TV Talk - Supergirl's "The Adventures of Supergirl" and "The Lost Children of Krypton"

Now, I’ve gotten to the superhero allies of Superman. He’s got a lot, so I’m only concentrating on the ones with an ‘S’ and a few others. “That should narrow it down,” I sarcastically say. Today, it’s one of the important ones: Supergirl. Kara Zor-El is Kal-El’s older cousin from Argo City. While her story shifts here and there, she too was launched from a doomed world and placed in suspended animation. That’s why Superman’s older than her when she awakens years later. Her first official appearance (DC played around with other “Super-ladies" before Kara)  was in Action Comics #252.

Supergirl then would sometimes appear in Superman’s book and appear in her own book for years. Then, she had her moment in Crisis on Infinite Earths where she was killed by the Anti-Monitor. While Kara didn’t come back after the event ended, there were other Sueprgirls. The was the Matrix-Supergirl, the Linda Danvers one from Peter David’s run, some weird one from the future, and Power Girl (a Supergirl from another Earth). Kara officially made her return to the comics during Jeph Loeb’s run on Superman/Batman and she’s stayed ever since then. Things have changed a bit since that run, but she’s still Superman’s “young” cousin from Krypton.

Supergirl has also made to other media as well. There was her 1984 movie. Even though that thing was far from decent, Helen Slater filled that role well. Supergirl’s been seen in the DCAU, as well as a few animated movies and a couple of video games. Then, there’s the live-action TV show on the CW. Right now, it’s going well into its fourth season and I’m behind on it. I was going to originally review all of Season 2, but that ain’t happening anytime soon. So, I’ll be looking at the first two episodes of Season 2, “The Adventures of Supergirl,” and “The Last Children of Krypton.” So, what happens when Kara’s cousin finally decides to show his trunkless butt up on this show?

Tales From the 50 Cent Bin! - Action Comics #647-649

Next up for the month is actually a double feature! I have two villains for this post and they are pretty well-known: Brainiac and Metallo. Since Metallo is less complex, I’ll talk about him first. Metallo was first introduced in Action Comics #252 as John Corben, a criminal. After a fatal accident, Professor Vale was able to save Corben's brain and put it into a robotic body with a heart of Kryptonite. After John died, his brother ended up taking the role until the reboot in 1986. Then, John Byrne brought the original idea back and gave it a more Terminator edge in Superman #1. At this point, Metallo was deactivated and under Lex Luthor’s possession.

Then, there’s Brainiac. Where do I even start? Ever since his first appearance in Action Comics #242, he's been revamped and retconned in just about everything. Let’s just go with the Coluan background here. There’s no need to mention the fact that he’s been a Kryptonian A.I. too. In this iteration, He was a scientist from Colu who was executed via teleportation. His consciousness ended up on Earth and found Milton Fine, a circus performer who had psychic powers. He took control of Fine and fought Superman a number of times until he ended up becoming catatonic. He also ended up being under the care of Lex Luthor.

Today’s story is “The Brainiac Trilogy” from Action Comics #647-649. At this point, Action Comics was back to being a main Superman book. Beforehand, it was weekly and being shared by multiple heroes. We haven’t gotten to the point where the Superman books were tying right into each other yet. Roger Stern was the writer. The artwork was done by George Perez, Kerry Gammill, and Brett Breeding. So, sit back and see how Brainiac got his groove back!

Action Comics #647-649

Writer: Roger Stern

Artwork: George Perez, Kerry Gammill, and Brett Breeding

Colors: Bill Oakley

Letters: Glenn Whitmore

Editors: Jon Peterson (associate) and Mike Carlin

Tales From the 50 Cent Bin! - Superman #1

Well, it looks like I’m stepping back into the world of Superman. Since Robocop is coming out this week, I thought I would try to see if I had an issue that featured a cyborg. While Vic Stone (Cyborg from the Teen Titans) was too obvious, I thought I would go with another cyborg: Metallo. For those who don’t know, Metallo is one of Superman’s deadliest foes. He’s a cyborg who carries a heart of kryptonite, a substance that’s deadly to Superman. Today’s issue is Superman #1, and no, it’s not the Perez/Merino one. This is the Post-Crisis Superman fresh off of Man of Steel from 1986. Hey, I’m looking at a reboot when another reboot’s coming out… Cool!

The writer and penciller is John Byrne. If you don’t know already by looking at this blog, you can tell that Byrne is one of my favorite classic artists. I don’t know about his current stuff, but his classic stuff from Marvel and DC is pretty awesome. The inker is Terry Austin who is one of Byrne’s regular inkers. He’s inked with Byrne on books like Uncanny X-Men and this book. He’s also inked a lot of stuff for DC over the years. Well, let’s see what happens to Superman as he goes up against this terrible-dressing robot for the first time