DARNA 2022 and the Futility of Reviewing a Teleserye

 Here’s what I think about the new Darna TV series.

  

For her brief time in the role, Iza Calzado (as the "original" Darna) was the best Darna we never had.  As for the show’s actual star, newcome Jane De Leon is a fairly good actress and is very impressive in her action scenes—as Narda.   

 

 

Her Darna on the other hand is a bit rough and unsure of herself, but she’s supposed to be.  At this point in the story, she’s portrayed as the newbie superhero still feeling her way through things, so I reckon she’ll grow into the role as the series progresses.

They just really can't help but do the damn bracelet thing.

One problem, though, is that except for the scene above, the rest of Darna's action scenes end way too quickly.  Most of the time, when dealing with ordinary criminals and emergencies, she just whizzes by at super speed to mop everything up.  And when she deals with other super-powered beings--well, we'll get to that later.

 

 

They made some drastic changes to Darna’s origin, but I didn’t think it was a dealbreaker.  They didn’t so much change the story as remixed it, with some callbacks to the Mars Ravelo original, plus elements from later stories by other writers.

I liked the character of Mang Rolando, the kakanin vendor who turns out to be something of a scientist himself.  I though it was an interesting twist on the “mysterious old man” archetype.

 

We haven’t seen much of Janella Salvador’s Valentina, just one full episode and some brief flashes here and there.  But the show chooses to plays up the mystery, portraying her less as a sensuous serpentine supervillainess and more of a scary slithering nightmare.

  

For the most part, Salvador portrays Regina, a passionate crusading lawyer who is tortured by her snake-haired alter ego.  At this point she is Narda’s best friend, so we have yet to see the normally sweet-natured actress make a full villainous turn.

With the exception of Valentina, the series ignores most of the traditional Darna villains in favor of newly-created foes, which keeps things fresh, I guess.  At the moment, the actual big bad is General Borgo, an evil alien from the planet Marte who is manipulating things from the sidelines.  I like that his helmet resembles Darna's headgear, both being from the same world and all.  Otherwise, his overall design is pretty boring.  And then there's his female assistant, who starts out scantily-clad, then gradually acquires more clothing with each appearance.

 

Probably the most annoying antagonist in the show is the corrupt mayor.  If there's one thing I hate, it's a smug, sleazy, sneering villain, and in that regard the actor playing the character does a good job in making him as unlikable as possible.  He's so sincere about how bad he is and so insincere about everything else that you just want to punch him, and the dude does have a very punchable presence.

The main threat of the show are the so-called "Extras," humans who gained extraordinary (get it?) powers after being exposed to irradiated fragments from an alien cyborg (why did everyone immediately assume it was a cyborg rather than just an alien or a robot?  Are cyborgs so common that they know exactly what one looks like?).  Of the three Extras (not counting Valentina) that have appeared on the show, only two of them were actually evil, the first of which Narda encountered before she got her powers.  The third one, the Killer Ghost, is the first actual villainous Extra that Darna faces in her official capacity as a superheroine.

And that's when it got stupid.

#DarnaVsGhost - The most accurate episode title ever.

 

This broke me so bad that it killed any interest I had in the show, as well as my motivation in even continuing this review that I'm questioning why I even keep doing this.

I mean, it’s hard to review an ongoing local television series.  You can’t really judge them fairly from just the first episode.  With their soap opera format, you really have to watch several weeks’ worth of episodes in order to get a proper consensus.  Like, you may be singing its praises at first, but then you get to week 5 and you see that one episode that just changes your entire opinion on it.  It puts into perspective all of the episodes you’ve previously seen and you start to ask yourself: This is the show we’ve been waiting all these years for?

And you can rant and rave about how dumb it all is and voice out the same old complaints, but no one really listens.  The same mistakes keep getting made time and again.  Nothing ever changes.  Then someone will get on your case because how dare you criticize the thing that they like?

If you don't see what the problem is, I don't know what to tell you that hasn't already been said over and over again.  Heck, you may like it for the exact same reason that I don’t.  Why bother?

So, I'll just say this; if you happen to like the show, cool.  Just watch it because you actually like it.  Not because everybody else is, not because it’s trending, not out of blind devotion to whatever network is producing it.  Watch it either because you genuinely find something of value in it or simply because it entertains you on some level.  Even if you like it for some inexplicable, undefinable reason, that’s all right, too.  As long as you continue to find it enjoyable, then by all means, support it.

But if you start to notice the cracks, don’t watch in denial.  Recognize the flaws for what they are, and if you find that you’re not enjoying yourself anymore, you can either keep watching to see if it’ll get any better or decide not to waste any more time with it.

It’s up to you.

VALENTINA'S Day

Pilipino Komiks #87 - Art by Nestor Redondo

Since her debut in the very first Darna serial in Pilipino Komiks (1950-51), the snake-haired Valentina has been one of the great Filipina superheroine's most enduring foes.  A frequent antagonist in the many film and television adaptations through the years, the tragic Serpent Queen returned to the comic pages when Mango Comics launched their 3-issue English-language Darna revival in 2003.  Below are some selected images of Valentina (and Darna's in there somewhere, too) from that mini-series.

Mars Ravelo's Darna #2- Art by Lan Medina

 

  

Mars Ravelo's Darna #3 - Art by Gilbert Monsanto

The origin of Valentina and the planet Marte - 2003 version

Read the original Valentina saga on Video 48.

Rodolfo Vera Quizon, Sr.

Dolphy
 (July 25, 1928 – July 10, 2012)

Darna Kuno (1979)

Captain Barbell Boom! (1973)

DARNA LIVES!

Since today is International Women's Day, I just thought this March should also be Filipina Superwomen's Month. Let's start things off with the latest from the very epitome of the Pinay Superwoman...

Darna Lives! is a 9-page re-imagining of Mars Ravelo's classic heroine. Inspired by the Alan Moore revamp of Marvelman (a.k.a. Miracleman), this online fan comic is brought to us by modern komiks maestros Gerry Alanguilan and Arnold Arre, the same team behind the 2005 Lastikman one-shot.

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You can read the entire story on the Darna Lives! website.

BAYANI

This August 29 (or 30, as others put it), the Philippines celebrates National Heroes Day. Interestingly, the Metro Comic Con was held last August 21 to 22, and I guess one could consider it as a celebration of our fictional heroes.

It's just disheartening to think that in-between those 2 events, August 23, was a day without heroes.

I really hate to dwell on the past week's tragedy. The nation's experiencing enough gloom and shame already. Perhaps one way we can recover is to be reminded of the few heroes we still have in our midst.

So I just thought I'd post this video that I found on YouTube. It's an animated short made by a student from De La Salle College of St. Benilde entitled Bayani. It's about the Philippines' heroes dealing with the threat of the Brain Drain. It features Captain Barbell, Darna, Lastikman, Gagamboy and-- The Greatest Filipino Hero of all time!

DARNA REBORN Part 2 - The Legend Continues

In the twilight of the 20th century (as well as the Philippine komiks industry), Darna was given an ill-advised reboot (new costume and powers, revised origin, the works) in the pages of the relaunched Super Action Komiks. Unfortunately, it didn't work. The character was quickly reverted back to her original incarnation, but the stories that she was placed in were a little on the dull side. But when Super Action Vol.2 #12 came out in 1999, it appeared as if they were ready to experiment once more as they begged the question Paano Kung May 3 Darna? ("What If There Were 3 Darnas?") The story begins with a retelling of Darna's origin, but with a twist. It turns out that the magic stone Narda saw fall from the sky that fateful night was only one of three. The second stone lands somewhere in Europe, where it is found by an orphaned street urchin named Carmi. The third stone falls into the hands of a strange reptile-like alien creature. Imbued with the stone's power just as Narda had been, Carmi goes on to become Mirca, a heroine for hire who sells her services to the highest bidder. The alien who holds the third stone assumes the human guise of Oni Basilisk, head of the weapons manufacturing firm Kran Industries. Darna, of course, needs no introduction. But it turns out that the stone in her possession is actually the weakest of the three. As always, she is assisted by her kid brother Ding, but this story breaks tradition by portraying him as a 17 year-old! [Ding Trivia #1: It can be recalled that the 2005 Darna TV series starring Angel Locsin would also depict a teenaged Ding, as played by actor C.J. Muere. But years prior to that, the original script for the 1991 film version with Nanette Medved actually featured Ding as a teenager while a second younger brother named "Dingdong" took his place as Darna's sidekick. In the actual movie, Ding remains a young boy (played by child star Atong Redillas) while Narda's teen brother is named "Dong" instead (played by Tony Lambino of the singing group Smokey Mountain).] With Ding "all growed-up," he couldn't ride on his sister's back like he used to anymore because... Well, it'd look weird. So they figured out a new way for him to go out flying with her...

Anyway, Oni has been using his stone's power to deplete the ozone layer in order to make the Earth habitable for his pollution-thriving reptilian race. At the same time, his company had also been escalating hostilities between the warring nations of Vlatvia and Sokoro by supplying arms to both sides.

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When he discovers that Mirca gets her powers from a stone similar to his, he decides to manipulate her to further his own sinister goals. He uses his handsome human form to seduce the mercenary heroine, who is easily turned on to the dark side.

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Meanwhile, Darna finds herself getting weaker and weaker over time, placing her life and crime-fighting career in jeopardy.

She is visited in her dreams by a being known as Inang Bughaw ("Blue Mother"), who is apparently the source of her powers (note the bag of stones hanging from her waist). She tells Narda about Oni and Mirca, and reveals that Darna will continue to weaken as long as the other two stones are being used for evil. As part of Oni's plan, Mirca intensifies the conflict between Sokoro and Vlatvia, directing missiles against both sides as they continue to blame each other for the attacks. Other European countries soon get involved, threatening a devastating world war that could only prove destructive to the Earth's already fragile ecology. (And I just love "Juan dla. Cruz's" opinion on the crisis.)

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Oni eventually learns of Darna's existence and schemes to bring her to his side as well. Mirca flies into a jealous rage and engages her perceived rival in fierce battle.

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Despite her weakened state, Darna manages to subdue Mirca and tries to convince her opponent that Oni is only taking advantage of her for his own purposes. Refusing to listen to reason, the confused anti-heroine storms off while Darna flies after her.

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Mirca realizes Oni's deception too late. Arriving at Kran Industries, she catches him prepping his newly-hatched alien brood for their impending invasion. Having no more further use for her, Oni manages to overpower Mirca and forces her to spit out her magic stone. It is at this moment that Darna enters the scene, backed-up by Ding and a helicopter gunship from Sokoro. .

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I really love the scene below for some reason. I'd like to see a shot like this in a Darna movie sometime in the future.

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Out of desperation, Oni swallows his magic stone and transforms into the super-powered reptilian Ion, who proves much too powerful for our heroine, especially in her considerably weaker condition. .

Fortunately, Ding manages to get ahold of Mirca's stone. Swallowing it, he receives super powers as well and comes to his sister's rescue as... Kid Ngid!

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Um, need to work on that name, Ding. [Ding Trivia #2: This is not the first time that Ding gets Darna powers. Most may recall Nino Muhlach briefly flying in the 1980 film Darna at Ding with Vilma Santos. There was also a dream sequence in 1979's Bira, Darna, Bira! where a young Romnick Sarmenta played Ding to Rio Locsin's Darna. But in the comics, I believe it was in Darna at ang Black Widow (serialized in Ravelo Magazine in 1980), Ding could turn into "Darno" by holding Narda's hand as she transformed into Darna. The name was even explained as an anagram of "Nardo" from Ding's real first name "Leonardo" (which I guess would make Narda "Leonarda"). Hmm... Leonardo-->Nardo-->Narding-->Ding. Makes sense.] As Ngid, Ding manages to whiz past Ion and makes it to his fallen sister's side. He takes Mirca's stone from his mouth and feeds it to Darna. As a result, the heroine's power doubles, and she gets a slightly-modified costume out of it as well. She then proceeds to kick the holy living hell out of Ion, making him spit out his stone along with some of his teeth.

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Basically, this is how Darna should have been revamped in the first place. Rather than performing a radical makeover that pretty much ignores the popular concept of the character, this story introduced new elements while remaining faithful to the established Darna mythos. The plot had a lot more going for it than the uninspired adventures in the previous Super Action issues, and writer/artist Angelo Dazo's much more dynamic layouts were a marked improvement over those issues' comparatively bland artwork.

Really, does this scream cinematic or what?

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It would have been great if the series had carried on from this point. Unfortunately, the issues that followed went back to the status quo, and readers were once more treated to the same-old same-old.

Super Action Vol. 2 #14 had another misleading cover. While the title given up front is Darna at ang Mahiwagang Singsing ("Darna and the Magic Ring"), the actual story inside (written by Danny Marquez and again drawn by Angelo Dazo) was actually called Si Darna at ang Mahiwagang Kuwintas ("Darna and the Magic Pendant"). Also, the Spawn-like villain on the cover does not appear anywhere in the story (Apparently, he was in issue 15. Which I missed. Drat.). Instead, Darna fought Goko-Sura, a 15th century Japanese warrior who is brought to life by the titular magic pendant. Pretty standard stuff, but at least we get some nice action scenes out of it.

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Veteran komiks writer Rico Bello Omagap scripted the Arnel S. Aquino-illustrated Nag-Santa Claus Si Darna ("Darna Turns Santa Claus") for Super Action Vol.2 #16.

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In this tale, Darna starts a Christmas charity drive for kids, while Ziva the witch and her kidnapping clowns try to ruin the holidays for everybody.

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Except for one brief moment of promise, it's kind of sad that Darna closed out the century with such mediocre stories. Still, coming as they did at the time of the Philippine comic book industry's decline, it is somewhat poetic that local comicdom's most beloved character made a last stand during those dark days.

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But while the old comic publishing regimes fell apart, the comic book form itself continues to endure. And even as dedicated artists have struggled to bring Filipino comics back to its former glory, Darna has been there along with them. In 2003, Mango Comics succesfully reintroduced the character to a whole new generation through a 3-part English-language mini-series.

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The legend of Darna has enjoyed great longevity throughout the years, transcending the very komiks medium that spawned her. She remains in the public consciousness thanks to the various film and television adaptations that have come and will no doubt continue. And as far as her comic career goes, if ever the Pinoy comic book industry recovers from its slump, we can be sure to see her come flying back to the printed page once again.

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To find out more about Darna, check out her absolutely epic official website!

DARNA REBORN

Created by legendary komiks writer Mars Ravelo and internationally-acclaimed artist Nestor Redondo, Darna has always been an icon in Philippine pop culture ever since her first appearance in Pilipino Komiks #77 (May 13, 1950). But as the Filipino comic book industry began to wane in the late '90's, the Atlas Publishing Co. decided to update the character for the coming millenium. And in English! The new-and-improved Darna made her debut on the cover of the revived Super Action Komiks' first issue in 1998. Not that anyone would recognize her... Incidentally, this article would seem timely in light of the recent news of Wonder Woman's radical revamp. Actually, I have been planning to do this piece all along, so this is just an interesting coincidence. Anyway, the uncredited story, Darna-The Legend Lives On, starts with a recap of the heroine's career.

So what did happen to Darna? The million dollar answer: She got a makeover.

That's right, the new "space age" Darna now had x-ray vision, among other new powers, which she uses against the alien invaders from the planet Trexius Centauri. Apparently, this technologically-advanced race of alien warriors were worried that they might one day be conquered by us waaay-superior Earthlings, so they decided to beat us to the punch. Go figure.

Darna engages the aliens in battle with her new abilities, such as shooting lasers from her fingers...

She now also had a "superbelt" equipped with an "invisible ray" that deflects missiles...

The only other instance I know of that Darna had x-ray vision was in the 1994 movie Darna-Ang Pagbabalik ("Darna-The Return") starring Anjanette Abayari (as well as in those Toyota FX TV commercials she did prior to the film). I never did like the idea of her having that particular power. It just makes her more of a Superman knock-off.

After driving the aliens away, Darna decides to go on a quick sight-seeing tour of the US, Europe and Asia. For some reason, this makes her muse about the world's economy, peace-and-order and political situation. Then she heads for home where her younger brother Ding is waiting for her.

Okay, I'm aware that there's no English equivalent for Ate, but come on. Who calls their sister Sister? Realizing that they haven't quite grasped the English language, the publishers immediately decide to switch Darna back to her native tongue. Super Action Komiks Vol.2 #4 reveals the origin of Darna's new powers.

Written by Jose L. Gerardo and drawn by Armando Dela Cruz, Ang Planetang Pinagmulan ("The Planet of Origin") basically retcons the character's origin. In this version, the magic stone was created by an alien scientist named Stara.

Upon swallowing the stone, Stara transforms into a super-powered humanoid female, complete with costume. She uses her abilites to fight off the hostile alien invaders that threaten her world. Eventually though, she is defeated by her enemies, but not before she sends the stone to Earth, where it is found by the girl who would be Darna.

The revamped Darna never really caught on, prompting the series to return to the more traditional interpretation of the character, original costume and all. Unfortunately, her subsequent adventures were pretty much run-of-the-mill.

Super Action Vol.2 #7's Darna and the Toxic Monster (by writer Danny G. Marquez and artist S. Magpali) pitted the heroine against "Godzi," a toxic waste-spawned beast created by a mad scientist.

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While the cover to Super Action Vol.2 #9 featured Darna tussling with a T-Rex, the actual story had her fighting a creature more resembling a Styracosaurus.

For what it's worth, Darna Vs Devil Dinosaur (by writer Jose L. Gerardo and artist Randy P. Torres) at least had kind of a wacky plot. A dinosaur is found frozen in an iceberg and revived by yet another mad scientist. A corrupt senator who had lost his bid for the presidency uses the creature to force the incumbent president to step down. Well, I guess a rampaging dinosaur is much more efficient than organizing EDSA 5 or whatever (I've lost count).

In general, Darna's Super Action stint was pretty much mediocre. However, there would be at least one issue which held a great deal of potential. In Part 2, we take a look at what was probably the best story in Darna's ill-fated late '90's run.