As Seen On TV! The Adventures of Supergirl 1 Review

Rocketing from the flatscreen on your living room wall back into four-color print, The Maid of Steel! The Adventures of Supergirl with an awesome photo realistic cover by Cat Staggs! Melissa Benoist in mid-flight!

Disclaimer: I believe I've seen a handful of Season One episodes of Supergirl. It's set on an alternate Earth in the Arrowverse. I enjoyed what I saw and thought I would pick up the companion comic book, as I did with the '90's The Flash and Smallville.

This is definitely a different version of Kara. She seems quite fun and light-hearted.

"This Is My Life" opens with a slugfest between Supergirl and Rampage at a National City Sharks game. Sterling Gates manages to provide a brief and brisk recap of Kara's origin from Krypton to Earth. While Gates' story is all super-hero fare, the core is sisterhood. Rampage's relationship with her sister compared with Kara and Alex's relationship.

Bengal's art is all comic book. The characters from the CBS series are the same, however there is really no attempt to use the live action likenesses. It's an interesting direction to go in. 

What makes the issue enjoyable is the story has heart. Kara develops sympathy for Rampage as an individual, not just an alien adversary. Gates' take on the character provides some redeeming qualities.

The Adventures of Supergirl, "Based on the Hit CBS Series" earns three stars.

Starring John Cusack as Starman Jack Knight! A 60th Birthday Salute!

 

Actor John Cusack is 60 today. I usually enjoy the movies he stars in. Do I agree with his political views? No. Actually, it's more, "hell-to-the-no". That doesn't change that I enjoy the stories he's a part of.

There was a time when I could have seen him as Jack Knight, the sone of DC Comics' Ted Knight - not to be confused with actor Ted Knight, narrator of Super Friends and best known as Ted Baxter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. DC's Ted Knight was the Golden-Age Starman.

Jack made his first appearance in the final issue of Zero Hour and headlined the Starman comic that ran from 1994 to 2001. Written by James Robinson, with art by Tony Harris. The series was highly acclaimed. I was nominated for the Eisner for the first story arc "Sins of the Father" and won an Eisner for the "Sand and Stars" storyline. It was also nominated for "Best Continuing Series" of 1997.

At its core, Starman is about the father and son relationship between Jack and Ted Knight. The series opens with The Mist's son and daughter exacting their revenge on the Knight family. David Knight, Jack's brother is shot and killed. Opal is laid siege. Jack considers running. Instead, he rises to the occasion and turns back the tide. Afterward, Jack agrees to fight crime as needed as Starman, as long as Ted focuses his energies on his science, invention and innovation.

Robinson, with Harris and later Peter Snejbjerg carved out a corner of the DC Universe with Opal City as a focal point. Story lines were mixed with "Tales of Times Past" and "Talking With David" interludes, all driving the story forward toward its conclusion with issue 80.

Jack Knight was created by James Robinson and Tony Harris. Jack makes very rare appearances outside of Starman. Geoff Johns, David Goyer and James Robinson used Jack as part of a Justice Society of America relaunch. Following the conclusion of his series, Jack quietly shuffles off into a "happily ever after". There were some possible rumblings of a falling out between Robinson and DC Comics which ended any possible future of Jack Knight, or any other projects involving Robinson.

A live action series was in development following Smallville, at the same time as Birds of Prey. Due to the lackluster performance of Birds of Prey, a Starman live action series was on indefinite hold.

Stargirl, focusing on Courtney Whitmore, played by Brec Bassinger debuted on the DC Universe streaming platform and the CW Network as part of the Arrowverse. What's interesting is Courtney was created as an homage to Geoff Johns' sister. James Robinson was involved in the live action series. Sylvester Pemberton, the one-time Star-Spangled Kid, was called Starman for the series.

Although time has passed and Cusack has probably aged out of the character, it would have been nice to see him in the role...

A fan can dream.

Does There Have to be a Crisis on Infinite Earths?

I'm hyped about the upcoming CW Network adaptation of the 1985 comic book series Crisis on Infinite Earths! I'm excited about the cameos mostly. I've seen a few episodes of Arrow, The Flash and Supergirl - I liked what I saw; unfortunately, I just haven't had time to binge-watch an entire season or series.

Smallville was the last series that I followed closely. I followed it, because at the heart of the Superman story is a story of adoption. At the time the show was in prime time network run, my wife, Cathy, and I were adopting three children. I followed Jonathan and Martha Kent's story. I really liked John Schneider's Jonathan Kent. I followed Tom Welling's struggle as Clark, with the fitting in, and the maturing into both man and Superman. Yes, it was a more angsty take on the Man of Steel. Early episodes struck me as kinda realistic... For my mileage, the show derailed when Clark did not go to college, yet still ended up a reporter as The Daily Planet. I know Christopher Reeve pulled that same thing off years earlier - somehow that worked! The Smallville microscope... not so much. But then, Smallville was trying very hard NOT to be the previous Superboy. Hence, the "no tights, no flights" commandment, I would imagine.

Photographs of Welling and co-star Erica Durance re-uniting for the CW Crisis are on social media. Michael Rosenbaum shared his reason for NOT reprising his role as Lex Luthor on social media, too.

(One of the cool highlights, is that it is quite possible that the Smallville: Season Eleven comic book storyline will be considered canon!)

Triple threat John Wesley Shipp will be appearing - again - as the '90's The Flash; the legendary Kevin Conroy - who voiced Bruce Wayne and Batman in the '90's Bruce Timm-Paul Dini Batman: The Animated Series - will appear as the older, grizzled Bruce Wayne from Batman Beyond - in live action!!! Brandon Routh will appear as the Kingdom Come Superman. Tyler Hoechlin, from Supergirl, join in as that version of Superman. '66 Robin, the Boy Wonder, Burt Ward is confirmed, but in an unspecified role. There's been rumors of Lynda Carter making an appearance as Wonder Woman. There's fan speculation over other cameos, too.

But, does there have to be a Crisis on Infinite Earths?

The point of the original Crisis was basically housecleaning. Simply put, DC had a LOT of characters in so many different places. The point of Crisis then, was to put ALL of their characters in ONE place: one SINGLE Earth, with ONE timeline or history.

For instance: The Golden-Age Justice Society of America was formed in 1940 and disbanded in 1951. The Earth, or reality that they existed in did NOT develop a Justice League of America. There was a gap - filled with team-ups - from 1951 to 1985, when the children and proteges of the Justice Society formed the team Infinity, Inc.

Now, the Earth, or reality that the Justice League was in, never produced a Justice Society during World War II. Barry Allen, one of the founders of The Silver Age, read The Flash - Jay Garrick - comic books growing up. It was part of the inspiration for him to become the next generation The Flash. I would argue that it also inspired the formation of the League, since the team was just Barry, Arthur Curry as Aquaman, Hal Jordan's Green Lantern, J'onn J'onzz as the Martian Manhunter and Diana Prince as Wonder Woman. Batman and Superman were sort of grandfathered in.

There was later a THIRD Earth, with evil mirror images of the Justice League; kind of like that classic episode of Star Trek. 

Other Earth's or realities were developed, like Earth-S, for the SHAZAM! Family of characters that DC got from Fawcett. As DC got other characters from other companies, the Earths, or realities, multiplied... almost to infinity.

Here's the thing: the point, then, of Crisis, was to eliminate all of those infinite Earths or realities down to a single timeline - or history - on a single Earth. 

So, with Tom Welling, Brandon Routh and Tyler Hoechlin all appearing as a version of Clark Kent, will only ONE survive? There are fans calling for Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher to appear from their Lois and Clark series - but would their version end up being erased? I'd love to see Tim Daly and George Newbern appear. Both voiced the animated Superman, like Kevin Conroy voiced Batman. It would be cool to see John Haymes Newton and Gerard Christopher from the Superboy series appear. But would their versions be eliminated, too?

Is this CW adaptation streamlining DC live action - and possibly animation - continuity?

That's the big question on my mind right now. Okay, there are other, bigger, more important questions on my mind, but as a comic book geek, this is what I'm wondering.

Who will survive this live action adaptation?

CBS And Super-Heroes

Variety us reporting that CBS is developing DC Comics' The Secret Six for live action. (You can click Secret Six to learn more about the origin and history of the team.)

That's awesome!

The first thing that popped up into mind was, Remember that one time CBS aired Supergirl before it went over to the CW? Ha!

There's two things I like about this story. First is that it's a DC Comics property. Let's set aside as painfully obvious that Warner Bros./DC Comics have absolutely no blueprint, map or plan in bringing their characters to live action. Their stated plan is to do the exact opposite of whatever Marvel is doing. This goes back to 2008, when Marvel rolled out the first Iron Man film; and, as time went on, released information that everything was connecting and connected in a larger Cinematic Universe. Your mileage may vary; but, it has been brilliant, and enjoyable. Each film over the last ten years has built to the next to where we are now on the precipice of Captain Marvel and Avengers 4! DC, doing the exact opposite could work. Unfortunately, DC has seperated most of their properties into television and film universes. Now there's possibly an even bigger splinter between the CW's Arrowverse, the streaming Titans, and now CBS' Secret Six. Grant Gustin should have been The Flash in the Justice League film. #CyborgIsATitan. Instead of the Justice League film we got, we should have gotten Starro as a villain or an adaptation of JLA: Liberty and Justice.

But, like I said, let's set that aside. We could argue all day. Let's just agree to disagree.

The second thing I find interesting is that CBS is developing a DC Comics live action super-hero series.

Being a geezer, I remember when The Amazing Spider-Man, starring Nicholas Hammond from The Sound of Music was on CBS. There were only three major networks at the time. The series looked nothing like the late '60's cartoon or the comic book. It lasted thirteen episodes over two seasons. Take as long as you need with that. Most series have a season of twenty-two episodes. CBS aired thirteen episodes from '77 to '79. CBS aired two Captain America television films and a Dr. Strange television film. The network picked up Wonder Woman for two seasons after ABC cancelled the series. To be fair, Wonder Woman, a DC character, was set during World War II; and, like most of the super-hero shows on at the time not named Batman, looked nothing like the comic book inspiration. Even contemporized on CBS, it still looked nothing like the comic book. And it was still a DC Comics character (rimshot! "Hiyo!")

The most successful super-hero series on CBS was The Incredible Hulk, starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno. Like The Amazing Spider-Man, The Hulk looked nothing like the comic book or cartoon series before it. Kenneth Johnson said on The Incredible Hulk Season One box set that he had just finished reading Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, and based the series on the chase between Javert and Veljean. It looked more like an updating of David Janssen's The Fugitive, with Gerard chasing Dr. Richard Kimble. The Hulk lasted eighty-two episodes across five seasons. NBC aired the three reunion television films in the early '90's.

So, it will be interesting to see what becomes of Secret Six. Will it look like the comic book? Which iteration will it be?

The ultimate question is this: How long will it last on CBS before it A) Goes to the DC streaming service; or, 2) merges with the CW Arrowverse.

Honestly, since Supergirl started on CBS and then moved to the CW, I am surprised that CBS is developing another comic book series.