Review: Supergirl Special #1

Why has this blog survived for 15 years? Because I feel I need to trumpet how great Supergirl is as a character. I need to share her history and talk up why I love her.

Why will this blog keep surviving? Because DC doesn't often seem to share what I love about the character. They either make her dark or a loner or drunk or overwhelmingly sad or unsure of herself. And I have to keep sharing the best aspects of Supergirl to make sure people know that this is recent problem.

Which brings me to the Supergirl Special #1. 

This is another book that just seems to get Kara wrong. Even worse, it seems to absolutely 100% ignore the most recent Kara stories so it seems out of continuity and out of character. In Action Comics and Steelworks and Superman books recently, Kara is showcased as intelligent, second in command, respected, and sure of herself. She is still learning. But she is established. She has been a big sister, a Kryptonian scholar, and hero. She also has seemed happy.

Writer Mariko Tamaki goes far away from any of that characterization, writing a story that I do not like. This is a Supergirl who has some sort of competitive and unsettling relationship with Power Girl. This is a Supergirl who isn't sure of herself. She is glum in the Kent home. She somehow worries she is going to die when a building collapses on her. This is a Supergirl who struggles with remembering Krypton. She thinks she can never win.   

There is almost too much wrong with that paragraph. Just six months ago, Kara and Power Girl were hugging, accepting each other (in PG's Special ). She is the Kryptonian scholar in Action Comics talking about religion, politics, folklore, and history. She is the heroic field commander of the Super Family in that book and in Superman too. 

How do you reconcile this story with those years of stories? I have no idea how this story made it through editorial. It is in complete conflict with Supergirl's character. 

But let's look beyond that. A special like this is supposed to celebrate a character. It is supposed to raise interest in the character. It should be a pilot to see if there is interest enough for a solo title. 

After reading this issue, who would want to read a Supergirl book like this one? Who wants to read a story about a sulking hero who is trawling her social media and isn't sure of herself. Who seems sad. Who is wandering through life.

There is nothing to celebrate here.

It is a shame because the art by Skylar Patridge is really wonderful. 

As hard as it is to say as a Supergirl fan, I hope a new series isn't born out of this take. 

DC ... please ... get someone who understands and loves the character to write her book.

On to the specifics.

The book opens with a smattering of social media pages playing up some competition between Supergirl and Power Girl.

It seems strange to me that in the Leah Williams Power Girl stories, Power Girl is the one upset about Supergirl until Supergirl tells her that the two are fine together. As linked above, they hug and laugh.

And yet somehow, now the show is on the other foot. It is Supergirl who seems jealous and upset about Power Girl's presence.

Where is this coming from? 

Or is this simply forced drama by Tamaki to set up this anguished Supergirl.

And worse, would Supergirl really be upset about some ludicrous story on social media sites?

But she is.

Look at her sulking on a skyscraper, reading all the posts and getting upset.

How petty. How silly.  Why should she care that people have invented a Power Girl rivalry.

It reminded me of a similar scene way back in Supergirl #34, Sterling Gates and Jamal Igle's first issue. In that book, Supergirl similarly sulks after reading newspaper articles proclaiming her a menace. But in that book, the scene is earned. Supergirl had gone through 3 rough years of stories where she was mean-spirited and not heroic. She needed to re-focus. Frankly, she needed a soft reboot. That scene made sense.

This scene does not. Because this Supergirl doesn't need that. She has been doing quite well under Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Joshia Williamson.

This is Tamaki warping Kara to fit the narrative Tamaki has of a sad, out of place Supergirl.

Cut to the Super Twins asking her about life on Krypton and Supergirl not being able to easily answer. Then a dinner at the Kents where everyone is happy and buzzing around while Kara sulks at the kitchen table.

Jon checks in with her, asking her about Krypton and Kara responds her memory is a complete blank.

I will remind you ... again ... that in Action Comics, Kara known everything about the Phaelosians, Thalkis, the myths of Nightwing and Flamebird, about Zehd Im Raozha, an ancient intergalactic school on Krypton. She is the Kryptonian historian in Action Comics ... now she has no distinct memories.

So this makes not sense.

Superman is worried about his cousin and doesn't feel comfortable talking to her himself.

That doesn't sound like Superman to me.

The super-family is called upon to help deal with a collapsing skyscraper. 

When Supergirl goes to save someone, Power Girl tries to beat her to it. Then Supergirl tries to beat her back, even stopping Power Girl by grabbing her.

Is this heroic? Is this a good way to spotlight this character? Having something as petty as 'winning' make her stop a colleague from saving someone? What if this person died while these two scrapped like this?

What a terrible page for both of these characters.

A chunk of the building does fall away and even though she is Kryptonian and an established hero, Supergirl can't handle it. It weighs her down until she is forced to blast it to smithereens with her heat vision. 

As a result, she can't help with the task at hand.

And then this line. She says she almost got herself killed ...

By a chunk of building.

Not Kryptonite. Not magic. Not another Kryptonian. Not Mongul.

According to Mariko Tamaki, a chunk of building can almost kill Supergirl.

And look at how Kara beats herself up for failing in this way. 

We flash back to the one memory Supergirl does have of Argo City ... running track and never being able to win. 

The more she pushed herself the more she failed.

And that is why she is so reluctant to push herself on Earth ... at least in this book. 

Let's bring in Lois Lane to talk to Supergirl.

And look, Lois brought cupcakes.

Why is it that so many comics these days seems to have some unnecessary, cutesy scene revolving around food?

Why is Lois the one to talk to Kara and not Kal? 

But she does. 

They talk about how Kara saw her world die. How she arrived to late to raise Kal.

But Kara remembers Zor-El talking about a lifelong destiny. And Lois tells Kara that she arrived just in time to be who she needed to be ... Supergirl. 

So a couple of things. 

Again, it seems odd given the portrayal of Supergirl in the last 2 years of the Superman books for her to need Lois to tell her everything is all right.

Second, I think this is the first time since pre-Crisis that Kara is rocketed from Argo.

In her reintroduction by Loeb, in the reboot by Geoff Johns in the Brainiac arc, in the New 52, she is always rocketed from Krypton when Superman is. While Argo City survived in Johns stories and in the New 52, Kara never stayed on the floating city. She was gone.

And yes, Tom King had her on it in Woman of Tomorrow. But King made up that origin, picking the pieces he liked of all of Supergirl's history to create the most depressing one possible. 

So is this going to be canon?

In the end, we see that Kara and 'Paige' both eat cupcakes in this unique way.

They laugh and hug.

Hey ... didn't we see that before.

Okay, I haven't mentioned Skylar Patridge's art in the review. But it is gorgeous.

Unfortunately it is wasted in this meaningless story about a Supergirl questioning if she should try to improve, scrapping with Power Girl, and sulking. Why was this story released? Would this excite anyone over a possible Supergirl solo book.

I'll say it again.

DC ... the next time, let a writer who understands and loves the character write Supergirl. Because this book does not celebrate the character.

Overall grade: D (raised by the art)