Well, like with Emma and the Cuckoos, there is a purity to her archetype which I find, to use a phrase of Ari's, "excite[s] me textually and symbolically." If Superman is the superhero, Supergirl is the adolescent objectified female sidekick. She's not the type of female I primarily would have been attracted to (Kitty's the clear winner there), but I recognize nonetheless the ways in which she is semiotically coded as the ideal prize to be won in a romantic comedy sense. And there's another sense in which she is the Eternal Feminine, as filtered through a skanky, problematic-like-whoa DC comics paradigm.
It's no secret that a large deal of what I'm interested in superhero comics is their treatment of adolescence, because I find the drive to will-to-poweriness in superhero comics to be part of an adolescent fantasy. So I'm interested in the X-Men titles which focus on the school; in Peter, MJ, and Kitty going to high school together in Ultimateverse; in the Homecoming antics of Spiderman <3s Mary-Jane; etc.
With reference to post-Crisis Kara Zor-El, the Supergirl fits into this scheme extremely well; even what is problematic about the character, like her skanky fashion sense, make perfect sense within this context (which isn't enough to justify them, exactly, but it is better than if she's being a sex object for no in-story reason at all). I love her for how she's having trouble trying to fit in, how her angst is so teenager-y and self-destructive, how we know she will eventually perseve through it and thus can keep hope alive. Supergirl #9 is an incredible issue for all this, IMHO. There's something delicious about Supergirl in a bellyshirt (Kon's old shirt, altered!), with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other.
So in some ways, Supergirl is awesome for not being awesome. She's a flawed, broken teenaged girl (and the IC/52/WWIII/1yrlater stuff just makes it worst, I think, although she's temporarily improved when she's in the 31st century and part of the team, but those types of temporal hijinks will never fit into continuity completely comfortably) and I love her for that, in somewhat the same way I love the Torchwood team.
It's occurred to me that much of Kara's problem is that there's no Superwoman (although Karen really should be filling that role). Nobody ever really expected Kon to be Superman, so he got to be a fun-loving teenager: wise-cracking, wearing a costume which consisted of jeans, t-shirt, and sneakers, etc. Kara doesn't get that: she wears a uniform which is a feminized version of Kal's and never gets a chance to be a kid. And she crashes and burns as a result, and it is so much fun to watch.
Now if only there were more Kara/Barbara and Kara/Linda fics....
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Date: 2007-12-10 04:53 am (UTC)It's no secret that a large deal of what I'm interested in superhero comics is their treatment of adolescence, because I find the drive to will-to-poweriness in superhero comics to be part of an adolescent fantasy. So I'm interested in the X-Men titles which focus on the school; in Peter, MJ, and Kitty going to high school together in Ultimateverse; in the Homecoming antics of Spiderman <3s Mary-Jane; etc.
With reference to post-Crisis Kara Zor-El, the Supergirl fits into this scheme extremely well; even what is problematic about the character, like her skanky fashion sense, make perfect sense within this context (which isn't enough to justify them, exactly, but it is better than if she's being a sex object for no in-story reason at all). I love her for how she's having trouble trying to fit in, how her angst is so teenager-y and self-destructive, how we know she will eventually perseve through it and thus can keep hope alive. Supergirl #9 is an incredible issue for all this, IMHO. There's something delicious about Supergirl in a bellyshirt (Kon's old shirt, altered!), with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other.
So in some ways, Supergirl is awesome for not being awesome. She's a flawed, broken teenaged girl (and the IC/52/WWIII/1yrlater stuff just makes it worst, I think, although she's temporarily improved when she's in the 31st century and part of the team, but those types of temporal hijinks will never fit into continuity completely comfortably) and I love her for that, in somewhat the same way I love the Torchwood team.
It's occurred to me that much of Kara's problem is that there's no Superwoman (although Karen really should be filling that role). Nobody ever really expected Kon to be Superman, so he got to be a fun-loving teenager: wise-cracking, wearing a costume which consisted of jeans, t-shirt, and sneakers, etc. Kara doesn't get that: she wears a uniform which is a feminized version of Kal's and never gets a chance to be a kid. And she crashes and burns as a result, and it is so much fun to watch.
Now if only there were more Kara/Barbara and Kara/Linda fics....