Thursday, February 12, 2015

He's a Lumberjack, but it's okay

So, it seems one of TV Supergirl's first foes is going to be *snicker*...Lumberjack.

I can only assume that "The Gang" and John Ostrander were unavailable.

Now, not that the Lumberjack can't be exciting.  He certainly is in this clip (even though a strong Virginian accent--"Ah inTEEND to!"-- doesn't really scream Brother from Another Planet); shivers my timbers, for sure!

Actually, he's being played by this guy, Rory McCann, who's some gigantic actor from Some Other Show I Don't Watch.
That is NOT a 'lumbersexual'.


If  you've never heard of the Lumberjack, well... you're perfectly normal.  He only appeared once, and not very memorably  They can't all be the Human Flame, you know.

He's probably just a 'getting up to speed' villain. I mean, it's not like you'd expect them right out of the box to start with some big, classic Supergirl villain like...

like...

um...

uh-oh.

That IS a potential problem for the Supergirl showrunners, isn't it?  Not only does Supergirl have zero recognizable villains of her own, she pretty much has zero villains of her own at all.  Or even somebody else's villains whom she's been know to fight. In fact--hey, what they heck HAS Supergirl been doing all these years?

You can just "her foes" for yourself, but most of the ones with even a little substances are from elsewhere (such as the Superman or LSH or Batman or Aquaman or the JLA)

Of course this problem can also be viewed as an opportunity to create a mythos around Supergirl, one that will help solidify her in the comics.  Expect to see:

Repurposed secondary supporting characters (such as Jimmy Olsen and Cat Grant: I'd bet dollars to donuts Cat Grant is there).  Flash and Arrow do this a lot (e.g. Felicity Smoak, Cisco Ramone, and Caitlin Snow, all of whom are lesser-known comic characters NOT associated with Flash or Arrow).

Cast-off secondary villains. Just as Batman offloaded Ra's Al-Ghul to TVArrow and Starman bequeathed the Mist to TVFlash, so too some secondary villains from someone else's rogues gallery will be appear as hand-me-downs for Supergirl.  Most likely candidates are lesser Superman villains, since there's no Superman tv show to save them for and they won't rise to silver screen.  Female villains would be especially useful, so expect to see Livewire and Silver Banshee.  

Reimagined native villains. What few villains that are really Supergirl's are likely to be spruced up for teevee. Simon Tycho, for example, is a recent villain native to the Supergirl stories. I would expect him to appear in some form.  Perhaps Satan Girl?  Oh, and Bizarrogirl, because there is no way they will pass that up.

What do YOU imagine they will do for Supergirl foes?




7 comments:

Andrew said...

Lena Luthor, y'all.

SallyP said...

I have no idea what villains she may fight... but man I want Comet in there with her!

John said...

Depending on the power level they intend, I expect at least a few Firestorm villains will get thrown into the mix, given the creators' obvious affection for the franchise. Black Bison and Silver Deer, Bug and Byte, Hyena, Mindboggler, Stalnoivolk, the Thinker (especially the Thinker), and Typhoon would all make easy transplants. And the Satin Satan.

Give Jimmy some out-of-control superpowers and mope for a few episodes about how the past can't be changed, and that's half a season, easy!

Since John Ostrander created a good number of those characters, he can be revealed as the master manipulator testing Kara in the second half of the season...

Actually, I assume that Darkseid will be a big deal, since Arrow and Flash have tried hard to establish that the Reactor and the occasional drug are the only source of superpowers and another "dark matter or something explosion" seems too trite.

Or maybe it'll just be all Gang, all the time, once the terrifying Lumberjack threat is over.

Scipio said...

" mope for a few episodes about how the past can't be changed,"

Heh. nice one.

But remember; the FUTURE can't be changed either, Supergirl knows this.

Bryan L said...

Hmm. Scrolling through that list you linked, I'm mostly seeing candidates you've already identified, largely hand-me-downs.

An intriguing one could be Clayface. Shapeshifting is relatively easy with today's special effects. Not sure if we'd see a mud form, though. Livewire for sure -- she's one of the few that can go toe-to-toe with Kara. Silver Banshee is pretty easy to pull off, and her powers would also give Kara a workout.

Who would I like to see? Poison Ivy. Controlling plants gives her enough oomph to fight Supergirl. Problem is, she's on Gotham.

Another one that could be intriguing along the same lines as Bizarrogirl would be a Cyborg Supergirl (or Metallo?). Heck, make both of them attempts by Lena Luthor to duplicate Kara's powers.

Solomon Grundy would be interesting, if he's available. I'd rather see him than Lumberjack, and hey, he's kind of a zombie and the kids are loving those these days.

A magician, maybe? Too bad Felix Faust was already used on Constantine. Mr. Mxyzptlk? Huh ... nah, they'd never do it, but an extradimensional imp with a huge crush on Supergirl could be fun.

Anonymous said...

In case anyone wondered, *I* sure did and looked it up for myself, thanks for nothin', Scipio, Lumber Jack (two words) appeared in Wonder Woman #268 1980.

"an extradimensional imp with a huge crush...could be fun"

What's Filmation's New Adventures of Batman have to do with anything?

Slaughter said...

What about using Blaze and/or Satanus for a super-natural opponent? Put them in worldly disguises as Colin Thorton (media mogul) and Jessica Blaze (nightclub owner) and you're set?

Silver Banshee got transplanted recently, she's def gonna appear. Also, we may get Cyborg-Superman, the new 52 Zor-El version, not Henshaw. Henshaw is too hardcore for this show.

I think the elephant in the room is if and how Superman is going to show up. Not having Superman would be equivalent of a Robin show with no Batman. I would do it by never showing us Superman, only Clark, who would show up from time to time to be a wise mentor figure and cool older dude to look up to, occasionally getting Kara out of jam. He would seem like a helpful but very busy sort, so he can't be there all the time (because he's saving the world).