"The clouds make a much better home for my head."
Real Life
Hi everyone! First off, my all-time favorite comic book heroes (clicking each picture will take you to the bio of each):
Ororo Munroe a.k.a. Storm
Penance a.k.a. Hollow
Selina Kyle a.k.a. Catwoman
Susan Richards a.k.a. Invisible Woman
"How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself."
- Anais Nin
All About Mina: As Real As It Gets
^Back Cover to the Starleafgirl: Origins graphic novel.
Eyes: Blue.
Hair: Blond, long.
Skin: Light peach.
Height: 5'4.5" Earth feet.
Weight: 125 Earth pounds.
Mina Sorcha Aishling was an ordinary girl... on HER planet, anyhow, before that fateful day she decided to take the path less traveled. Since all of this happened on another planet and I don't really feel like elaborating at the moment, suffice it to say that she came across someone in need.
This person was badly injured and most likely wasn't going to make it to the nearest hospital. In rather unoriginal but true way, Mina found she had the ability to heal others with her touch. This wasn't something her people could normally do nor was it something easily explained by science.
It was, however, explained by the much-rumored emergence of "mutants" -- people who could do extrordinary things. Afraid of what might happen to her if someone found out what she could do, she designed an alternate persona to wear in the off chance she came across someone else who needed help and dubbed her something that more or less translates to English as Starleafgirl.
Mina came to Earth because she wanted to find out what she could about the ~confirmed~ mutant phenomenon on other planets. She had jumped at the first chance she got to participate in the Intragalactic Student Exchange Program (the I.S.E.P.) sponsored by her planet's government. It's a program for elite students (her grades were very good and she had to write an essay as well as submit to an extensive psychological evaluation and health check up) to travel to other planets and learn about their cultures. The exchange program switches herself and a willing alien participant; each is required to submit weekly reports to the Ten'equai (chairpersons) of the program.
Mina happened to be chosen to study Earth. She made up an Earthling name -- which was subject to approval for quality control and realism purposes (great job they did, huh?) -- and was given a cover story for herself. She now attends school at a Catholic all-girls high school in Manhattan.
Mina corresponds regularly with her Earthling counterpart, who attends a special school for exchange students on Mina's homeworld, partly so she can better understand Earth (specifically American) ways but also because she happens to get along well with the Earth girl called Kat. And of course she tells Kat about all the -- what's the word -- 'cool' places to go on her planet.
Alexis Dziena is Penance
Penance/Hollow specific themes:
Penance's mysterious past: "Tribal Gathering" by Vanessa Mae and "Path Vol. 2" by Apocalyptica
Penance original introduction in the rain in Generation X: "Rain" by Guano Apes
Penance and Emplate theme: "Sleep to Dream" by Fiona Apple
Hollow theme: "Wild" by Poe
Hollow and Julie Power theme: "Fully Alive" by Flyleaf
Hollow and Phil theme: "Control" by Poe
"You've got some nerve to come back here, you're not the only one who can smell fear." ~ lyrics from "Wild" by Poe.
Breaking away from this "Mina" profile I've come up with, I'd like to put a little shrine here to my choice for Penance (now called Hollow) in an X-Men movie... but I don't know anything about html markup or whatever, lol.
Alexis Dziena has the right bone structure, nice full lips, a half-starved look to her (rofl I'm not kiddin'!), a small stature, just the right height, and one of the things critics have said about her is that she doesn't have a very wide range of expressions... which is perfect for Penny, haha.
Alexis Dziena: Alexis Dziena 1 Alexis Dziena 2 Alexis Dziena 3
Penance/Hollow:
Super Life
...Or "I was an alien superhero"
^Front Cover to the Starleafgirl: Origins graphic novel.
Eyes: Green.
Hair: Brunette, long (but usually tucked into hood so it looks short).
Skin: Light peach.
Height: 5'7" Earth feet.
Weight: 130 Earth pounds.
As a side note, Starleafgirl is more buxom than her Real Life counterpart as well.
Having just arrived on Earth as an I.S.E.P. student, Starleafgirl hasn't had any adventures yet. "Astraleaves!" is a modification of her original idea for her Earth battlecry; her original one was in Latin and goes something along the line of "Astri frondescent," but then she realized she didn't want to be mistake for a witch, so she changed it.
Because Mina never came across anyone in dire need before she transferred to Earth (her homeworld is generally a very peaceful planet ;D), Mina had no need to modify her alternate persona. Mina did, however, have to modify the codeword she utters in order to transform -- a transformation aided by advanced technology, by the way -- because it was in her homeworld's tongue and someone showing up on Earth speaking that language possibly making the headlines at the same time that Mina'd gotten selected for the I.S.E.P. program as Earth's ONLY exchange student would look rather suspicious if anyone from her homeworld read about it later.
Her outfit is mostly red-and-white, made from a stretchy material as well as cloth, with tan boots.
When she utters her codeword "Astraleaves!" to transform, a light green luminescene emits from every inch of her body, covering her completely, and then falls off of her body like glowing leaves, which then disappear. It's a holographic projection, an animation if you will, that she designed to happen during the transformation.
Starleafgirl seems to have the ability to summon a staff at will, as well, but, like her outfit transformation, it's actually advanced technology aided by nanobots. She always wears a silver (the color, not the metal, although it is metallic, but it's an alien alloy) bangle on her right wrist, which appears to be a perfectly ordinary piece of jewelry until she pushes in the two green gems and swiftly turns it in toward her body. At that point, the bangle snaps off and becomes straight, quickly growing in Starleafgirl's left hand she's gripping a silvery metallic staff, a large green gem at either end. Her staff can absorb laser energy, harmful or not, as a result of the alien metal that's used in it; it was designed this way because people have laser guns on her homeworld instead of guns like we'd use here on Earth.
Her last piece of equipment is a small, Cetra-class computer capable of flight named KITARA (the anagram only translates into her native tongue, but for us it would be something like "{K}compact {I}supercomputer {T}companion {A}and {R}knowledge {A}base"). It's about the size of a large marble and glows the same green as her eyes (although the glow is turned off most of the time so it doesn't draw attention to itself). It's primarily solar-powered but does have an independent power source within itself as a backup. If damaged, it would use nanomachines and diagnostic subroutines to repair itself from the inside out. It's capable of speech and has the entire knowledge of Starleafgirl's people within it, but it will never tell a stranger anything. Good luck trying to interface with Starleafgirl's computer if it doesn't want to.
Starleafgirl is tight-lipped about the full scope of her powers, never revealing to anyone everything that she can do, but her powers and abilities are as follows:
Abilities:
Computer Savvy because she comes from an advanced civilization.
Staff-Fighting because she's received training for such as a means of self-defense; her staff absorbs laser energy (for why, see a previous paragraph). As far as Unarmed Combat goes, she's only trained in ways to defend herself, but that doesn't mean she can't throw a punch. ;)
Green Bioluminescene that occasionally flashes in her eyes, particularly when she's being emotional, because of her alien heritage.
Superior intellect, stamina, and speed, but only due to her Super Strength and Super Agility and alien heritage, which happens to mean she's better than the average human. She can beat most people in Track without really trying, and can figure out most things quickly but she'd always get beaten by someone who has Intellect, Stamina, or Super Speed as a Power.
She also has 20-20 vision, which is pretty average for people from her planet, but kind of impressive here on Earth. She doesn't have any other enhanced senses other than those mentioned in Powers.
Powers:
Night Vision because of her alien heritage.
Super Strength because of her alien heritage.
Super Agility because of her alien heritage.
Flight because of her alien heritage.
Healing Touch that glows with her usual green bioluminescence for 1 second on the skin of the person who was just healed. Her touch has cured every condition she's come across; the ultimate exception would probably be death, of course.
She can heal herself as well, but this shouldn't be mistaken for a Healing Factor because she needs to put conscious effort into it; a Healing Factor is passive. Even if she doesn't have to touch the place to heal it (although that helps), she has to concentrate really hard in order to heal the wound/disease/etc. in herself.
Weaknesses:
Like all of her race, gold burns her to the touch and makes her ill (headaches, stomachaches, overall not feeling well). If she were stabbed with a gold weapon or made to be around large amounts of gold for any long period of time, it would probably have more serious effects on her. Luckily, however, gold seems to be almost as rare on Earth as on Mina's homeworld.
Because her people are natural flyers, everything on Mina's homeworld is designed with wide open spaces and high ceilings. Because of this, both Mina and Starleafgirl possess a certain degree of claustrophobia, which might get worse depending on how badly she panics during the situation.
Coming from a (mostly) peaceful planet as she does, Mina is naive when it comes to the big, bad world out there, which may mean that she'll trust people she really shouldn't and place herself in dangerous situations without being aware of it.
Her last weakness is more of a personality flaw but, on the battlefield, it can lead to trouble. Starleafgirl seems to alternate a lot between being indecisive about what the best course of action to take next is and being too impulsive without really thinking things through.
Thanks for visiting my page! I hope you enjoy your stay.
List of Known Powers
- Super Strength
- Super Agility
- Flight
- Night Vision
- Healing Touch
- Greater than human Intellect, Stamina, and Speed
List of Known Weaknesses
- Allergy to Gold
- Claustrophobia
- Naive
- Pacifist
My Blog
Starleafgirl's Reviews
Supergirl Annual #1: Legends of Dead Earth
In my opinion, something would have to be absolutely brilliant and groundbreaking, utterly unforgettable and a perfect example of how to do comics to get five stars. It'd have to be wildly great, very entertaining, and somewhat unforgettable to get four stars, as well. As such, I've rated this first Supergirl Annual at 3 and a half stars, so please don't think that's a ~low~ rating by any means.
I've had this annual since, well, it originally came out, but I hadn't gotten around to reading it till now. So I just wanted to say a few things. This review probably won't be up to review standards, but ah well. It'll probably be like an evaluation with plenty of spoilers thrown in, but here's what I think.
(Spoilers ahead)
"The Surrogate" by Chuck Dixon. Art by Ron Wagner & Bill Reinhold.
The first story was the best of the three, though it's probably featured on the cover not for that reason, but because it makes for the most striking image out of the three. I'd seriously like to see that version of Supergirl have more adventures and deal with her current situation. Is she more than just the memories of one woman named Cryssia who had a dream to fly? In the most unlikeliest of situations, sometime in the far future, Supergirl still manages to right a wrong. I liked the scientific reasons for why this Supergirl -- created in the mind of Cryssia -- appears to have all the powers of Supergirl. The explanations for her abilities never seemed forced or stilted. I thought this story was very well done and this annual is worth it for this story alone.
"The Legend Lives On" by Barbara and Karl Kesel. Art by Dick Giordano and George Pérez.
I didn't like the second story very much. I mean, it was predictable: a band of thieves finds one of their own, mysteriously dead among the mystery cargo they just stole, with only a mysterious symbol ~mysteriously~ carved into the floor as a clue. Ahem. And, of course, they proceed to turn on each other as a result. But, I have to admit, I loved the way it showed how legends can become something so far removed from the truth over time. Many of the ideas in this story of who Supergirl might've been are humorous, as well. The rest of the story, unfortunately, seems forced. I enjoy sci-fi, but this story seemed to want to beat me over the head with it; some things that only needed to be mentioned once are mentioned more than once. And while all the information thrown in about the different phrases, manners of speaking, and points of view of the different bandits were mildly interesting to anyone interested in science fiction,, it wasn't enough to get me attached to the characters or be particularly affected when they die. On a positive note, although I could see the twist at the end coming from a mile away, it was still chilling to see, which is a credit to the art and story. Overall, this story wasn't that bad, it just wasn't that entertaining, either. The highlight of this story is definitely the different interpretations of Supergirl.
"Shootout at Ice Flats" by Joe Lansdale and Neal Barrett Jr. Art by Robert Teranishi & Stan Woch.
The third story, in contrast to the second story, did a great job with setting up the setting and characterization in the short number of pages it was afforded in this annual. It renewed my belief (which had been shaken by the second story) that you can tell a good story in a relatively few number of pages. It was especially a treat -- after two stories in the Annual that didn't really have much Supergirl -- to see a flesh-and-blood heroine in the far future who looks so much like Supergirl and embodies many of Supergirl's best qualities, such as the courage to stand up for what's right. And it was an absolutely hilarious little touch how the locals of this little backwaters planet used common household appliances as weapons, their true purposes having been lost to the sands of time. For instance, the heroine of the story uses a "gun thing" when she has to face down the meanest alien this side of the frozen flats, only to see staples fly harmlessly at the fiend. Luckily for her, her family has carried a mysterious amulet for as long as they can remember. An amulet that bears the signature S of Sardine Girl. Yes, Sardine Girl. What, it's not Sardine Girl? Someone better tell them that! This light-hearted story was definitely the best way to end the annual.
Art:
The art for all three stories was nice, too. Being more of a writer than an artist myself, however, I don't have much to say about it. I suppose I'll say, compared to other comics I've read, it was consistently done well, as opposed to comics where some panels look nice and others like they were just hurriedly pencilled on. I must admit the outfits in the second story are a bit too revealing, but that's a minor gripe.
Conclusion:
If you're a fan of Supergirl for more than her good looks, or just want to see how Supergirl has affected (will affect?) the lives of people far into the future, buy this. You don't have to be a Supergirl fanatic, well versed in all the ways Supergirl's been reinvented by DC, or even know particularly much about the DCverse to enjoy this book, but there are probably some funny inside jokes or mentions that'll please you if you do decide to pick it up. Still, buy it for the stories, not the super-powered cameo appearances.
