Happy 75th birthday Kara Zor-El

She certainly doesn't look it! (Must be the genes)

Monty wrote: She certainly doesn't look it! (Must be the genes)

And during her 75 years, she's had quite a journey in the comics, with so many different interpretations of her thinking, behavior, motivations, etc. etc. Right up to the point where the DC management said: "Yeah, lets just kill her."

The folks making the movie have only a small handful of "truths" to guide them and many of those are obsolete given the cultural changes since the 50's. That provides a lot of freedom for the writing team, and groups of loud fans who will disagree with anything they do because it isn't their way. 

I just hope that the movie captures Kara's warm heart and her slightly alienated sense of hopefulness and desire to do only good things. If they get that right, then a lot of the fluff and feathers can differ and the bird will still be Supergirl. 

Shadar

The last paragraph reminds me alot of Lynda Carter's portrayal of Wonder Woman.

Monty wrote: She certainly doesn't look it! (Must be the genes)

Spending a decade or so dead does wonders for the complexion.

TwiceOnThursdays wrote:

Monty wrote: She certainly doesn't look it! (Must be the genes)

Spending a decade or so dead does wonders for the complexion.

Speaking of not aging quickly, I'm in the middle of writing a short novel for SWM where Kara is roughly 150 years old and has 12 kids. To most people's eyes, she doesn't look much older than her 20-year-old daughter, Allura. The story also involves Athena Tremor, for those who know who she is.

I'm having a lot of fun writing this futuristic story, set near the end of the 21st century. 

Shadar

shadar wrote:

TwiceOnThursdays wrote: She certainly doesn't look it! (Must be the genes)

I'm in the middle of writing a short novel for SWM where Kara is roughly 150 years old and has 12 kids.

Shadar

It will be interesting to see the age, gender, and personality mix of the 12 kids. I for one would be tempted to send myself to the phantom zone if I had 12 kids... ...and even with superpowers would likely have bags under my eyes...

Random321 wrote:

shadar wrote:

TwiceOnThursdays wrote: She certainly doesn't look it! (Must be the genes)

I'm in the middle of writing a short novel for SWM where Kara is roughly 150 years old and has 12 kids.

Shadar

It will be interesting to see the age, gender, and personality mix of the 12 kids. I for one would be tempted to send myself to the phantom zone if I had 12 kids... ...and even with superpowers would likely have bags under my eyes...

Hopefully the El family will come across as both real and, well, Kryptonian, including the good and sometimes not so good aspects of large families. I grew up as the second oldest of six children, so I have some experience with larger families. 

Here’s a very brief little scene from the El’s Little Krypton, a working ranch in Montana. Timeframe is the year 2096. Alura, the oldest daughter, is taking her boyfriend (a guy she knows from the university) on a tour of the ranch:

——

Alura took me on a tour of the working ranch the next morning. She held me tightly to her side as we flew slowly around, hovering over places of interest. The workmen all smiled and waved up as they greeted Alura, but I got some angry glares from some of the younger men. Which made me wonder how well they knew Alura. 
She flew us over to a creek bed where her younger siblings were helping some workmen. Heavy machinery was banned from the ranch, which meant there was always interesting work for the kids. Freya and Jana were working together to dig a house-sized boulder out of a creek bed. At ages 10 and 8, they were still developing their strength, and the boulder had to weigh hundreds of tons. They were rocking it back and forth, but they couldn’t lift it until Gaia showed up to add her greater strength. The three of them flew the boulder safely away from the workmen at which point Gaia let go to allow the little ones to struggle together. Training, she said. 
The young girls soon started to spin around as they lost control of the huge rock. They got so screwed up that Jana lost her grip completely. The boulder crashed down to land in a huge puff of dust — directly on top of Freya. Alura just laughed as Jana tried to dig her sister out, with Gaia returning to help. Given they were supposed to carry it miles from here, to a portion of the Zoo for an alien rock-eating species to feed on, it was obvious they were going to be at this for some time. 
“So that’s how you guys learn? By just doing stuff?”
“Figuring it out on their own is the best way,” she nodded. “They can’t get hurt, just frustrated. But if anyone asks for help or advice, they’ll get it. My parents are big believers that we can learn to do just about anything if we use both our brains and our muscles. No limits other than self-imposed ones.”
“But they’re just kids.”
“Kids maybe, but strong ones. Jana is only eight, but she can already lift more than fifty tons. And Gaia can lift half again that much. She can also hit Mach 3 from a standing start in three seconds flat. And last week she deflected a depleted-uranium tank sabot shell from her chest — and then caught what was left of it.”
“How long does it take you. You know, to get to Mach 3?”
“About a second and a half. Wanna try?”
I laughed. “Wouldn’t be much of me left if you did.” 
“I gather that’s a no,” she winked. 
We flew slowly onward towards a distant corral where some cowboys were trying to pen up some angry bison. Syl, who was barely four, was trying to help by sitting on a bison’s head as she tried to steer him into the corral. The angry animal instead butted her into a tree, using his nearly ton of mass to shatter the trunk. Syl of course was unharmed. She hung on and eventually got the huge animal running toward the corral. But when it saw the gate, it skidded to a stop, nearly tossing little Syl off. To her credit, she grabbed the unwilling bull by the horns and slowly dragged him inside, all four hoofs digging into the dirt as it tried to back away with all its strength. Once she had it inside, she quickly closed the gate. She stared proudly into the eyes of the now subdued beast while dusting off her little hands.I was astonished. She was so little and that bull was so big. 
“I hate to ask, but what job does little Anna do?”
“None. Nobody gets a job until they’re four. Up to then, it’s all play. Everyone starts by taking care of the animals.”
“Child labor,” I chuckled.
“My folks have a system now, but they had to figure it all out the first time with me. Dar and Lara had it easier and now we’ve got a really good program. Everyone has a few different jobs each year, based on age, and the jobs get more demanding with every year that passes. There are also off-ranch assignments. Gaia, now that she’s thirteen, is supposed to take a tour of all the planets this summer and bring home a distinctive rock sample from each one. Which is damn hard on Jupiter given how deep you have to dive to find the rocky core. But Mia did it last year, so she gets to be Gaia’s wingman.”
“Cool. What about Nancy. She’s sixteen, right?”
“She gets to dive her first wormhole. Dad will go with her. That’s dangerous stuff, even for us. Going through is easy, but coming back can be hard without disturbing the timeline. She also has to do an internship with the Secretary General at the UN.” 
“Wormhole diving and fetching coffee for some stuffy bureaucrat? One hell of a combo.”
“Mom believes in being both powerful and humble.”
“Which is one of the reasons I love you so, my dear. Arrogance and power normally seem to go hand in hand. You guys are different.”
“Not really. All intelligent and warlike species have this problem. Corruption by privilege and power. My grandparents were awful. And then there was Zod. But thanks to Dad’s upbringing on a simple farm by truly decent people, and Mom’s experiences growing up on Krypton and seeing the abuses of power, they both refuse to accept that legacy. Which is why Nancy gets to punch through interstellar wormholes while also helping an old man who is trying to keep peace on Earth. By fetching his coffee if that’s what he needs.”
“So what about Lara?”
“She’s a real problem. It’s impossible for her to work around men. Even when she minds her own business, which she usually doesn’t, men just melt around her. When she did her internship at the UN, the entire building became non-functional.”
“I thought that was the UN’s normal state?”
“Ha ha. The UN does some good work. But nothing at all was getting done as long as Lara was there. Mom had to end her internship after two weeks. She can’t even have a friendly conversation with a man without sending his thoughts and dreams flying to inappropriate places.”
———