A villain armed with the Shield of Cher

[stubbleupdate]

I've been reading through some of the previous run on Supergirl, going back on the bits that I missed. I know that the first few issues were dreadful, with the hangover from Superman/Batman, then there was nonsense with Kara being a quilled assassin from Krypton, then at some point it became good. I've read through the Resurrection Man/Supergirl vs. the Terminally ill boy arc (containing issue #32, which this story is from), which was a bit grim, but with some good moments. Is there anything further back that's worth reading, or have I gone back as far as I reasonably can?

*
We're now 50 years in the future, and Supergirl is still calling herself Supergirl, which is a bit disappointing. She does have a nice new uniform though.

The story here is that Supergirl has got herself a bunch of soldiers and they're teaming up against Dolok, a time-travelling superbaddy. His power comes from a device built into his armour and he makes short work of Supergirl and her team, strapping a Kryptonite collar on her.

And because he's a time-traveller, he knows how to escape




Yep, Kara waited in space for Dolok for a decade. That's pretty badass




*a point to the person who can tell me which film this song is an integral part of

Comments

[sun_man]

wow.....................................was it really worth it

[icon_uk]

Time travel is always a touchy subject, but... what the hell was that supposed to be about?

Are we supposed to believe she hung around in empty space for at least thirty years (not ten, since she also punched him thirty years ago) on the off chance someone she apparently wouldn't meet for years to come (and whom she would have no reason to punch) would show up there?

[rainspirit]

She may have relayed messages to herself before-hand, to her past selves. Telling them when he was likely to appear?

Which would make her... a Supergirl with Batman-levels of prep time. Kind of a scary concept.

[lieut_kettch]

She WAS trained by Bruce, after all. And trained in diplomacy and warfare by Diana. AND learned compassion and empathy from Clark. AND is a scientific genius trained by the Kryptonian Science Guild. Let's face it, if this version of Kara were ever allowed to mature, she'd be Kara Sue-El.

[icon_uk]

But how would she send messages to herself back through time, unless she has time-travel abilities of her own which, IIRC, this iteration of Supergirl doesn't have?

[korvar]

She makes the plan, picks her spot, waits 30 years. Her plans success is verified by the bad guy appearing (punch punch).

Then, she uses strategy and cunning (trained by Batman, remember?) to manoeuvre Dolok into a confrontation near enough to her chosen spot that her super-senses will pick him up.

Provoke him into going back in time. Bask in warm memories of punching.

[icon_uk]

And ponder the last bloody thirty years she's spent floating in an empty space doing bugger all but wait for one guy to show up?

[korvar]

She took some knitting along. She's fine.

[bariman]

If she got his gadget the first time she punched him (the last time he jumped), it would have records of each of his time jumps. So she could just wait at those moments and spend the rest of the time on other things.

[icon_uk]

That's a nice idea, provided she was in the right place at the right time to punch a complete stranger out for no reason she would yet be aware of and steal his time travel device which she'd never seen before.

Steven Moffat can pull this sort of story off (most of the time), but I don't think this can.

[jlbarnett]

I'd say it's temporal paradox. She knew to wait their because her future self told her to, and her future self told her to because she'd waited there.

[icon_uk]

But that's my point, her future self has no way of telling her past self, as Supergirl can't time travel.

[jlbarnett]

she can once she acquires this guy's time travel device.

[icon_uk]

And how would she get it without randomly assaulting a guy she's never met, who has an agenda she has no clue about (because it hasn't happened yet) and stealing his tech without any reason?

[jlbarnett]

because the day before she assaulted him a future version of her appeared to her and told her she'd acquired a device that allowed time travel and this was the way she got it. Effect predates cause is this sort of thing

[icon_uk]

That's the best explanation so far, but then she wouldn't need to hang around in space for thirty years, she could just show up for the actual points in time and leave immediately thereafter.

[lieut_kettch]

Well she has been to 2 different versions of the 31st century. It would all be a matter of historical record by then.

[icon_uk]

Depends when the splitting-point of those futures is I suppose. (Plus the Supers have tended to avoid learning about their own futures when travelling into the future)

[lieut_kettch]

With Legion-Prime, she might not have needed to search historical records. IIRC, she never realized that she was in a different universe. She might have just browsed through Tinya's longboxes and read about herself. Would've been weird though if she ever read about her pre-Crisis self and her death in CoIE. Or read the "Many Happy Returns" arc by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

[q99]

Which issue was this in?

[halloweenjack]

There's an arc in Tom Strong in which Tom Strange, his Superman-level counterpart in a sort of Counter-Earth across the galaxy from us, runs across the galaxy in about thirty years. (He almost goes insane from loneliness and boredom.)

[auggie18]

If I could turn back time... if I could find a way!


Supergirl's time with Threeboot Legion was pretty fun.

[superfangirl1]

I agree. I hope she get to interact with the Legion again in the DcNu.

[filthysize]

That makes absolutely no sense.

[pyrotwilight]

How so? She's been on a chase with this time traveler for years. She thus chose a spot that she'd regularly go to or be present in to some degree over the years so that she'd eventually catch him if he kept trying to go back in time. (Now whether it was a good use of her time is a question of it's own...)

[weber_dubois22]

Am I weird for thinking that Green Lantern kinda looks like Guardian Bob from ReBoot?

[icon_uk]

With more annoyingly emo hair?

[star_of_airdrie]

I read that as Emu hair. I was about to counter that I didn't see the resemblence...

[icon_uk]

Depends on the Emu I think

[star_of_airdrie]

lol

[thanekos]

Once again, time travel and a power ring solve a Super-person's problem with a force from the future.

[superfangirl1]

*lol*

How true. :)

[lieut_kettch]

If this is her older self, shouldn't she be approaching Peej-esque proportions by then?

[stubbleupdate]

What?

Why?

[bruinsfan]

Previous iterations of Kara Zor-El have never grown up to be as curvaceous as her Earth-2 counterpart, so unless there's a plastic surgeon with Kryptonite scalpels out there somewhere I'd say no.