According to Syfy, Krypton “will follow Superman’s grandfather – whose House of El was ostracized and shamed – as he fights to redeem his family’s honor and save his beloved world from chaos.”
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice co-writer David S. Goyer will executive produce Krypton under his Phantom Four banner. Goyer also wrote the pilot alongside Ian Goldberg, who previously worked as a producer on Once Upon a Time and a writer on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
Krypton will take place 200 years before the opening of Man of Steel. He went on to say while “it won’t be wall-to-wall visual effects every single moment” like Man of Steel, the show will “be digging into the characters and culture a lot more.
Cameron Cuffe as Seg-El: Superman’s grandfather and Jor-El’s father; athletic, quietly confident, and in his 20s. A younger version of the “grumpier” character from the comics.
Georgina Campbell as Lyta Zod: A reluctant cadet and warrior in the Kryptonian military, in a clandestine, forbidden relationship with Seg-El.
Ian McElhinney as Val-El: Seg’s grandfather, who defied death by going to the Phantom Zone and is a staunch believer in space exploration.[2][5]
Elliot Cowan as Daron-Vex: The chief magistrate of Kandor, charged with defending Krypton’s oligarchy.
Ann Ogbomo as Alura Zod: The Primus of the Kryptonian military guild and mother of Lyta. Alura shares her first name with Alura Zor-El, the mother of Supergirl.
Supergirl #2 has all the ingredients of an intriguing teen superhero comic: twisted family drama, killer robots, punching, and of course, adolescent awkwardness. Writer Steve Orlando, artist Brian Ching, and colorist Michael Atiyeh give Supergirl quite the hard time as various men in her life keep telling her what’s best for her from Cyborg Superman saying that he’s her dad Zor-El to her classmate, Ben Rubel, interrupting her and getting a spot as one of Cat Grant’s Young Innovators. In light of a male presidential candidate interrupting a female presidential candidate multiple times and still complaining about not having equal time, the events of Supergirl #2 are very relevant as Orlando simultaneously explores the tragedy of Krypton’s destruction and the cutthroat world of new media.
Speaking of media, Orlando and Ching’s take on Cat Grant is fantastic as they start to build her arc as a journalist who wants to…
CBS’s Supergirl finally joins the smattering of superhero related TV shows this fall, but is it any good? CBS has been hyping this show for what seems like an eternity and it finally took flight last night. So let’s get a brief overview before hopping into the GOOD, BAD and the Meh…
CBS’s Supergirl finally joins the smattering of superhero related TV shows this fall, but is it any good? CBS has been hyping this show for what seems like an eternity and it finally took flight last night. So let’s get a brief overview before hopping into the GOOD, BAD and the Meh…
First we are shown a very short origin of Kara Zor-El’s (Melissa Benoist) escape from the doomed planet Krypton minutes before it explodes. It is explained by Kara’s mother Alura that she is being sent to Earth protect her younger cousin Kal-El (do I really need to explain who this is?). Her capsule gets trapped in the Phantom Zone for a period of time before finally escaping and landing on Earth years after Kal has reached our planet. When Kara finally arrives she hasn’t aged a day and Kal has already become ‘The Man of Steel’.
The Man of Steel’s shadow looms large over this series. Literally and figuratively.
She is taken by Superman to live with foster parents, Jeremiah and Eliza Danvers, played by Dean Cain and MY original Supergirl, Helen Slater and their daughter Alex (Chyler Leigh). Kara explains via voice over that she was brought there by Kal to receive the same type of wholesome upbringing he had upon his arrival. Kara, now using the surname “Danvers”, grows into a 24 year old young adult living and working in National City as an under appreciated gofer at a multimedia conglomerate run by Cat Grant, played by Calista Flockheart who is doing her best to channel Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada. And this is where our story and review begin.
The GOOD.
Melissa plays a great Supergirl with just the right amount of pluckiness, charisma, optimism and she looks damn good in the costume.
THE costume.
The sets, lighting and camera work in the “talky” parts are top notch and you can tell most of the production is spent here. (We’ll get to the special effects in a bit)
I love that Helen Slater in as Kara’s adoptive mother in this series. I had a poster of her on my bedroom wall in the Supergirl costume back in 1984, so admittedly I’m a little biased.
The episode was rather light and airy as there didn’t seem to be a heavy cloud of dread hanging over the show. Benoist has a lot to do with this; her happy-go-lucky, always smiling character interpretation definitely sets the tone of the show. Something I hope they keep up without getting overly chintzy during the life of the show.
The BAD.
The writing is… well… Ugh. It’s bad. No really. It’s not good at all. It’s not quite CW level bad but it’s pretty damn close. The show whizzes through the opening backstory, which is ok because her backstory is so similar to Superman’s that we don’t really need to trudge through that again, but her transition from Kara Danvers to a full on cape wearing, plane saving, faster than a speeding bullet(proof) crime fighter is so swift it’s blow past you in a red and blue blur. In the span of 30 minutes she goes from, “Not having flown in years!” to battling an escaped Kryptonian convict with no combat training whatsoever. It makes the development period (i.e. the time in-between action scenes) purely perfunctory and unsatisfying.
The Department of Extra-Normal Operations
Still in the writing department, the show introduces two separate love interests in the first half hour. Jimmy, excuse me, James Olsen (yes that very same Olsen fellow from Metropolis; who apparently has personal relationship with Big Blue himself) played by Mehcad Brooks and Winslow “Winn” Schott, Jr., played by Jeremy Jordan. Kara spends her onscreen time with Olsen making googly eyes at him and fumbling over her words, while Winn spends his onscreen time with Kara outfitting her in her new duds and telling her how pretty she looks without her glasses on. Barf.
The MEH.
Supergirl uses her heat vision for the first time.
The special effects range from excellent (for a TV show) to just plain bad. In the promo trailers, we see a scene when Kara is saving a plane from crashing, stopping a semi by letting it crash into her, heat vision and general shots of her flying around the city… Well, that’s the triple A stuff right there folks. The cuts in-between, getting punched through a wall, a high speed flying jump kick and some of the battle with the Kryptonian criminal are not handled so deftly. There are quick cuts, (very) obvious camera tricks and some animation errors (missing frames of digital Supergirl as she gets knocked through walls) that can ruin the illusion if you’re a nerd like me and look for such things.
Final Thoughts
Any crash you can walk away from…
So far the GOOD outweighs the BAD and the MEH. I tried to not spoil the main elements of the show like how and why the Kryptonian criminal is on Earth, who he is working for and their motivation is because I do believe the show is worth a watch and we will cover more of that as the season goes on and in subsequent reviews.
For a show that is and was so heavily marketed, it got off to a pretty shaky start. However, in the spirit of fairness, a lot of great shows have gotten off to a shaky start and a lot of shows have gotten off to a strong start only to fizzle out in less than three seasons.
If DC and WB want this show to succeed and have a long and glorious life span, they are going to seriously need to tone up their writing and sharpen the animation during the more frenetic action sequences. If they do that Supergirl will certainly be a long term success.
Hope you like the review, leave a comment below and let me know what you thought of the pilot episode and join me next week when I review Supergirl Episode 2 – “Stronger Together”.
Ever since Superman first burst onto the printed page in 1938, superheroes have become a staple of American storytelling — from comic books and TV shows to blockbuster movies and video games — conquering evil and injustice throughout.
But when you hear the word “superhero,” you probably picture a strapping costumed man swooping in to save the day. However, a new generation of artists and writers are changing that image, responding to the ever-growing number of female fans who want to see their gender reflected in these heroic tales.
Television audiences are about to meet a whole new type of hero, one that hopes to inspire future generations while fighting super villains and saving the day — actions she accomplishes with a smile on her face and optimism in her heart. “Supergirl” flies into homes on tonight on CBS, the final major network to try its hand at the comic book adaptation game. Starring Melissa Benoist in the title role, “Supergirl” has placed its superhero in numerous advertisements and promo spots — and she’s even inspired a few Girl Scouts before her small screen debut.Read more here.
It is time once again for The Cosplay Runway. Each and every week I highlight five fantastic cosplay images with this edition being rather special as it will focus entirely on Supergirl due to the recent release of her first trailer of her new show. For the uninitiated, cosplay is “a performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character or idea.” All the cosplay featured here will be centralized on comics whether it be from DC, Marvel, or the Independents. To be taken to your image of choice, merely click on the name of your chosen character. Otherwise, simply click next and let the journey begin:
I am very excited for this! My comic book nerd friends – not so much. Well, that’s only because, apparently, they don’t like girls. They’d much rather watch Superman. Or Batman. Or Iron Man. Or Captain America… man. I’d rather watch girls. Really super girls, in fact. Supergirl stars Melissa Benoist as Kara Zor-El/Kara Danvers, Mehcad Brooks as Jimmy Olsen, Calista Flockhart as Cat Grant, David Harewood as Hank Henshaw, and the lovely Chyler Leigh as Alex Danvers. It kind of looks like Smallvillemeets The Devil Wears Prada.
Chyler Leigh, by the way, played punk rocker June Tuesday (here) on the short-lived Fox TV series That ’80s Show (2002). I didn’t like that show much, but I loved that character a lot. The first time I saw Leigh as Dr. Lexie Grey on Grey’s Anatomy, I said, “Hey, that’s June Tuesday!”
Supergirl #2 has all the ingredients of an intriguing teen superhero comic: twisted family drama, killer robots, punching, and of course, adolescent awkwardness. Writer Steve Orlando, artist Brian Ching, and colorist Michael Atiyeh give Supergirl quite the hard time as various men in her life keep telling her what’s best for her from Cyborg Superman saying that he’s her dad Zor-El to her classmate, Ben Rubel, interrupting her and getting a spot as one of Cat Grant’s Young Innovators. In light of a male presidential candidate
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