Last week I reviewed the fifth episode of My Adventures With Supergirl. It was the introduction of Supergirl to the show and it wasn't pretty. She was once again portrayed as the dupe of the villain and basically dark.
Well, I just watched My Adventures With Superman S2 E6, "The Machine Who Would Be Empire", and if you thought E5's Kara was a dark Supergirl, you ain't seen nothing yet. In this episode we finally hear the name Brainiac as the bad guy. And he has been acting as Kara's 'father'.
I'll start out by saying it is clear that Kara has been mentally tortured throughout her life, raised by a heartless Brainiac who has warped her thoughts and bent her into a tool for his evil. He also seems to have outright mind control over her. In many ways, she isn't responsible for the vile events she has done. And settle in because they are despicable.
I'll also say that I know that in the end this Kara will turn, become a hero, and be a force of good. We see in many places in this episode she has a good heart at her core.
But neither of those two things, her manipulation or her good heart and eventual hero turn, make up for what I had to watch here.
Because this decision to do this to Supergirl was just that ... a creative decision. Show runner Josie Campbell could have introduced Kara in any sort of ways. But instead she chose to make Kara a tool for the villain, a genocidal maniac, a person who at the end of this episode is living in pain.
They made Supergirl the villain again. They made her emotionally and psychologically abused again. And they her dark again.
And frankly I'm sick of it.
Because we start the episode with her bathed in red light, angry eyes, and vowing to convince Kal to join her in rebuilding the Krypton Empire with her 'father'.
On her ship in deep space, she vows to bring Kal to see her father. But in the meantime she can show him Krypton with a 'thought projector'. We see how she only knows Krypton superficially from some vid tapes on this machine. She has named people in it things like 'food citizen', based on their activities. She clearly is enraptured with this vision. She enjoys seeing the kids play some Kryptonian version of jacks.
You can tell she is lonely and wishes to be with people like her. Even Kal can tell.
It makes her an easy target for someone who keeps telling her she will be a vital part in bringing back Krypton.
Clark decides to share his love of Earth and why he will defend the planet. Using the device we get a glimpse of Ma and Pa Kent in this universe, teaching Clark to play catch carefully, not revealing himself. Clark loves his parents.
But Kara can't see it. She feels this was the Kents holding him back, hiding who he really was.
Again, this shows you just how 'her father' has raised her. That strength is the only thing of value.
Can I also point out how Kara's armor looks like an Evangelion's? Just like the Brainiac Queen! Neon Genesis never goes out of style.
Within the ship, Kara shows Clark souvenirs she has taken from planets she has folded into the new empire. Planets like Thanagar and Euphorix, both decent cuts from the DCU. She has some fondness for these trinkets. You can see her act like a warm person here.
It ratchets up when Clark finds her Earth souvenirs, including the pics of her and Jimmy.
She blushes and denies liking him. She and Kal playfully wrestle. It is cute. You can sense the warmth inside her.
This again is amplified when the two have to clear out an asteroid field of hydrogen balls, leading to a giant snowball fight.
They play like siblings. It is cute.
In another effort to turn Kal to her side, the two take a side trip to Thanagar to see what a planet of the empire is like. She thinks they'll be thriving and happy like her memory box.
But instead they find a dead planet. The place is ruined.
Before they can contemplate a lot, Brainiac sends his drones to gather them and get them to 'Kandor', his space station.
Superman thought he was going to meet Zor-El.
But Kara's father, who she kneels before, turns out to be Primus Brainiac, the AI which ran through all things on Krypton. He knew Jor-El. He knew everything about the planet. And he wants Superman to help him.
Brainiac is dripping evil, from his emperor style cloak, to his demanding of submission of Kara, to the waves of robot troops he has.
He sends Kara away and decides to challenge Superman by pitting him against VR versions of the final survivors of the planets he has absorbed. This includes someone which seems to have Green Lantern powers.
But we learn that Krypton was a war-like planet (at least per Brainiac) which conquered to fuel the empire.
As usual, in this new age of comics, nothing can be unsullied. At least Jor-El seems to be a good man in this.
With the brawl ongoing, Superman suddenly manifests his blue lightning powers. We have seen this before, from projecting force fields to lightning to mega-beams.
This is what Brainiac is looking for. He wants to harnass, probably copy, this power for his own army.
Brainiac turns on a red sun lamp and pounds Superman unconscious.
When Kara discovers this she is upset.
Maybe it would be an early turnaround??
Nope, Brainiac tells her she will comply and makes her forget all she saw. She is his drone, a slave.
She now thinks she brought Superman straight there, forgetting all their adventures on the way.
Kara. The dupe.
In her ship, a souvenir triggers her to remember her trip with Kal.
This leads her to seek out more information. Heading to the other worlds she mentioned, she finds them all dead planets.
And on Thanagar again she remembers that she did it to that world. She killed everyone with her heat vision. She destroyed the planet. She is a mass murderer.
Kara. The genocidal maniac.
That was a creative decision. To have Kara murder an entire planet's citizens. I don't care if she was mind-controlled. This was a choice that was approved. Let's have our young female hero become a killer of unquantifiable numbers.
Genocidal Kara.
It makes me angry.
Remembering this now, she collapsed in despair, sobbing in space.
Kara. The despondent girl, living a life of pain.
I have to blame Tom King for making this sort of treatment of Supergirl trendy.
After all, the angry Kara living a life of pain leads to awards and Hollywood deals. Who wouldn't jump on that gravy train.
So yes, she will become a hero.
She also has slaughtered at least three planets populations.
She is a dupe.
She is sad.
If you like this Supergirl, I am happy for you.
But me? I'm just tired of it.
