Supergirl Supergirl Season 2 Episode 13 - "Mr. & Mrs. Mxyzptlk" MAJOR SPOILERS

[flickchick85]

From KryptonSite:

DC COMICS’ MR. MXYZPTLK HITS NATIONAL CITY – When Mr. Mxyzptlk (guest star Peter Gadiot), a magical imp, shows up on Earth and declares his love for Kara (Melissa Benoist), she tries to let him down easy, thinking him harmless. However, he decides it’s a challenge and starts to wreak havoc on National City. Mon-El (Chris Wood) has seen beings like Mr. Mxyzptlk on Daxam and knows how dangerous they can be. He and Kara argue over how to get rid of Mr. Mxyzptlk, further straining their relationship. Meanwhile, Alex (Chyler Leigh) and Maggie (Floriana Lima) celebrate their first Valentine’s Day together. Stefan Pleszczynski directed the episode written by Jessica Queller & Sterling Gates (#213). Original airdate 2/20/17.

Time to introduce the Kryptonian weakness to magic!

 

[flickchick85]

Queller is of course a regular writer for the show, but Sterling Gates is a comic book writer who penned the main Supergirl title for a while a few years back (his run included the whole "New Krypton" arc, something I hope to see brought to this show some day). I wonder if he's joined the writing staff or if it's just a guest-writer gig.

 

[Mister J]

I've been waiting for a visit from Mr. 5th Dimension. There's some fun to be had here.

 

[flickchick85]

Not gonna lie, I love Mr. Mxyzptlk. I hope the show does him some kind of justice. He can be so fun.

 

[Kelly]

Queller is of course a regular writer for the show, but Sterling Gates is a comic book writer who penned the main Supergirl title for a while a few years back (his run included the whole "New Krypton" arc, something I hope to see brought to this show some day). I wonder if he's joined the writing staff or if it's just a guest-writer gig.

Queller is one of my favorites so it will be fun to see her pair up with Gates. Cannot wait. From how he has described it it is just a "guest-writer" kind of thing.

 

[metaphysician]

Ehh, Mxy is not normally portrayed as "magical". He's not "Kryptonians are weak the magic," he's "Kryptonians are irrelevant next to vast scale reality warping".

Also, technically, they introduced the magic weakness already, with Silver Banshee. It was, thankfully, a fairly limited magic weakness, less "killed by a card trick" and more "take +1 column shift damage".

 

[Kelly]

Ehh, Mxy is not normally portrayed as "magical". He's not "Kryptonians are weak the magic," he's "Kryptonians are irrelevant next to vast scale reality warping".

Also, technically, they introduced the magic weakness already, with Silver Banshee. It was, thankfully, a fairly limited magic weakness, less "killed by a card trick" and more "take +1 column shift damage".

No they didn't, not even a little bit...

 

[04nbod]

going to be a wacky valentines

 

[Dr.]

I wish I had one of those "super minds."

 

[vantheman77]

I wonder if Supergirl will debut the Super-Mind power in this episode.

 

[Kelly]

I hope so, I've liked reading that in the latest comics.

 

[metaphysician]

No they didn't, not even a little bit...

Silver Banshee's sonic scream made Supergirl literally bleed. *Nothing* else has done that when she's had full power, and they made a specific effort to draw attention to this.

 

[Kelly]

Don't really see that as her using magic. More just using the curse passed down through her family. They didn't even go into her dad's Occult Book.

 

[Kelly]

Every time I think of Mr. Mxyzptlk, I get The Great Gazoo from the Flintstones vibe....lol

 

[vantheman77]

Since Kara and Mon-El's relationship is straining here, I think Supergirl will use the approach of getting Mxyzptlk to say or do his name backwards while Mon-El may want another approach. I wonder if Kara will call or text her cousin about Mxyzptlk.

Since Mxyzptlk is an alien, I can't see any reason for James to be in this episode as this is out of his league like the White Martians are.

 

[metaphysician]

Don't really see that as her using magic. More just using the curse passed down through her family. They didn't even go into her dad's Occult Book.

. . .how are powers gained from a mystic curse *not* magic?

 

[Kelly]

. . .how are powers gained from a mystic curse *not* magic?

A curse being put on you by magic....doesn't mean you use that power as magic. As in, she isn't practicing magic, she is just using a curse placed on her family ages ago as her power. Magic is not her power.

 

[metaphysician]

Her powers are impossible effects created by the magic curse on her. This is like saying a magic fireball isn't magic, its just fire created by magic. Which goes contrary to how things are almost always handled in comics by both major companies, so. . .

 

[Kelly]

ok...

 

[Thome216]

Right now I'm just looking forward to learning how to pronounce, Mxyzptlk...

 

[flickchick85]

Right now I'm just looking forward to learning how to pronounce, Mxyzptlk...

Why wait?

 

[coluanprime]

Her powers are impossible effects created by the magic curse on her. This is like saying a magic fireball isn't magic, its just fire created by magic. Which goes contrary to how things are almost always handled in comics by both major companies, so. . .

In DC, if your power is derived from magic, then your powers are magic. This is why Silver Banshee has been an enemy for Superman for years.

 

[Dr.]

In Smallville, Black Canary’s “canary cry” could debilitate Clark - even to the point of making his ears bleed. Now, I’m not sure if the “internal logic” of this was ever specified. But notwithstanding that BC’s power was preternatural, it didn’t seem to be supernatural (“magic”). More likely, it was just another example (in a long list) of a particular character having abilities that could trump Superman. (E.g., Flash is faster, Batman is smarter, etc. )

And it seems Supergirl could be following this template. So the fact that Kara is affected by Silver Banshee’s scream could just be an arbitrary rule that the writer(s) invented. I.e., you don’t need “magic” to explain this vulnerability - because there are (apparently) a wide variety of “natural/sci-fi” scenarios that Kara has difficulty with.

 

[metaphysician]

In DC, if your power is derived from magic, then your powers are magic. This is why Silver Banshee has been an enemy for Superman for years.

That's my point. Claiming otherwise, that powers created by magic nonethless aren't magic powers, goes against what actually happens in the comics.

I admit, there are a lot of negatives. And also weird terms of non-distinction ( "magic powers" vs "powers created by magic" ).

 

[metaphysician]

In Smallville, Black Canary’s “canary cry” could debilitate Clark - even to the point of making his ears bleed. Now, I’m not sure if the “internal logic” of this was ever specified. But notwithstanding that BC’s power was preternatural, it didn’t seem to be supernatural (“magic”). More likely, it was just another example (in a long list) of a particular character having abilities that could trump Superman. (E.g., Flash is faster, Batman is smarter, etc. )

And it seems Supergirl could be following this template. So the fact that Kara is affected by Silver Banshee’s scream could just be an arbitrary rule that the writer(s) invented. I.e., you don’t need “magic” to explain this vulnerability - because there are (apparently) a wide variety of “natural/sci-fi” scenarios that Kara has difficulty with.

I would buy this if the show weren't so consistent, in stuff only causing Kara to bleed if her powers are futzing out. I don't even recall any of the fights with Kryptonians leaving her bleeding. Combine that with Silver Banshee not exactly having any really high end feats beyond fighting Supergirl. . . its not like she's even leveled a building with her screams, where you could make a plausible argument of "the attack is just that powerful, and against a fragile point."