The Real Thing – ft. Kelly Sue DeConnick (Part 2)

Hello again from the Real Thing, where we give you, absolutely free of charge, part two of our talk with Kelly Sue DeConnick.  Yesterday we spoke about the place of women behind comics.  Today we talk about women in comics (and some dudes as well).

——-

You’ve said that you were a fan of Wonder Woman and Lois Lane long before getting into Supergirl.  We’ll get to talking about the Girl of Steel in a bit, but what do you appreciate about those two lady characters?

I’m not sure if I was into Greek mythology and that sparked an interest in Wonder Woman or if it was the other way ’round, but I eat the Paradise Island/Greek pantheon stuff up with a spoon.  As far as the women themselves, Wonder Woman is… aspirational?  When I was a little girl, she was what I wished I could be–regal, just, compassionate, capital-g Good,  powerful… tall.  She is so awesome–literally, so awe-inspiring–it’s kind of ridiculous, but I love it.  I love her for it.

Lois, on the other hand…well, Lois is more what I am, what I get. She’s aggressive, bullheaded, dangerously willful, self-righteous and not half as smart as she thinks she is.  And I love her for that.

How did you become a fan of Supergirl?  What was her appeal to you?

I had to find my way into Supergirl, honestly.  I think I relate to her the way a mother relates to her overachiever.

The Supergirl movie was, shall we say, neither a box-office nor a critical smash.  Let’s say you had the creative reigns on it.  What would you have done differently?

I haven’t a clue. I haven’t actually seen it recently enough to say.  I’ll tell you what I wouldn’t change–the cast! Faye Dunaway, Peter O’Toole, Mia Farrow… I don’t know what went wrong with Salt either, but it wasn’t the cast.

Even though Kara is ostensibly more alien than Clark, there have been varying portrayals of her acclimation to Earth culture.  Sometimes she seems totally “with it,” pop culture and all, other times she’s distant or naïve about Earth customs.  What’s your take on her relationship to Earth?

I think it’s important to remember she didn’t grow up here.  Clark was raised on Earth from infancy.  He doesn’t really know another home.  Everything he lost is, for all practical purposes, theoretical.  Kara knows what she lost.  She’s an orphan and a refugee.

I feel it has to be a little tricky writing a title that’s had multiple previous writers.  You want to respect what they’ve laid down, but you must also have your certain ideas about directions you want to take with the series and character.  How did you balance that with Supergirl?

I think you’ll drive yourself insane if you worry too much about that. I think you have to trust your editors and your own instincts and let the rest go.

I really like how in Supergirl #65 you had Kara state to Lois, “That’s why you want me.  Because my parents are dead.”  It reminded me how tough she’s had it for a few years now: losing her planet, getting pack her parents and people, and losing them again.  This case she’s on involves a lot of family-less kids.  Is that a sore spot you’ll continue to explore in this arc?

Not explicitly, but it explains a lot about Kara and about why I wanted to give her bit of a break.

Even though she’s on a college campus surrounded by kids her age, Kara’s got a real R.A. attitude going for her.  Will we see her come out of her shell as the arc goes on, or do you see that as just being part of who she is?

In #67, you’ll see her drop her shoulders and her guard a bit more.  She and her gang go through something together and it puts her in a different role.  That said, I do see her as a natural leader.

Kara’s love life since coming to Earth has been erratic, to say the least.  Not to say bastard ne’er-do-well Henry Octavius Flyte will turn out to the One for her, but they do have some great chemistry.  Is this a case of opposites attracting?  What draws them together?

They are remarkably similar opposites. They’re both gifted, insightful, parentless and, I think, lonely.  Henry is acting out in the face of his responsibilities.  Kara is paying a high price to shoulder hers.  They’re both hungry, I think.

You create a lot of bold personalities for the college students Kara runs into, some I have to laugh at because I totally recognize them from my own college days.  I especially appreciate the hyper-bubbly Shirley.  Any real-life inspirations for these characters?

Chris started life as my friend Charlie Chu, but became his own person somewhere along the way.  The twins probably had their genesis in Jeff and Amy Farris, who were not twins, but were pair of stunningly beautiful red-headed siblings from my high school.  I don’t know where Shirley or Ngoze came from.  Shirley, in particular, just seemed to spring fully-formed from that line about the Carpe Diem scarf.

I really love what Cross has done in his design of Shirley.  She looks exactly the way she should look.  (I also love that he’s made Ngoze nineteen feet tall.)

Speaking of Shirley, she makes for some great comic fodder, especially to Kara’s straight man act.  Care to tell what role she’ll have for this arc?  Will we see her and Kara become BFFs?

Shirley will make a connection, but not so much with Kara. HINT HINT.

Professor Ivo is a pretty neat choice for a villain, and an unusual one for Supergirl.  Now, there are a lot of villains you could’ve chosen from.  Why Ivo?

I actually asked for Granny Goodness and Ivo was suggested by Wil Moss instead.  He is fun though, isn’t he?

I’m a literature buff, and a big fan of French writers, so I was very happy to see you quote from Guillaume Apollinaire’s “Come to the Edge”.  I have to ask: are you a fan of his, and did you any special reason to choose that particular poem for this story?

When I was in high school I was lucky enough to be invited to participate in a college-level poetry symposium that I was faaaar too immature for, as it turns out.  I… well, let’s just say I thought the proceedings were way funnier than the organizers did, and I wasn’t asked back the next year.  Anyway, one of the only things about that weekend I didn’t see fit to mock was a reading of that poem.

God, I was an ass.

Earlier, I talked about how you mentioned you put in some eighties movie references in this arc.  I confess I haven’t seen that many films from that period, so I haven’t recognized a single one.  How about pointing one out for me?  And more importantly: would you recommend the movie it comes from?

“Moles and trolls,” is a direct quote from Real Genius.  I have no idea if it holds up, but I loved it unreservedly at the time.

Kelly Sue, thanks so much for speaking with us.

Thank you!

——-

One more set of cheers for Kelly Sue DeConnick for guesting here on the Real Thing.  Check out our review of Supergirl #66, which came out this past week, and make sure to take a peek when Supergirl #67 releases on August 17.  You know you want to.