money from the show and were determined to go 10 years. So they got rid of the original show runner(s) because of friction between them and Welling. Other sources claimed it was due to budget cuts. So who knows?

I will say that four show runners stepped in after AlMiles left to helm the show. And after the debacle of S8, which left almost every group in fandom alienated and enraged, it was announced two would be leaving for another show. Voluntarily, or at the behest of TPTB? Again, depends who you believe. We do know that the president of the WB sat in on contract negotiations with Welling to make sure he got what he wanted to renew his contract. Which reportedly included the show runners laying out exactly what his story would be in S9.

As for why the WB let them do what all they did...well, they made it very clear back then that they considered the show to be an “Elseworlds” AU. That it was its own thing, that had no impact on their comic or cinematic universes. And my understanding is that WB is now and always has been VERY compartmentalized, with movies kept distinct from TV kept distinct from comics, etc. (It’s part of why they tend to remove rights from TV shows to use characters when they’re going to be used in movies - with the only real exception so far being Flash because they can’t write him out for the movies without ending the show. At least to my understanding of how they run things.)

I think they kept that same “hands off” mentality with the current ‘verse was launched. However, with Johns making his displeasure over some of the choices made known (specifically the treatment of BC), I wonder if they are more hands on with shows launched now and in the future. But I suspect it’s hard to retroactively evert more control. I’d have to ask my brother (since he worked in TV for a few years), but just thinking from a contract standpoint. If you sign over rights to use characters with the only restrictions being X and Y, you may not really be able to go in later and add a new restriction Z. At least not easily. And because of the compartmentalization, I think WB really does want to more or less let the shows have the creative freedom to do what they want to do. As long as the shows make them the money they expect to make from them, I think they prefer to take a stance of noninterference. But if that gets needlessly put in jeopardy (as happened with Smallville), we might see them more willing to step in, like they did with Welling. Because they were DETERMINED to get 10 seasons out of a show that was very lucrative for them.

However, as licenses for characters are handed out post-BC being killed off, I’d be curious to watch and get a sense if they’re tightening restrictions at all. Flash was licensed before that happened, though, so I don’t think you’d see any difference there.

[justfcrkicks]

01. what’s your name/alias you go by ??

it’s not my real name but i go by cody online, usually.

02. what’s your age ??

nineteen, almost twenty. i feel 12 tho

03. what’s your zodiac sign ??

aries! i added the exclamation point bc we’re supposed to be assertive but i didn’t get the memo.

04. what’s your ethnicity ??

umm what ISN’T my ethnicity is a better question haha. but no i’m mostly italian/sicilian, lots of different other european countries too, and also part native american, but sadly the only person that even knew what tribe was my grandmother who never really shared those details with anyone before her passing.

05. what’s your nationality ??

i am a US citizen :)

06. what’s your favorite band and/or musical artist ??

i can never answer this because i like pretty much every genre of music and my “favorite” is constantly in flux but right now i’ve been listening to a lot of greta van fleet, eminem, harry styles, joyner lucas, tenacious d, and also one specific willie nelson song has been on a constant loop when i’m not listening to the other stuff.

07. what’s your dream job ??

i don’t really have one tbh. lots of people do and that’s awesome, but sometimes people don’t believe me when i say the only thing that matters is that i don’t hate the job and it earns me enough money to live comfortably, maybe own a small house, reasonably priced car, etc. 

08. what’s one place you would love to visit ??

alpha centauri

09. what’s your favorite tv show ??

another one of those things where i can’t pick a favorite. i’ve been enjoying arrow, riverdale, titans, the ranch, sabrina, supergirl, the flash, legacies, and legends of tomorrow lately though. i’m also a big fan of general hospital, the 100, izombie, lucifer, and stranger things.

10. what’s your favorite movie ??

um... tough one but i have always had a soft spot for Joe Dirt, or The New Guy. Also, I really liked Why Him with James Franco, Bryan Cranston, and Zoey Deutch. I mean, not the greatest movies ever but they’re what come to mind when asked, so... lol

11. what’s your favorite song ??

as of the past couple weeks? “cruel cruel world” by willie nelson, or “unshaken” by d’angelo. for weeks before that it was “lucky you” by eminem & joyner lucas. but i really, unironically love “only in america” by riff raff. the video is hilarious and it just puts me in a good mood.

12. what’s your favorite sport ??

is watching tv a sport? haha video games is a sport, right...?

13. what’s your favorite food ??

pizza. or cereal. i have difficulty picking favorites if you couldn’t tell.

14. what’s your favorite face claim to use ??

chris wood or paul wesley, usually. i’ve just used them a lot and gotten used to them. i tried to justify chris wood for john but he’s way too buff to be john and his skinny gifs don’t look nearly enough like john to make any sense.

15. what’s your least favorite face claim ??

andy ballsack biersack. emma roberts. those two bring up bad memories. dylan o’brien. idk why, i like him well enough as an actor. i’m not necessarily opposed to rping with any of them though

16. what’s your favorite canon character to play ??

i played kai parker for a while. that was fun.

17. what’s your sexuality ??

heterosexual. i legitimately cannot remember a time i wasn’t into girls. as a toddler i’d play with barbies to take the clothes off lmfao

18. what’s the last movie you saw in a cinema/theater ??

batman v superman i think. it’s been way too long.

19. what’s the worst injury you’ve ever had ??

i’ve had some bad ones. i broke my wrist/hand in a few different places, which wasn’t too bad. had a sprained/fractured ankle which didn’t heal for like a year. but the worst was when i got assassin’s creed brotherhood as a kid and laid on my stomach across the whole couch, propped up on my elbows for like 7 hours straight. my back was in a u shape the whole time and when i finally moved, that was the moment i realized i fucked up lol

20. what’s a random or interesting fact about you ??

um.... idk i’m boring but maybe that i have lost 120lbs 

21. do you listen to music while you write ??

sometimes. if i find a good playlist (i’m too lazy to make one) that’s not too distracting then sometimes i’ll use it for a while but other times i just like the silence.

22. are you a morning, day, evening, or night writer ??

night. no matter how hard i try my sleep schedule always gets turned upside down eventually to where i get up at like 6 pm and go to sleep at like 10 am, so i usually only write while the skies are dark lol

23. have you ever roleplayed intoxicated ??

nope. i’ve never had a drink or done drugs so that’d be a neat trick. lol

24. what language or languages do you speak ??

only english. i’m probably too dumb to learn another language tbh. though for a while after playing assassin’s creed 2 i’d say random italian sentences and call people “stronzo!”

25. how long have you roleplayed ??

i mean technically i’ve been rping since i was 8 on myspace, but i didn’t move on to legit rp until i was like 11 or 12, then i went to rp.me for a while, then finally got to tumblr around 2012-2013. 

26. favorite roleplay genre ??

i don’t really have one, but i was once in a scifi rp that changed my view on what groups can be, and i think it was my favorite experience ever. everyone was so close and friendly and that made the rp even more fun, so now a good scifi rp brings up those memories for me and makes me enjoy that genre even more.

27. one sound you hate & one you love ??

ok so the sound i hate is nails scratching cotton. not a chalkboard, oddly enough that’s tolerable to me, but nails scratching up against cotton... i have no idea why but it sends chills down my spine lmfao

i love the sound of a crackling fire though. or rain. or rain and a crackling fire. 

28. do you believe in ghosts ??

hell yes i do. pls don’t hurt me ghosts i believe in u

29. do you believe in aliens ??

do i think aliens exist? yes. do i think we’ve been visited by aliens, or that we’re even close enough for them to know we exist? not necessarily. but i do like the ancient alien theory that we were visited by aliens a long time ago and taught stuff. especially when you consider that so many cultures, even those that had no way of being in contact with each other are so similar, have similar thought processes, and progressed at similar rates.

30. do you believe in true love ??

yes & no. i believe that initial attractions can be very powerful in producing a “love at first sight” feeling, but no one is just meant to love another person. i believe you can grow to feel “true love” for anyone assuming the right circumstances.

31. do you hold grudges ??

i’d like to think i don’t but i know i do, at least in the back of my mind. sort of forgive but not forget, but also never 100% forgiving either? idk.

32. do you have any obsessions right now ??

red dead redemption 2. big shock, i know haha. i just can’t get over the ending, the characters, the music, the world, etc. 

33. do you drive & if so, have you ever been in a crash ??

nope & nope

34. do you like the smell of gasoline ??

nooooo it makes me feel sick, honestly.

35. do you prefer writing fluff, angst, or smut ??

all of the above! each has its merits, and writing too much of one thing can get old and make the others feel more appealing. smut gets old the quickest though imo, even though i’ve run a smut rp in the past haha

36. are you in a relationship ??

are you? lmao

37. grab the nearest book to you and turn to page 23, what is the 17the line ??

well it’s a comic/graphic novel so there’s not 17 lines on that page but the second to last line is “and edward nigma... did you know that when the riddler was first transferred to arkham, they had to keep moving him from cell to cell to keep him from being able to formulate an escape?” it’s Batman Volume 10: Epilogue by Snyder & Capullo.

38. put your playlist on shuffle and list the first four songs that pop up:

1. Santeria by Sublime 2. Money Trees by Kendrick Lamar 3. Heart Shaped Box by Nirvana 4. Ladders by Mac Miller

[stranger-who-writes-fiction]

Moooore Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow stuff, courtesy of another Tom King interview: 

King was on the Supergirl Radio podcast this week, and while a lot of it is just a repeat of what was said in the previous interview on ComicPop Elseworlds Exchange, there were still some interesting bits, IMO!

They opened with some general questions--how did he start writing, when did he get into superhero comics, etc. 

And then, the Supergirl portion!

The hosts asked where he first encountered Supergirl, and as before, he said that Supergirl is one of those characters that everyone just knows, like Batman and Superman. So he felt there was never a time where he wasn’t at least aware of her.

If forced to pinpoint something specific, though: the cartoons (Superman: The Animated Series and JLU) and for Kara Zor-El in particular, hardcover trades of the 70s stuff.

He had some AWESOME Carmine Infantino art, from the issue where Supergirl fights a bunch of mini-supergirls, in Daring New Adventures.

When asked if he used any of those stories for this new project, King again said that he went back to the ORIGINAL origin, in the Silver Age Otto Binder stuff.

Because he’s written Superman, the hosts asked if he thinks about the differences/similarities between the two when writing Supergirl.

He said that Kara’s more of a survivor than Clark, she’s been through more; he feels that Superman is always striving to be the icon that is Superman, whereas Kara can just be herself. 

He describes her as harder, more cynical, ‘she’ll drop an F-bomb here or there,’ she’s ‘old and crusty.’

The hosts asked him how he came to be on the book and while it’s basically the same story he told on the other podcast, there were a few additional details he mentioned here.

He specifically said that editors were frustrated, because there is this. Thought? Among creators, that Supergirl is perfect, and there are no fun Supergirl stories to tell. 

(Brief, opinionated interjection here: HOGWASH!)

He again brought up the idea that people can be precious with Supergirl; he said she is precious, but she’s also badass.

When asked if there was any particular piece of Supergirl mythology that he wanted/was excited to use, King said that this book isn’t really about that--he again used the expression of stripping off the barnacles that have built up on the characters over the years, really getting at the most basic, pure take on them.

He was like, ‘we keep the dog, maybe the horse if we can make time for him, because [Comet] is the weirdest thing in all of comics.’

Elaborating on the book/lack of Supergirl mythology: He put her in space, gave her a simple mission, and let the story be a thesis on why Supergirl is awesome.

Next question was about the comic writing process.

King said there’s no set way to write a comic script; he tends to write ‘full scripts’; they resemble movie scripts in that there’s panel descriptions for each page, as well as the dialogue for each panel.

His descriptions are light, though. For example, he’ll simply put: ‘Supergirl encounters a Space Dragon’, and leave the rest up to Bilquis.

Again had nothing but praise and excitement re: working with Evely and Lopes. 

Said Evely adds such depth and emotion and storytelling to the artwork.

Then there was a question from the live chat; the listener noted that a lot of King’s work contains romance/is focused on romantic love. They asked if this book would also be about romantic love, or another kind of love.

King: This is not a romance. The love in this comic is a friendship love, between Kara and Ruthye.

When asked if other pre-existing characters would make an appearance: There will be shout-outs, but this is first and foremost a book about Supergirl; she is at the center of the book.

The goal is to make her one of the pillars of DC Comics.

On the subject of the ‘western’ part of the space western: Again mentioned True Grit, as well as The Searchers, and Red River.

Compared Kara to John Wayne.

Likes the idea of a character who has a simple mission, needs to go somewhere, and travels through various lands to get there, like the Odyssey.

Initially, he was going to have Kara be a sort of ingenue who learns to be tough as she goes on this journey, but his editor said, ‘No, she should be the teacher, instructing this young girl on how to be tough’ b/c Kara has the life experience. And King was like, ‘yeah! Let’s do that!’

And of course, because it is Supergirl Radio, they asked if he’s watched the show.

He watched the 1st and 2nd seasons with his daughter, then they fell behind/stopped watching because she moved on to other things, but he loved it! Specifically loved that he could watch a superhero show with her; good bonding time.

They asked him about incorporating stuff from the show and he said that he opted not to do that, as it’s sometimes not done well/feels forced. The example he used is that it’s very hard to get something like Calista Flockhart’s performance from the TV show into the comics, both in terms of the actual writing, and also in terms of legal stuff like the likeness rights, etc. 

Then they talked about KRYPTO! And King’s own dog, Roxy. 

Because King is a dog owner, he said he found it very hard to write Krypto sometimes, because he never wanted to put him in danger.

He also said that you can feel like a dog is a family member, and that is how Kara views Krypto; he is not a pet, or a tool, but a member of her family.

Another live chat question: Does he think of Kara differently, now that he’s written her?

King said she’s a much tougher character, than he initially thought.

Compared her to Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark; you don’t see him become Indy, he just already IS Indy, and he’s done this stuff a hundred times over.

And then he shared a little bit of issue 2 to illustrate this point: Ruthye and Kara encounter a guy who has beef with Superman, so he decides to take it out on Kara, and Kara easily dispatches him; Ruthye (the narrator of the book) marvels at how this happens everywhere they go, and it’s just a daily occurrence for Kara, because everyone thinks she’s the weak link/a way to get back at Clark.

Final question was about what he hopes is his legacy/the takeaway of this book.

King said he wants it to do well, and convince DC/the editors that there ALWAYS needs to be a Supergirl book on the stands.

And now, SOME THOUGHTS!

As mentioned, a lot of this stuff was already covered in the prior podcast, BUT! There are some new details here that build on those points.

For instance: King is really committing to a harder, cynical Kara. Who knows if she’ll remain that way by journey’s end, but that’s the take he’s going with.

(And, as before: not my preferred/ideal Kara! But I am open to seeing this. Largely because it is rooted in like. Character backstory/history; he’s not being edgy for edge's sake.)

Also, NO ROMANCE. 

*insert happy muppet flailing here*

I will admit that I had the extremely cursed thought that he’d bring back Comet, or worse, 90s Comet as some sort of guest star--and maybe he will, who knows! But I don’t get that vibe, really. Like, maybe as a fun shout-out, but not a full-on character in the story.

I do like that he repeatedly emphasized that this is a very simple book, with Kara at the center, and that it’s basically about Supergirl, and why she’s awesome.

Especially given how Future State whiffed that one.

That said, was a little dismayed to learn that Ruthye will be the narrator of the whole thing. It brings back horrible visions of Future State, and it’s harder for the reader to get into a character’s head when you’ve got someone else narrating the whole thing, but. We’ll see.

(What might take the edge off of this narrative choice is Evely’s art, since you can better determine Kara’s emotions/thoughts/etc.)

Interestingly, King didn’t want to comment too much on this book’s potential connection to Future State: Superwoman which...has me a little concerned.

(Please, never let that book be canon. PLEASE.)

The further details on the BTS stuff is disappointing, but not surprising. ‘Supergirl is too perfect/boring’ is a take that 1.) mirrors the same nonsense you see about Superman, and why everyone would rather be writing Batman and 2.) has existed FOREVER, and was particularly prevalent after the introduction of Power Girl. 

(It’s also flat-out wrong, in the same way that ‘Superman is boring’ is wrong.)

Other little things: Love that King says Kara views Krypto as a family member (because he totally is), and the Camine Infantino art was SO COOL.

SO, OVERALL: Gonna have to get used to the idea of an old, crusty Kara.

(Honestly I can’t even be mad at that description because I kinda find it funny? I mean, what with the Superman Fortnite announcement recently, I’m feeling pretty old and crusty, ngl. XD)

But I like a lot of the stuff King’s said so far.

Some of it does give me a little pause--like the heavy emphasis on the Supergirl part of her identity, as opposed to Kara, and how she’s just this awesome badass, with no real mention of other aspects of her character--but.

As should be very clear by now, I’m not in it for the writing.

Rather. I am here primarily because of

*takes a deep breath*

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT!