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scans_dailyI'm... not going to be nice here. This was a pain to read and I'm gonna rant a bit.
Okay, that's True Grit. That's entirely True Grit. Exact same plot, exact same tone, exact same Coen-wannabe dialogue (and Tom King is no Coen Brother)... all King did was transpose a bit of a by-now-generic high fantasy/space opera setting onto True fucking Grit. It's not even that obscure a work to rip off. There was a remake in 2010. Hailee Steinfeld debuted in that movie and she's still playing a 'Young' Avenger.
Oh, but hey, there's Supergirl in the Rooster Cogburn role. That's different, right? Because Supergirl is Supergirl and not a drunken, cynical badass type?
And if you've seen True Grit, either version, you pretty much know how it goes (aside from a shock value ending that is, surprise, deeply cynical and mean-spirited). King mercilessly mischaracterizes Kara into this very 90s bad grrl caricature--she calls Superman a little bitch at one point, because he's not as tuff as herrrr--and the bad guys all go "oh, you can't beat me, you're just a girl!" Aren't we past this?
I found the premise pretty unbelievable... I know comic writers have to know up with far-fetched scenarios, since the real top-tier superheroes are unbeatable otherwise... but Supergirl has turned 21 and wants to get drunk. She doesn't want to do this with any of her friends, apparently, so she takes a barely controllable starship to a sector of space with only red suns... she can't just borrow a red sun room in the Fortress of Solitude or wherever... and she lands on this world that's a hellish dictatorship where people are killed for laughing at jokes about the king... she brings Krypto along, who is also depowered... and she doesn't bring any kind of communication device so she can call a Green Lantern or someone for help... and she's gone for months, but no one thinks to look for her.
And the villain... this is another one of the very few changes from True Grit, where the killer is just a random thug, the kind of guy you'd expect to impulsively kill someone. Here, he's a criminal mastermind that can summon up magic that nearly kills Supergirl and he almost randomly hooks up with this gang of superpowered mass murderers (who indulge in ethnic cleansing so frequently that you'd think a Green Lantern or someone would go after them--seriously, they are depopulating planets on a weekly basis) so it takes more than five seconds for Kara to rout him.
There's also a super heavy-handed segregation/racism metaphor. I mean, it is TOS, "all his people are black on the left side and white on the right side!" blatant. Like, embarrassingly hamfisted.
And this comic is WORDY. Not only is OC donut steal Hailee Steinfeld doing her Coen act every time she speaks, but she also narrates, choking every panel with multiple paragraphs of PROSEPROSEPROSE. Everything is a speech, everything is a monologue. Mike Flanagan would read this and say "hey, buddy, don't you think you're overdoing it a tad?" And there's some good art here--that's the one real positive of the comic--but it is just drowned out by King not trusting his artist one iota to tell a story.
Supergirl is given this really stock "it sucks to be Superman" angst, which we're all tired of with Clark, right? Is it really fresh to just transpose him being broody and violent onto Kara? All the cursing and casual violence would be a little more appropriate for Power Girl, but I guess that wouldn't subvert expectations like making the main character an embittered Supergirl. Clearly, we're supposed to find all this shocking and edgy, but it just comes off risible. You're really going to have Krypto the Super-Dog and dead babies in the same exact story?
And since when does Supergirl hang out with Krypto? I thought her pet was Streaky. King goes all pre-Crisis with Comet the Super-Horse showing up and really being a man with a magic spell cast on him, but he doesn't know that Supergirl's pet is Streaky the Supercat? Boooooo.
ETA: And if Kara wants to get drunk that badly, can't she just use her solar flare and then drink while she's depowered, on Earth or another hospitable alien world?
Okay, that's True Grit. That's entirely True Grit. Exact same plot, exact same tone, exact same Coen-wannabe dialogue (and Tom King is no Coen Brother)... all King did was transpose a bit of a by-now-generic high fantasy/space opera setting onto True fucking Grit. It's not even that obscure a work to rip off. There was a remake in 2010. Hailee Steinfeld debuted in that movie and she's still playing a 'Young' Avenger.
Oh, but hey, there's Supergirl in the Rooster Cogburn role. That's different, right? Because Supergirl is Supergirl and not a drunken, cynical badass type?
And if you've seen True Grit, either version, you pretty much know how it goes (aside from a shock value ending that is, surprise, deeply cynical and mean-spirited). King mercilessly mischaracterizes Kara into this very 90s bad grrl caricature--she calls Superman a little bitch at one point, because he's not as tuff as herrrr--and the bad guys all go "oh, you can't beat me, you're just a girl!" Aren't we past this?
I found the premise pretty unbelievable... I know comic writers have to know up with far-fetched scenarios, since the real top-tier superheroes are unbeatable otherwise... but Supergirl has turned 21 and wants to get drunk. She doesn't want to do this with any of her friends, apparently, so she takes a barely controllable starship to a sector of space with only red suns... she can't just borrow a red sun room in the Fortress of Solitude or wherever... and she lands on this world that's a hellish dictatorship where people are killed for laughing at jokes about the king... she brings Krypto along, who is also depowered... and she doesn't bring any kind of communication device so she can call a Green Lantern or someone for help... and she's gone for months, but no one thinks to look for her.
And the villain... this is another one of the very few changes from True Grit, where the killer is just a random thug, the kind of guy you'd expect to impulsively kill someone. Here, he's a criminal mastermind that can summon up magic that nearly kills Supergirl and he almost randomly hooks up with this gang of superpowered mass murderers (who indulge in ethnic cleansing so frequently that you'd think a Green Lantern or someone would go after them--seriously, they are depopulating planets on a weekly basis) so it takes more than five seconds for Kara to rout him.
There's also a super heavy-handed segregation/racism metaphor. I mean, it is TOS, "all his people are black on the left side and white on the right side!" blatant. Like, embarrassingly hamfisted.
And this comic is WORDY. Not only is OC donut steal Hailee Steinfeld doing her Coen act every time she speaks, but she also narrates, choking every panel with multiple paragraphs of PROSEPROSEPROSE. Everything is a speech, everything is a monologue. Mike Flanagan would read this and say "hey, buddy, don't you think you're overdoing it a tad?" And there's some good art here--that's the one real positive of the comic--but it is just drowned out by King not trusting his artist one iota to tell a story.
Supergirl is given this really stock "it sucks to be Superman" angst, which we're all tired of with Clark, right? Is it really fresh to just transpose him being broody and violent onto Kara? All the cursing and casual violence would be a little more appropriate for Power Girl, but I guess that wouldn't subvert expectations like making the main character an embittered Supergirl. Clearly, we're supposed to find all this shocking and edgy, but it just comes off risible. You're really going to have Krypto the Super-Dog and dead babies in the same exact story?
And since when does Supergirl hang out with Krypto? I thought her pet was Streaky. King goes all pre-Crisis with Comet the Super-Horse showing up and really being a man with a magic spell cast on him, but he doesn't know that Supergirl's pet is Streaky the Supercat? Boooooo.
ETA: And if Kara wants to get drunk that badly, can't she just use her solar flare and then drink while she's depowered, on Earth or another hospitable alien world?
