POBB September 15, 2026

Pick of the Brown Bag

September 15, 2026

by

Ray Tate

Welcome to the Pick of the Brown Bag, a comic book review blog posted, edited, written by yours truly Ray Tate.  This week I look at Die! Namite Blood Red and examine what it takes to be a public domain superhero.

Public Domain Super-Heroes.  You've probably heard the description, but what are they exactly?  Copyrights and Trademarks lose propriety over time and fall into the hands of...well...everybody.  Sherlock Holmes, for example, emphasized through court adjudication, belongs to all of us.  

Previously you had to ask permission from the last survivors of the Arthur Conan Doyle legacy to use the character.  Now, you don't.  That means you can create a mystery where everybody is baffled and have Sherlock Holmes just show up out of nowhere and solve it.  If you're lucky and have the skill, you can get paid for it.  

The same goes for public domain super-heroes.  These are characters such as the 1940s Black Terror who were owned by a comic book or magazine company that went defunct.  So did the rights.  We all own the Black Terror.

Pulp thief/hero Domino Lady is another good example of a public domain super hero.  In fact we don't know who created her.  We all own the Domino Lady.

The Shadow and Doc Savage on the other hand are owned by Condé Nast who continue to faithfully renew their trademarks. Condé Nast also license Doc and the Shadow out for new adventures elsewhere.  Partially to further strengthen their holds through current usage.  Don't try to sell a Shadow story unless you want to be sued.  Feel free to write fan-fiction though.  Just don't expect to be paid.

Why use public domain characters instead of creating fresh characters that belong solely to you?  There are arguments for both sides of the coin.  I think the strongest argument for using Public Domain Super Heroes is that you want to write something for fans of these characters because you're a fan as well.  You're writing something they and fans of these types of characters may enjoy.  You also want paid for it.  

For example, say you're a freelance writer, and you've got a bang-up story ready for Batman lost in time and encountering Robin Hood.  Though DC once published a version of Robin Hood, Robin is a folk hero.  He has always been a public domain character from the very beginning.  You would only need DC's permission to write the story since it involves Batman, and your pitch might include the fact that Robin Hood has a huge following.  On the flip-side, try to use Disney's fox Robin Hood and prepare to lose your shirt.  Disney owns the fox version of Robin Hood.  However, everybody owns Robin Hood and can write and sell whatever they want about he and his Merry Men.

Some years back, Dynamite Publishing got together with Alex Ross, yes, that Alex Ross, and put together a massive epic story involving multiple 1940s public domain super-heroes such as Miss Masque, the aforementioned Black Terror, the Green Lama, Catman as well as any costume you can think of not owned either by DC nor Marvel.   They called this creative effort Project Superpowers.  For the most part, it rocked.  I'm in fact surprised there isn't a kickstarter for collecting and reprinting the series and its spinoffs, in sequence, in a larger-sized hardback.

Dynamite still owns the rights to Project Superpowers, but they don't own the heroes themselves.  They own their versions of the heroes.  

These characters as well as Miss Fury, another public domain 1940s character Dynamite doesn't actually own but created their own version of, return in Die!Namite Blood Red.

Blood Red is a mostly under the radar series by Fred Van Lente, whose work I've enjoyed before.  Blood Red exemplifies the whole purpose of public domain.  

Copyrights and trademarks merely preclude somebody else making money off an existing character or object that's owned by somebody else.  In other words, Marvel cannot publish and make coin from a Batgirl book without DC's permission.  They can however make a Lady Luck book without anybody's say-so.  Everybody owns Lady Luck.

Copyrights and trademarks have time limits.  The idea is to release existing works into new creative hands; even if it takes a while to get there.  This theme has resulted in some very surprising moments in cultural history.  

For instance, the Metropolitan Police do not own the rights to the Police Box.  Those rights undisputedly now belong to Doctor Who.  The people behind Doctor Who argued in court justly that Metropolitan through disuse no longer can claim ownership nor complain about the use of a Police Box as the shape of the TARDIS on Doctor Who.  Metropolitan furthermore never registered a trademark, and they had umpteen years to try that out.  So, Doctor Who owns the trademarked image of the TARDIS and the Police Box.

Die! Namite Blood Red casts all the female characters Dynamite owns outright, with those the company licensed added to the public domain super-heroes Dynamite stewards.

Dynamite owns Vampirella and Red Sonja lock, stock and barrel as well as their supporting cast of characters such as Pantha.  

Keep in mind the actual appearance of characters can vary quite a bit so long as they meet their original definitions.  Batman is still Batman regardless of the detestable short ears an artist forces on the reading public or a bat-symbol depicted without the moon.  

Dynamite licenses Dejah Thoris, who is, believe it or not, still owned by the Edgar Rice Burroughs Corporation.  Burroughs was very proud and protective of his characters, and it only surprises me a little that he made arrangements for holding rights beyond his death.

Dynamite do not own any of the public domain superheroes they played with in Project Superpowers.  They do own the versions introduced and written about in the series.  Hope that's clear.

Lesley Gore 

Blood Red is set in an alternate universe struck from the Project Superpowers book.  Anybody who has seen a zombie movie produced after the 1950s will be familiar with the plot.  A virus turns most of the men of earth into zombies.

The virus only affects males. Women are prey. The only difference is that men actually feed off the flesh of women.  They're not just shooting them for no reason at all.

These consequences create a new status quo.  Dynamite bought the Chaos Comics line of characters.  So, they own a character called Purgatori.  

You might remember her from the nineties as a low-tier "bad girl" back when bad girls were really popular and coming out of the woodwork.  She's a red-skinned bisexual succubus with little clothing.  Though wearing more now in this mini-series than then.

Fred Van Lente sets up Purgatori as the crime boss whose territory encompasses Sunset City.  Purgatori controls all the access to the few untainted men and holds zombie games to entertain all the women.  

Money apparently still has a use in the apocalypse, or perhaps being a succubus, Purgatori is getting something more existential out of the arrangements.

Purgatori as well recruited several public domain superheroes  and Vampirella Magazine character Pantha to keep the peace and corral untainted men.  

They also protect the women who the zombies prefer as a nighttime snack.

Now, here's where we get the first departure.  Heroes working for the crime boss.  The corruption may upset some fans, but I think it exemplifies the creative freedom that is the spirit of public domain. 

Thrilling Comics #10

The Woman in Red predates Wonder Woman.  She possessed no powers but fought crime.  Never in her original adventures did she mount a war-wagon with a fixed Gattling Gun to mow down zombies.  If you dig that scene, and I certainly did, you can thank Fred Van Lente and the Public Domain.

Although working for Purgatori, I'm sure the Woman in Red maintains her own agenda.  Everybody does in Blood Red.  This makes the book so very entertaining and quite whacky.

Vampirella smoothly segues into the role of private investigator. Purgatori loathes the wild card do-gooder but finds her useful on occasion.  When Deja Thoris arrives spectacularly in Sunset City with the promise of a cure, Vampirella's alien nature comes to the fore.

I was delighted by that scene.  I don't think I've seen something like it before...anywhere.  I can't speak Klingon, but do you speak Ferengi?  Brilliant.

Purgatori doesn't want to rely on Vampirella.  She can't control her.  Vampirella is at least as powerful as Purgatori.  She expects given half a chance Vampirella will kill her.  Good bet there, but in this single instance, she finds a use for Vampirella. 

Even more surprising, Miss Fury's ambivalence toward the first heroic vampire in literature and her ultimate decision toward our favorite blood-drinker at the end of the series.  

Instinct tells you these two should be in harmony.  Not so in Fred Van Lente's tale. 

In fact Red Sonja is the only hero who stays loyal to Vampirella.  She however is not the Red Sonja you're familiar with.

Van Lente explains Red Sonja's presence because it's a fun reshape.  He doesn't reason out  the clash of time zones.  He leaves the rationalization for the longevity of the 1940s female superhero contingent to the reader.  Because it really doesn't matter.  Maybe they arose in modern times via Project Superpowers.  Maybe they're the descendants.  Maybe they simply arose during modern times independently.   Maybe they drank from Fountain of Youth.  Doesn't matter.

Van Lente instead takes advantage of the public domain credo to wield enormous liberty.   Rocket Girl was a couple-based supeheroine.  She fought crime with her husband Rocket Man as a Bullet Man and Bullet Girl "inspired" duo.  

In Blood Red she's a happy-go-lucky lesbian pilot.  There may not have been a Rocket Man.

A stickler may have cried objection! The canonical Rocket Girl was straight.  Maybe so, but that doesn't matter with a public domain super hero.  The canon is only a guideline.  It would be different if you wrote a story where Thundra swung both ways.

Even better.  Not all of the 1940s super heroes will survive by the end of the story, and one will die in a most unexpected manner.  Thus, this book follows the Joe Bob Briggs rule for greatness in a horror film: "anybody can die at any time."

The story continues to go straight off the rails with a massive wtf at every turn.  If you like your stories unpredictable, this baby is for you. 

If you have too much of an attachment to the 1940s super heroines that doesn't brook schismatic changes, you may want to pass this series up.  However, despite being a big Miss Fury fan, I really enjoyed Van Lente's morally questionable version of the kitty.

Die! Namite Blood Red is likely still available at your local comic book store in back issues, a mere five.  The trade paperback will be available in November of this year, ISBN # 9781524129293.

POBB August 20, 2026

Pick of the Brown Bag

August 20, 2026

by

Ray Tate

Welcome to the Pick of the Brown Bag, a comic book review column conceived, written, edited by yours truly Ray Tate.

Alas, this was not the summer of Supergirl.  A damn shame.  My last post gave you a review of the new Supergirl movie.  For this entry, I look at the new ongoing comic book series as well as Supergirl's interaction with the rest of the Superman Family.

Though Sophie Campbell is the absolutely smashing writer/artist of Supergirl, it's important to realize that she's not the only influence on Supergirl's comic book adventures.  Presumably this responsibility relies with the creative director of DC Comics.

Whomever they are, the Powers That Be turned Supergirl into Supergirl incarnate.  Meaning, Kara isn't just the Rebirthed Supergirl of the New 52, she's also the Supergirl that debuted in 1959.  She remembers everything that her previous selves remembered.  

Except when, the Powers need her to conveniently forget.

Although there's nothing wrong with Gail Simone's story, Supergirl has "met" Mary Marvel dozens of times.  In fact, she's met her so many times, Mary Marvel meets Supergirl is almost cliche.

One of the more existential and traumatic things Supergirl remembers is her original avatar's death.

Supergirl's mental-wiring must be astounding. It's on a Time Lord's level.

That fellow in the middle is Dick Malverne.  A character from the original Midvale stories who ended up with a debilitating disease in a Solo Supergirl story.  Solo was supposed to be just a sandbox where creators could play.  None of those stories were supposed to be canonical.  Nevertheless.  Supergirl remembers everything.  Except when she doesn't.  Like I said, convenient.

With that in mind, in the most recent Superman Unlimited series, she re-encounters the original Superboy, who doesn't remember beans.

My presumption then is that Supergirl is the only hero in the DCU that remembers her entire existence from different realities.  Well, she and Ambush Bug who always was aware of different realities.  Try making a movie of that.

One of the smart things the Powers That Be did is that they restored her existence to the multiverse.  So everybody knows Supergirl died.  Everybody remembers or has seen photos of the funeral.

The Powers also explain Jeph Loeb's Superman/Batman story was pivotal and counted as well.  Darkseid is Mr. Resurrection.  He kills his followers and resurrects them at the blink of an Omega Beam.  So, I can almost buy the Darkseid business involving Supergirl.  Almost.  

Mark Waid furthermore expounds that substitute Supergirls such as Peter David's Supergirl appeared in the interim between the original's death and her resurrection.   They attempted to fill a contextual void as well as a creative real world void.  Such an explanation is unexpectedly elegant.  I don't usually look for elegance when it comes to rewriting or retrofitting a hero's history.

I must distinguish resurrection from Rebirth, since the Powers That Be, shucked much of the New 52/Rebirth fresh slate material.  

She wasn't dainty enough I suppose.  Though they incorporated the stupidest part such as that time when Supergirl became a Red Lantern...

...and her formerly dead Dad getting turned into a cyborg killing machine.  Both of these events made me temporarily drop the book, but hell, what do I know.  I'm a Supergirl fan.

Some of the things that the Powers kept intact are infuriating.  Supergirl's Midvale Orphanage business.

Back in 1959, the writers and producers of the Supergirl comic book were looking for a way Supergirl could have her own distinct adventures from Superman.  So, they thought the orphanage idea was just a dandy way to keep Supergirl mostly isolated from her cousin.  These guys couldn't predict that orphanages would be shut down for a very good reason. 

Sophie Campbell recognizes just how bad this makes Superman look.  I presume that Superman actually did this in the cousins' recent shared history.  Unless Superman is Superman incarnate as well.

Alex Danvers, Supergirl's sister on the television series, also had choice words to say about Superman's decision to drop Supergirl in the hands of strangers: Eliza and Jeremiah Danvers, D.E.O. Agents reintroduced as Supergirl's affectionate D.E.O. watchdogs in the New 52 by writer Steve Orlando.  Reworked as adoptive parents.

Anyway, the new Supergirl series is a mostly all-ages comic book.  I would say it bears a similar tone to an Archie series.  Though with less emphasis on hormones. 

Supergirl returns to Midvale, which is her original hometown.  As in Smallville, a Luthor makes her home there.  Though this is a considerably less lethal and downright friendly Luthor.

Supergirl/Lena shippers should know that this is the daughter of Lex Luthor and named after his sister Lena.  So she is Lena the Second, and a naturally born Luthor.  Which makes her an outlier.  Case in point, Superboy from the post-Crisis is the science love child of Superman and Lex Luthor.  No, no.  I'm serious.  

Supergirl didn't really have a rogue's gallery.  Mostly Superman's enemies also wanted to kill her.   

One of her exclusive villains was Lesla-Lar, a Kandorian junior mad scientist who envied and despised the Maid of Might.  

Sophie Campbell's Lesla-Lar differs from the original.  She possesses more depth.  Campbell outlines the rationale that's missing from the original's repertoire.  

Lesla-Lar first admires Supergirl when she saves her life, but that admiration turns slowly into envy and jealousy.  Lesla-Lar's parents really did a number on her, and her insane cousin Zora alias Black Flame finished the job.

Lesla-Lar thus pulls a single white female and tries taking Supergirl's place in Midvale while she's away on business--perhaps during the events depicted in Tom King's and Bilquis Evely's Woman of Tomorrow.  

After Supergirl defeats Lesla-Lar, Spoiler Ahoy, Kandor intends to push a harsh sentence for her actions.  Supergirl intervenes and acts as Lesla-Lar's legal guardian/probation officer.

She offers Lesla-Lar her friendship, and the troubled Kryptonian becomes a member of Supergirl's entourage.

Sophie Campbell's Supergirl is a problem-solver.  She looks deeper into every situation to find a positive outcome.  She even stops herself from bashing Lobo into smithereens.

Supergirl's signature move is to pick up a large heavy object and use it as a mallet, against those who can take it of course.  She also has the tendency to stop large heavy objects from smashing people into pancakes,  However, when Kara needs to, as I have said before, she can be vicious.

Don't feel sorry for Black Fame.  She truly sucks and had this coming for a long time.  Plus, she's Kandorian.  She can take it.

Another frequent guest star in Supergirl: Princess Leegra.  A shark princess who seems like a refugee from some weird seventies anime.

Leegra began as a low-rent menace for Supergirl to fight, but Campbell leaned more toward making her comical and tipped her over to the good side.  Turns out she wasn't bad, just puppetteered by a Sea Hag.  The girl with the chalk skin by the way is Crush, Lobo's daughter.  So, she's half Czarnian since Lobo killed the rest, and her mother remains unknown.

Among their annoying nit-picks, some critics complained about Lobo being in the latest Supergirl movie.  Either not enough or too much, or why is there a Lobo in Supergirl film when he's not in her comic book.  

Supergirl #20

Certainly Lobo's renewed presence reflects from the Supergirl film, but Supergirl and he met before.  Not so much as Mary Marvel, but they definitely knew each other.  Crush represents another mirror.  She's the nicer daughter just like Lena.  

Anyway, you should give Supergirl a try.  Sophie Campbell writes fun, short Supergirl stories while building on an ongoing background comic strip styled cast of characters.  

 

 

POBB Jun 26, 2026

                                Pick of the Brown Bag

                                    June 26, 2026
                                                by
                                            Ray Tate

Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow is a good movie with moments of greatness, and Milly Alcock is a great Supergirl.  Keep in mind.  I'm not comparing her to Helen Slater, Laura Vandervoort, Melissa Benoist, nor Sasha Calle.  The Powers That Be never picked a mediocre Supergirl.  All these talented actresses did justice to the part.  They all brought something interesting to the role and never betrayed Kara Zor-El.  Milly is the latest actress to imbue Supergirl with dignity. 

Woman of Tomorrow is loosely based upon Tom King's and Bilquis Evely's outstanding work of the same name.  

Both projects are grounded in True Grit ; with Supergirl taking the place of Rooster Cogburn.  Kara being a helluva lot more powerful not to mention much comelier.

Neither the book nor the movie are remakes.  Rather, True Grit serves as a vault to launch original ideas.  Furthermore, there's enough deviation in the Supergirl script to give honest credit to screenwriter: Ana Nogueira.  

Some of that deviation is particularly inspired.  Nogueira adheres to the western themes more so than Tom King does.  For example, King is probably kicking himself for not including the bus (train) holdup in his semi-western chapters with Evely.  Those Nogueira recapitulations are staple scenarios of the genre.

The film starts out faithfully.  Supergirl bases herself on a red sun world to celebrate her birthday.  She's twenty-three.  Twenty-one in the book.  However in the film there's a darker undercurrent to the celebration that her cousin Superman has intuited.  Self-destruction.  He even voices concern that he's afraid; someday Kara won't be coming back.  Scenes in Argo City depict Kara wanting to die with her parents.  She appears not to have lost that survivor's guilt.  Trouble is.  She's practically unkillable.  

As with King's and Evely's work, Kara finds a bar and in that bar meets Ruthye.  In the movie, Ruthye is the last survivor of her family.  All murdered by the cowardly Krem.  Krem only kills her father in the book.

Ruthye seeks a mercenary to hunt down the killer.  She offers her father's finest crafted sword as payment.  In the movie, Ruthye's father is a sword-smith.  

Already the filmmakers create the streamlining you expect from an adaptation.  Krem isn't just known to the Brigands, which Evely and King introduce later in the series.  In the film, he's the leader of the Brigands.  

It's a classic case of seeing things with fresh eyes.  Why do the Brigands visit Ruthye's world.  For weapons crafted by her father.  He gives them all the weapons.  Krem murders Ruthye's family anyway because the frog cannot trust the scorpion.  Plain and simple, Krem likes to murder people.

Ruthye's loss parallels with Kara's loss, yet they do not become fast friends.  

Kara as with King's/Evely's graphic collection interferes when an alien steals Ruthye's sword.  In the book, it's an art nouveau Conan.  

In the movie, it's an alien's alien.  The film designers drop Bilquis Evely's belle époque style.  They instead opt for a dystopian future depicted in many a European comic strip.  

The shiny optimism of the Legion of Super-Heroes cannot be found in the backdrop.  Sure there are wonders in our eyes, but they have fallen into the grime and soot of industrial commonplace. 

Supergirl, a bright and shiny penny, drops into the deep inky well and creates unexpectedly violent ripples.  

Krem very likely could not believe Kara chased him through the galaxy, found him and beat the snot out of him.  Nor like Calvera from The Magnificent Seven could he possibly fathom why.  Krem is not a complex villain, but he does possess raw cunning, a band of ugly followers and a multitude of weaponry.  He also wields fear over the planets he and the Brigands sully.  

For many comic book readers, reason is seldom explored.  We don't ask why Supergirl interferes.  She is Supergirl.  That's enough of an answer for people who imbibed her adventures for a lifetime.  The film nevertheless offers the root of Kara's rationale.  Kara carries her dying mother's words with her.  "You don't have to be nice.  You do have to be good."   

For these reasons Kara is less "light-hearted," a perfect description from the film, than her cousin Kal-El.  It's rather surprising that the gravitas of the voice-over line prominent in the trailer "My cousin sees the good in everybody.  I see the truth," is reduced to a blink and you may miss it conversation.  I think the filmmakers made the right choice.  Stylistically after building up that boom here is the difference between Kara and Kal-El, in context Supergirl really doesn't even think about it.  She's not a speechmaker.  If you're a villain, she's in your face.

Superman is so terrified of accidentally hurting someone, he instinctively holds back.  Supergirl? Not so much.  

All the way back to The Brave and the Bold #160

That's why at the cost of her life she was the one to rip the Anti-Monitor a new one.   Not Kal-El.  He held back.  Supergirl did not.  

Despite being on a red sun planet, Supergirl is really tough.  Her muscles evolved on a world with higher gravity.  A yellow sun grants her godlike powers.  A red sun reduces her strength, stamina, etc to original Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster levels of leaping over tall buildings in a single bound, and being able to deck aliens with only the consequence of a stinging hand.  No invulnerability on a red sun world, but as I said.  She's tough.  She gets back up when getting knocked down.  

In both book and movie, the girl knows how to fight and stubbornly survives everything thrown against her.  She's furthermore confident she can win.  This confidence vibrates from Milly Alcock's performance.  She is confident she will win because of who she is, but she's not unmindful that she can lose.

Ruthye tries to convince Kara to hunt down Krem and help her dish out revenge.  In the film and comic book series, Ruthye wants to kill Krem herself.  She needs an experienced tracker and somebody that's capable of capturing Krem so she can deliver the coup-de-grace.  

Kara tries to back out of being the hunter Ruthye needs.  While eschewing the job, she receives unwanted visitors.  Krem and the Brigands board Kara's boat.  It's a simple scene but contains a lot of information.  The Brigands approach Kara's vehicle from the opposite side.  She can't hear them because the red sun reduces her senses to human level.  Krypto catches sight of the Brigands and leaps to Supergirl's rescue.  As with King's and Evely's terrific comic book series, a poisoned arrow fells the brave canine.

Supergirl still does not agree to Ruthye's demands. In the book Ruthye and Supergirl quickly join forces.  Mostly because Kara doesn't want Ruthye to be killed.  

In the movie, Kara instead hunts Krem for the antidote by herself.  Rather that's her intent. Ruthye boards the train (bus) and there's nothing Kara can do to stop it.  

Surprisingly James Gunn, notable for his humorous approach chucked the comic moments that occur on the train in King's and Evely's work.  Ana Nogueira and Gunn instead evolve their own humor during that juicy train robbery updated for science fiction.   

Supergirl complies with the bandits for the most part but then sees an opportunity.  Once again brimming with confidence that she can win, Kara takes on the train robbers in a memorable fight.  All the fights in Supergirl are quick, good and different.  I hate it when a prolonged fight and fights that differ by a razor's edge pad out a film. 

Supergirl overcomes overwhelming odds, and soon has a lead to Krem and the Brigands.  This is a needed departure.  Woman of Tomorrow was a limited series that was collected.  It's not truly a graphic novel.  In the third issue for example, Kara visits a city of racism, exacerbated by the Brigands.  In the fourth issue, Kara sees some of the Brigands' handiwork.  Another issue details a magical trap Krem sets for Kara.  

The series was naturally episodic.  The movie is the more cohesive medium continuing the space western that began with issues one and two.  King and Evely didn't drop the theme entirely, but they also overlapped other genres including the Untouchables era of corruption and swashbuckling moments of Kara fighting space-pirates that behave like pirates.  They brought in Comet the Super-Horse from out of Supergirl lore.  These elements are not in the film.  I didn't expect to see them.  However, it's a pity Gunn and Nogueira couldn't fit one particular moment from Woman of Tomorrow into the story.

I really like this scene.  It represents a complexity in Kara's persona.  Supergirl is at home anywhere in the universe.  She can adapt to any world, and doesn't mind at all losing her godly sun gifts.  Still, she's from a civilization.  Civilized people wash their hands.  It's an unspoken contract that says you care enough about yourself to not carry germs on your person, spread germs to others, nor infect your fellow citizens.  None of this polish prevents her from grinding somebody that can take it into the ground.  Supergirl is a woman of many facets.

Following the lead, Kara finds that the Brigands count child slavery in their trade.  They steal humanoid female children to be sold as "brides."  Sex slavery is a crime designed for a superhero to destroy.  It's been on the plate of many a seventies exploitation film, and slavery unfortunately has never gone away.  It's also a subject indicative of something you might find in a Judge Dredd comic book not a superhero story.  However if you accept that comic books to a certain extent mimic reality, then neither Superman nor Supergirl would turn away when confronted with such crime.  It's therefore a valid concern and certainly can be used as a subject in a superhero film.

Pitting Supergirl against such evil is notable.  It's like the filmmakers are saying.  The world is dangerous.  It's not nice.  What you're seeing on screen.  That happened in the past, that happens in the present, it will happen in the future if we don't band together and stop it, but what if there was an alien superhero? Supergirl is the wish fulfillment juxtaposed against a real world terror that's disguised in science fiction darkness. 

While on route to snatch the antidote and maybe let Ruthye have Krem, Supergirl discovers something horrible.  She must therefore confront the horror and defeat it.  Sure.  I get it.  The brides may insult your delicate sensibilities.  Grow up.  Get over it.  Watch a hero succeed.

On the planet, Kara encounters Lobo portrayed perfectly by Jason Mamoa.  Lobo is more of a known quantity than Supergirl.  Even Supergirl knows of him.  Lobo agrees with the evil universe Krem and the Brigands inhabit.  Supergirl does not and should not.  She's a visitor from a science fiction pulp novel.  She's the drifter who comes into town, sees injustice and takes out the trash.  She may hope that she dies in the process but nevertheless fights to live.

Supergirl's revelation as the last daughter of Krypton occurs during the aforementioned conversation between Ruthye and Kara.  James Gunn and Ana Nogueira present the classic origin of Supergirl.  They skip over nothing.  The sci-fi forcefield that "saves" the city of Argo.  The kryptonite poisoning emitting from the ground.  They mention the lead lining that temporarily protects the citizens.  They also include a happy addition of Krypto the pup meeting his mistress for the first time.  Krypto is the one living thing that gives Kara Zor-El a brightness in a life that seems haunted by death.  The death of her parents and Argo City, which survived Krypton, is the tonic that wakes Kara up to the universe's unkindness.  Allows her to see the truth.

I would have liked to have seen the inclusion of Kara hammering lead plates into Argo City to stave off the Kryptonite radiation.  

That scene from Evely's and King's series gives Kara a physicality before she gained her superpowers.  It also helps forge her indomitable will.  I'm fairly certain the filmmakers would have included it in the film if they had decided to extend the running time.  Perhaps it too much contrasted the theme of Kara's death wish.

After an impressive attempt to kill Kara fails, she faces the Brigands and what can be termed as round one.  Supergirl succeeds in rescuing a lot of the brides from the Brigand cells, but she also clues the Brigands into something strange going on with the flying, blonde in the long, brown coat.  

The Brigands finger her for a Kryptonian and test that theory by trapping Kara on a binary sunned world.  One of those suns happens to be green, as in the graphic collection.  

Here the comedy and terror from Evely's and King's work doesn't translate to the film.  In the series it's an issue.  In the movie, it's a scene.  Ana Nogueira uses this moment to draw Kara into fully accepting her role as Supergirl.  Evely's and King's Woman of Tomorrow is after all merely another thrilling, daring adventure of Supergirl.  Supergirl is already comfortable being a champion.  

Though the dying Kara half-chides Ruthye for bringing her uniform to her.  She never the less puts it on and lives up to its meaning when the yellow sun rises.  

Kara at the beginning of the movie is trying to either forget about responsibility or die in a fight.  At the climax of the film, she wants to live as Supergirl and symbolize everything that name stands for.

The Brigands capture Ruthye and who should be in the adjoining cell but Lobo.  

Lobo explains the differences between he and the Brigands.  He hunts for money.  His word is his bond, a new myth for the Main Man.  I don't recall Lobo being remotely  as honorable as Dr. Doom.  Fine though.  I'll hold you to that in future films.

The Brigands attempt to con Ruthye into giving up Supergirl's location for freedom.  Ruthye doesn't buy any of it.  Lobo keeps watching and keeps being impressed by Ruthye.  I am as well.  We can thank actress Eve Ridley for that.  Ruthye is a child forced into adulthood.  She can't be so easily tricked. 

Lobo doesn't team up with Supergirl or Ruthye.  Their needs simply align.  Lobo isn't looking to destroy the Brigands.  They just happen to be in his way.  He's only being paid to execute one of them; in a refreshing twist, not Krem, nor Kara, which would have been mighty predictable.  You can imagine a scene in a lesser movie or comic book where Supergirl won't let Lobo kill the Brigand he's after.  Thus comes the inevitable slugfest.  Not so in Supergirl.  She doesn't care if Lobo kills the Brigands.  The less of them the better.  She just wants to make certain Ruthye doesn't get diced in the crossfire.

Supergirl returns to decimate the Brigand forces.  At one point, Ruthye stands amidst a circle of mayhem that implies Supergirl's presence.  You don't see her in the billowing dust clouds.  You see flashes of heat vision.  You see vehicles being tossed around like toys.  One of my favorite ways to describe Supergirl is that she's the one who can bench press a tank.  It's an impressive scene that unites effects and characterization.  

I am happy to say that we get ample demonstrations throughout the movie of Milly Alcock as Kara Zor-El and Supergirl punching, throwing and destroying evil tech as opposed to just CGI smears representing such.  The choreography is all brilliantly done.  It really looks like Milly Alcock's Supergirl is smacking around these stronger than normal thugs.  I wouldn't be surprised to learn that a lot of these scenes resulted from old fashioned wire-work.  They're that good. 

The film ends with Supergirl finishing her celebration, now a little brighter with company and returning home to meet up with her super-cousin.  They're awkward around each other, but you get the sense that Supergirl is now more accepting of her role as a superhero.  She sees earth as her genuine home and that dark undercurrent of seeking death ebbs.  By the end of the film, every audience member should see what makes Supergirl worthy of their time and energy.  They should also see her as a distinctive hero who shouldn't be dismissed as Superman's little girl cousin.

Superman Family #182