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.
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.
That doesn't sound like Superman to me.
As a result, she can't help with the task at hand.
And then this line. She says she almost got herself killed ...
And look, Lois brought cupcakes.
Second, I think this is the first time since pre-Crisis that Kara is rocketed from Argo.
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)
10 comments:
Same editor has presided over every miserable Supergirl solo book since the 2nd issue of The Infected arc.
So, she was responsible for the dismal ending of the last solo title - the one where the Supergirl Infected story arc ended in a separate mini-series rather than in her own book, and where the final 2 issues of the series weren't even printed. (Maybe she didn't care enough to fight for anything different, or had no say in any of these choices.)
She edited Woman of Tomorrow.
She edited Future State.
And now this. This was either assigned to Tamaki, or approved. Either way, this didn't have to be the story. What did DC hope to accomplish by publishing this?
Same person is also editing Power Girl, so she should be well aware of the weird contradictions.
Supergirl needs much better editorial oversight.
I was less impressed by the art overall. Some okay panels, but there has been so much better over the years.
And this story was padded to double-sized. It's a 5-minute read. Big, empty panels lacking detail, with like 10 words on a page.
T.N.
I completely agree with you about this story. The only thing about it that worked was the cover. That Supergirl looks like the tough, resourceful hero I want to see. It's hard to beleve that it could have been worse, but it could have. At least it didn't end with a cliched fight between Supergirl and Power Girl or worse with Supergirl going into space enroute to her Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow travesty leading to her Action Comics and Superman appearances being damaged by the writers having to deal its aftermath.
Great review, very fair. This comic is as dumb as the Power Girl series, warping the character and not even paying attention to recent books from the same editorial office.
Mopeed!
Writers on costumed heroes have moved in a different direction. Many of us readers have not moved with them. If Supergirl was 1961's Spider-Man, maybe it would be more understandable. When we are teenagers, and it was Marvel Comics' always troubled Peter Parker, it was more understandable. But Peter wasn't in constant rage, either, or even most or a large portion of the time. We live in a time of media, which has gone way beyond recognizing rage or pain in women, to the point actually exalting such rage or pain and exalting it. There are nearly a dozen rage room near where I live, and most customers are women. They want brutality. The rage rooms around me even have Yelp ratings. These are times we are living in. Not the 1950s, 1960s, etc. So the world has changed. And writers will change characters, including poor Supergirl to reflect their own vision and view of the world.
That’s interesting, Jeffrey, I never heard of rage rooms, but looking them up I see we have them in the UK. I wonder if this urge to get feelings out of the system feeds into Punch Club in the She-Hulk comic at the moment.
Martin
I read this one via the internet fairy earlier in the week.
It was...OK but yeah the biggest issue is the characterization of Kara. Like, I didn't take this as doing any damage to Kara but it seems out of place based on what you've shared with your reviews, and stuff I know about Power Girl from Sasha at Casually Comics on YouTube. Like, why is Supergirl having these self-confidence issues? Why is she having trouble remembering Krypton? Where did her issues with Power Girl come from, when everything we saw was suggesting PG was the one with issues?
Like, exploring more of relationship between Kara and Karen (I don't see Paige sticking) is something I've wanted to see. They're both kind of twins but in that way twins can maybe look like one another, but be completely different from one another. There's material to mine there but you need to be consistent with it, and frankly not retread ground already done.
One influence I see carried over from 'Supergirl: Being Super' is Kara running track on Krypton (which she did on Earth in that story). One thing that kind of threw me off is...so running track on Krypton is exactly the same on Earth? And I don't mean that Krypton wouldn't have such things but...outside the weird buildings, what would have told you this was on Krypton or an alien culture. Like even the Legion Movie with Kara and her Mom running about at the start, through in scifi elements. Pretty low-level stuff, but it at least made it feel different from Earth. But I guess Argo City ran track races with the same shoes, clothes, and events as Earth lol.
Overall I'm a bit confused as to what the point of this was? Kara feels bummed or down and has one chat with how people seem to confuse her and Power Girl (which they were completely different costumes so, how?) for one another and....everything is fine? Like, I just don't get this.
Supergirl: Being Super wasn't bad and had the arc of Kara working to basically discover herself, which worked in the teenage context of Kara for that story. Here, she's what in her 20s now? You'd think this Kara would be more far along and sure she doesn't need to like have solved everything, hell I'm in my late 30s and still sorting shit out, but like shouldn't this story tell us something about Kara/Supergirl? I don't think anything like that was done here, either as a one shot or if there's more issues coming.
Anyway hope that made sense and...bring Kara's cape back already! :D
Thanks for all the comments and views.
It will be interesting to see what comes of this special.
Am I to understand that Supergirl has PTSD, not from watching her planet die and her people perish, but from losing a footrace in Middle School?
No WONDER that chunk of skyscraper nearly killed her...the poor girl is appalling fragile from the inside out?
Girl of Steel?
No
Girl of Straw...and a woman, indeed someone who wrote "Being Super" actually wrote this piffle, appalling.
Honesly, I want my money back, all of it going back beyond the whole "Red Lantern" mishaugas, DC Owes Me Big Time!
That cover is false advertising, she takes no action at all in this mishaugas other than to inexplicably bungle catching a cornice...
But the other howler is clearly her sudden Krypton-amnesia...its as if Mariko Tamaki has amnesia herself in respect of how Supergirl is depicted in Action Comics...or mybe never read those books at all.
The editor that approved this rubbish needs to find a job in another industry, greeting cards maybe, college admissions perhaps.
In short this one was a bomb.
JF
The whole script for this nullity could be written down on a leaf of cigarrette paper.
Whatever happened to “Hope, help, and compassion for all?” It would have been nice to see that in this special.
Instead we see a character who is petty and depressed because she feels like she is second best? What kind of message is that? Is that someone you really want to root for?
What’s baffling is that they took away one of the most unique aspects of her character - her knowledge and memories of Krypton. She knew the people, the customs, the legends, the food. Why all of a sudden take that away for this story that goes nowhere?
Like you mentioned, the story doesn’t even make sense in context of everything that happened before. She spoke of Doomsday as a Kryptonian devil in the Doomsday Special just a couple of months ago. In the Power Girl Special she seemed to be the more emotionally mature character and she didn’t feel redundant. It’s just strange when you put this into the whole scheme of things.
The crazy thing is that they could have used the same story beats here to make it work for Kara’s character.
For the flashback, It would have been a better story to have Kara losing to her rival and coming to terms with it. Maybe even reaching out to her rival and saying how she she learned to lose gracefully. Heck, they could have even become friends that pushed each other to be better. It would have been nice to see some other kind of contest that looked more alien-like than a track meet. After the flashback we see Kara looking forlorn about the friend that she had lost on Krypton. Maybe somehow use that to connect to what’s going with Power Girl’s appearance in Metropolis.
Also, It would have made better sense if Supergirl reached out to Power Girl and invite her for some coffee or tea to talk about this manufactured “rivalry”. I would have loved to see them have a conversation saying how ridiculous the media is portraying them and how they only pit women against each other and how it’s so overblown.
Maybe not the best story idea but certainly better than what we actually got. At least it would show the compassionate and helpfulness aspects of the character.
-VL
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