Character Designs: Kenneth Rocafort's Red Lantern Supergirl & Yildiray Cinar's Blaze

The Red Daughter of Krypton trade paperback came out this week. It includes Supergirl #26-33, Red Lanterns #28-29, and Green Lantern #28. It is a shame it doesn't include Red Lanterns #30-31 because Kara plays a pretty big part in those issues. Still that is 10 issues for $17.99 and for a great arc.

I always hope that there will be extra matter in these trades. This trade includes the covers as well as the uncolored versions of the covers if you want to see the line work.

But there are 2 pages in the back that I would say is true new material. At least ... I don't think I have seen these elsewhere.

First off, here is Kenneth Rocafort's Red Lantern design for Supergirl.

I think Rocafort's style is visually stunning, beautiful. And I have to say, I liked these designs. For one, it eliminates two parts of the Supergirl costume I don't like - the red crotch panel and the knee-holed boots. But I think the mix of red and black is slick. And I am glad she wore a mask, as I think this whole trip to the Red was sort of a mask, a role Kara was playing to get away from her life.

We also get a page of Yildiray Cinar's design of Blaze.

It's funny, I don't know if we ever saw Blaze in a panel with someone else. So to see her towering over Shay Veritas puts her in a whole new perspective. She looks like she's 12 feet tall here.

I also like this look as Blaze looks totally demonic. Her arms are thin, her legs stocky; both are wiry. Her torso is emaciated. And that frizzed hair and huge horns. This is the look of a devil. And it works.

As I have said, I didn't go into Red Daughter a happy fan, thinking it was going to be terrible. But it worked wonderfully as a redemption story. I was glad to pick up the trade for easy re-reading.

Tony Bedard Interview On WeeklyComicBookReview.com

It's been a while since the Supergirl book has gotten any publicity. Since the deluge of pieces when Red Daughter was first announced, news about the book has sort of dried up. I suppose that with the denouement of Red Daughter still unknown, DC might want to be tight lipped.

Thankfully, we got some news via Tony Bedard over on weeklycomicbookreview.com. And thanks to blog friend Thomas Hayes for pointing me to it. Here is the link: http://weeklycomicbookreview.com/2014/06/25/senyc-report-the-days-of-high-adventure-an-interview-with-tony-bedard/

As always, it is definitely worth reading the entire interview as it covers Bedard's career, his time on Beowulf, and other topics. I have culled some of the Supergirl specific questions and added my comments after. Overall Bedard continues to say the right things.

WCBR: Alright, turning to Supergirl, you’ve actually worked with Supergirl, at least a decent amount in the past. Were there any unexpected joys or challenges in coming back to a character who, perhaps more than most, was really changed by the New 52?

Bedard: Well, yeah. I think with the Super characters, there are certain things that are appropriate for them. And it’s difficult- you run the risk when you look at ‘em that way, of just writing them the way that they’ve been written and didn’t work for a long time. But I think that Supergirl needs to be a bright, happy, y’know, likable character and that she hasn’t necessarily been that since the relaunch. I understand what they’re going for with her and I’ve tried to do some of that, to make her a fish out of water that’s struggling to fit in, but she still needs to have some light moments, stuff that makes you like her and care about what happens. Otherwise she’s just kind of a whiny, dark character.
So, that’s been the biggest struggle with everything bad that happens to her, finding those little moments to try and leaven that and still keep her likable. And Spider-Man’s the best example of a character like that. That something was always wrong, y’know, Aunt May needed her medicine and he was going to lose his job and he couldn’t pay the rent. But it didn’t come across as a downer of a book. But Spider-Man’s a real different character than Supergirl is so it’s hard to pull that off with her.

Hurrah! Bedard says Supergirl needs to be bright, happy, and likable. Needs to be!

I think it great that he realizes that so far the character has been whiny and dark. I don't mind Supergirl adapting to Earth, even struggling to adapt. But she needs to be likable, heroic, and bright. 

It is fantastic that Bedard gets that simple truth.

WCBR: One thing I thought was great was that your Secret Origins story spent a good amount of time kind of looking at what the differences are between Kara and Superman. And one of the things that struck me is, of course, that Kara lived on Krypton. Superman has this weird secondhand relationship with his home. What do you think that difference- really having known Krypton, how does that change Kara from what people think of when they think of the Superman family?

Bedard: Well, I think- one of the problems with Supergirl is that she’s kind of a subset of Superman, y’know, and that kind of limits who she can be, or at least has for a long time. Her identity is always expressed in relation to another character and she kind of needed her own thing to set her apart. So, I think that the fact that she grew up on Krypton being played up, that’s why that’s there.

We’re trying to stand her up on her own and also to give her a motivation that stems from her Kryptonian background. In the case of Superman, he got his values from Ma and Pa Kent and that’s really vital as far as who he turned out to be and why he goes around doing good things. So, I think if we played up her Kryptonian-ness it’s to try and differentiate her from him and also not just make her, y’know-

WBCR: “Superman’s Cousin: Kara Kent”.
Bedard: Yeah. Exactly. She needs to have her own sort of reason for going around and doing good deeds and using her powers for good.

I think that this is a fine line that the best writers can walk upon.

I want Supergirl to be her own character, to tell her own stories, to have her own personality. But she is also part of the Super-family and Superman is should be a mentor or an older brother.

Superman shouldn't define her. But Supergirl shun him. There can be interplay.

Look at how Paul Kupperberg had them interact. Look at how Sterling Gates had them interact. It can happen. They can be family members, supportive of each other, loving to each other, and not have Superman define her.

And while I think Krypton has to be a big part of Kara's story, that also can't define her. She needs to embrace Earth as her new home.

WCBRL So, Supergirl #31, which is technically the latest issue at this time, was a really dense issue. There was a lot going on, but Red Lanterns deals with the Judge and Atrocitus and now this week’s issue sees her going up against the Diasporans and Worldkiller-1 , which is a big reveal after a long while. So, I guess the question is, once we’re done with that, will we be turning back towards Earth and Blaze, who’s been kind of sneaking around the corners?
Bedard: We’re definitely getting back to Earth. What happens with Blaze is actually- We’re not gonna plunge into that as a storyline. That’s kind of been put off because there’s some other things going on. And this is the joy of working in a big universe like this is sometimes you set up plans and think they’re gonna pay off at a certain point, and then you turn around and find out that there’s another thing, like, for example in September- Have they released much information about the September books yet?

The Supergirl book desperately needs some time to grow and progress on its own. I worry that while major crossovers might bring in some new readers, they tend to derail any momentum the book has.

Remember H'El on Earth? And Krypton Returns?

So hopefully this detour into Futures' End is brief.

WCBR: But, you know, solicitations are intentionally misleading to some degree.
Bedard: Right. Because those books are all going to play off of stuff that’s going on in “Future’s End”. And so that kind of punted my plans a little bit, but it’s okay because actually I get to do something really fun in that issue with Kara and Cyborg Superman. And also the issue when she gets back to Earth, we’re actually going do something a little romantic with her.

WCBR: Oh, cool.
Bedard: Which, she hasn’t had much romance or that kind of fun in the whole run of the series, so I’m looking forward to that. We actually slow down a little bit and do some more character-driven stuff.

I am not a fan of 'Zor-El as Cyborg Superman' so I hope that 'something fun' is a resolution of some sort. Maybe a retcon?

But the fact that Bedard is talking about slowing things down and adding romance makes me happy. I think he has the right mindset for the character and the progression of the book.

Who's Who: Blaze (1990's)

We've seen her skulking around the corners of The Block, an apparent captive of Shay Veritas.

So who is Blaze?

Well this is the New 52 Blaze, so who knows exactly who she is. But she has existed in the DCU in the past as a Superman villain. Here is the Blaze entry from the 1990's Who's Who series, the 'loose leaf' version of Who's Who.

You can see that the 'giant horns, face in the shadows' look has been around since her inception. Nice art here by Brett Breeding.

And this is a relative early entry it seems as her sibling relationship to Lord Satanus isn't even mentioned.

Here we learn that she does indeed rule a netherworld dimension with a vast amount of tortured souls under her thumb. She also is able to give powers to some of her minions, creating the DC villain Skyhook.

I always wonder about villain's motivations. Despite her rule over an entire dimension, she comes to Earth, sets up a rock club (aptly called Blaze's) to use as her headquarters to corrupt the entire world. A nightclub?

Regardless, this was early in her career.

She has the usual array of demonic powers which makes her a nice villain for the super-family. I think she will be a great villain for Supergirl.

And the last time I saw Blaze was in the strange, inscrutable, and relatively awful Reign In Hell mini-series. There was a muddled reappearance of Linda Danvers and her flame wings (something I always try to forget). In the end of this series, Blaze has killed her brother Lord Satanus and has named herself the Queen of Hell. That's Neron's head on a pike before her! I can't believe I just commented on Reign in Hell again! Yeesh!

Let's see what Tony Bedard has in mind with the New 52 Blaze.

Review: Supergirl #27

Supergirl #27 came out this week, the second issue of the Tony Bedard era as writer and the last issue before the 'Red Daughter of Krypton' arc.

Given that the next issue starts a new and controversial storyline, I thought that the Lobo story would be completely wrapped up by the end of this issue. Instead, Bedard has this issue end with a decent cliff-hanger, infuses some scenes to help the reader understand the slide into Red Lantern plot, and adds a lot of new plot hooks.

While I know I don't agree with the idea of the Red Lantern arc, it might be a sort of catharsis for the character, literally and metaphorically burning away all the rage and angst in Supergirl since the inception of the New 52. And, now knowing it won't be some drawn out lengthy arc, I am suddenly a bit more accepting of the move.

But setting that aside, Bedard really does a good job beefing up the book immediately. We learn a lot more about Shay Veritas, setting her up as a supporting character in the title. My spider-sense is still tingling about her. I still wonder if she'll end up a villain. And we re-introduce a classic Superman villain to the new 52 but setting her up as a Supergirl villain, a move that already seems so natural I don't know why it hasn't been done.

Yildiray Cinar does the art here and bring a smooth clean sensibility to the book. It is a shame that he will only be on the book for four issues.

Last issue, Supergirl 'killed' the new Lobo when he attacked the Block. After the wicked right hook, Supergirl immediately felt remorse. It is one more brick in the wall of frustration Supergirl has been crashing against Supergirl #1.

Bedard does a good job in this issue having Kara speak about her feelings. There is a hint that everything has piled up so high in her mind, in her soul, that she is simply reaching a breaking point. It makes sense for Supergirl to feel overwhelmed right now. This hasn't been an easy transition. So here, when she talks about simply losing control in the fight against Lobo ... everything going red ... implies she is simply losing control.

This isn't the first Supergirl to have a crazy upheaval in her life. The others have all basically returned to the core of her character ... she wants to do what's right. Like Loeb and Kelly's version, this Supergirl has intentionally isolated herself, not leaving her any access to help dealing with her feelings. If you arrive alone and you make yourself isolated, of course you will feel overwhelmed.

So I am hoping when this whole blows over, we get that likable Supergirl, the one who wants to help back. And I hope she takes a look in the mirror and realizes that she needs friends and family. That she can't do it alone.

 Here is one of those panels I love when words and art complement each other so well.

First off, we get a sense of the enormity of the block. This place has to be a tesseract of some sort, bigger on the inside than it is from the outside.

But moreover, Veritas' words about Supergirl being so strong in such a fragile world, 'walking on eggshells' invoked in me a feeling of claustrophobia, or delicacy in movement. And that feeling is contrasted with the space in this place. Kara should feel at home here, or a bit freer than she is on a crowded street.

Anyways, I liked this panel a lot.

And we finally get a bit more backstory about Veritas.

As hinted before, Superman saved the Block from some cosmic storm called the Eternal Maelstrom. But that save had any number of weird consequences. The Block is now out of phase with reality in the core of the Earth. All the other scientists - male and female - had their genetics rewritten with Veritas' genome. And everyone is trapped because leaving the block could cause a space/time rift. Odd.

Her being trapped makes her sort of a technological Baron Winters, stuck forever in her 'mansion' without being able to leave, talking to 'agents' to do her outside work. Plus, there is this odd feel of impending villainy on her part. I don't know if she is evil. But I think she is so obsessed with what she is doing that I bet she doesn't care what happens to those in her wake. She seems so eager to study things that she doesn't think of the consequences. There is a sort of Luthor narcissism mixed with Brainiac thirst for knowledge.

Veritas talks to Kara about seeking help from others and the response is ... no surprise ... anger. In the end, I think some of this is anger by Supergirl inwardly directed for putting herself in this situation but transferred to others.

Supergirl derisively talks of Clark's 'duty and obligation', feelings drilled into his head. And then she yells about how Clark worked towards destroying Krypton again (in Krypton Returns) despite knowing that Krypton's existence was unraveling the universe.

As I said above, I want Supergirl to see the best in people, to want to help people,and to learn lessons on how to do it right ... the hero on a journey. So this set of panels, flashing into anger over Kal who has done nothing but leave her alone as she requested, just seems off. I suppose it adds to why a Red Lantern ring would choose her.

Again, I would be much more upset about this is the Red Lantern story had no apparent ending. This isn't Supergirl.

 Veritas offers to be Supergirl's friend. But I am so wary about her. That line read more like 'you can be my test subject' rather than an extended amicable hand. And here, Veritas talks about being interested in lots of things including extra-terrestrials.

I am not convinced that all her science is done for the betterment of the world or humanity. There is something shady about this.

Now I have really glossed over Lobo's part in this story because he is the least interesting part. It turns out he was faking his death, revives himself, and goes after Veritas. He takes out Supergirl with hypersonics, forcing Shay to run for her life through the Block.

 First Veritas turns on a 'fusion globe' to flash-burn Lobo.

But then she runs into 'Xenocontainment Module 5'. Hmmm ... is this a prison? A zoo? Natural habitat for something she is studying? This looks like a Escher style labyrinth ... Hellish.

And she asks whatever is housed here to help defend her.

The tone of the conversation makes it sound like the being in this 'containment unit' is being held against its will. Again, the feel of malevolence under the shroud of 'advancing science' is strong. Veritas isn't a wholly good person. And maybe that is another brick in Kara's wall of anger. Even this person who seemingly wants to help her is really hoping to use her.

 And then we see who is being housed there ... Blaze.

Blaze was the demon sister of Lord Satanus in Superman lore. A true denizen of Hell. Last time I saw her was in Reign In Hell. Surely she isn't being held in the Block willingly. Maybe the 'phase' of the place crosses dimensions? Either way, it furthers my thoughts of Veritas' character.

I love Cinar's design of Blaze, huge, gangly, powerful, but with the classic helmet shrouding her face with huge horns. Perfect re-imagining.

Lastly, this is such a perfect addition for Supergirl's rogues gallery I am surprised it hasn't been done before. It is a great idea.

But Blaze doesn't need to get involved. Before Blaze can engage with Lobo, Supergirl, revitalized by the 'yellow fusion globe' that Veritas ignited, shows up and she is ... not surprisingly ... angry. I suppose I should have guessed that the 'yellow fusion globe' would help Kara. Those words basically describe a yellow sun.

And, mega-charged, Supergirl talks about killing Lobo on purpose this time.

Sigh.

Okay, there is no stopping this train. Supergirl is going to be a Red Lantern soon. And this story does its best to show just how much Kara has bottled up inside her. As I have said before, I am more easily able to deal with this stuff knowing that the Red Lantern arc seems to be relatively short. If we didn't know when Red Daughter was ending, if I didn't see a 'normal' Supergirl on the cover of the JLU, I probably would be wailing and gnashing my teeth.

And with Blaze and Lobo and Veritas all still active at this cliff-hanger ending, we probably have to wrap things up here before she dons the ring. I wonder if the last page of next issue is the ring arriving.

Despite the rage aspect of the story, there is so much to like in this issue. The increasing details of Veritas' life and her home make her more 3-dimensional. I think she is going to end up heading down the evil road. And Blaze is just an inspired addition to the Supergirl mythos.

Add to those story elements Yildiray Cinar's beautiful art. From the Blaze design, to the expressive nature of Supergirl, to this last power pose splash, this book is just great. And the perspective panel of the Block with tiny Supergirl and Veritas was slick.

So we are moving towards a new Supergirl.

Overall grade: B+/B