30th Anniversary Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 - Creators Thoughts

With today being the last day of July, I am ending my 30th anniversary review of Crisis on Infinite Earths #7. Throughout this month I have reviewed the issue, the decision to kill Supergirl, an immediate response to her death from someone supposedly in Supergirl's fandom, the merchandise generated by the issue, and finally how the death of Supergirl rippled forward into future incarnations.

Over the course of this month's review I have also talked about my own feelings about the death of Supergirl.

In the immediate aftermath, I was upset. DC had felt that Supergirl was expendable.

In the years after, I have softened, realizing that this moment was a crucial moment in comic's history and it is Supergirl's moment. It gives her current incarnations a sense of legacy, that when she dies it will be saving the universe.

I appreciate Crisis for what it has done for her as a character and a legend.

I thought I would reach out to some of the more recent creators who wrote Supergirl after the Crisis. And wanted to hear their thoughts about the Crisis and Supergirl. I want to extend a huge thanks to Landry Walker and Mike Johnson sending me some Supergirl love!

Landry Walker:
In many ways, Crisis was my introduction to Supergirl. I was familiar with the character but hadn't invested myself in her previously. I know that in many ways this will be an unpopular opinion, but Supergirl's death in Crisis defined her in a way that other heroes were largely lacking. Her willingness to throw everything into the fight, her optimism in the face of adversity. I read the story of her death over and over, and in doing so became a fan, not just of Supergirl, but also of the finite nature of the heroic journey.

In this way, the story has affected my writing. I was maybe 14 years old at the time, but I was already growing tired of the infinite carousal that is a comic characters life. Supergirls' death (for me) did not weaken her or diminish her. It defined her. I could step back and look at the entire history of the character  - much in the way we might with a character of Greek myth. And like any great mythological hero, her story is one tinged with both elation and tragedy. Carrying that with me, I now look to endings of stories to determine their quality. And stories that don't end, like the endless cycle of reboot and relaunch that is mainstream comics, rarely interest me either as a writer or as a reader.

Mike Johnson:
I confess: when I was a kid, I wasn't a Supergirl fan. To this obnoxious little boy, girls were annoying cootie-laden creatures that secretly terrified me. I wasn't NOT a Supergirl fan. She didn't seem to annoy Kal-El too much. But it wasn't until CRISIS #7 that I really appreciated how great a character she was... and by then it was too late. I think CRISIS caused a whole generation of readers to grow up. We'd never seen good vs. evil on that scale before. We'd never seen sacrifice like that. And there was no greater sacrifice than Supergirl's. Eventually I grew up, cooties actually began to seem like a good thing, and by then I was a die-hard Kara fan. When I lucky enough to have the opportunity to write her adventures years later, I went back and re-read CRISIS #7. It hits as hard today as it did then. But, like all iconic characters, Kara has endured. She always will. 

Thanks to Landry and Mike for their comments.

And thank you all for sticking with me this month as I remembered and revisited Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 on its 30th anniversary. It has been interesting for me to sort through my own feelings about this issue as I reviewed it. 

Would love to hear anyone's last thoughts about this issue as the month closes.