Why Nate Heywood When You Have A Vast Library Of Better Characters?

The one unsolvable conundrum. Why are we supposed to care about Nate Heywood? He's Detroit League reject, a legacy of a 1970s Captain America expy with superstrength backdated into World War II and no matter how many time they try to make Steel a thing and happen by putting him in All-Star Squadron, or a modern Justice Society comic, or on Legends Of Tomorrow he leaves me cold. I mean I know I don't like Infinity Inc. characters, or most of  the Justice Society legacies they came up with in the 90′s, but they still could have picked anyone, but Nate, who's identity should have been left for use for John Henry Irons in Supergirl.

Honestly they could have given us anyone else new this season that would have served his function while being infinitely more interesting. They want a legacy that can bond with Vixen, they could have had Stargirl modern and retroactive in the past, they could have used Cyclone and introduced us Ma Hunkel in the past. They could have gave us Beth Chapel as the new Dr. Midnite they can make them related if they wanted to even though she's one of the rare Infinity Inc. members to not be a bloodline in the comics it'd work in the show where they play fast and loose with that stuff, Rick Tyler as Rex's grandson if they wanted a mystery there on who Rex had been involved with before getting involved with Amaya, but then that could have brought an icky Peggy/Sharon dynamic so no thanks. A Liberty Bell who's an Earth-1 Jessie Chambers, granddaughter to superheroine Liberty Bell and a normal guy named Johnny Chambers as a nice nod. A Jade who's the great-niece of Obsidian and possibly an improvement on the very lacking comic version. Fury who like Steel is a backdated golden age legacy, but could have given us some Amazonian plots and would work nice as an historian character. They could have retooled Silver Scarab, Nuklon (Atom Smasher being confusing), Jakeem Thunder, Amazing Man (another backdated golden age character with more interesting powers).

Anyone and they could have done something interesting with these I.P.'s DC can't be bothered to anything with, but to fill a trademark. They could have given us a toned down Dr. Fate, The Spectre, Johnny Thunder and reinvented them. This is thinking of the characters not used before like Black Canary, Wildcat, Mr. Terrific, Sand, Atom Smasher, Jay Garrick, Jessie Quick, Atom, the Hawks who are traditionally associated with the Society. Wonder Woman and Green Lantern of any kind is of course a no go.

They could have gone anywhere else more interesting than what we got with Nate as another hunky white guy with a generic Captain America aesthetic with none of the charm.

Why I'm Not Reviewing Supergirl

I've stopped doing any blogging habits outside of Tumblr where with the click of the button I can just regurgitate whatever someone else posted and add 2 cents if I'm charitable.

There's a lot of reasons I haven't written any posts. The anniversary of my mom's death came upon me a week ago. My aunt has cancer, my cousin's visiting. Food poisoning, friend's birthday, and I got a cold and a bad case of period hemorrhaging (won't be on hormone therapy for the foreseeable future) at the same time. Lovely.

So in between these times I've let my viewing of Supergirl slipped. Last Monday it was the birthday and the cold. This Monday, cold, ear ache and aforementioned hemorrhaging.

In the end though, I'm just sick of the Monel as the writer's choice of the ultimate love interest. No matter how much Monel changes the narrative still doesn't justify the reward. I wouldn't hate the character if they just left that off the table, but they won't stop pushing it.

The show has had better writing for the most part this season than last, but it's that damn character that ruins it. Contrast this with Flash where I'm devoted no matter what plans, or how sick I get. Last season is generally more well received than this season has been so far, but there's a big difference in my eyes for why I can stand it better in spite of the wasted Flashpoint potential that didn't need to happen to write this season, awful character dynamics, wasted Dr. Alchemy, stupid Savitar, wasted Iris, the quick resolution of Caitlin going off the deep end and other problems I can't remember to mention. What I will say is that what makes this season worth watching even more than last is that there's no Parry Spivot! Yeah that's a large factor, but I also like the stronger West-Allen in spite of my gripes with Iris being wasted, I love Julian in spite of my gripes with Dr. Alchemy, I love the cast in spite of my gripes with the character dynamics. I'm intrigued by the fallout of Savitar in spite of my wish for Savitar to go away.

I don't think Supergirl has many things left to keep me hooked, just enough to maybe marathon it in the future and then be disappointed by the end result that she's stuck with Monel, Winn will get with Lena and James might get with Lucy off screen. Yeah none of that interests me in the slightest. At this point I'm more interested in J'onn and M'gann in spite of feeling wrong saying that because I'm so used to M'gann being portrayed as martian teenager not as an equal to J'onn. Than again Monel is nothing like the sweet boyfriend he is in the comics to Shadow Lass either so both mine as well be two different chracters who share a similar name. I support Alex and Maggie, but I'm not really invested in them either. I hate to admit this, because I've wanted a gay couple in the CW superhero shows and have found the lacking of it odd when it's produced by a gay man and so many gay and bi actors are cast in the shows. It's also hard to be invested in Alex and Maggie when it's a writing device to play keep away with Alex and Kara time where she could use her support instead of relying on a tool.

This has been my frustration with the show and why I've become apathetic and have even missed two episodes in a row and will probably skip the next one. This show has everything going for it except for the central love story and friend support group that the first season did better in spite of some inconsistent writing. Don't get me wrong. I liked that this show expanded the world, included more aliens, gave Kara a job promotion, gave Kara another friend in Lena when Lucy couldn't come back, gave us Clark for a few episodes, and then Monel had to wake up and ruin all goodwill.

I'm pissed at the sidelining of James as the love interest after I've waited two decades for DC to to do something with that squandered potential only for them to mess it up with a gross white boy privileged stereotype taking on the name Clark bequeathed to a superior character in the comics who came from an awful xenophobic society and still with Clark's example of brotherhood, not forced through a one-sided toxic romance, became a better person.

I think it's a poor choice that the writer's decided Alex is going to ditch Kara's birthday to date Maggie instead of bringing her girlfriend along to her sister's birthday party and then take her out on more intimate dates later. This is supposed to be a move in maturity for Kara to realize her sister's not going to always be there, but they could have illustrated that lesson for something less than a birthday. I've noticed the shows gradual crumbling on the sister dynamic to make room for romantic relationship as if they can't coexist. In what world? Basically Maggie ends up being a means to an end to keep Alex away from Kara and that becomes transparent. Alex benefits here because she's not the one dating an asshole, but Kara's saddled with the inevitable foregone conclusion that she'll have to uphold the straight patriarchy. Why? It becomes a problem that they're using a sweet gay couple to distract us from a potential toxic straight couple and it's not working.

They also conveniently uses Alex as an impediment on Jimmy and Winn being upfront with Kara about their activities so that we the viewers can be blindsighted and then the topic of telling Kara can quietly be dropped. This is the writer's solution to have Kara's stuck babysitting an asshole, because where's Alex or Winn to talk sense into her? Insulting.