Supergirl: Age of Atlantis by Jo Whittemore

Supergirl: Age of Atlantis by Jo Whittemore

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Reasonably okay Supergirl story. One specific reason why I call this reasonably okay instead of good, though I'll mention that later.

I had two specific problems enjoying this book more – 1) I knew going in that this was a young adult book – geared for people younger than me. Though I thought it’d be geared more the level of, say, 1980s Star Trek media-tie-in books (which most libraries I spotted the books in would put the books in the juvenile section). Instead, well, I just didn’t realize that the book was geared more for people in the age group below young adult. Assuming the definitions of young adult I’ve seen apply – ‘targeted at ages 14 to 21’. This book here, instead, was geared for people aged 9 to 12 (grade level 4-7). And the book really did feel that way. Both from the overall tone and story, and the numerous ‘lesson’s people learned along the way. 2) Even considering that the book was geared towards people younger than me and that might have an impact on how I interpret things and ‘they’ interpret things, I’d have to say that the ending action scene was a little messed up – which is where that ‘reasonably okay instead of good’ comes in. And where I now mention what I mean more specifically. It’s not even plot holes, but the way the story was told in a specific series of events.

(view spoiler)[In the climactic battle, Supergirl fought some ‘supercitizens’, people who had been exposed to a specific something or other that caused them to get powers. During the events that unfolded, a series of ‘lead the bad guys a certain direction’ was laid down by Supergirl (while mostly keeping everyone else in the dark about her plans – she had a reason, the reason was stupid). Long and short: (view spoiler)[bad guy ‘shadowman’ had been prearranged to be ‘choked out, lightly’ before the fight occurred (eh? Supergirl just knew the one person who she told the plan would be the one and only person to encounter this specific individual and take them out? That’s . . . ludicrous, she’s putting everyone in danger, and the plan in danger by keeping quiet. Shadowman would then wake up and . . . instead of doing anything at all else, and somehow Supergirl ‘knew’ this despite constantly getting people’s reactions and motivations wrong throughout the book (that was one of Supergirl’s ‘lessons’ in this book), head for the ‘special magical metal’ and flee with it. There was no way Supergirl knew the one person she told part of her plan would encounter Shadowman, she had no way to know he’d try to flee with the special metal (and why? Made no sense, sure she directed the guy to a specific location but . . . they could have handled the matter on scene). Then, while the bad guy was fleeing, Supergirl kept popping up and making suggestions – which Shadowman heard and did the opposite – Supergirl directing him. To a pier. Where he, and the special metal, got into a boat Shadowman had left at the pier and fled further. Supergirl directed Shadowman to where Shadowman was going to go anyway? What? (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

Right, so. As noted: this book was geared for people much younger than me and it read that way. There were many lessons to be learned by most of the characters in the story. The action had some odd weirdness in it. Most fanfiction seems to make Mon-El out worse than he actually appears on the show, and this book here makes him out slightly better than the tv series shows him. So, I mention that to note that Supergirl’s heterosexual relationship with Mon-El was quite relevant to this book. Alex and Maggie’s lesbian relationship was included but in a barely there, blink and you’d miss it way. Though that’s kind of the nature of the situation – Supergirl is the main character, everyone else are side characters. And Mon-El is quite important to her, while Maggie, Alex’s girlfriend, is not. I mean not at the same level.

Rating: 3.0

February 21 2018



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Can’t Go It Alone by jcause

Link to the fanfiction.


Can’t Go It Alone by jcause

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A solid interesting story that follows two point of views: Kara Danvers/Supergirl & Maggie Sawyer. And there is, in fact, a romance in this fanfiction of Supergirl - but it does not involve Kara and Maggie. The romance involves Alex Danvers and Maggie Sawyer.

My internet keeps cutting in and out so I flee before I lose what little I've already written.

Rating: 4.31

October 23 2017



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Supergirl In Training by wtfoctagon

Imagine, if you will, being an individual living your life. Going about your day. Certain things are set, certain others are up in the air. One of the 'set' things is the part where you will never have a child - for person (a) that's because they are physically incapable of having a child; for person (b) that's because they have had very rotten luck when it comes to family connections and they just know they’d royally screw up any kid that came within fifty miles of them (that ‘fifty miles’ thing is something I lifted from the story itself). So that’s you, for one reason or another you know that you will never have a child.

Now imagine meeting someone who bears a strong resemblance to yourself and who calls you mom.

That’s what happened at the start of this book. Lena was having a normal day, and then a normal night – driving home from work. At either a stop light or stop sign (I forget now which), Lena is startled by someone pounding on their passenger window. This is Lena Luther, so, of course, she . . . waited for more information before reacting (okay, she’d probably have stomped on the gas pedal, but meh).

Well Lena lowered the window a little bit instead of hitting the gas pedal. The woman on the other side of the window screamed something that sounds remarkably like ‘Mom! Hurry up! Let me in, Grandmother is after me!’ (the idea that Lena’s mother is after the woman on the other side of the window is conveyed, I forget if Grandmother or some other term was used). Naturally Lena . . . doesn’t open the door. Then she spots a black van hurrying towards her, the same van that had been involved in an earlier kidnapping – her own kidnapping. So, she open the door, the woman straps in, and off Lena shoots – now pounding on the gas pedal.

One thing leads to another, and it comes out that Lena does in fact have a daughter she never realized she had . . . 5 years in the future (though the woman herself is from 22 years in the future, that’s right, she’s 17). And in the brighter lights of her apartment, the young woman does look remarkably like Lena – with some mannerisms that reminds Lena of someone else.

Because of the nature of yellow sun/red sun/crushing stuff reasons, it is physically impossible for Kara to have a child ‘in the system’ (solar system). And yet, there she is. Lori L. Danvers – her daughter.

And so, over the course of . . . drat, the book description doesn’t have word count. Mmphs. Right, so over the course of roughly 70,000+ words, the reasons for what/how/why come out – unfold. Family time is spent. People are fought. Internal battles occur. Kara continues to be abused by Manhole (or however the author put that, actually it think it might have been closer to Manhell – Mon-El). Attempts to get away from him, gets abused more, etc. etc. You know, stuff happens.

This was a quite interesting and mostly fluffy story. Quite entertaining way to pass the time.

Rating: 3.75

October 13 2017

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

Policies and Procedures for Being Emily Locke by Nerissa

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I rather liked the show, despite it's very short appearance on television, and rather liked Emily Locke. Sad to see both disappear from my life. (Referring to Powerless, not Supergirl - since Supergirl is still on the air)

The story is cute and funny. And rather good at capturing Emily's character. To a certain extent, goodish at capturing Kara. I suppose I'm used to Supergirl stories wherein there's a big deal about Supergirl actually going out with another woman, while this one . . ., well, before we got anywhere in the story, Kara had asked Emily out for a 'non interview' . . . um, thing. Evening? I forget now how it was worded. Mind, it could be Emily misreading things . . . but then Kara asked about the tabloids saying that Emily was dating Green Fury, and then being happy it was fiction. Because.

Okay, when I said that the story was 'cute and funny' - I really meant it. There were times I laughed openly and loudly.

Said while eating a meal at a restaurant after Kara appeared to have said something more than she had meant to say:

So Emily, determined to make it, if not less awkward for Kara, at least equally awkward for both of them, blurted out “I think you are unfairly beautiful and I’d really like to kiss you on the mouth.”

Oh, and the erotic parts were . . . funny and . . . erotic. *Noted with wide bright eyes* And, um, I now understand the attraction of love making with someone who can read your body through various super-powers. Is . . . good.

Hmm, action good too. *nods*

I love this short story more than life itself. Wait, no, that's stupid. Um, I really really like this story? Hmms. Well, something like that.

Rating: 5+

September 19 2017



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Pink Ladies, or Bioavailable Bisexuality by IShipItAllAndThenSome

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I think this is the third Supergirl fanfiction I've read. Yes, third. Three different authors, two different relationships (as in, Kara being matched up with people, two involve Kara+Lena, one involves Kara+Cat). This specific story involves Kara and Lena in a relationship.

Lena really likes both Kara and Supergirl - and hasn't exactly spent a life with friends. And wants to help her friends. So creates a vaccine for kryptonite for Supergirl; and hugs, and cuddles, and spends time watching television with Kara, even though she knows Kara's straight, and she herself wished Kara would tilt her head a little more when they cuddled to press their lips together.

For, reasons, she tested the vaccine on herself. It seemed to work. She got it ready to send off. Then Supergirl/Kara popped up. Both seemed super . . . touchier than normal. (view spoiler)[this is where I was having some slight confusion - they hadn't taken the vaccine yet (they being Supergirl and Superman), yet were acting on it? That got explained, though - there's a reason for it. (view spoiler)[by giving herself the vaccine, Lena basically turned herself into intelligent biped pink Kryptonite. And the Krypton people reacted to it.(view spoiler)[Pink kryptonite is actually 'real' in the Super universe, and yes it does have a 'gay' effect on the supers (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]).

This was a super neat, nice, fluffy, great story. I loved this story. It as super good.

Rating: 5.00

September 18 2017

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Cleaved in Two by Hypnobyl

Fandom: Supergirl (TV)
Found: http://archiveofourown.org/works/10404105?view_full_work=true

Both my second story by this author and my second fanfiction story based on Supergirl (though first was by a different author; the other story by this author that I've read involved the female version of Ghostbusters).

There are two main differences between this story and the previous Supergirl story I'd read (probably more, but let's start with these): 1) the first story was a longish book length work, while this one is a short story; 2) first story involved Kara Danvers and Lena Luther; this story involves Kara Danvers and Cat Grant.

There's an interesting twist added to this story: apparently 'soulmates' begin picking up some of the traits/abilities of their 'soulmate'. And Cat has been having some . . . strength (as in, a lot more than normal) and . . . remaining on the ground problems lately (as in, occasional bouts of hovering).

Items of interest: This is a fanfiction, so: Characters? Both Kara and Cat seem to correspond to what I recall of their characters from the show. Placement (in the timeline of the show): not sure - at some point before Cat left, at least, and while Kara is still her assistant, but after Maggie and Alex began dating (I'm not actually sure both factoids ever occurred at the same time on the show - Maggie+Alex dating and Kara still assistant to Cat).

The whole 'soulmate' thing completely baffles me. At least it does after I read 'Alex had found her first soulmate in tenth grade'. Apparently people can have many soulmates over their lives. I . . . confused. The soulmate thing makes me feel uneasy. No, not the 'Cat and Kara are soulmates!', but the 'people have more than one soulmate throughout life, and they exchange abilities through that link! And, other than the ability exchange, being a soulmate doesn't really mean anything!' I mean . . what the fuck? My entire ability to enjoy this story has been drastically reduced when I learned that Cat and Kara being soulmates is basically like saying both are female. Why the fuck was 'soulmates' word even used? I'm very annoyed. I mean, the bloody title implies that soulmates means something, while the bloody story itself . . . keeps tossing the word aroudn super casually. mmphs.


'At forty-two years old' - wait, Cat Grant is only 42? I assumed she was Calista Flockhart's age (52). And Supergirl is somewhere around 27 or 29 or something like that (Melissa Benoist herself is 28).


Part of the story involves a 'Carter' who is Cat's teenage son. I knew of the adult son, but I do not recall the teenage son. Though that might just be because I haven't seen many episodes.


Okay, seriously, did 'soul mates' come up on the show? Yes, no? Why is it overwhelming this story? I don't mean in the somewhat sappy natural 'we're soul mates' way, I mean everyone's talking about it as if it was this 'thing' that everyone goes through. Like the teenager is all 'just because your soulmates doesn't mean anything'. gah. It's super annoying me.

Wait, what the fuck? - “My soul mate invited me to the convention today. This is like the first time they’ve been interested in hanging out with me, and Mom wouldn’t let me.” The kid has a soulmate? WTF IS THIS FUCKING SOULMATE FUCKING CRAP!?!? arrgarah

Cat - '“When I was eighteen, I encountered my first soul mate.' - okay, seriously, I'm just numb now. Just fucking stop talking about fucking soul mates since it obviously means jackshit in this universe. Just fuck off with your soulmate talk.

You why I keep getting pissed off? Because it keeps pulling me out of the story. I'm bouncing along, happily reading and interesting story and . . . something like 'All these years, I’ve had soul mates, and I’ve never stopped to think about how alienating that might be for you. ' pops up and I'm out of the story. Poof. Out. It's like fingers on chalkboard.

mmphs. Story over now. There were flashes of good here and there - heck, the whole story might have been 'good-ish' but I'm not really able to tell because of that fingers on chalkbard 'soulmates' stuff. *shrugs*

Rating: tenatively rate this 3.24

September 14 2017

It's in the Stars (It's been Written in the Scars/On our Hearts) by katevw8

It's in the Stars by katevw8

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Fanfiction based on the television series 'Supergirl', which can be found here.

Well, then. In a review that I wrote for the most recent previous book I had read written by this author, I had had a longish discussion about how I had thought it was the last book currently available to be read by that author that I hadn't yet read - and how rare it is for me to read everything available - but had noticed, mid-read, that there was this book here. Well, now I've read this book here. So, you know what that means . . . *looks*. Oh, I actually have read everything by this author now, neat. Hopefully there will be more to read, but neat for now.

Fun review so far, no?

Being that this is a fanfiction written based on and using characters from Supergirl: I'd seen episodes of Supergirl, and for a while there it was one of those shows I had kept some track of - I forget now how much I'd seen. Bits and pieces of episodes here and there, possibly most of the first half of the first season. 99% of the episodes I'd seen had been ones before the show changed networks - with one, maybe two episodes from after the network change. I mention this so there's some frame of reference - I had some greater than vague idea about this television series before I read this fanfiction, but it was an out of date knowledge of the show.

I'm not sure if this work would be easier to read with or without specific knowledge of the show. I do know that there were things that it helped to know from having seen the show (like what the characters look like - like, I don't think any of the characters skin coloration ever got mentioned, but at least two of the main characters have dark skin on the show, and I wouldn't have known that without having seen the show). I also know that there was stuff I didn't recognize and that flew over my head. Would it have been easier/better to come to this 'fresh'? Not sure. Like, I knew what a lot of the background characters look like (less than half, but a lot of them), but had no idea what some of the main characters looked like from watching the show (I had seen a huge number of 'SuperCorp' youtube videos before I read this story, though, and some included images of Lena and Maggie - neither of whom had been in the episodes I'd seen). So, I suppose it's good to know that Supergirl looks like one of the Glee show cheerleaders (since, you know, she was), and that her human father looks like one of the Superman actors (since Dean Cain played that role), and her mother had played Supergirl, and the sister is super gorgeous looking and stuff. I've lost my train of thought and am moving on.

Right so - characters seemed to line up with what I recall of the show. Bearing in mind that none of the characters had been lesbian or even hinted at the idea before I'd stopped watching. So - characterization seemed good.

Oh, and important - especially important now that I've seen, though not read, some of the other Supergirl fanfiction stories - there are multiple points of view in this book. They include: Lena (Supergirl's girlfriend), Kara (Supergirl), Alex (Supergirl's human sister), and brief moments with Maggie (Supergirl's human sister's girlfriend). And, while this is a 'Supercorp' story (Supercorp being the name fans of Lena/Kara relationship have picked up on using - and was used constantly in this story itself (as in, #SuperCorp being mentioned trending on twitter), some part of Maggie and Alex's relationship also got some time to be seen by the reader (much less time than Lena and Kara's, but some time).

bah - I didn't know what to say but figured I wanted something in the review box. I keep rambling hoping I'll hit something interesting. pfft. I just note some of the things I wanted to note instead of trying to force things.

One of the 'things' I noticed that likely would have been missing from a polished published work - there were many scenes that got repeated. I mean, literally, it was like a copy+paste had been accidentally pushed a couple of times. A few paragraphs conveying information would pop up, new paragraphs pop up, then those same earlier paragraphs appeared again. Normally this occurred rapid fire in close connection to each other - once, though, the repetition occurred about a hundred pages after the scene's first appearance.

I liked the story, and what was revealed/shown. Especially like a specific love scene between Kara and Lena when Kara was 'deflowered'.

bah, can't think of what really to put here.

Rating: 4.67

September 1 2017



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