Rest In Peace Peter David

It was with sadness that I heard recently that Peter David had passed away after a few years of what sounds like medical hardship.

David's career is truly prolific including legendary runs on The Incredible Hulk and X-Factor. He also is known for Star Trek novels, independent characters, and other comic runs worth noting like Young Justice and Madrox. I honestly can't name all the things he did here without making this too long.

I felt I really needed to do some post to recognize David for his contributions to the Supergirl character. I have covered many of the issues in the long Supergirl run on the site (probably easiest to find by clicking the Peter David keyword). 

But I absolutely loved it.

Remember, this was the late 80s/early 90s Supergirl. This was the Matrix Supergirl, the super-powered protoplasm from the Pocket Universe. The Supergirl that was  schizophrenic then self-exiled to space then Brainiac's slave then Lex Luthor's duped girlfriend. She was finally finding her way around the death of Superman, leaving Lex behind and becoming a hero. But ... she was still a sort of mistreated and struggling.

Enter David, a self-proclaimed Supergirl fan. 

Starting in Showcase '96 #8, David started a longform story which stretched all the way to Supergirl #50! He had the Matrix Supergirl wondering if she was 'alive', did she have a 'soul', was she a hero. She sacrificed herself, merging with a troubled Linda Danvers. During the adventures we had this slow story of religion, redemption, angels and demons, free speech and human trafficking, and learning to love yourself.

This wasn't your grandfather's Supergirl. This was almost Vertigo-like in its look at religion and life and sin and forgiveness. 

It was glorious. Supergirl was a complex and complicated character, growing haughty and then brought low, learning about who she was and what her place was in the world. Brilliant.

But there was more.

David's whole talk on Supergirl becoming an 'Earth Angel' was based on one line from Action Comics #252, the first Supergirl appearance, where that character (tossed in an orphanage and told to not do super-heroics) says she'll be a 'guardian angel' for Midvale.  Right off the bat, there was this respect for the now gone, Crisis-erased Kara Zor-El.

Throughout the book, David leaned into that history. The secret identity Linda Danvers. The town being named Leesburg (like Linda Lee). The boyfriend Dick Malverne. Heck, even her own Guardian Angel ... named Kara!

We got a new Satan Girl.

We got the first 'maybe Silver Banshee is a Supergirl villain' idea. 

But I'll say again. There was a respect for the character. This was a young Supergirl learning who she was, how to be a hero, and where to draw the line. I would put those first 50 issues of Supergirl against almost any longform comic run for how creative and wonderful it was.

When Dan Didio said the original Supergirl was coming back, David took this fantastic character of Linda Danvers and put her through a mirror darkly, continuing her story (wink wink) in Fallen Angel which continued the supernatural aspect of the Supergirl book. That character had runs in DC and IDW and should also be read.

I had the luck of meeting David once, at Terrificon in 2017 and gushed about how much I loved his take on the character and how much that run meant to me. He was funny and gracious and excited, exactly as I imagined he would be given the stories he wrote.

Here he is on a Supergirl panel from that con (her show was on the air) with Paul Kupperberg, Bob Greenberger, and Marty Pasko. 

I understand that David's last years were filled with medical instability and financial insecurity. Despite the massive amount of IP he put out with some of the most popular characters on the planet, he might not have been monetarily rewarded. And that makes me sad too. Perhaps he is gone too soon.

I always hoped I would meet him again at some con to talk more. This reminds me to meet your heroes when you can. Thank them for their work. Buy books and sigs and sketches at cons to help them. And donate the to the HERO Initiative.

My condolences to his family. He will be missed.