Destined to Play Kara?

Interesting alignment of the numbers... especially the birthday. Now if her parents had named her Kara, we'd be left wondering where reality and fantasy actually diverge.

As it is, I'm fully prepared to suspend disbelief for an additional hour a week and enjoy whatever Smallville brings us.

Speaking of other alignments...

I love all the background talk of spinoffs. Smallville desperately needs a spinoff after seven seasons and clearly Kara is their attempt at finding a way. I think the public might be ready for her. If, big IF, Smallville can fly in Season 7. What is encouraging is that I've seen a couple of references (and more speculation) that CW is cutting special effects funding on other shows, but is keeping the overall budget the same. So where is that money going?

Best guess is Kara flight scenes.

Also that the show's long-time fan base is pretty opposed to Kara coming on to the show. They are really afraid she's going to steal attention away from Clark and the other characters, who they feel need further development. Instead, they fear all the character development will go to Kara. They also are very critical of her skimpy clothing in the publicity shots as that will further pull focus from the other characters. Also, they don't like Kara in the new comic (who her Smallville character will track to) as she's more powerful than Superman. In their eyes, that destroys the mythology.

The reality is that is EXACTLY what CW wants. And its EXACTLY what we want! To give the show a new focus with lots and lots of bling, new character development, and a gorgeous female Kryptonian who can fly is going to do just that. Someone who might not know how to behave on Earth, but who can literally fly rings around Clark.

Most important, it will bring in new viewers as the hardcore fans can't keep the show alive.

So back to alignment, we're FAR better aligned with the CW management than the hardcore fans of the show. I think this is a good thing, given CW is going to spend the money and make the plot/character/spinoff decisions, not the older fans.

Shadar

And if you are wondering why I'm excited by the show aligning to the comics, here are four pages from the current comic (Issue 11) to explain:

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Pure ubergirl stuff...

Shadar

Speaking on behalf of all hardcore Superman/superwoman fans (notice the "S" is capitalized in the first word),I'm glad to see this happen. It took the network execs this long to figure out that they needed a great superwoman character for the Smallville mythos. Back in Season 4 (or 5,I forget which it was),I was hoping the Kara they had introduced then would be a cast regular but alas,it wasn't in the stars. Now,introducing Kara in this upcoming season straight off the bat sounds like it might be a hit. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on a spin-off. Just my 5 cents' worth here.

The CW might wait and see how well NBC's new Bionic Woman series does before they give Kara her own. If BW turns out to be a hit, the CW will more likley to give Kara her own show. The same could be said if the Sarah Connor Chronicles takes off as well. The CW does not want to be left out of a new, posible tv trend. Hot women with powers who kick ass.

The comment about CW not having a "Buffy" right now is spot on. That's exactly what I was thinking at the time of the fake out Kara.

I was just thinking that i wonder if in the last episode of the last season of smallville will they have him put on the costume and fly off? That would be a killer ending that would leave folks wanting for more no doubt. Anything else would just be so anti-climactic.

A good sign that SG will spin off is if they start moving a set of characters closer to her that would follow along sort of.

Has anyone ever called Clark Superman in Smallville? Or is it just: Clark Clark Clark? They need to star moving him in the right direction as far as his superhero persona ~ he still seems very “Clark” 100% of the time to me. Maybe that is what Kara is there for.

I don't recall the name Superman being used in conjunction with the series or Clark at all. It's either Clark or Kal El.

Interestingly, the producers and early press/photos have mixed Kara and Supergirl together.

Not sure if that's significant or not, but its a departure from the series to date, IMO.

Note that she will have the civilian name of Kara Kent. No Linda Lee or Linda Danvers silliness.

Shadar

I don't recall the name Superman being used in conjunction with the series or Clark at all. It's either Clark or Kal El.

Interestingly, the producers and early press/photos have mixed Kara and Supergirl together.

Not sure if that's significant or not, but its a departure from the series to date, IMO.

Note that she will have the civilian name of Kara Kent. No Linda Lee or Linda Danvers silliness.

I think the reason for the CW to use the term Supergirl is just to get peoples attention. Whether or not your a Smallville fan or a fan of the Superman movies/comics, most people know that Clark Kent is Superman, they don't need to use the big "S" word to grab peoples attention on that. However those people may not know that Kara Zor-El is the name of Supergirl.
It makes a clear headline to get peoples attention. Seeing "Smallville adds Supergirl for Season 7" is a better headline to get people interested than "Smallville adds Kara (Zor-El) for Season 7" cause they may think that the producers are just making someone up. I doubt the term Supergirl will be used often in the show, she'll just be called Kara, and then people will know and remember the name

Also, there is some kind of legal issue with using the name Superboy (which is a really dumb name anyway) that goes beyond DC/Warner. Plus the entire Smallville show is restricted to telling the story of Superman before he puts on the uniform and makes himself visible to the world. I.E... he's still in the closet. Kal El and Clark and the only names allowed.

The logical ending of the Smallville series would be Clark putting on the uniform and doing the Hello World thing. I suspect they could get approval for that as long as the series is dead. That's also obviously the right spot to do the Supergirl spin-off (and put her in uniform).

But it all gets complicated for Tom Welling, as the sequel to Superman Returns has been cast without Tom Welling, so his franchise on Kal El would end with donning the uniform (technically, a moment before). There is a lot of momentum and investment in Superman movies that has nothing to do with Smallville or its producers.

That said, nobody has a franchise on Supergirl movies... the Salkind/Slater film of 1984 is old enough and forgettable enough to treat the character and story line as if it's completely new to the big screen. No momentum or plans either. So presumably, the TV show can move into a movie, or into another TV show, with zero constraints and restrictions. Also, the name Supergirl doesn't have any legal baggage. Other than DC/Warner, nobody's got a lock on it. Salkind, who directed/produced the original movie, doesn't have any kind of rights to the character name and has been consulted on the show. In fact, he was asked to direct some episodes of Season 7 with her, but was too busy. (Thank God... I hated what he did with her in 1984).

So, in my ideal world, that's how Season 7 would end... costume on Tom Welling and then stage exit as the existing Superman franchise continues the adult story, then followed by a Supergirl TV spinoff.

What would be even cooler would be a future Superman movie where she played his cousin, but that would be a major tweak on the Superman Returns sequel(s).

Even better, but too far out to even be a dream, would be a Supergirl movie. But that's going to take broad acceptance of the character and a compelling story line. I think the current comics have the story line, something the old Supergirl comics never had. She always lived in Kal El's shadow and the stories were far too bland for kids in the 21st century.

Now the comics story is spicy and racy and kick ass in the comic, she'd doing just fine on her own, and the comic is very appealing to teenage and pre-teen girls (and presumably, guys). That demographic spends dollars on movies and clothing, etc.

I've seen several 13 to 15 year old girls this summer who were wearing Supergirl T-shirts. More of them than I've seen guys wearing 'S' T-shirts this year. Plus the term Supergirl is a routine part of that age group's definition of themselves, although not directly tied to the character. There are half a dozen songs out there where a very capable, independent girl is portray as a supergirl. Hillary Duff and Reamon both did popular songs. Guys don't walk around calling themselves superboys or supermen, but the word has meaning as a label for a particular type of young girl. That's new.

All of which supports that an on-screen comics-based character having some marketable appeal.

Shadar

Shadar, I like the way you think and I'd like to live in that ideal world of yours as well.

8)

Well, we're closer to the idea in 2007 than we've been in two decades. Let's see how this unfolds. 2008/9 could be Supergirl years.

And while nothing on TV can touch the range of fantasy that we enjoy, it's still going to be fun to watch Vandervoort trying to pretend she's a Kryptonian. Given her tomboy/blackbelt background and her long-standing desire to play in an action movie (as in fighting, kicking ass), she might be enthusiastic enough to pull it off.

And in the youth culture of 2007 (where teenage girls assume they can do anything a guy can and then some), it's actually OK for Supergirl to be more powerful than the soon-to-be Superman.

They call themselves the "Why Not" generation, as opposed to the much older X's and the somewhat older Y's. Why Not's basically question all limitations as they've been digital babies since birth. Their entire vision of the world is through TV, movies, video game and the Internet. Virtual beings who are also very aware of the rapid pace of genetic engineering. I'm sure they feel that if something isn't possible today, then it will definitely be tomorrow. Just wait for the next version (of whatever) to be released.

Given that premise, they could identify with a Kryptonian girl, and not see her as some utterly unrealistic (and silly) kind of three-color fantasy character as previous generations might have. They've seen stranger things in games, etc.

Shadar

heromorph.com/heromorph2/modules/myalbum/photo.php?lid=8604

:shock: