Greybishop's Board: The Best of Superman, Addendum II

So now I've moved into the Supergirl series portion of the excercise. The Supergirl movie didn't add anything to the best of Superman list and the Superboy series made only a tiny dent. Can the CBS/CW version of Supergirl make a dent or two of its own? What about the short-lived Krypton series?

Melissa Benoist has minimal competition in live action versions of Supergirl, with only Helen Slater's turn as the character and Laura Vandervoort's guest shots on Smallville so far on film to compare against.

There's a new version coming in the new Flash film we'll be getting soon, but for now Benoist's "Best Supergirl in Live Action" is safe. I also really dig her version's boots.

Personally my favourite Supergirl of ALL TIME is the version played by Nichole Sullivan on the Super Hero Girls tv series. Sullivan plays her tough, almost beyond control, obsessed with heavy metal and yet still heroic and good, even when she screws up.

Headbangin' punk Supergirl rocks!

Before I tally up the best parts that the Supergirl series adds to the "Best of Superman" list, I have one addendum for the list. I always say that ANY superhero (or just adventure in general) show or movie relies on great villain casting far more than great hero casting. The Superman property is certainly no different. The best versions of both Superman and Supergirl are the ones pitted against GREAT villains. In my previously published list I lamented that so few of Superman's fantastic Rogues' Gallery members have had really fantastic live action versions and I totally forgot one of the best Superman villains and a great portrayal.

Toyman! He's showed up in several incarnations, mostly in animation but at least four live action versions as well. The animated version from Superman the Animated Series that puts him in a creepy ventriloquist dummy mask and has him stalking Lois Lane and building robot supermodels might be the most inventive but it's a big departure from the visuals of the source material. Shockingly the most faithful version of the character, both visually and character-wise comes from Smallville.

Creepy. Seriously. Nightmare inducingly creepy.

Sherman Hemsley (yep, George Jefferson, accompanied by Isabel Sandford who played Mrs. Jefferson as his faithful assistant, Miss Duffy) played a weird, Christmas themed version of the character in Lois and Clark, and another version played by Grant Shaud appeared as well. In Superboy, Gilbert Gottfried got the gig but Chris Gauthier's turn in Smallville gets the win in my book. Usually Smallville took pretty large liberties with both character and visuals, particularly with the villains, but this time they get it close to spot on. He doesn't quite wear the huge bow-tie or striped jacket I associate with Toyman but his version is like a toned down Joker where all the others come across more like spoiled, rather stupid children.

I couldn't find a picture but I swear I remember Gauthier in a BIG bowtie at some point in the show...

Now, back to what Supergirl and Krypton add to the list:

Season 1 of the live action Supergirl certainly didn't add much else to the mythology. Aside from giving us the best live action Martian Manhunter/J'onn J'onzz we've ever had, there's not much new or great here. And let's face it, there's not been much competition on the J'onn J'onzz front, with only a brief glimpse of the Martian Manhunter played by Harry Lennix in the Zack Snyder cut of Justice League and possibly the most embarrassing superhero outing ever, by anyone...

David Ogden Stiers!

Yep, that's M*A*S*H's own Charles Emerson Winchester III painted green and cross-gartered. I love Stiers but honestly this pic makes it look like they paid him in donuts. Many, many donuts.

Great actor, terrible choice for the role in the failed Justice League pilot from the 90s.

David Harewood's Manhunter is pretty damned good.

Harewood may not have much competition but he brings J'onn J'onzz to life with warmth and even a bit of good humour. He can play him tough and a bit scary when needed as well. I've enjoyed his performance above most others on the show, pretty much since the start. For a tv show, they also do a pretty bang up job with his visuals.

Extra special mention to Carl Lumbly. He played Martian Manhunter in the Bruce Timm animated Justice League and Justice League Unlimited Series and gets a sweet bit of stunt-casting as J'onn J'onzz's Father, M'yrnn J'onzz, in season 3 of Supergirl. I just love this guy in both roles.

So...Martian Grand-Hunter?

The only other "best" from the early days of Supergirl is only kinda best. Sooner or later I'll be rewatching my Krypton dvd sets and I know that the Krypton version of Brainiac wins, hands down in terms of not only live action but animated incarnations of the character. It's that good.

Blake Ritson's Brainiac is not only creepy as fuck but hyper comics-accurate.

While Ritson's version of Brainiac easily wipes the memory of James Marsters (Buffy's Spike) playing an X-Files-esque black oil incarnation of Brainiac in Smallville from the mind, there's another former Smallville alum who gets some Brainiac time of her own in Supergirl and rocks it in a way neither Marsters nor Ritson can touch.

Laura Vandervoort's turn on Supergirl as Indigo (Also known as Brainiac 8) is head turning. The Brainiacs are living computers and generally just adopt "Brainiac" with a number in the order they come after the original. There's even a Brainiac 5 who's a good guy and shows up later on in the Supergirl series. Indigo is the only female version of the character I'm aware of and while Vandervoort's version of Brainiac isn't as creepy as the Ritson version, she's easily, definitely, totally...

the slinkiest. Damn. Just...Damn.

While she looks suspiciously like a DC version of the X-Men villain Mystique, she's more like a blue T-1000 from the Terminator movies crossed with a really evil Apple device and dipped in a supermodel. She really gives Supergirl a run for her money and it's fun to watch. For...reasons...

The other thing we get that's almost list worthy is the first crossover. At the time, Supergirl aired on CBS while The Flash was a fairly new show on CBS's little brother, the CW. In a "who didn't see this coming" foreshadowing moment, Barry Allen crosses over to Supergirl's parallel earth and they team up.

Even CW haters loved that they actually did this.

Eventually, of course, Supergirl would be rehomed on the CW and crossovers would become annual events, but at the time this was HUGE. The Flash had spun off from Arrow as had Legends of Tomorrow, but Supergirl was still her own independant entity on the "big" network and even had something the CW shows didn't: Star Power.

Media mogul Cat Grant was played in season one by the only real "name" actress to grace any of the Arrow-verse shows to date, Calista Flockhart. While I absolutely loathe the character and Flockhart's very presence in the series, she does get some truly great lines in the show. The very best line, from anyone, ever, is hers in this crossover. Barry Allen accompanies Kara (Supergirl) Danvers, Jimmy Olsen and Winn Schott into Grant's office and promptly puts his super fast foot in his mouth. After a cold stare that lasts just a beat too long, she says:

"All four of you, standing there, doing nothing? You look like the attractive yet non-threatening, racially diverse cast of a CW show."

Whoever wrote that line for Flockhart should get an Emmy for the Most Clairvoyant Line In A Superhero Show, EVER. I also gotta admit that Flockhart, while one of my least favourite actresses in the universe, does deliver lines like this with cold, heartless precision.

From a completely different corner of the DC Universe, we have another element of the Superman mythos that has rarely made it to the screen in live or animated form. Krypto, Superman's dog!

In the comics, Krypto most often appears to be a white dog of indeterminate variety. To me he most often resembles a Dalmatian minus the spots. He shows up in animated form first in the 1960s as part of the Superboy segments attatched to the Adventures of Superman from Filmation. This version is the one that most folks associate with the look and feel of the lovable mutt. He's basically a really smart dog with all of Superman's powers. Think "Lassie" with heat vision.

Yep, a flying dog, cape and all.

After the spots in the 60s, Krypto pretty much disappeared from the screen version of the Superman story until the 21st Century. He made an occasional cameo on shows like Superman The Animated Series and even showed up as a Golden Retriever on Smallville for a minute but little real use was made of Superman's pet until 2005's Krypto The Superdog animated series hit television for a couple of seasons. It's a nice, kid friendly version of the Canine of Steel.

Still, for my money nobody has done a better job with Krypto than the current incarnation on Titans. They've tweaked his origin to have him be a lab grown specimen, dialed out the power of flight and made him a fierce, loyal partner for their version of Superboy. Like most of the visuals on Titans, they've found the balance between comic accurate and suspension of disbelief. The Titans version of Krypto is probably my favourite thing about the whole show and the first and third seasons were among my favourite live action DC shows. While season 2 did intro Krypto and Superboy, it otherwise was a bit of a misfire. We did get this though:

What's better than a boy and his dog? A Hyper-comics-accurate Superboy and his dog!

Speaking of comics accurate, one last honourable mention from the Superman files, if not exactly a Superman related character.

The sadly short lived but brilliantly done Superman prequel series, Krypton, did some mind-blowing work with their version of Brainiac as I have already mentioned. They also brought to life one of DC's most beloved anti-heroes/villains, Lobo. Their version was so well done and so well received that there was almost immediate movement to a spin off series for the character. Sadly, poor Lobo was a casualty of poor timing, being sucked into of the whole DC streaming service overreach that brought down Krypton and the impressively wrought Swamp Thing series after just one season at around the same time. Someday, I hope someone resurrects the idea....

Cameron Cuffe just nailed this one. While he's the only live action version thus far, he's also spot on...