Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  This week Bennett talks about TV tie-in comic books and comic-related TV shows.

For well over a year now I've been saying how I want to focus these things on actual comic books, as opposed to all of the ancillary multimedia stuff surrounding them that seems to make up the bulk of "Geek Culture."  But I've come to the conclusion that this may very well be a fool's errand, given just how tightly intertwined comics are now with movies and television.  For instance:

As I'm sure you're all very much aware (see "DC Teases 'Rebirth'"), DC will be doing… something in June,  exact details to be determined.  At the moment, we "know" almost nothing about it, but the original report on the Bleeding Cool website suggests at the very least the publisher will be renumbering its titles in June and the line will be more oriented around "the company's movie and TV tie-ins."  So I'm expecting something between a revamp and a relaunch.  If this results in some better, better-selling comics, well I won't complain.

On the Den of Geek! website it's been suggested what this focus on "movie and TV tie-ins" might mean is "that if there's a TV show or movie on the slate, expect a fresh first issue with a continuity-lite approach that should appeal to new readers."  If this is the case, well good.  I've only been advocating, for a couple of decades now, that there should always be at least one comic featuring their best-known characters that could easily be read (and understood) by the newest of noobs.  It seems something like that would obviously be good business.

But that's just not how things have worked in the comic book industry.  It took Marvel quite a while to figure out that they actually wanted, let alone needed an Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. comic book.  And so it was with DC and a Supergirl comic.  Having a Supergirl comic out, whether set in the DCU or an adaptation of the TV series, in time for the show’s premiere should have been a no-brainer.  But DC didn't because… well, I have no idea, really.  Other than other things were undoubtedly deemed to be of more importance.

Media tie-in comics have historically been an afterthought, something considered to be just another piece of branded merchandise instead of a gateway title that new readers can pass through on the way to becoming regular readers.  The Adventures of Supergirl #1 was finally released digitally yesterday and while decades of comic book reading have led me to have fairly low expectations of this kind of comic, I'm happy to report it's quite good.  It takes a nice job of approximating the status quo of the TV series which takes place in "National City."  It's a nice homage to National Periodical Publications, DC Comics' previous name, as well as to the publisher's long tradition of using fake city names (Central City, Coast City, Ivy Town, etc.).

Now I haven't watched an episode of the Supergirl TV series since the pilot, but that may change.  Apparently the producers will be adapting the Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons story from Superman Annual #11, "For the Man Who Has Everything" for an upcoming episode.  Though it will be hard for them to beat the adaptation done for the second episode of Season 1 of the Justice League Unlimited animated series (especially Eric Robert's chilling performance as the villain Mogul).

Then there's the recent revelation that one of the show's regular characters was secretly J'onn J'onzz, The Martian Manhunter.  Hopefully, his presence there will keep his DC comic safe from cancellation -- for at least a while. I missed it but J'onzz was even the focus of the January 25th episode, "Strange Visitor from Another Planet," which had the character dealing with the dreaded White Martians.  But I have seen images of the character flying next to Supergirl online and, damn it, that's exactly how a superhero is supposed to look when he's flying.

Ordinarily I'd at least throw some shade (as the kids today used to say six months ago) at another comic book-related television show that aired this Monday, the premiere of Lucifer, but I'm afraid as much as I like to pride myself on my ability to generate snide remarks I can't come even close to the level of snark it received on The A.V. Club website.  In Alasdair Wilkins' review, "Satan plays cop in the so-stupid-it's-almost-brilliant Lucifer," manages to destroy the program by just accurately describing its contents:  "If searching for proof that there is no premise that network television can't turn into a police procedural, look no further than Lucifer, in which Satan abdicates his throne, walks away from his divinely mandated duties to explore life among mortals… and somehow ends up helping an attractive, driven young homicide detective solve crimes."

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.