Sorry this has taken so long, but it appears that inspiration is in short supply around the Fortress these days.
Your humble host has been struggling for the better part of a week to review Supergirl #34 and a handful of other comics, but instead found himself pondering Kara’s newest direction and its releation to the oft-repeated fan criticism that DC is turning the clock back to the Silver Age instead of pursuing “new” and “bold” directions.
Barry Allen is the object du jour for such complaints, but there are still a few die-hards out there who bemoan the loss of Linda Danvers/Matrix for Kara 2.0 (or maybe its 4.0 by now, given all the re-boots the Maid of Might has endured the past few years).
We understand why long-time readers are upset when a personal favorite is shoved aside. Hey, your humble host wasn’t too thrilled when Hal Jordan morphed into a mass-murderer overnight. But, whether fans like to admit it or not, Big Two super-heroes are commercial properties whose value extends far beyond funny books.
While a reader like yours truly may applaud Peter David for introducing intriguing questions of spirituality and existence to Supergirl, the little girl who buys super-hero pajamas, notebooks, Halloween costumes or other paraphernalia views the Maid of Might differently.
That Supergirl is the Man of Steel’s cousin, just as Batgirl is Commissioner Gordon’s daughter and Robin is Dick Grayson. Those incarnations are etched so strongly in the public’s minds that no amount of Killing Jokes and John Byrne revamps can ever truly erase the past.
(It’s no accident, for example, that DC publishes a number of flashback Bat titles that place the original Robin and Silver-Age Batgirl front and center.)
Even the much-beloved modern-day Flash is vulnerable to such considerations. Although recent JLI cartoons presented the Wally West speedster, his origin was changed to mirror Barry Allen’s and - if memory serves - was even employed as a police scientist. Flip horn-dog attitude aside, that Wally was essentially Barry.
So what are we saying?
Just that the scorched-earth policies instituted by Crisis On Infinite Earths doen’t work in the long run if a company’s characters have any presence outside of comic books. Kara Zor-El may have been killed and wiped from existence on the funny pages, but as long as Supergirl remained a marketable icon she never went away.
Although fans of the classic Kara endured a long and grueling wait, it was inevitable that the Silver-Age Supergirl would one day reappear in the DC universe proper … just as it was likely that the character’s original status-quo would be recreated once attempts to make the Maid of Might “sexy” and “edgy” proved unprofitable in the long run.
The fundamental lesson creators and fans alike should take from this never-ending circle of life is that iconic characters achieve such status for a reason.
As fictional creations, Supergirl, Flash etc. etc. are fine in and of themselves. Rather than killing off and/or warping beloved heroes and heroines beyond recognition, the trick is to find new and interesting stories and situations to keep those self-same characters fresh and relevant without subverting their core concepts.
Ultimately, that will be the greatest test to “Linda Lang’s” success as a character. So far, Sterling Gates and Jamal Ingle are off to a good start. Let’s see if they can follow through on the positive publicity and good will their first issue engendered.
