Supergirl: Many Happy Returns with Case Aiken
We are kicking off Trade School with Supergirl: Many Happy Returns! Our host for this one is Case Aiken, a podcaster and comic fan!
Overview
Case Aiken introduces "Trade School," a comic book podcast series aimed at discussing trade paperbacks with emotional significance for guests, targeting accessibility for new readers.
The inaugural episode highlights "Many Happy Returns," the 2003 closing arc of Peter David's Supergirl run, which comprises issues 75-80.
Aiken reflects on his personal connection to the trade, describing it as a lifeline during college, particularly due to the absence of a local comic shop.
The storyline features a pivotal encounter between Linda Danvers and Silver Age Kara Zor-El, showcasing a blend of unique character backgrounds and abilities.
Elements like the infamous pink Kryptonite scene introduce significant moments in comic history, including a canonical gay Superman moment.
The arc aimed to rejuvenate the series for new readers, illustrating an accessible entry point despite not being the originally planned finale.
Ed Bennis' artwork is commended for enhancing the story, though the series finale feels brief in comparison to the overall narrative.
Linda Danvers is acknowledged as a complex character overshadowed by the resurgence of Kara Zor-El in the 2000s Superman fandom.
Issues are now available on DC Universe Infinite, providing modern readers easy access to this trade.
The podcast encourages audience engagement by inviting submissions of meaningful trade paperbacks for future episodes and provides contact information for participation.
Notes
️ Introduction & Series Overview (00:00 - 01:17)
Case Aiken introduces "Trade School," a comic book-focused podcast series similar to "Side Quests" from Fun and Games with Matt and Jeff.
Series concept focuses on discussing trade paperbacks that guests have emotional attachments to, emphasizing accessibility for new readers.
Opening episode dedicated to Peter David, who passed away a week before recording, acknowledging his controversial statements but emphasizing his importance in 1990s comics.
Book Selection & Personal Context (01:17 - 02:40)
Featured trade: "Many Happy Returns" - the 2003 closing arc to Peter David's Supergirl run, collecting issues 75-80.
Story concludes the Linda Danvers storyline, the Matrix entity Supergirl who became an earthbound angel.
Initial series popularity driven by iconic Gary Frank cover showing Supergirl in flannel shirt revealing S-symbol underneath while holding skateboard.
Artwork transitioned to Ed Bennis by the final arc, who became a prominent 2000s artist.
Personal Reading Experience (02:40 - 04:04)
Aiken picked up the trade as a Colgate University student in 2003, struggling to access comics due to lack of local comic shop.
Trade served as "lifeline" to comic hobby during college years when regular consumption was difficult.
Represented both a return to beloved series and bittersweet ending to enjoyable run.
️ Plot Summary & Character Background (04:04 - 08:40)
Story features two Supergirls meeting: Linda Danvers (Matrix entity) encounters Silver Age Kara Zor-El.
Matrix Supergirl backstory: Created during John Byrne era as non-Kryptonian alternative, based on Lana Lang's DNA, protoplasmic shapeshifter.
Peter David's approach: Fused Matrix with troubled human Linda Danvers, creating "earthborn angel" with flame wings and fire vision abilities.
By "Many Happy Returns," angel elements removed, Linda retained flight, super strength, invulnerability, and psychokinetic powers.
Contains infamous pink Kryptonite scene where Clark becomes interested in Jimmy, creating canonical gay Superman moment.
Story Assessment & Accessibility (08:40 - 11:24)
Arc originally intended as "shot in the arm" to revitalize series with new reader accessibility, not planned series finale.
Ed Bennis artwork praised as fantastic, story flows well despite feeling too short.
Effectively serves as capstone to series while remaining accessible to newcomers.
Linda Danvers character unfortunately overshadowed by 2000s Kara Zor-El in Superman fandom memory.
Issues available on DC Universe Infinite app for modern readers.
Series Conclusion & Call to Action (11:24 - 12:44)
Open invitation for audience to submit their meaningful trade paperbacks for future episodes.
Contact information: @AceAiken on most platforms, @Quetzalcoatl5 on Instagram.
Encourages reaching out via Discord server or Bluesky for episode submissions.
Promotional outro for "Men of Steel" Superman podcast at certainpov.com.
Transcription
00:00
Case
Welcome to Certain Point of View's Trade School, where each episode a different host talks about a comic book trade paperback that they loved and why they love it. Hey, everyone, I'm Case Aiken and this is Trade School. Now, if you're familiar with our fellow Certain POV podcast Fun and Games with Matt and Jeff, you're probably familiar with their sub series side quests. And this is kind of a sibling series to that. This is a comic book focused show where we're going to discuss comics that are available in trade paperback form. And the goal is just like SideQuest, to have guests submit whatever their favorite trade paperback that they have emotional attachments to and talk about why.
00:42
Case
And not just talk about the story, but, you know, talk a little bit about the story, but explain why it's a worthwhile trade for someone to pick up. The idea is that these are accessible books to people. So what did I choose to open the series with? Well, as of recording this, we are a week out from Peter David passing away, and I figured it would be a good opening to give a little bit of thought on Peter David, who is a writer that meant a lot to me. Now, I know he's had some controversial statements in the past, but, you know, also don't speak ill of the dead is sort of a thing there. But he was a very important figure in shaping the comics, especially of the Ninet.
01:24
Case
And so I wanted to talk about a story that came at the tail end of that. So today we're Talking about the 2003 closing arc to Peter David's run on Supergirl. And so we are talking about many happy returns. So, like I mentioned, this is the last story in the Peter David run of Supergirl. It is the conclusion to the story of Linda Danvers, the Matrix entity Supergirl who became an earthbound angel. Crazy stuff happened in that book. It was. It was wild. And I think a lot of people tuned in at the beginning of the run, mainly because of the Gary Frank cover on the first issue, which was this iconic shot of Supergirl having her shirt open or wearing a flannel shirt open, revealing the Supergirl T shirt underneath. And it was just a very cool looking teenage girl kind of shot.
02:17
Case
She was holding a skateboard in it. It was really iconic. Not a lot of people stayed for the remainder of the run, though. So this Trade collects issues 75 through 80, which again, was the finality of the series. Peter David had stayed on for the entirety of the book, but artists came and went. So by the time this arc came out it had shifted over to Ed Bennis, who would go on to be a superstar artist of the early 2000s. When this book came out. I had just recently gone to college and I was having a hard time being a comic book fan at a school where there wasn't a local comic book shop near where I went. I went to Colgate University and at the time, this was 2003 ish when I picked up the trade, there wasn't a comic book shop.
03:02
Case
And there might be one now, I'm not sure, frankly. But it's a small town and if there is one, I wouldn't be surprised if it was not long for this world just because again, it's a small town and this is a niche hobby. So I picked up this trade having fallen off my regular consumption of the Supergirl series, just by virtue of the fact that I wasn't able to go to a local comic book shop and buy these throughout the majority of my or throughout the semesters at school. So when I was home, I would pick up a lot of trades and really appreciate those many happy returns as a result. Is a trade that meant a lot to me at the time.
03:40
Case
It was one of my lifelines to a hobby that was a passion of mine that I was having a really hard time consuming and taking part in. I didn't have friends at college that were particularly comic book fans either. And so this was a very. This had become a very internal hobby for me. Many Happy Returns. The trade was in a lot of ways a return to the Supergirl series after having fallen off. And it was bittersweet knowing that it was the end of what I had really enjoyed overall after a book. But what actually happens in Many Happy Returns? Well, Supergirl meets Supergirl.
04:16
Case
For the shortest way to explain this, it is a send up of the original Silver Age, or I shouldn't say original Silver Age, because the original Silver Age Supergirl story is one where Jimmy Olsen wished her into existence by way of a magic totem. But the classic Silver Age Supergirl story of Kara's or El being introduced to Superman by way of Rocket and coming from Argo City and so forth, that is the story that we are dealing with here because at this point this was the Matrix entity, Linda Danvers Supergirl, she had been created during the very end of the John Byrne era as a way of having Supergirl but not having Kryptonians.
04:58
Case
And this sort of set the tone for what the 90s and 2000s super family would look like, or I should say the early the 90s super family, more so because Kryptonians started being reintroduced in the 2000s, shortly after this, actually. But this is sort of a prologue to what would be the trend in the. In the 2000s, because in the 90s, they just flat out would not do other Kryptonians. So that's why Superboy is a clone of not actually Superman. In the original continuity, he was a clone of a human and then modified to look like Superman. Likewise, Supergirl was based on Lana Lang's DNA, if I remember correctly. And then. And had she thought that she was Lana Lang, and then she found out that she was actually a protoplasmic entity that was able to shape shift and had all.
05:47
Case
All kinds of powers and so forth, and happened to have a form that she enjoyed taking, which was Supergirl, and looked just like the classic Supergirl that were all familiar with. Anyway, this character existed for a while. She's really confusing to a lot of people. I love talking about how confusing she is. I love. But when Peter David took over or, well, started Supergirl the series, he decided to simplify things by way of making things way more complicated. So Supergirl fused with a human girl named Linda Danvers. And in the story, Linda Danvers was a troubled youth. And so this, like, fusion of a sinful human with this pure protoplasmic, innocent creature that was the Supergirl entity created an earthborn angel in the story. And that was weird. And so for a while, that was the status quo with Supergirl.
06:46
Case
That she was angel and had flaming wings and could shoot fire from her eyes, in addition to being psychokinetic and being able to go invisible and being super strong. Anyway, that all eventually got sorted out because while there were avid fans of the series, it had a hard time being accessible to people. And so by the point that many Happy Returns comes along, the book had done a lot to try to be a very accessible book. And in fact, this arc was not intended to be the swan song of the series. It was intended for, at the start of it, to be a shot in the arm to breathe new life into the series by way of having a much more standardized Supergirl. The angel element had been removed and had technically gone off to be its own thing.
07:42
Case
And then Linda Danvers was left, but with the powers of Supergirl, which was flight, Super Strength 9 vulnerability and psychokinetic abilities, like I alluded to. So that Supergirl then encounters, apparently the Silver Age Supergirl in the story because of timey wimey reality stuff and goes on to have an adventure with her before ultimately sending her back to her own reality to allow crisis on infinite Earths to happen and all that. It was a lot of fun and it. It gets cited sometimes as being. It's okay. So this is the one where while our Supergirl, the Linda Danvers Supergirl, is in the Silver Age continuity, she ends up in a relationship with Clark and they have a joke in there where he encounters pink Kryptonite, and all of a sudden he becomes more interested in Jimmy. This is that one.
08:40
Case
This is where that panel comes from that people sometimes rip on Superman for because they actually have a canonical instance of pink Kryptonite. And that made him g. it's again, Peter David has said some stuff and has put some stuff in his books that, you know, don't. Don't hold up very well. I thought it was whatever as a joke at the time, but the rest of the series is really good. The art is really good. The. It does end up being an effective send off to the book, although it does feel too short in a lot of ways, but it just. It looks really good. The, the, like I said, the art's fantastic, the story flows really well.
09:20
Case
It's designed to be new reader accessible because it was supposed to be a shot in the arm story arc that was to breathe new life into the series. And while it didn't ultimately breathe that new life into the series, it did send it off with a really good capstone. I really enjoy the Peter David Supergirl series, and it is unfortunate that it is so difficult to engage with in the context of the larger Superman fandom, because the 2000s rendition of Kara Zor El has so thoroughly erased the memory of Linda Danvers as this weird, like, side story in the Supergirl progression of things. But yeah, this is. Like I said, this is just a really fun book that I think anyone could hop into without much information.
10:10
Case
I mean, aside from needing to understand that there's two Supergirls in this and that, like, if you go in with open an open mind, that the book catches you up pretty quick on all the characters, including the main character, who in theory you've been a reader of. But because this again, was intended to be a hey, let's get new readers story arc, it is very open to people coming on and sort of understanding it all. So in conclusion, I think that this is a really fun trade paperback. Nowadays, people are more likely to read the story on the DC Universe Infinite app, which is fine. The. The issues are up there. I did check that before coming to record this. And by check that before, I mean I paused and went over to the app to look at it.
10:52
Case
But you are able to read the Supergirl run by Peter David and I would encourage people to check it out. If nothing else, check out the Many Happy Returns arc, which again issue 75 to 80 of the Peter David Supergirl series from the late 90s and into the 2000s. And that is. Yeah, that's the story. That's what I wanted to talk about today. And that is what this series is about. Series is supposed to be talking about your love of a particular story and why you care about it. So on that note, this is an open call for people to submit what is a trade paperback that meant something to you and why? So on that note, please reach out. You can find me on most platforms, Ace Aiken.
11:39
Case
Except for Instagram, where I'm holding on for dear Life to my AIM screen name from high school, which is Quetzalcoatl5. But yeah, you can find me at most platforms. And in this case, reach out to me on our Discord server or on Bluesky, for example, and I'd happily connect and share the info in terms of getting an episode posted here if you wanted to. But if you just want to tune in, I encourage you to come back next time. But until then, happy reading. Hey. Oh, hey, Jeff. What's going on, guys? Oh, you know, talking about Superman. Oh, cool. I could talk about Superman. I could talk some more about Superman. We know. I'll bet a few people would want to get in on this. I'm down. You know it. That sounds like fun. I'll do it. Cool. Let's do it.
12:29
Case
We can call the show Men of Steel and you can find it@ certainpov.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Yay. Cpov. Certainpov.com.