"Hope, Help and Compassion for All"

What does Supergirl stand for?

Sterling Gates story, across a six-issue mini-series focuses on the life and adventures of Kara as Supergirl. Defining moments. Facet attempted to define her as a judge, following in the footsteps of her birth-mother Alura. Stripping away the life and relationships she had developed over her time on Earth, in order to be a guard and judge of the criminals of Fort Rozz. Facet engineered the efforts of Rampage, Vril Dox and Psi in a confused devotion to Alura. It was her desire to retrain Kara.

Kara and Alex manage to calm Rampage, dampen Vril Dox - with some help from Director Henshaw - and finally perform last rights and burial for Psi.

Supergirl manages to brace herself and prepare for a final conflict with Facet. Gates manages to wrap things up on a high note with art by Emma Vieceli, colors by Sandra Molina, lettering by Saida Temofonte under a truly super cover by Cat Staggs.

Gates defines the conclusion of the series that Supergirl stands for "hope, help and compassion for all."

The Adventures of Supergirl 6 wraps with five stars. 

Alura Dearest... The Adventures of Supergirl 5 Review

Facet sends Kara to her mother Alura for answers. The mystery of why Supergirl and her associates have been targeted by Rampage, Vril Dox and Psi. Kara and Alex head back to DEO headquarters to interrogate the AI version of Alura. What challenges credibility is that Supergirl - along with Superman - would arrive on Earth with some sort of accompanying program from their parents. It's a convenient trope. A little too convenient. The Superman Family seems overwhelmingly burdened by the past.

Another troubling aspect is Alura's ethics and morality. It's one thing to face a generation gap, and another thing to see a parent as basically evil, unethical and immoral. Kara comes to a point where she questions Alura's sense of right and wrong.

The first half of the issue "Who is Facet?" features art by cover artist Cat Stagg and comes close to the look of the live action series. "Pieces" with art by Emma Vieceli retreats back to the standard comic book style.

Vril manages to commandeer DEO headquarters! Rampage is free and on the loose! The cliffhanger finds Facet at Eliza Danvers' front door!

Sterling Gates' story leans on a couple of troubling tropes. Yes, it's true that the past stays with us. It's never really gone. It catches up to us, haunts us and sometimes traumatizes us. Too often that's somewhat overwhelming. Your mileage may vary on that.

DC seems to be leaning more into digital first, splitting an issue in half for online chapters. It's particularly noticeable here, as the art is so different from one chapter to the next.

The Adventures of Supergirl 5 earns two stars.

I Hate a Mystery! The Adventures of Supergirl 4 Review!

Previously, when Kara encountered Psi in a dream-state, the disembodied figure planted a seed sending The Girl of Steel to the Fort Rozz crash site in the desert. Kara believes that she and sister Alex are there to collect Psi's physical form - her body - from the crash site and re-bury it so she can finally be at peace. In reality, the sisters encounter Kryptonian robots. They discover that Facet, one of Fort Rozz's guards has been watching Kara from afar.

Now, Facet is ready to complete Supergirl's training so she can become one of Krypton's Finest.

Meanwhile, Vril Dox monitors the DEO agents that are supposed to be monitoring him.

Sterling Gates deepens the mystery. Gates reveals that Kara is not so much a fan of mysteries as Clark is. Carmen Carnera and Sandra Molina handle the imagery.

Red Tornado is once again mentioned.

Facet tells Kara to ask her mother for more answers. That's where the trail leads...

The Adventures of Supergirl 4, "Sistery Mystery (Reprise)" and "our Backs to the Wall" earns three stars.  

Super Strength and Super Intelligent! The Adventures of Supergirl 3 Review

Kara confronts Vril Dox in his cell at DEO headquarters. He responds by taking control of the DEO agents beside her and turning them into zombies. She "wakes" from that nightmare and is confronted by another - the destruction of DEO headquarters and Director Henshaw and her sister Alex transformed into zombies! Through one alternate reality after another, Kara fights a "never-ending battle", nearly reaching the one controlling her dream. Finally, through determination and persistence, she confronts her tormenter: the disembodied Psi! Who was used as a tool at Fort Rozz to keep all the alien super-criminals calm and under control.

Psi developed a bond with Rampage and her sister. Her actions are in retaliation to what Alex Danvers did to Rampage's sister.

Sterling Gates once again provides enjoyable storytelling under a Cat Staggs psychedelic cover. Emanuela Luppachino and Ray McCarthy handle the trippy dreamscape, with Hi-Fi colors and Saida Temofonte providing characters an individual voice through lettering.

There are references to instances of the CBS live action series. Red Tornado is name-dropped. It may not be essential; however, it may be helpful to follow the series to appreciate the companion comic.

Overall, Adventures of Supergirl earns three stars.     

The Colbert Kimmel Kerfuffle

If I'm allowed to offer an opinion... yeah, I know, there are people who think opinions are like belly buttons, when they're actually something more stinky, dirty and full of - - * well, you know.

Stephen Colbert was quoted saying that the network changed the way it looked at The Late Show. There's back and forth over whether the network is cowering and cow-towing to Trump. That may be true. I think Letterman summed it up: The bottom line is the bottom line. Colbert and The Late Show are "overhead". Rule Numero Uno is: keep costs down, so money stays in the White-Collar pockets.

I liked The Colber' Repor'. I thought he and Jon Stewart were funny. I don't agree with the politics. I'm not sure I agree with Bill Maher, either. But the dialogue and the witty skewering of the news was funny.

I wondered how Stephen Colbert, best known for Political Commentary was going to transition to Entertainment Interviews. That's traditional late-night programming. Late-night programming is putting people to sleep by promoting the latest trend or fad. Riding the wave of popular culture. As a viewer, I gave Colbert a try, then life got in the way and I moved on.

I never stayed up late enough for Craig Ferguson, but in catching up on videos and reels, he seemed kind of hilarious by flipping the format and convention. Maybe, that's just me.

Kimmel is something else. He was funny. Past tense. He was funny with bits like Chewie in the audience while interviewing Harrison Ford and Tom Holland asking who Chris Pratt's favorite "Tom" was. My favorite was the faux-Friends skit he did with Jennifer Aniston and Courtney Cox. Three bits that've watched in reels or YouTube.

I think we might be able to agree that Kimmel changed his tone.

There's a surge in nostalgia for Johnny Carson. He was apparently a class act. Legend has it he never had a sitting president - or maybe even a politician in office - as a guest. He wasn't political. There's a clip circulating with Carson hosting the Oscars when Reagan was shot.

The upshot seems to be Carson didn't rage-bait at 10:30 or 11:30pm. He put people to sleep with a laugh. He entertained. As a host, he focused the spotlight on guests.

I'm not inviting a Trump-Biden debate. Go somewhere else for that. There's a difference between The Late Show, The Tonight Show and Kimmel Live! and The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert were part of a Political Commentary for Comedy. Traditional late night seems to be shifting over into that area and away from their original premise. I'd say they seem to be "Jumping the Shark". There are programs that cater to the political junkie audience. Traditional late night is more of a promotional platform. Which seems to be why there's nostalgia for the golden era of Carson.

My feeling on politics is this: all candidates lie or fudge the truth. At least the ones that get elected. It's hard to get elected if you're honest. We usually pick our party and candidates like our sports teams. But again, I'm not inviting a political debate, simply because it just boils down to MY team is better than YOUR team and YOU'RE both wrong and dumb if you don't agree with ME.

But that's just my stinky, dirty two cents.

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.