Supergirl and Batwoman

So Andrea and I caught up on the Sunday night CW debuts of Batwoman and Supergirl. And here are some thoughts about those two shows.

Batwoman

As you may have heard, the trolls are out in force, posting reviews with like one or even zero stars. A lot of this is the basic dreck that gets churned up whenever some pop culture thing like a TV show or a movie comes along with  female lead. Add to the fervor of the trolls if you toss in representation by the people of color or the LGBTQ community. In the case of Batwoman, you have a female character (Kate Kane) who is gay being portrayed by a woman (Ruby Rose) who is gay. The trolls are having a field day.

That being said and not to give any ammunition to these knuckle dragging, bigoted trolls but I have to say I was not exactly enamored with the first episode of Batwoman.

There’s a moment in the show where Kate Kane is in a fast paced, frenetic fight scene. I turned to Andrea and said, “Doesn’t the music seem kind of annoying?” Andrea agreed. It was some kind of generic techno track cranked up to 11; it was a cacophony of noise that competed with the action on the screen instead of underscoring it.

I think that moment encapsulated what I find disquieting about this episode. The show was going through the rotes steps of a super hero origin story but without any emotional heft to it. This episode was almost generic.  Which a show set in the universe of Batman with a kick ass lesbian lead, “generic” should never enter the conversation. 

As the episode’s big bad, Mad Alice was a welcome bit of eccentricity in an otherwise mundane narrative. 

I will say that there are pieces in place for Batwoman to become more interesting and I’m willing to stick around, at least until Crisis On Infinite Earths comes around.

Supergirl

“PANTS!”
Kara’s exclamation of pure joy when she dons Briany’s newly redesigned super suit is a happy highlight of the episode, one that it was in desperate need of.

Since the end of Season 4, Lena Luthor is still holding on to her mad on at Kara Danvers, aka Supergirl. Her brother Lex’s dying parting shot that Supergirl and her friends had made a fool of her is still sticking up her ass and it irks her to no end. Using an AI interface, Lena engages in simulations of her punching the crap out of Supergirl. 

Kara, meanwhile, oblivious to Lena’s knowledge of her double identity, is agonizing over how to tell the truth to her best friend. She feels bad that she’s kept this secret from her but finding the right time to bridge that gap isn’t easy. And Kara is worried Lena will feel betrayed by this revelation.

Well, it turns out Lena did feel betrayed when Lex told her and damn if she isn’t nursing a serious grudge.  Lena’s sold CatCo to a “friend” of hers, Andrea Rojas, who has swept into the CatCo offices and is pissing all over their journalistic integrity. Lena has promised Andrea a big scoop. 

Kara’s being awarded a Pulitzer Prize for her reporting which exposed President Baker’s collusion with Lex Luthor.   At a special ceremony, Lena is set to present the award to Kara. Lena has also set up a data file that will upload to CatCo’s servers and tell all the world that Kara Danvers and Supergirl are one and the same.

But before the ceremony, Kara just blurts out to Lena that she’s Supergirl. In a raw, emotional confession, Kara explains why she kept the secret from Lena as long as she did and how she worried about how to tell her.

At the ceremony, Lena gives a speech and presents the prize but doesn’t upload the file. Has Lena been moved by Kara’s confession? She even hugs Kara and tells her she will always be her best friend.

Then at the end of the episode, we find that Lena Luthor is still pissed. She didn’t upload the file to the CatCo servers because she now has a new plan to hurt Supergirl.

Lena activates her AI and starts punching.

Whoa.

In the comics, Lex Luthor hated Superman because when they were teens, Superboy caused Lex’s hair to fall out.

In Supergirl, Lena Luthor is going to wage war on Supergirl because her feelings were hurt.

Man, Luthors do NOT take any slights without hitting back, do they?