Something which Kara has shown time and time again. Whether that has been in saving the lives of others. Standing up for those who are weak. Standing up to boy who was not only intent on beating her but dominating her. To being determined to live life on her own and not be given to nepotism. To taking down criminals. To being determined to make her way in the world. To meeting a problem head on as opposed to passively waiting for the problem to come to her. Refusing to be a pawn and played with.
All of this has been shown in her book from issues #6-15. If you’ve been reading the book (and your remarks above make me feel that you haven’t) you would have seen that.

The fact that she is supperpowers and is near invulnarable should not make her acts any less valid. One could argue the very same thing about her cousine. Is Superman not a hero now either?

From your comments above it is clear that you haven’t been reading the book. Also from the venom

Kara is not a ‘Hollywood cliche’. She is very, very real. Many young women all over the world come from abused and broken back grounds, and come from less than idealised lives and situations. To see that you’ve reduced something like this to being made up is very poor.

It’s clear from your level of venom and sarcasm on t post, as well the many which I’ve seen you leave on various comic book forums. That you’re determined to hate the book, no matter what. So I’ll just end my part in this discussion right here.

Nope, try again. The problem is this is ALWAYS the EXTREME, knee-jerk response by die-hard fans of this series to folks who keep complaining that ‘she doesn’t act heroic’, except when it’s in her self-interest. Trust me, it’s still NOT WORKING. :)

“Kara has shown heroism time and time again since the beggining of the book. Whether that be in rescuing a girl from being hit by a truck, stopping a man from beating his wife, showing a broken down man the right way so that he could be re-united with his daughter.”

Didn’t those things happen in the INFINTE CHRISTMAS SPECIAL? I sure don’t remember ANY of this stuff in SUPERGIRL’s OWN book.

“Standing up to a boy who hit her.”

Whoopee. And hauls off and hits him back; that really showed him how to treat a girl. That was REAL HEROIC of her, considering she’s SUPER-POWERED and INVULNERABLE anyway.

Sorry, but I’m not seeing ‘heroism’ in that scenario; I’m seeing ‘vengence’.

“Or walking away from a fight.”

More like ‘FLEEING from a fight when she’s needed’. Kandor still probably thanks her for that, I’m sure.

“Just because she’s not smiling while she does it or displays the type attitude I would associate with ‘Mary Poppins’.’

Maybe DISNEY’S Mary Poppins? Because ‘smiling’ is NOT usually how the nanny behaved in the books the movie was LOOSELY BASED ON.

“Kara is vastly different from her cousine.”

Other than the thinly-developed personality thus far, I don’t think so. She’s young, blonde and wears next to nothing (but a cape she should be tripping over) for a costume; otherwise, she pretty much HAS THE EXACT SAME POWERS SET as her cousin (outside of “Daddy’s Mad Scientist Experiments”, which is such an old shock routine to add ‘dimension’ to a character). And Kelly checking off a laundry list of what the Silver Age SG DIDN’T DO in her comics doesn’t make this ‘new’ one all of a sudden “more contemporary” or “modern”.

“Clark lived on a farm and had a sheltered childhood with two loving parents.”

You know, life isn’t really such an idyllic existence when one ‘lives on a farm’. They used to have social programs where they shipped deliquient and unruly kids to WORK on farms just to ‘see how the other half lives’ and get an education. You know, maybe this ‘new’ Kara SHOULD have gone to the Kent farm after all…. :)

“Kara on the other hand wasn’t. She grew up beneath a domineering father who practised experiments on her and had high expectations of her.”

Nahhh, that’s part of the overdone “oooh, my Daddy was a BAD MAN, so now I’m damaged” cliche-fest, straight out of too many Hollywood teen dramas (or at the very least, THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN). And that’s a really SICK way of developing what’s always been an ARCHETYPAL HEROIC FEMALE character, at any rate.

Just because she’s not smilling while she does it or displays the type attitude I would associate with ‘Mary Poppins’. Does not make her or her actions less heroic.

Kara is vastly different from her cousine. Clark lived on a farm and had a sheltered childhood with two loving parents. Kara on the other hand wasn’t. She grew up beneath a dominiring father who practised experiments on her and had high expectations of her.

Kara’s mental outlook is actually consistent with that of many people or teenagers who underwent that kind of psychological trauma.

Why you would expect her to be exactly like her cousine really strikes me as being bizarre.

Frankly, I’ve never wanted a female clone of Superman, but she ought to act heroic more often than not. Unfortunately, the writers on SUPERGIRL fall on NOT most of the time. And typically, they’ve lazily mistaken Hollywood celebrity ‘teenager angst’ cliches for realism.

And there are people who don’t. I don’t see why it should make a difference whether or not Supergirl has a smile plastered to her face like the Joker or a Cheshire Cat, as long as she does the right thing. Which she has managed to do time and time again. I don’t know since when heroic has gone from being heroic or doing great things—to grinning like an idiot.

It’s too bad people are more interested in SG being more of female clone of her cousine, than her own person.

Actuallly I do. I would rather read about a character who has problems, YET WHO IS STILL HEROIC than someone who is cheerful all the time and has no problems. The first one I can identify with (I’m not perfect) the second one I can’t. Second the first characterisation takes more courage the second one doesn’t.

Sorry you don’t like it John Williamns. But comic books are aimed at a demographic averaging at 27 years old with a college education. I don’t want to read a comic book aimed at five year olds.

I really liked the tweaks that Busiek and Immonen gave to the design in “Superman: Secret Identity”, myself–I liked the red leggings, in particular, but also apperciated the fact that they wore gloves. No pesky fingerprints to give away your secret identities!

Can that really happen?

I kept expecting Hitler to show up complaining about decompression. “See? The only people complaining about comics writing are Hitler! Are you going to agree with Hitler?”

[...] Johanna Draper Carlson sticks the knives into Supergirl #18. [...]