Interview with New Supergirl Writer Greg Rucka

www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=6660

CBR: So you're hopping from Superman to Supergirl. You've said in the past that Superman was a bit of a challenge to write because of his power levels and finding foes that could be formidable. Do you expect the same challenges with Supergirl?

GREG RUCKA: No, she's a very different cat. For me, the story has to be a story for the character. It's got to be about them. The problem with finding opponents for anybody with extreme power levels is that you end up with a bunch of Luthors in power suits. If somebody is the fastest-strongest-toughest, then it's not really much of a contest if it comes to blows, right? It's a foregone conclusion. Everybody knows that this person is going to win.

In the same way, if you read "Supergirl," and if in issue #9 I surround her with 500 tons of kryptonite - and I'm not saying I'm going to - no reader is going to sit there and say, "Wow, he's going to kill her!" They're going to sit there reading it, going, "How is she going to get out of this?"

It's always a question of trying to figure out what the Achilles heel of the character is so you can go in there and give them worthy drama. It's not heroic if it's easy for them. The Crisis is a great example of this. Superman can do all these amazing things - that's not what makes him a hero. What makes him a hero is when he does the difficult things; i.e. when he steps up. When he leads. When he has to overcome - for lack of a better phrase - himself.

When we're talking about Kara, it's a similar issue. You need to find those things in her, and then you want to give her worthy conflict. Because we all know how hard she's going to hit. So, it's not a question of: will she be able to punch her way out of this? That's not where the drama is going to be. The drama is going to be: what's going on in her internal life that is the cause of all the things she has to punch? What do the villains represent? How do they complicate it? That's the trick across the board, I think.

Yuppers, he's catching up. Good to see.

I sketched Supergirls for decades before I started writing--while I thought about just the same issue: how the heck do you challenge a goddess like that without boring her (and your readers) to death?!?

Decades of sweating the thought later I reached some of the same conclusions he's arrived at. Just living as a "goddess like that" is challenge enough. My first-ever story just took a supergirl...out dancing.

Just dancing.

Too bad he's working for DC. The censors over there won't let him really explore the 'Girl' part of being 'Supergirl'--at least not the way we'd like to see it done around here. So far in his storylines naught has befallen her that is not common to (a super) man.

Pitty. DC should license one of their shadow publishers (like Disney holds Tristar) to do such dirtywork without soiling their arrow-collared reputation.

Of course, then they'd be down here w/ us. <shrugs> Not necessarily a bad thing.

Wuv,
-White Paw.