Supergirl—Why Not?
by Phil Perich for the Legends of DC Blog
I’m writing this first week of my new blog on December 7, 2015, a few hours before this week’s new episode of Supergirl. I remember when this show was first announced I was a little worried. DC had a good track record with TV shows lately (Gotham, Flash, and Arrow were doing good numbers for their respective networks), and some of the same creative minds behind Flash and Arrow were working on Supergirl. So everything seemed to be in place for another DC TV hit. So why was I so worried? Was it because it was a female led TV show? Linda Carter had success on TV with Wonder Woman in the 1970’s. But a current Wonder Woman for TV project never made it past the pilot stage. Some of us (including me) have never even seen that attempt.
Now, I don't want you to think I have anything against female superheroes. Just the opposite. Any project, from TV shows, to movies and comic books that help bring the stories of superheroes to an ever widening audience is great to me. For some reason however, I always feel a little dread when I hear some project is coming out with a female hero in the lead role? Is it because the comic book industry, which used to be a mostly male dominated environment creator and story wise has trained some of us to think that way? Is it because that many of those attempts failed to give a super heroine a successful vehicle? Is it because many of our super heroines are just female versions of already established male characters? Wonder Woman is a hero in her own right but characters like Supergirl were created to be a spinoff of an already popular character like Superman.
So is it just me and my skewed opinion? If I am correct, Why do Female superhero projects fail so often? Do the companies that produce the entertainment not have enough faith in them to begin with? Or do these projects not attract enough female fans or lose them early on? Could the nature of some of these female heroes wardrobes be a hinderance to keeping longterm female fans?
In closing, I have to say by the third or fourth episode of Supergirl, my fears had completely vanished. The show is such a classic superhero tale, male or female!
I welcome any discussion or comments on this topic or any superhero talk. You can contact me in any of the following ways:
@nightwingpdp on Twitter
You can hear me and my friends discuss the TV shows Gotham, Flash, Arrow, Constantine and all things DC Comics on my podcasts Before the Bat: the Gotham Podcast, the Flash/Arrow Power Hour Podcast, Newcastle Crew: the Constantine Podcast, and World’s Finest, a weekly DC comics review. I also write another blog about Marvel Comics, the True Believers Blog. My podcasts, blogs, and those of others can all be found at www.southgatemediagroup.com
Until next week, don’t just be good, be SUPER!!