Coffee on Wednesdays by dare121

Title: Coffee on Wednesdays
Author dare121

Fanfiction: Gotham City Sires (comics), Smallville (TV), Supergirl (TV; Alt universe)
Link: Archive of Our Own

Review:
I do not believe I can stress enough how incredibly long this book is. Super super long. So so long. So many thousands upon thousands of words. But, enough of that.

Supergirl gets 'shipped' with a bunch of different people in fanfictions - I've read a few, not read a few others. Specifically limiting myself to Supergirl + some other woman relationships (since I haven't paid attention to see if there are any with her and any men), we have: SuperCat (Kara + Cat Grant); SuperCorp (Kara + Lena Luther - Lena runs L-Corp, I assume that's where the Corp part comes form); SuperLocke (Kara + Emily Locke from Powerless - included because I've read said ship; oh, and that's not an 'official' ship-name, but seemed to fit, so I used it); and here we have . . . no idea what ship name to use. In other fanfictions some version of cest gets used. Like, maybe calling this Supercest. That's shockingly popular, by the way, having a bunch of incest stories floating around. But that doesn't actually work here since, not only is Alex and Kara not blood relatives, they weren't raised as sisters in this story (this is what happens when I insert a paragraph before what I'd already written, mmphs - yeah, Kara, as I mention again later, raised by Jonathan and Martha Kent, not the Danvers). So, two completely unrelated people, who only first meet as adults, get into a relationship together, one named Kara Kent, other named Alex Danvers. The natural ship name would probably, following the theme above, be something like SuperDanvers, or the like, but that still implies incest, which isn't occurring here. Probably something that incorporates Kent into the name should probably be used for the ship name. *shrugs*

This story here is a Supergirl story based on the television show; though, technically, and this is something I found out only after starting, this is more of a Gotham City Sirens comic fanfiction, mixed with a Smallville tv show fanfiction, with layers of the first season of Supergirl (TV). And even for the Supergirl part, this just takes some of the ideas, and sets the story in some other world/universe. For example, story includes Kara as Supergirl, but she was raised by Martha and Jonathan Kent, the same people who raised Superman (in every story I know about except the one where he landed in Russia and presumably was raised by Russians - referring here to 'Red Son' story). And, while Kara still works with Win in this story, Win is in the background and almost never speaks (more on that later . . . if I remember*); and while she works for Cat Grant, Cat Grant does not run a media company, but a string of coffee shops.

From Gotham City Sirens we get Catwoman/Selina Kyle, Harley Quinn, and Pamela Isley/Poison Ivy living and working together - and appearing in this story as well. For they are friends with Barbara Gordon. Oh, I'm sorry, I meant 'Alex Danvers'. Alex, you see, is from Gotham, and her father is the police commissioner. And while she didn't become Batgirl, she did go into the police (as Batgirl/Barbara Gordon wanted to do, but was kept from doing by her father). While there is mention of an actual Barbara Gordon in this story, in passing, Alex really does seem to have Gordon's backstory, while still having the Supergirl (TV) personality of Alex Danvers.

From Smallville we get: the main enemy in this storyline (and possibly Clark Kent/Superman + Lois Lane might also be Smallville's versions, not sure). The main enemy is . . . I forget now exact words, but something like 'Hero Menace'. It's an organization that believes that heroes are a menace and should be stopped from existing. Apparently that was a thing on Smallville, though I didn't see enough of that show to have seen them. If you've seen X-Men, you might have come across the idea before.

Right, so Kara Kent works, as her day job, in a coffee shop. The first 20 pages, or thereabouts, of this story take place entirely in that coffee shop. Though eventually we get out of there, and eventually Supergirl is also seen. Though it takes a really long time for the first physical appearance of Supergirl (she's mentioned a bunch of times before she is ever seen). And I'm not trying to separate out Supergirl into a separate character, no that's Kara Kent's night job. At the coffee shop, working beside her, is Kara Kent's best friend - Lucy Lane (sister of Lois Lane). Also there is Cat Grant, as boss, and Winn, as coworker-maker of food. Oh, and to somewhat round things out on this end - James, presumably the same James from Supergirl (TV), is Lucy's somewhat estranged husband. Kara is one of the point of views.

Another point of view is Alex Danvers. Alex, along with everything else I already noted, is a police detective who has moved from Gotham to National City (an important thing to note that Gotham is on the USA east coast and National City is on USA west coast, since people from Gotham kept popping up in this story) after 'the incident' forced her to flee Gotham and her former life (The incident is lifted directly from something that had already occurred in the comics; there's even a comment that 'this incident is one that is just like what had happened to Barbara Gordon'; also, based on how Alex kept reacting, the incident really didn't match up to her feelings of self-hatred and need to keep away from superpowered people). Because of that 'incident', Alex no longer desires to work with, near, or around superpowered people, though she isn't anti-supers. Unlike her new boss (Max Lord, new police chief) and his terrorist friends (hero menace).

Alex and Kara bump into each other at Kara's place of work. They have a lovely slow burn fluffy relationship starting when some ill-timed, inappropriate stuff occurs in Kara's line of sight that causes waves of angst and heartbreak. Based on how Alex is friends with the Gotham Sirens, and they are very touchy-feely.

Interesting story. Mostly enjoyable. To a large degree, the only part that I could have lived without - seriously - is the whole issue involving James and Lucy; and the yelling at Lucy done by her sister Lois. Though mostly the James, while still married to Lucy, 'falls for' both Lois and Clark Kent. And they are quite inappropriate about the whole thing and stuff.

ETA: * - and I did forget. mmphs. Right, so - the very important point I had meant to mention is relatively simple. There are several important men in this story: Hank Henshaw - Alex Danvers police partner; Winn - food maker; James - husband of Lucy Lane; Superman/Clark Kent; Max Lord - chief of police; random henchmen and higher ups on criminal side; the police therapist etc. There are a bunch of important women in this story, two of which have POVs (Alex Danvers; Kara Kent): Kara Kent; Alex Danvers; Lucy Lane; Lois Lane; mother Danvers (Elisa Danvers?); Selina Kyle (Catwoman); Harley Quinn; Pamela Isley (Poison Ivy); Cat Grant. One important agender person (Officer Vasquez). And the point? 99.999999% of the men have very little to do in this story - very little in the form of lines/scenes/etc. Hank Henshaw is the one exception - he has both an important role in the story, and an important amount of 'screen time'. The rest? Mentioned. Rarely scene - one example: Max Lord is the much despised boss. How do we the readers know? Alex talks about him as being the much despised boss to others. There are scenes wherein Alex is called back to his office, scenes where he has a smug smirking look on his face but . . . he's an evil critter who is more 'there' than 'there'. His scenes consist of Alex going into his office, then leaving being pissed off/shocked/etc. He rarely says anything - in the book. 99% of the other men face similar 'lost scenes' issues. Like - Win is constantly in the cafe at the same time Kara and Lucy work there, he is mentioned, they occasionally walk past him and . . he almost never opens his mouth, he almost has zero impact at all on the story - one counter to mentioning him -> he is in the back area making food so . . . less chance for him to talk; well there's also the Asian man who works up front with Kara and Lucy and I believe he never opens his mouth in this book. That's what I mean when I mention that there's something odd going on with the men in this book. The women? Well, Cat Grant has some important scenes, but mostly a background character. Similarly Lois Lane. And yet - both have roughly the same 'importance' to the story as someone like Clark Kent and Max Lord and yet most of the men's scenes are mentioned/told about later, while Lane and Grant's scenes are shown to the reader. Not sure what the weird thing that is going on in this story. I mean, this is an almost 1000 page book - most of the women have significant 'page time', while all men but for Hank are background characters who are almost silent.

Rating: 3.70

October 2 2017