I kinda disagree on this. But I can see why most people think this way.
I think she is less “unnessesary” and more “wasted”. She is a character that has been more miss than hit. Most versions of her, including the comics have been terrible.
Like BBB said, it’s doable but it requires work. The CW’s Supergirl failed because, woke shit aside, she was basically just Clark in a skirt in there . They even gave her his storylines and stole Clark’s meek secret identity/ confident superpowered self persona. Gunn is halfway there in that she shouldn’t just be a Clark clone. But he also missed the mark by making her too butch.
I have yet to see a comic version that does her Justice either. Many comic writers seem to have a fear of cooties and don’t write women well either. So they might deliver a solid Superman, but a subpar supergirl.
I would agree with you in principle, but what convinced me she can be an interesting character on her own is the DCAU.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=K2MeUmZqzkU
Who knew that just writting her as, what she is, a femenine teenager with flaws, would be the secret?
I’ve mentioned it previously, but she’s potential woman.
She has such a unique angle to play compared to Clark. She isn’t the baby that landed on Earth, came into the care of two loving Earth parents, and learned what it meant to be human. She was a teen girl who went through the traumatic experience of watching her people perish, drifted off into space for years, only to be brought to a foreign planet that is starkly underdeveloped compared to the world she left.
Clark had a purpose to show the people of Earth the light. Kara’s purpose was to take care of him, and even then, her entire purpose was stripped away from her due to circumstances out of her control.
She is a somewhat anger-prone teen girl trying to find a place in the world that isn’t just being in Clark’s shadow. Absolutely fantastic story potential that is typically sidelined by retcons and writers undoing her as hard as they undo Wonder Woman. She should be a Robin, a character that builds off of the main hero, but uses it as a launch pad to take on a new identity. Hell, Power Girl should be the Nightwing breakaway instead of some weird multiverse shit, it would make so much sense having her craft an identity separate from Clark by ridding herself of the Super identity.
A good story would take in these factors to build a narrative about a girl trying to find her purpose, her overall placement in the universe. When with Clark, they should have an inverse Batman/Robin dynamic, Clark is the happy social hero whereas Kara is the more stern, lonely one. On her own, she should be trying to adapt to her new home, finding ways to improve it through what she knows of Krypton. I always liked Injustice & Tomorrowverse making her more scientific/engineer like, gives her a unique dimension from Clark that could build different relationships.
If done correct you get a different character from Clark and one that adds dimensions to him as he gets 1 Kryptonian in his life that isn’t evil, the one firm connection to his original home that he can “save.”
I see that, but I hate sidekicks and the “Superfamily” and Kara is a gateway to that idea. “No kryptonians” is just good rule and keeps Clark unique. If it’s not Zod’s crew, then it shouldn’t be allowed. Supergirl, Power Girl, the little shits, the chink, the faggot, the warworld kryptonians and even Connor when he lost his unique bells and whistles, all bring nothing to the setting but watering down Clark. The only kryptonian presence should be villians or machines like Kelex, Jor-El’s AI and the Eradicator. Ghosts.
This is just a DC problem in general. Their characters have gone on far too long and the royalty nature of comics has created way too many unnecessary additions.
In my view, Superman should just half the cast, which is arguably how most adaptations handle it. Kara is a classic character at this point so she stays, Connor is great whether you want to make him the hip 90s kid or the angsty Young Justice version, and I would even include Steel as a worthwhile addition. Obviously Jonathan and the pets are safe, but past them, just get rid of it all. Power girl can be morphed into Supergirl, which again, is pretty much how she is handled outside comics, and the rest can be deleted.
I feel the same way about most of DC’s heroes. Batman also is way over bloated with worthless characters like Duke. Even characters I like such as Jason and Tim just exist now.
Green Lantern is another that is now filled with random black characters when John is pretty much the only one people care about, and exclusively due to the DCAU. I guess Jessica has broken into the mainstream somewhat due to her teenage appearances in DCSHG and the DCAU, but ehh…
Lynda Carter’s show is insanely iconic, sure, but it’s also a 70’s show. Literally older than the Soviet Union’s fall. How many Tv show, including cartoons, has Spiderman been in since then? There’s even a Japanese adaptation that is still fondly remembered .
She’s a victim of internal politics. There were many pitches for WW shows and movies in the 90s and 00s that were shelved due to toy companies refusing to market a girl hero. Her appearances were also kneecapped by her creator’s estate declaring that she had to be a main protagonist to appear, basically killing her opportunity to appear in The Batman 04, or even having main stay Donna Troy depicted in the final season of Teen Titans 03.
Had she gotten the animated series treatment, I think we would be including her on the Mt Rushmore. The series would have streamlined her and probably fixed her villains (
@XYZpdq Jr.) as had been done with Batman, Superman and even the Titans.
