Superman General

Maybe one could try someday, maybe one of us here may do it..

Leah Williams did an interview for Power Girl and we get some interesting details about her writing here

Williams goes into PG's origin where she was raised by an AI and had her knowledge implemented by it. So what appeals her is the idea that PG is a fish out of water with no understanding of social moors. But that means she is treating Power Girl like she just arrived on planet Earth instead of an experienced hero whose already been living there for years and is also a member of the JSA who she has many close friends there.

Omen's inclusion is cause the editor recommended her.

We also get the reason why her last name is changed to Stetler. Its cause Williams used to work on a ranch in Montana and knew some cowboys named Stetler so she based the name off of them. Pfffft okay Williams I get you know actual people with this name, but NO ONE is going to get "cowboy" from Stetler. That sounds like an egghead, a nerd, accountant, a banker, not someone rural.

And she describes Superman and Lois Lane's roll as to guide PG, with her new job at the Daily Planet so Lois can act as a liaison for her. Jeeez Williams, Power Girl is a grown-ass woman, you can't just have Superman and Lois Lane bossing her around like she's a child. Its like how Fire and Ice: Welcome to Smallville starts with Fire and Ice messing up so Superman tells them to take a break and live in his hometown to learn some responsibility.

Anyone else see the issue of the plot starting with Superman telling grown adults to live in Smallville as apart of a mandated vacation? Its a fine line between offering advice and telling people what to do after all.

Edited by slimcoder on Mar 31st 2024 at 2:00:47 AM

How bad did Fire and Ice mess up? "Go on a vacation" sounds like a pretty light punishment.

It's a weird framing device for a weird premise. Fire and Ice sounds like a recipe for a globe trotting book, or at least something involving many faces and landmarks. I could see them jumping on a giant sail boat and just going where the wind takes them. What's supposed to last two weeks ends up extended because circumstance conspires to disrupt the vacation.

Superheroes don't get vacations. They get to go to new places with another case to solve and a villian to defeat. Happens to detectives also.

Fire and Ice botch a rescue due to Fire arguing with Guy Gardner so they get a lot of heat on them.

So Superman sends them to Smallville so they can wait for the attention to die down and get a refresher for them.

It's pretty bad because Fire got flanderized into a showboating narcissist even more obnoxious than Booster Gold and tries to reframe Fire and Ice's longtime friendship as toxic because Fire is a huge asshole.

I only know about Fire and Ice from cartoons, so I don't know what personalities they're supposed to have, but why would the writer equate fire powers with being like what you said?

That has been a complaint from Power Girl fans about Leah's writing. They don't feel like PG should be a fish out of water at this point.

How long has Powergirl been on Earth? Long enough to have had her own business right? So, only slightly less ridiculous then treating Clark like he just moved to the big city? Sounds like if you really want a fish out of water story in the Superman family, either make a new character or make a prequel.

Well the author claims she's inspired by Justice League International so its apparently an attempt at making something similar to the more lighthearted tone of JLI.

The book has a meta sort of humor but in a "make fun of ourselves" kind of jokes, making fun of Fire and Ice's obscurity. During their stay in Smallville they rent out a hair saloon, and one of the book's supporting characters is a new employee they hire whose primary roll is to essentially question their heroics cause she's never heard of them.

One bit has Bea (Fire) Fire mention fighting Starro, the character has never heard of him so so Bea explains Starro as a psychic alien starfish to which the character responds "Thats not as impressive as you think it is."

Another moment has Bea and Tora (Ice) arguing so the employee annoyed by them calls the 2 women "Karens" because I guess since she's black that automatically makes all white women arguing Karens irrelevant of context (plus it gets dumber since both Fire and Ice aren't even American).

In Williams book she looks to have never had a company in the first place, which along with other comments like how PG is "just learning how to hug" Williams is writing her like she just arrived on Earth. PG basically feels like an OC under her book.

Edited by slimcoder on Mar 31st 2024 at 6:28:03 AM

Why didn't the writer just make an OC instead of drastically changing an established character? Though it's not the first time. I still want kid Jon back over his teen version that should stick to being a firefighter or some other job that involves helping people without having to punch bad guys.

Really with Karen it just sounds like an excuse to do HER version of Supergirl's arc ALL over again ... ...

So Classic DC writing

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Fire and Ice seem to be the next in the "Dynamic Duo's are dysfunctional as fuck" line of thought DC has been low key been doing for years

Its like the WWE and Tag Teams

As Williams stated before she did ask for PG's history, to which editorial responded "Its whatever you wanted to be". So she's pretty much just being allowed to do whatever she wants here with the character.

Editorial is doing a bad job.

This, Fire & Ice, and Hawkgirl all have a similar issue mistaking making the female hero miserable in the name of complexity.

All 3 books follow a similar theme of making them even more dysfunctional and sad-sack cause of "their history".

The editors saying "it's whatever" with regards to Power Girl's history explains a lot about how Williams has been handling the character. Feels like kind of an overcorrection for how convoluted her backstory got years ago.

Thinking about it, the whole direction Williams was ultimately misguided, its real bad fit even if she tried to do it with Supergirl.

Because both have been on Earth for some time and have attained experience, doing the "Uw U" extremally vulnerable waif with them would be a disservice to both women.

Its a similar issue to Fitzmartin's Tim Draka run because she wanted Tim to enter a period of "finding himself" despite Tim already doing that. He's an experienced hero, he already has his dreams in check, so he shouldn't be at this stage of not knowing what to do.

Williams would have been better off doing this with either an OC, different character, or in a prequel or AU story.

I love Fire and Ice but their series made them look like bigger morons than the Superbuddies ever did.

The current PG could be a random version from another Earth in the multiverse (Earth 2-5?)...and the story would make more sense. She has nothing in common with the PG we've seen over the years.

Curious do you prefer when someone has destroyed Krypton or it being a civil war or natural disaster?

Edited by miraculous on Apr 9th 2024 at 12:24:22 PM

I’m a natural disaster kind of guy.

I do prefer Brainiac to have prior contact with Krypton via taking Kandor, but otherwise leaving Krypton to be blown up by its core to save time and effort.

Having him destroy Krypton would be too Frieza.

I like the natural disaster too, though mixing it with hubris or Kryptonians accidentally exploding it can be effective as well.

I dislike when outsiders explode it, like the retcon in The Sandman where Despair was the Greater-Scope Villain for that event, or in Supergirl where a galactic empress sent her minion to blow it up.

I lean towards preferring the natural disaster, or even better, leaving it a mystery with multiple possible explanations for why it may have blown up.

I personally prefer that Krypton get as little attention as possible. This possibly stems from it getting too much attention in the past. In my opinion, all you need to know about it is there in the high-concept version of Superman's origin. It's where he's from, and it exploded. The end.

I've always been a sucker for the civil war / natural disaster thing. But being self inflicted.

Weirdly enough, I'm the opposite, I love a lot of the worldbuilding around Krypton.

No one likes Rogol Zar for destroying Krypton.

What a lame character.

Okay that I agree with. Like it Makes Zodd and Jor el for example a way more interesting characters to know about their society and how it affects them.

Tbf someome being the mastermind of Krypton's destruction is super common. Off the top of my head Black Zero (pre crisis), Brainiac (Brainiac /post crisis, Smallville, Injustice and probably My adventures). It's just they chose a totally boring as hell villain for it.

Edited by miraculous on Apr 9th 2024 at 1:28:58 AM