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oreoambitions · 4 years

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Supercorp #17? 💝

Things you said that I wish you hadn’t:

Kara comes to Lena's office balcony just a little before midnight smelling of smoke and gunpowder and clutching a paper bag. She taps on the glass door, holds up the bag, smiles brighter than the sun. Lena doesn't have to remember to hoist a smile onto her own face because Kara has always been able to coax one out of her, even on the worst of days. And this is the worst of days, though Kara doesn't know it yet. Would that she were a little less predictable, a little more difficult to manipulate. Would that she cared a little less for Lena.

Well, what's done is done. Lena crosses to the door to let Kara in, struggling to school her features into something neutral, struggling to control her racing heart.

"Supergirl," Lena says. Her smile broadens of its own accord as Kara flushes. She always flushes when Lena calls her Supergirl these days, flushes and fidgets, the uncertainty between them a wound that has been slow to mend since Kara finally let her secret spill. Still, Lena loves the way her cheeks redden, loves the way strong hands suddenly fumble, feels for a moment a different kind of powerful as Earth's greatest hero flusters under her steady gaze.

"I saw your office light on," Kara says by way of explanation. She offers the bag. "I brought pasta. It has, uhm, there are vegetables in it. For you. Not in mine though. I- Anyway, would you like to have dinner?"

Lena raises an eyebrow. "With you?"

Kara stumbles over her tongue. "Uhm, you don't- That is, if you don't want-"

Lena laughs. "I always want to have dinner with you, Kara. This is very sweet; thank you."

Kara beams. She steals glances at Lena all through setting out the food, always with that soft smile, always with those searching eyes, and Lena wishes for the hundred thousandth time that she could just kiss her. Just... kiss that stupid puppy dog look off of her face, push her up against the wall, and give her something to really get flustered about. Christ. Add that to the list of thoughts that won't keep her heartrate down.

"Voila," Kara says. "One late night dinner for my favorite late night workaholic."

"Not exactly an early night for you either," Lena retorts as she joins Kara on the couch. "National City keeping you busy?"

Kara shrugs. "I was in Metropolis tonight, actually. Just checking in. Clark is on Argo until the twins are born, so."

Lena doesn't think she's ever going to get used to Kara casually mentioning that she was on the other side of the country a minute ago like that's not a big deal. She doesn't think she'll ever get used to Kara talking about Argo, either, about the still-living remnant of the world she left behind. Lena shifts a little in her seat, eyes the edge of the coffee table where the bug is hidden, wonders if Kara has noticed it. Maybe there's another way to end this. Maybe...

"What about you?" Lena says, bringing every inch of her Luthor upbringing to bear as she forces herself to maintain a conversational tone. "Have you ever thought about going home?"

Kara shovels a forkful of lasagna in her mouth and looks away. For a moment Lena thinks she isn't going to answer, and then she says, "Yeah, I've thought about it. I miss Krypton. I miss Argo City, I miss- Mm." She turns back to Lena. "Earth wasn't always an easy place to love."

Come on, Lena urges silently. Say you should go home. Say you're considering it.

"I used to wish I'd never come here. Before Argo, I used to wish I'd died on Krypton." She makes a face. "And then I'd feel guilty about it. What an ungrateful thought, you know? But my people spared me so that I could protect Kal - protect Clark - and I failed before I even got here, and then I was such a burden on the Danvers at first, and I- I shouldn't be unloading on you like this, I'm sorry."

Lena reaches out, catches herself, pulls back. "I asked," she says gently. "It's okay."

Kara's eyes flicker back and forth between Lena's, and then there's that soft flush across her cheeks again and that sunshine-bright smile. "There's a lot to love about Earth," Kara says. She gestures with her fork. "Pasta. Potstickers! Summer storms. The mountains, Rao, Earth has such beautiful mountains. And I love my family. Obviously Alex and Eliza, but James, and Winn, J'onn, even Ms. Grant. The people back in Midvale. I always cared about Earth, I mean how could you not? What a beautiful world. Beautiful people. But for a long time it wasn't enough. I missed Krpyton too much to really love this place the way it deserved."

"Missed? Past tense?" Lena glances at the bug again, but Kara doesn't follow her gaze. She's too busy nibbling on her bottom lip and then she swallows hard looks down at her hands, fiddles with her fork.

"I still miss Krypton, but I- Rao." Kara's hands are trembling, and her voice with them. "But then I met you." She steals a glance up at Lena's face only to look away again, cheeks burning. "And then I got to know you and I- I lost my whole world and then when I found you it felt like I'd found a new one. The day I met you. That was the first time I loved Earth more than I missed Krpyton. I could never go back; this is home now. You're my home now."

Lena's hands are trembling too. She clasps them together and swallows hard, willing the tears down, willing her heart to stop racing, willing the butterflies in her stomach to stop stop stop not now. Not now. This is more than Lena ever dared imagine Kara might say to her, even in her sweetest dreams. This is too much and much too late. This is Lena's heart breaking because it's the wrong time and the wrong place and she wants to warn Kara that Lex can hear every word, that he'll never let her go now that he knows how she feels about Lena, that all Lena desperately needs Kara to say is that she doesn't love her and that she'll go to Argo and never come back please say it, and-

"Lena?" Kara reaches out with gentle fingers and brushes a lone tear from Lena's cheek. "Please say something."

Lena swallows again. "I had no idea I meant so much to you," she says, choking out a laugh.

Anguish flickers across Kara's face. "I'm sorry. I should have- I wish I could have told you sooner."

Lena doesn't look now at the bug through which Lex is listening. She looks only at Kara, at those deep blue eyes, the soft spray of freckles like stars across her cheek, those perfect pink lips parted just so as she studies Lena intently, seeking forgiveness or answers or reciprocation. The kryptonite dagger hidden in Lena’s sleeve feels too heavy and too cold against her skin as she whispers, "I wish you'd never told me at all."

///

Thank you for the ask! Sorry this is late; I fell asleep working on these last night :)

#ficlet #supercorp #supercorp fic #supergirl #supergirl fic #kara danvers #kara zor el #lena luthor #Anonymous #uh this is angsty #sorry 'bout that

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jayfromriverside-blog · 5 years

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Comics I read this week (8/26 - 8/30)

Hey anyone and... anyone I guess. For all those looking to get into comics or who are already comics readers but don’t know which books are good, here’s an opinion on just that!

Give it a read, let me know what you think, light some pitchforks, whatever you like:

Justice League #30

I was conflicted reading this week’s issue of Justice League: while I’m really liking the direction that Scott Snyder is taking the story, I’m really getting sick of Jorge Jimenez’s art on the series.

While Jimenez was a breath of fresh air on the “Superman: Rebirth” series with his CG texturized drawing and smooth surfaces, his ultra-stylized and cartoony figures are starting to look more plastic and stretchy as this series goes on. He’s got a bad habit of smoothing over his character’s proportions, which make these heroes that are supposed to be cut and strong look flat and almost doughy. It’s starting to grind on me more as each new issue comes out, and maybe it’s time for an artistic switch-up on this title.

In terms of the story though, this was a good set-up issue for the Justice/Doom war that Snyder and co. have been building up to on this run. We’ve got all the pieces in place: a gathering of forces by both sides; a romp through time which sees the League meeting with both Kamandi and the classic JSA; and everything going awry right from the get-go!

The only thing I’m slightly concerned about storywise is that Catwoman was in the Doom lineup, and with the rekindling of Bat-Cat in the latest Batman issues, I’m hoping this isn’t a portend for another breakup in King’s run. My heart couldn’t take another.

Superman #14

Let me be clear on one thing before I start in: I’m a fan of Brian Michael Bendis. His work on “Ultimate Spider-Man,” “Daredevil,” and “Alias” are some of my favorite comics, and his more recent work with “Naomi,” and “Event Leviathan” has been really good. With all that being said... man, this Superman comic has sucked hard since he took over.

Let’s just start at the story:

It’s felt like Bendis has been really looking forward to getting started on his upcoming run with the new “Legion of Superheros,” which is something to potentially get excited about for the near future. What’s not exciting at all is the realization that this whole Rogol Zar arc has been a poorly thought out lead-in to the Legion’s return. SPOILER WARNING FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO READ THIS GARBAGE FIRE: the Legion show up at the end of the issue to invite Jon to join, as a commemoration of the day the United Planets was formed. This is fine, and could be an exciting new direction for Jon that harkens back to the classic comics. BUT did we really have to suffer through weeks of nonsensical story just to get this?

Just to recap this arc: Rogol Zar appears out of nowhere, looking like Lobo, Doomsday and a garbage disposal with a bland imagination all had an orgy and he was the deformed kid that came out of it. This beefed-up piece of blandness comes out of the sky to fuck up Superman cause he heard there were some Kryptonians still alive in the Universe and apparently he’s a space-racist.

Superman struggles against this remnant from the 90s while the worlds shittiest not-dead Grandpa, Jor El, is off in space traumatizing Jon and stressing him out so much he ages up to a teenager.

But it’s ok guys! Jor El knows who Rogol Zar is, they have a connection of sorts! And Rogol Zar caused the destruction of Krypton! But now he’s allied with Jax Ur, and also now Zod maybe? And the Thanagarians are involved? So are the Guardians? Wait, now Rogol Zar is also effected by Kryptonite because he’s a Kryptonian? And now he’s just captured like that, but Thanagar’s under attack, oh wait just kidding it’s not?

Those last 2 plot points literally happened in 3 pages this issue, right after each other. So this story is confusing and non-sensical and ultimately doesn’t mean anything, because the whole point turned out to be that Bendis needed something, some plot device to make it so Superman could say “we can’t have secrets like this tearing apart worlds like Krypton, we need a United Planets.”

None of this crap story is helped by Ivan Reis’ art, which I know some people love, but to me it looks like everything bad with the 90s except with better backgrounds and textures. But even if I didn’t hate his art, his page and panel composition is often confusing, especially during fight sequences, which doesn’t help when the story is confusing to begin with.

After reading this week’s issue, I want nothing more than to die in the garbage fire Bendis has lit and take this whole comic with me.

The Terrifics #19

Shouts out to DC for finally figuring out how to write a Fantastic 4 comic, maybe they can show Dan Slott how it’s done. But seriously, “The Terrifics” has been the exact kind of science-adventure story that needs to be around in comics, as the landscape needs it’s fare share of science-criminals and heroes to balance things out.

First thing to note for this week, the art is great. Max Raynor (first time I’ve seen their work) has a great kind of cartoony playfulness to his characters and line-work, while at the same time keeping the models tight and well detailed.

I’m glad that the writers of the story realized that the Terrifics function best when they’re dealing with light-hearted cross-dimensional adventures, and this new one seems like it’ll be great from the start. In keeping with the “Year of the Villain,” Lex Luthor has made an offer to Bizarro (the one for the HTREA, not the one from the Outlaws), giving him a time-machine device to reek some havoc with.

I don’t want to spoil the issue too much, as if you haven’t read the Terrifics you really should give it a go, but let’s just say that it involves Bizarro at one point destroying Algebra, and a Bizarro Terrifics team known as “The Terribles” breaking through to the main DC dimension to challenge their Terrific rivals.

If you’re looking for something fun, cheesy, but heartwarming and action packed, definitely give the Terrifics a try.

The Flash #77

Look, I’m still not digging this whole “Force War,” or “War of the Forces,” or whatever the Flash team is trying to build up with these new force users. It felt like the DC Creative team was trying to retcon Flash to be more mythical with “Flash: Year One,” pitting the Flash against the Turtle and creating this whole mythology around the Forces of the Universe to make it seem like this clash was inevitable.

But what this has done for me is just make the Flash feel smaller and less special. These forces and the grander narrative behind them have just diminished the Speed force, which was still shrouded in some mystery after all these years in the DC Universe, to just one force, just A force.

There are two silver linings from this week’s issue, one more bittersweet than the other. First off, the art has gotten ten times better than it’s been in weeks. Rafa Sandoval’s pencils are crisp and clean, and though his action feels static sometimes, he’s miles better than what we’ve been seeing for a few months now.

Second, though this Force War already feels like a dud, a cool concept was introduced in a throwaway line. Flash fans, feel free to crucify me, but with the Black Flash’s appearance this week, Commander Cold talked about how he was acting like an anti-body for the Speed Force in trying to eliminate these new force users. If that’s true, it makes the Speed Force almost like a living creature that feel’s like it is under attack. But this also makes me think that, wouldn’t it have been cooler if you had the same motivation for the appearance of the Black Flash, but instead of the Force users, it was Speedsters it was targeting?

What if all of the new Speedsters were putting a strain on the Speed Force, hurting it in some way that awoke the Black Flash? It’d still give Barry a reason to reconcile with Wallace and Avery, but would also replace this Force War with a Speed War? Spitballing here, but that sounds cooler to me.

Ice Cream Man #14

And now we break up the superheroes for something a little more horrific. For anyone who doesn’t know what “Ice Cream Man” is, the best way I can categorize it is a horror anthology series.

The story, setting and characters change from week-to-week, except for one presence: the Ice Cream Man. Even when he’s not in whatever nightmare is being doled out that week, his fingers can be felt all over the story, and they dig into the fears you try to hide and pry them open.

The theme of this week’s story was communication, and maaaaaaaaan does this comic have a way of making you feel depressed and scared all at the same time.

The two main characters are a husband and wife, the former who is deeply dissatisfied and finds escape in crosswords, the latter who is so starved for communication and intimacy that she makes problems out of nothing just to have something to talk with her husband about.

I don’t want to spoil too much, as I think everyone should be reading this book, but things take a turn for the hellish when the husband goes out to buy more crosswords and finds himself trapped in one, while his wife finds out that her delusions may have been true, and worse than she thought.

For long-time readers, the biggest thing from to take away from this issue is that perhaps the Ice Cream Man’s influence is spilling out into the world more and more, and things will only get worse from here.

Spider-Man: Life Story #6

For any fans of Spider-Man, go out and buy this book. Doesn’t matter if you’re a new fan or a hardcore fan, this is a story for anyone who has any love for Spider-Man in any shape. This story isn’t perfect all the way through, but man is it an incredible ride.

For anyone who hasn’t heard of this comic, writer Chip Zdarsky took the gargantuan task of creating one long-form story out of the entire continuity of Spider-Man, from the 1962 till 2019, and showing how this life that we’ve seen Spider-Man live would actually play out in real-time.

This comic took some of the best and worst arcs, from “Kraven’s Last Hunt,” the birth of Venom and “The Superior Spider-Man,” to “The Clone Saga” and the Inheritors (god those pseudo vampires were dumb), and not only makes them work within this different world that Zdarsky has made, but makes them work as a part of the larger narrative.

While it’s not perfect all the way through, seeing the characters we know and love, especially Peter and MJ, live their lives with wrinkles and all feels like something special, and I encourage anyone who is curious to go out and cop this 6 issue series and join the ride.

Runaways #24

For all manga fans out there, I’m a huge fan of the “slice-of-life” genre. For any non-manga fans, slice-of-life stories are ones that celebrate the everyday little moments that make up most of our lives. Riding bikes with friends, going to the movies, starting a new hobby, or even just going to the store and deciding what to get for dinner, these are all the kind of topics that a slice-of-life narrative covers. With her run on “Runaways,” Rainbow Rowell has essentially made a superhero slice-of-life comic, and I’m really liking every moment of it.

This week’s issue focuses almost entirely on Karolina and Nico spending a night out “superheroing.” Except it becomes apparent pretty early on that neither really knows what they’re doing, and whatever little problems they run into (fender bender on the 405, potentially lost children, etc.) are better left to themselves, as they either wouldn’t be able to help or would actually get in the way. It’s weird to say that watching superheroes be ineffective is really entertaining, but that’s exactly what I’m saying, and I think that is in large part to the good character writing that Rowell has done on her run, and the warm art of this series that helps you feel safe and cozy.

My favorite part of the issue is when Karolina and Nico stop for a bite to eat, and Karolina feels like she has to apologize for wasting Nico’s time. Nico just laughs it off and tells her that she was just looking to spend time with her partner, so in her eyes tonight’s mission was a success. It’s cute, it fits with the characters and how we’ve seen them grow over the run, and I like it a lot.

That’s not to say there isn’t any action in this issue. By the time the story is done there’s a super-powered dance fight and a mysterious new superhero debuting on the scene. I’m excited to see where both of those threads go heading into the next issue.

Justice League Dark #14

Since the Rebirth of this team this has been one of the comics that I look forward to the most each new issue, and this is quickly becoming one of my favorite iterations of the team. While Batman’s gothic-detective aesthetic fit well with the team, he always felt too based in technology and the modern world to really embrace magic. On the other hand, Wonder Woman is a walking myth, a demi-god on earth, someone who is made of magic. Her role as the leader of this team alongside heavy hitters like Zatanna and Swamp Thing, along with smaller characters like Detective Chimp and Man-Bat, has felt natural and authentic.

Another great part of having Diana on the team rather than Batman is that her personality stands out. Whereas Batman and most of the magical characters in DC are generally tragic, Wonder Woman is a symbol of hope and optimism, someone who fights to see the best in people and bring that best version out of them. This works especially well with her band of misfits, who despite having much more experience than Wonder Woman in the world of magic, have far less experience in being part of a team, let alone in being “superheroes” in the traditional sense of the word.

As for this issue, it’s a set-up chapter that ticks all the right boxes. We’ve essentially got the “Dark” Justice League Dark coming together, led by a newly powered up Circe, who are raring up to wage a Witching War against their good counterparts. While their final players are coming into the fold, the villains have already managed to plant a couple of seeds of doubt into the team which will certainly bloom into dissension. Can’t wait to see where this goes next.

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #11

Tom Taylor gets Spider-Man.

It’s a simple statement, but as we’ve seen over all of the years with Spidey, not a whole lot of writers have really understood what makes Spider-Man so spectacular, amazing, superior, etc. It’s a testament to how well Tom Taylor is writing Spider-Man in this series that he’s telling small scale stories without a whole lot of action, death-defying adventure or real conflict, and yet this is some of the best Spider-Man I’ve read in years.

The opening pages set the tone for the story right away, with one of the simpler but most honest statements I’ve seen in a Spider-Man book:

“See, Captain America is Captain America. Thor is Thor. But Spider-Man...

Spider-Man is Peter Parker...

And Peter Parker is my responsibility.”

That’s the thesis statement for this story, detailing a day in the life of Mary-Jane Watson, the often under appreciated girlfriend of our titular web-head.

The story from then on is pretty much in her hands, with occasional monologuing from a sleeping Peter, as Mary-Jane goes about what we can only assume is a pretty typical day in the life of the girlfriend of one of NYC’s premier heroes.

Small scale stories are essential in superhero comics in order to break up long events and arcs. They’re breathing room, time for the readers to catch their breath and assess the new status quo before things get wild again. But they’re also often the stories which show us the foundations of who these heroes really are. It’s been said that power doesn’t corrupt, it reveals, and when characters with as much power as Spider-Man aren’t up against the wall and forced to make a decision, the decisions they do make show us that much more about the person beneath the mask.

Tom Taylor has managed to show us just who Spider-Man and the people in his life really are underneath their masks by lowering the stakes. The stories are small and simple, the consequences often equally so, but what’s been created is true to the characters more than almost any stories I’ve seen before, and it’s lovely. This is one of the best books being written right now, and if you’re not reading it yet, you need to go out and fix that right now.

Detective Comics #1010

It feels like there isn’t much to say about this week’s issue. We’ve still got the stranded billionares on the island, who are now clearly being held hostage by Deadshot. Meanwhile Bruce is rescued and patched up by two WWII fighter pilots who have been stranded on this island since the war, neither knowing which side won.

I’m a big fan of Deadshot when he leans into his nihilistic killer persona, and this “The Most Dangerous Game” setup with a tech-deprived Bruce and Deadshot duking it out on an island seems interesting. Tomasi has been generally pretty good with his run on Detective Comics, so I’m excited to see how long he runs with this arc of Bruce and Deadshot trying to outsmart each other in this deadly game of cat and mouse.

#comics #superhero #dc comics #marvel #batman #spiderman #superman #wonder woman #the flash

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karamelsecretsanta · 6 years

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"Inverse"- Secret Santa

For @agentjadelance. Merry Christmas! And happy Karamel gift season :)

– Lynn @lostmyurl

An AU featuring rivals to friends- as promised. You’d better believe they’re lovers at some point later, too, though it’s not pictured.

Bear in mind that in this story, Kara has spent the first 24 years of her life raised by Kryptonians. The prejudices are evident and intentional, and heavier-ingrained than canon- but every character has flaws, as long as they work on them. This is definitely a Karamel-positive AU.

Mike Danvers thought he’d had his life figured out. The past year had been hectic, but between coming to terms with the fact that he just wasn’t human, actually getting a job as a mixologist, and starting work alongside the DEO as a superhero named Valor, things had been beginning to smooth themselves out.

He’d found a routine. Evening shifts at work, daytime spent between making excuses to Megan why he couldn’t work a day shift, trying to avoid getting yelled at by J'onn, and generally saving people’s lives when he could find the time

Hell, he’d managed to hit it off with the big man himself- Superman, Kryptonian as he was, had eventually warmed up to his best intentions. Prejudices were only prejudices as far as one let them be, after all; Kal-El had left home as an infant. Mon-El had been a child when he’d arrived

And a doubtful this isn’t Daxam, just stay out of trouble on this planet and try to fit in had only worked for so long.

But he had a routine. A life. He thought he was happy.

And now, the contents of a Kryptonian pod threatened to knock that delicately-built balance apart.

Taken from Krypton not long before the first signs of Krypton’s death, Kara Zor-El had reached maturity trapped in the bottled city of Kandor.

Which had been lost. But she survived, a last remnant of a world that had clung onto life and dug its nails in for all it could. Having lost more than most could imagine.

But Rao damn, she could be infuriating.

She had been on Earth for a total of under a week. Most of it had been spent recovering from induced suspended animation, a reunion with Superman- apparently a cousin she’d never had the chance to meet, and undermining every word Mike said or did. Because on Krypton, this, and on Krypton, that.

Apparently, if he tried to contribute how anything had been done on Daxam, it would’ve been shot down- either by Alex or by Eliza, most often. He’d learned not to. And yet, a friendly warning that this was not how things were done on Earth went entirely unappreciated. Everyone wanted to hear what a paragon of virtue Krypton was.

On Krypton, he’d heard her say- to her cousin, in private, but not trying too hard to avoid his earshot- you knew you shouldn’t trust a Daxamite with work that needed doing.

Though what stung more was the hushed response: this one is all right.

He hadn’t told Alex about that. She got bristly and protective enough as it was.

His planet wasn't evil. Different, certainly, but in his ten years there, he didn’t remember it being populated with… whatever kept being thrown at him.

His parents hadn’t been the kindest of people, but surely, they couldn’t have been evil.

Perhaps she thought he didn’t notice that she subtly avoided listening to a word he said- unless they were arguing. It was blatant then

She was grieving. She had to be. He could see how sad she looked, from time to time when she thought she was alone. He could also see how much she resented deferring to him for physical sparring- she was stronger than him, true, but there were enemies stronger than her.

The end of a day. A long day. She’d saved his life from an unfortunate bullet. He’d saved hers from a kryptonite knife wielded by her deranged aunt. They’d fought. Planets had come into play- after subtle hints for so long, it almost felt like a relief to put it out in the open. He’d walked out to avoid saying more.

“Mike.”

He pretended not to hear at first. It was closing time.

“What’s a good Kryptonian girl scout doing awake at this time of night?”

That might have been uncalled-for, but he wasn’t sure that, at that moment, he cared.

“I came to say I’m sorry.”

Oh.

“I’ve been… unfair. Instead of thanking you for saving my life, I got worked up after seeing my aunt Astra… doesn’t matter. That’s not an excuse. I’m sorry.”

It was met with a shrug. He couldn’t meet her eye, instead preferring to focus on the glass he was drying off.

“I’ve misjudged you. And I’m sorry. I’ve been… pretty awful to you since I came to earth.”

“True.” Despite the affirmation… she genuinely seemed apologetic. Encountering somebody from Krypton like that, having her world shaken in its foundations, it couldn’t have been easy. Neither, he imagined, had been adjusting to life here.

He sighed, extending a hand. A friendly gesture- at least those, he hoped, were constant between Earth and Krypton.

“I’m sorry, too. About your aunt, and… your city, too. Coming to Earth for me was…” He trailed off with a chuckle, trying to brush off his own misadventures.

“It was a learning curve. But you’ll adjust to it. Maybe a little sparring on the side wouldn’t hurt, either.”

A smile. Mike wasn’t even sure why he was mirroring it, but there he was, sharing a smile with Kara Zor-El of Krypton. She looked away first, and he set the glass down, sliding it her way.

“What was it you ordered last time? A club soda? Bar’s closed, but I think I can make an exception if you don’t tell my boss.”

#submission #karamel secret santa 2017 #kss2017

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queercapwriting · 7 years

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Sanvers I guess? Some solid hurt comfort with Alex having nightmares and Maggie calming her down? Thank you so much!

All the stuff with Rick Malverne?

Her credit card, that frozen water, that burning in her lungs?

Replays in her nightmares, sometimes.

But more often, it’s other things.

Things that life has been moving too quickly for her to really process.

Things that she may never be able to process.

J’onn, almost being experimented on by Cadmus.

Killing Astra. Kara’s words under Red Kryptonite.

Kara, on Krypton under the Black Mercy, not remembering her at all. Those cool, distant eyes.

Almost killing Kara under Myriad.

Jeremiah.

Stories about Mars. The ones that M’gann told her that J’onn would only ever hint at.

The bar.

The sounds Maggie made when she found out.

The cracks in Maggie’s voice when she was trapped in that tank. The desperation in Kara’s.

A life where she had followed orders without hesitating; where she had blown up her own sister.

It’s those ones that make her scream. Those ones that soak the sheets and make her utterly unable to fall back to sleep, even – especially – when she has to get up extra early for work.

It’s almost easier when the screams from her dreams translate into screams in waking life. It’s almost easier, because even though she feels endlessly guilty for waking Maggie, Maggie helps.

Maggie rubs circles onto her back and traces patterns with delicate fingers from her collarbone down her breasts. Maggie kisses her everywhere and changes the sheets and Alex’s pajamas when they’re soaked through, and sometimes, Maggie showers with her, breaking out their lavender scented body wash and rubbing Alex down until the smells, the sensations, lull Alex’s body back into safety, into sleepiness.

It’s harder, the nights where she wakes up silently. The nights where she wakes up and Maggie is next to her, but also another universe away from her, her breathing even and deep and peaceful.

And if Alex hates waking her by accident, she hates even more the idea of doing it on purpose.

So she’ll stay awake.

She’ll stay awake, and she’ll turn the brightness on her phone to the lowest setting, and she’ll angle it away from Maggie’s sleeping face, and she’ll distract herself until, finally, hours later, her eyes start to droop again. Until, finally, hours later, the remnants of her nightmares fade to exactly what they are, now: dreams.

But one night, Maggie wakes. She wakes and she sees the dim light of Alex’s phone.

“Ally?” she murmurs, her voice thick with sleep and saturated with the way they’d made love before passing out.

Alex gulps and lowers her phone, suddenly washing them both in near complete darkness. “Nothing, babe. Sleep, it’s okay.”

“Buyanaseepin,” Maggie murmurs, and Alex can’t help but smile, even though she’s still shaking from her nightmare, trembling from how real it had felt, how now it had felt.

“Say again, pretty lady?” she asks, shifting to drop her phone back on the nightstand and wrap her arms around Maggie, who gulps and clears her throat in an effort to achieve more coherency.

“But you’re not sleeping,” she protests more clearly, and Alex kisses both of her eyes.

“What, so now one of us can’t be awake while the other’s sleeping?” she teases softly, and Maggie leans up on her elbows, squinting as her eyes adjust to the darkness.

“No, but… did you have a bad dream?”

Alex is good at many things. Lying is one of them.

But not to Maggie.

She just looks down, and Maggie plops on top of her. Alex oomphs, and Maggie shifts.

“Sorry. Trying to hold you,” Maggie says sleepily, and Alex kisses her hair.

“I’m okay,” she tries to insist, but Maggie knows better.

“I’m here,” she tells her, pressing a kiss to her chest. “I’m here, and you’re here. J’onn’s safe, and the boys are safe, and Kara’s probably banging Lena at the moment – “

“I thought you were trying to make me feel better?” Alex tickles her, and Maggie squeals and squirms and Alex relents.

They kiss, long and sleepy and needy.

“I’m here, Al. I’ve got you, okay? Come on, you wanna put on some Food Network? We can both drift back off instead of you trying to comfort yourself on Twitter.”

Alex sighs and nods, her heart slowly going from quaking to glowing.

“I love you, Maggie Sawyer,” she murmurs as Maggie flicks on the TV and settles solidly into Alex’s arms.

“And I love you, Alex Danvers. Even if Food Network will never help you win your battle with fire alarms.”

#sanvers #domestic sanvers #sanvers hurt/comfort #sanvers minific #sanvers fic

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cwdcshows · 4 years

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Supergirl - S5 E6 - Confidence Woman

So Horrible Boss is Shade? The Shadow? Misty Swirls? I'm going to go with Misty Swirls. Sure, it sounds like a stripper name, but.....' How Andrea (?) a member of this super duper secret organization, that she's the moment she's in a tight position she goes to blab to just any older insider? How are the members recruited or vetted? "Ah, you found our decoder ring a box of Froot Loops, here's your gun and code name. We're going to need you to covertly assassinate a duke, and oh, by the by, try not to tell anyone about us."

"I don't want to kill him, I want to save him."

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'You've worked for her before'? I mean, I know it's splitting hairs, but arguably Lena's worked with Supergirl, rather than for her; unless you're thinking of the summer that Lena lost her money and Kara decided to try her hand as a lawyer and decided to hire Lena to assist her in the office. Kara, however, seems to be irritated by the slightest mistake Lena makes, until Lena eventually realizes that Kara is actually getting turned on by Lena's obedience; and over the next several weeks they explore a BDSM relationship, until one day Lena wins the lotto and buys back her company and Kara decides to return to CatCo. And I know what you're thinking, did he just suggest that Lena and Kara enacted the plot of 50 Shade of Gray? And the answer, is no. In fact, I was suggesting they were enacting the plot of the 2002 movie, Secretary, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal as the submissive, titular secretary; and James Spader as the dominant boss, who incidentally was named E. Edward Grey. So, you know, completely different. Ah, a nostalgic flashback to a college encounter between two beautiful college girls; which was a memory apparently sparked by a bottle of booze. I think I've seen this movie before; and that one also starred someone going by the name Misty Swirls.... Honestly, in a show where people can fly and shoot lasers our of their fucking eyes, I think perhaps the least believable thing this show is trying to present to us is the idea that Lena fucking Luther was a wallflower in college or really at any point in her life. I mean, she may not have known she was a real Luther yet, and sure her mom treated her like shit; while Lex seemed to simultaneously be protective of her (I think) and belittle her (I think) - which is to say that seriously muddled whatever past Lex and Lena had together before he was finally outed as a murderer and all the other stuff. But what I'm getting at is, it seems unlikely that Lena wouldn't at least have friends in school or any of the other more outgoing traits we've seen her have in the present; and that somehow this random woman she's never mentioned before is ostensibly the person who made Lena the person she is today - but I guess that's where the booze comes in.... Oh, instead they're going to make this some sort of random fucking mystical quest; and this rich girl that's dropped out of the clear blue sky and known Lena for five minute is all in on finding this... whatever this is. And based on their apparent obsession with Titanic, I assume one of them is going to die after they find this whatchamacallit; and the other will wait 70 years then drop it into the sea. Really, this is the episode they're going to use Jon Cryer in? Don't get me wrong, I know he's not like, Calista Flockhart or something, that they would only put in certain episodes, but seeing how sporadic they used him last season; and the lengths they went to have Lex involved, but unseen, this either means this episode is going to be wildly more important or a tremendous waste of the use of Lex Luther that will probably result in him being conspicuously absent in a future episode he should definitely be physically present for. What could Andrea's father be "doing again" that involves his life insurance policy? Surely she doesn't mean killing himself for the insurance money, because he couldn't have done before, presumably. Wait, are they suggesting Kryptonite crashed to earth "millions of years ago"? How would be fucking possible? Kryptonite is supposed to be remnants from when Krypton exploded, which definitely didn't occur millions of years ago; the fact that Kara's mother is still alive is, presumably, at least one clear indication of this. That or Allura looks really good for her age. "What would Rose Dawnson do?" Hog a floating door, leaving her the supposed love of her life to die of hypothermia in the Atlantic Ocean? #ThereWasRoom #NeverForget That's some impeccable timing, for Lena to read her book at just the right moment in the whole wide jungle, so that she follows the instructions to look down and find exactly what she needed to find to help them on their way.... Those were apparently load bearing flowers. "This is very real, I assure you." I mean, isn't that exactly what a psychedelic hallucination would tell you? Since Lena was looking for...whatever... to stop Lex from finding....whatever, shouldn't Lena wonder if Lex had gotten there first? So Kord Industries of Earth 38 is our Samsung? Why would you overtly wear a medallion you don't want your friend to know you have; even if it's unlikely you'll run into her? Not to mention the odds aren't terrible she'd be there, seeing as you run in the same circles. Keep your mystical talismans in your handbag, like the rest of us. Is this the reason for Lena's beef with Kara not telling her the truth about who she is? Because these seem like wildly different sorts of lies. I get that Lex and their mother also lied to Lena, but I get the feeling this is going to be meant as the real motivation for her grudge. And boy, did Lena need that medallion; her life would have been so much better the last couple of years. Instead she's worked hard rehabilitating her family name and business, making more friends than she's apparently ever had before - if only she had a lucky charm.... Hey, it's Not-Ock before he became Not-Ock. Why are you so nosy about whether this woman you don't is drinking her drink or not? I know, I know, it's his way of hitting on her, but seriously, mind your own damn business. For all you know she's a recovering alcoholic at a crossroads in her 10 year sobriety after her husband Jonathan left with their four kids, on account of the fact she's far too obsessed with Top Chef. You don't know. Okay, I figured I'd wait a bit before comment on this; and now that I'm half way through the episode - didn't last week's preview suggest this was going to be an Alex episode? They showed Alex at the DEO and everyone but her was inceptioned and she's freaking out trying to figure out to do.... This is the most boring and uneventful villain origin story since Grimace tried to kill a bunch of people....

Holly shit, apparently my Froot Loops recruitment scenario wasn't that far off. Apparently I'm on the same wavelength as the writers and I'm not okay with that. "Take the medalion, tap it three times. You'll know what to do." This sounds an awful lot like the message Scott Calvin found inside the Santa Suite in the Santa Clause.

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Is Santa an assassin? What exactly happens to the people on the naughty list?? Are they actually showing us an unseen backstory of Lena and Kara becoming friends? Has it been some sort of mystery that viewers never quite understood this time; and now people at home are going, "Oh, that's how it happened! It all makes sense now..." Jesus Christ, all of this shit because of a fucking magical medallion, that for all Lena ever knew was just a myth? Fuck you. The medallion was the only thing that could stop Lex? What? I mean, he was stopped without it just fine. Sure, he probably killed a bunch more people that he may or may not have been able to if Lena had gotten the medallion and used it the way she wanted to. But are they honestly suggesting that Lena's great plan for "stopping Lex" was fucking magic? (sigh) They had the means of removing this guy's Borg implants this whole time and they're just fucking mentioning it now??? So what, Alex is in the one place in the entire DEO shielded from psychic attack? They really made it seem like the premise of the DEO being incepted to be the main story of this episode; and it's literally the last 10 minutes of the episode. Which means that they knew how much of a turd this episode was and had to hunt down what could pass as the most interesting part of the episode; and it seems the preview encompasses the entirety of that footage. Man, I know Alex is supposed to be a bad ass, but damn, Brainiac 5 is a lightweight. So Lena's plan was foiled because she forgot Kara has super hearing? Jesus Christ, Lena has worse mommy issues than Bruce Wayne.

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discountchris · 7 years

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On Superman

I’ve been thinking about Superman a lot lately.

I don’t know if it’s because I found my copy of Kingdom Come, if I’ve had a desire to get back into playing DC Universe Online again or if it’s just one of those chunks in the soup of my mind that’s floated to the top apropos of nothing. But it’s one of those things where I feel like he’s a fantastic character that people don’t seem to understand. That seems fairly normal, because it’s pretty normal for people to not understand characters, but Superman cops a lot of it because I think they don’t want to understand him. Not to claim that I do, mind you. I’m just some guy who has a few comics and fell asleep last time he watched Superman 3. This is just my understanding of the character and since this is the internet, I’m sure I’m wrong so scroll to the comments for that one.

For me, at least, the core of understanding Superman is understanding Clark Kent. Despite being the same person, they’re two separate characters. Clark Kent is a guy who grew up in Smallville, Kansas and moved to the big city of Metropolis to become a reporter. That’s a pretty decent indie film in of itself, to be honest. But it’s a fairly concise life story of someone you or I might even know. Superman is an alien who crashed to Earth and has amazing superpowers that he uses to save us all from the likes of Metallo, Brainiac and Lex Luthor. Those stories are so different and I think people try to focus on the latter because that’s what makes for better films and comics, but it’s the former that influences so much of what makes them interesting.

There’s that monologue in Kill Bill Volume 2 about Superman, where Bill talks about how Clark Kent is Superman’s critique on humanity because he’s weak.

Now, a staple of the superhero mythology is, there's the superhero and there's the alter ego. Batman is actually Bruce Wayne, Spider-Man is actually Peter Parker. When that character wakes up in the morning, he's Peter Parker. He has to put on a costume to become Spider-Man. And it is in that characteristic Superman stands alone. Superman didn't become Superman. Superman was born Superman. When Superman wakes up in the morning, he's Superman. His alter ego is Clark Kent. His outfit with the big red "S", that's the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby when the Kents found him. Those are his clothes. What Kent wears - the glasses, the business suit - that's the costume. That's the costume Superman wears to blend in with us. Clark Kent is how Superman views us. And what are the characteristics of Clark Kent. He's weak... he's unsure of himself... he's a coward. Clark Kent is Superman's critique on the whole human race.

I hate that entire speech with a passion. Hate it, hate it, hate it. It demonstrates such a lack of even willingness to connect with the idea of Superman and what he stands for as a hero and as a person. It’s the typical macho bravado that the typical Tarantino film flourishes on, and using Superman, the stereotypical “boy scout” archetype to promote that misses much of the point of what makes Superman work. Maybe that’s the point. Maybe it’s supposed to show that Bill himself doesn’t get it, but typical of everything Tarantino has made, people take it at face value. Who knows?

My point is, everything that Bill said in his little speech is the exact opposite to the truth. I didn’t have a father growing up. He died when I was a few months old and as unfortunate as it is, I don’t have any memories about him or anything of the sort. A few pictures and stories, but nothing personal to me. He was just some guy, and as much as it sucks to have not met him or anything, it’s just a fact of my life that I live with. The exact same is for Kal-El. He was sent to Earth as a baby right before his entire planet exploded. He doesn’t know anything about Krypton or Jor-El. All he’s known is Jonathan and Martha Kent are his parents and his home is Smallville. Yeah, he has the capsule and the blankets from his travel, but it’s not something that he remembers. It’s not something that he’s going to recognize as personal to him. He might get bummed out that he’s not able to meet his real parents occasionally, but they aren’t the ones who raised him from childhood. Clark Kent is who he is at heart because that’s all he’s ever really known. He can hardly “critique” the human race when that’s all he’s ever been and wants to have been.

‘With great power comes great responsibility’ might be Spider-Man’s thing, but Superman is the one who exemplifies it way more than Peter Parker ever could. Clark Kent is able to lift planets and fly and is impervious to bullets and he refuses to do it full time because his real passion is reporting. Journalism is a rough job, and you don’t do it on a whim to pass time between saving the world. He just has to save the world because he’s the only guy that can fight Parasite and not get stomped into the ground twenty seconds after introductions. Being Superman, persona included, is Superman’s retail job. The thing he has to do because he feels as though he has to. Not because he wants to, not because he’s the Ubermensch looking down upon us puny mortals, but because he has the ability to help people and that’s just how he was raised.

The coward? The weak, nervous dork? That’s his true face. He wears glasses not to disguise himself, but because he needs them to see. He wears the business suit because, uh, he’s trying to be professional for his job? That was a weird point to make, Bill. In any case, he’s only Superman because he has to be, not necessarily that he wants to be. He’s a person that people should aspire to be like. Everyone in their own way wants to save the world and because he has that ability, he does just that. The blue tights, the red undies and the cape are just his uniform that he wears to the job. It is part of his heritage, yes, but it’s more because he understands the gifts he’s been given by his parents and his planet. They’re the ones that allowed him to rescue people, and so he honors them by wearing the remnants of that life.

That’s how he differs from the other two main DC superheros, Batman and Wonder Woman. Bruce Wayne was a child when his parents died, right in front of him. That messed him right the fuck up and from that point on, he stopped being Bruce Wayne and became Batman. He trained 25 or so years to be skilled in ninjitsu, detective work and chiropterology. He lost himself and his identity to the Bat, and so when he is out and about as Bruce Wayne, that’s Batman pretending to be a Regular Human Being. Bill’s speech is so much more accurate if you replace Superman with Batman. Bruce Wayne is a disguise Batman wears, whereas Superman is a disguise Clark Kent wears.

Wonder Woman, too, is a fish out of water who uses her gifts to help people, but she was raised to adulthood as a warrior. Someone who understands how to fight and is willing to end someone who’s getting too uppity because that’s how she was raised. All three have different childhoods and ideals about how to effectively be heroes, but they also understand the different methodologies are needed for different situations. Superman might disapprove of Batman’s brutality and Wonder Woman’s killing, but he’s smart enough to realize how the Joker and Ares are so much different to Lex Luthor. That’s what allows them to be a team. That’s what allows them to be friends. Super friends, even.

This is also what makes Superman’s rogues gallery so interesting too. For the most part, they’re things that stand on equal or greater footing with Superman. Darkseid, ruler of Apokolips. General Zod, Kryptonian war criminal. Mr Mxyzptlk, a reality warping imp from the 5th Dimension. Titano, a 50 foot giant ape that shoots Kryptonite laser beams out of it’s eyes. They’re all people and monkeys that can put up a proper challenge to Superman. He has to be smart to outwit them because they can do most of the same things he can do or worse. But his main enemy, the guy that’s always been around and will always be fighting Superman until the heat death of the universe is Lex Luthor. He’s just a bald guy. A rich bald guy who’s pissed off that Superman exists. In the Silver Age it was because Superboy was the one who made him bald, but that was a time when he was also stealing forty cakes. (And that’s terrible.)

Usually, the arch enemy is a foil for the protagonist. The Joker is the opposite to everything Batman is, for example. Light vs Dark, Chaos vs Order, Funny vs Serious, Evil vs Good. So it might seem a bit strange how Superman’s arch-nemesis is someone he can take out with one quick punch and-- Of course it’s because he’s a foil for Clark Kent. If you were questioning that, you probably haven’t read the past thousand words or so.

Lex Luthor hates Superman because he used to be the most powerful man in Metropolis. He used to be the one who held all the power and he is no longer. He has to share it and that is unacceptable, especially when it’s someone who isn’t even human. Whereas Clark just wants to live his life and uses his powers when necessary, Lex obsesses over it to the point where the very idea of Superman existing and being alive is abhorrent to him. He’s a genius that could cure cancer and save the world but refuses to because he prefers having power and influence. The conflict between the two works because it’s not really a challenge of might, it’s a challenge between viewpoints and ideas. Luthor believes that Might Makes Right, but when that might isn't his, there’s an issue. He wants to destroy Superman, but only to make himself top dog again. He just wants the power and not the responsibility that comes with it. They come to blows so frequently because Clark sees all the power and potential that Lex has already but refuses to use it on anything but hoarding it for himself and trying to kill metahumans (mostly Superman.)

And I think this is the primary reason why people don’t like Superman. Why they don’t like his films. They’re not the kind of stories that work well as a two-hour action blockbuster. The best Superman stories are the ones that are about the difficulties of balancing his life in such a way that he can save the world without giving up his passions. “What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice And The American Way?” is one of my favorite stories because it’s so much more about the nature of his No Killing policy instead of the big fights he has. If it were made into a DC Cinematic Universe film, not only would it not fit as part of the universe they’ve established, but I don’t think people would walk out of the theater believing that Superman’s way of pacifism works or that The Elite are in the wrong. They’d just see how the cool and edgy British man kills the bad guys and we came to see fights. People would love Manchester Black and ignore the second half of the film, which is the entire point.

The main difference between Marvel and DC is that people with powers are feared and shunned in the Marvel universe, while heroes are celebrated in DC. Spider-Man has a newspaper running a smear campaign every Tuesday while The Flash has an entire museum dedicated to him. The difference is Superman. He is the paragon of goodness and what all people should try to aspire to. And to dismiss him because of that is a damn shame.

#superman #dc comics #my stuff #editorial

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aenramsden · 7 years

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Kryptonian powers

How do they actually work? Never fear, for I have theories! These are specifically Supergirl theories, from watching the first season and then going "what the hell" and letting my imagination off the chain. So.

Basics I'm not going to try for science here. Not real science. This is comic book land, so we're happily dealing with "bullshit space magic" as a Doylist explanation, which I consider a far more satisfying and less SoD-breaking core explanation than trying to technobabble some Watsonian bullshit to people who know better.

That said, using "space magic" as a good core doesn't mean you can't give it mechanics. Thus, my basic theory about how Kryptonian powers function is that Kryptonian biology is essentially a superpower engine. Put radiation and respiration in, get superpowers out. You can see what I mean by the "Doylist core with mechanics" here. By what mechanism do they turn radiation into superpowers? "Space magic" - that part doesn't matter. What are the consistent rules for how their radiation-to-superpowers engines work? Ah, now that's where the mechanics can start coming into play.

Yellow Sun So, obviously the first upshot of this is that Supergirl did not actually gain her powers when she came to Earth. Technically there's no such thing as an unpowered Kryptonian unless they're being kept in a lightless enclosure. What happened was that her powers changed. Our sun has a different wavelength to Rao, our atmospheric blend is different, and thus they grant a different suite of powers. Mostly a physical suite. Tactile telekinesis that grants them strength, toughness and flight. Laser vision. Enhanced senses. Etc. Incidentally, my headcanon for why Kara can't fly in space isn't that she's fucking around with gravity - which is still very present even beyond the atmosphere - it's just that she's using that tactile telekinesis on the air to get thrust when she flies. No air; no thrust. Also no breathing means no respiration means no powers means no flight.

Red Sun On Krypton they had a red sun and a different atmosphere. My headcanon for what their power was at home was that it was a largely mental one. Increased intelligence to some extent, but more than that, it was increased senses; senses that humans don't even have words for. The dance and shiver of atoms, the ebb and flow of electromagnetism and gravity, the tightly coiled vibrations of the weak and strong force, the bonds between molecules and the principles of entropy... these were as familiar and obvious to Kryptonians; as instinctive and intuitive to them, as throwing and catching are to human children. That innate sense of the underpinnings of the universe let them puzzle out the mysteries of the universe, build themselves into a paradise of high technology, create a culture that venerated science and knowledge and... uh... exploit their planet ruthlessly for resources until it exploded. Whoops. They may have had to wilfully made something to deafen themselves to the sense-knowledge of the planet's condition, in a horrible parallel to denial of climate change for short-term gain.

Krypton This explains in large part why they were so clustered up on Krypton. Sure, they could build space rockets... but why would they ever leave their planet? To leave Krypton - to leave Rao - would mean losing those senses; that connection to the workings of the cosmos. It would mean going blind and deaf and numb and cold - the only remnants of the Krypton red-sun suite on Earth are that their senses are still enhanced, and that's in more of a "massively amplified from human" sort of way rather than "see the subtle dance of gravity and the interplay of the weak and strong forces". Kara probably spent half of her first month on Earth just screaming every time she tried to reach out for the sparkling chiming of forces that human science doesn't even know exist and found nothing but an empty gaping void where that awareness used to be.

Yes, I like traumatising my characters, why do you ask?

This does mean, of course, that Kara - as someone who grew up with that sense and remembers it - has an intuitive understanding of physics and chemistry and so on. She may not be educated, she may not know formulae or variable names or theories, but she gets it on a gut level in a way that humans never really can. We have to model spacetime curvature with tensor maths, she just goes "it's obvious, isn't it?" and then gets very confused when she has to explain or quantify. If she went into science and technology, she'd be glorious. But she wants to be normal.

Kryptonite This also handily gives an explanation for why Kryptonite fucks them over. It's a radioactive heavy element - it just so happens that the radiation they get from it generates a toxic power. That is to say, when fuelled with Kryptonite radiation, the Kryptonian biological superpower engine produces the superpower of "poison myself and die". Kinda like an animal eating toxic plants and winding up with poison in its cells that kills whatever eats it - toxic input; toxic output. Enough exposure, or variant forms of Kryptonite, might even damage the engine so that it becomes "cancerous" and produces that power regardless of what radiation is fed in. Not fun.

Red Kryptonite is also explained - it sets her to radiate a terror aura and gets her stuck in a hyper-aggressive mode. Not fun. They can store a certain amount of radiation in their cells - banked fuel for the engine - so the best way to get over exposure to Unfriendly Stuff is just to get them under the sun and then force them to burn through the toxic fuel by exerting their powers, if possible. Alas, in the case of Red-K, "exerting their powers" is not really a good thing for anyone nearby.

Exploits I don't particularly want to let Kara power-switch at will, so I'd say that for most forms of radiation, she needs to be exposed to a new wavelength for a fair amount of time - a week or two, say - without any of her current "fuel" before her body resets. She can't just hop under a red UV lamp and get her Krypton powers back, even if they could replicate the atmospheric blend of her home world (they can't). If she gets any sunlight in that period, her system goes "oh, we've still got that source; cool" and cancels the rewiring. But when she left Krypton, her system was like "red sunlight? Any red sunlight here? No? Okay, let's use this yellow stuff." However, her physiology being evolved to eat any radiation it encounters does explain why she can tank Reactron's blasts and grab his fuel source in her hands without irradiating all her friends the next time she hugs them - she nommed it all. It might be possible to hit her with enough radiation to crowd out her stored sunlight and interfere with her yellow-sun power suite, which may be why energy weapons bypass her invulnerability to some extent.

#supergirl #superpowers #fandom #worldbuilding

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