Review: Supergirl #2 (v8)

Supergirl #2 came out last week and just built on the good will that I felt from the last issue.

I find Supergirl such a complex character. It is why I love her. 

Who is Supergirl to me? She is a young hero, learning her way. She can be fallible. She's still figuring things out. She has the unenviable position of having Superman as her cousin. She is expected to live up to his standards, she is wearing his symbol ... but she isn't Superman and isn't as experienced. It is a double edged familial sword - a tremendous role model but someone you might always be found lacking against. She has had tragedy but has overcome it. She should be bright and feisty and fierce in fighting injustice. But she also should be smart and more polished than even younger heroes, filling this middle road. She is also a young girl in this real world with all those issues.

How the heck do you put all that together? 

I think it might be why so many fall short in my mind. She isn't saccharine sweet. She isn't angsty and angry. She isn't sad.

Somehow, in two issues, Sophie Campbell has threaded the needle. This is the Supergirl I want to read. I am really charmed by her. She is sweet. She is friendly. She is a hero, diving in to save people. She is bored with some idle prattle by her teenage friends. She has a supporting cast! She has a history! (As with last issue there a ton of references to her Bronze Age adventures.) It is nigh perfect.

Most impressively, Campbell has given us a villain just as complex. Lesla Lar is clearly misguided and addled. She is thinking only of herself, putting others in peril. She is a brilliant evil scientist. But we get a hint at a troubled past, an aching loneliness in her that probably led to her malevolence. I don't always need a sympathetic villain but it sort of works here.

The art is just stellar throughout. Campbell gives us this charming Linda, fighting giant apes and trying on clothes. It is glorious.

Now as a lifelong Supergirl fan, I am eating up the nostalgia bombs with a spoon. I hope the general population is loving it as much as me. I don't think they pull the novice out of the story. They clearly enhance it for a mega-fan like me. (Heck, even the cover is an homage to Super DC Giant #S-24!

On to the book.

We start out in Kandor flashback getting a peek into Lesla Lar's life. 

Her parents are successful scientists but seem more interested in their own careers than being loving parents. Every panel with her parents in it shows them far away, engaged with others. Meanwhile, Lesla is a genius herself, applying for grants about tech she is using on Earth.

But here is the crux. She is struggling in her own life. She seems to be a huge fan of Supergirl. But that love turns into hate. Suddenly she hates Supergirl's perceived perfect life. 

It is summed up in the line stating that Supergirl hasn't had to work for her life. The gifts have been 'bestowed' on her. Think about Supergirl's life - seeing her planet die, her parents die, trying to find herself, having her own dark turns. Her life hasn't been easy! 

Lesla only sees the shine.

She decides to leave Kandor and go somewhere where she can 'be special'. 

Heading to Earth, the new environment changes her body from the rather scrawny Lesla to the more voluptuous form she now has. (One grant was on physiologic changes that might happen to a Kandorian on other worlds.)

But rather than being special herself she decides to become someone else ... a second Supergirl. There has to be some self-loathing here, right? Or fear of rejection? Why not be special Lesla? Why take over this identity?

Instead she uses special cosmetics to become Linda. She hypnotizes the town to love her. She even manufactures danger to then 'rescue' people to earn love.

All this is wrong but it clearly comes from sadness.

Flashing to the present, Lesla Supergirl basically pulls out a poke-ball and releases Titano to initiate a fight with our Supergirl. Lesla doesn't care about the collateral damage of the fight, endangering the town and its people while she fights Kara and the ape. 

It's the real Supergirl who rescues everyone and seemingly puts down Titano. 

Listen to Lesla. She wants the people there to worship her. It is all about her adulation not saving people.

How great our Supergirl is keeping her eyes on the right things.

In a nice turnaround, Titano blasts Lesla Supergirl with his Kryptonite-vision which melts the 'Linda' makeup, ruining the illusion. 

Lesla can't hear the old man being thankful for two Supergirls. She can't hear that Kara actually knows who she is. She can't hear Supergirl say that she wants to help Lesla (and kudos to Campbell for giving us a Kara who immediately wants to help),

Lesla is just angry that she can't be Supergirl, this idolized and worshiped person and storms off. 

Becoming Linda again, our hero meets up with Clarissa and Terri, two old friends. (Terri was Linda's roommate in the 70s solo series, so this is a deep cut!)

What I love here is how sort of vapid these two are. In this polarized world, Clarissa thinks they have to pick a Supergirl to back. They have to love one and hate one. There is no middle.

Then a quick conversation switch to something as silly as the town dance.

Linda has no time for this sort of conversation. It shows a bit of maturity!

I still loved this scene. I hope we get a supporting cast. I hope we get more of Linda's secret identity life. But I like that she is above this stuff.

Meanwhile, we learn Lena Luthor has not only set up shop in Midvale, she has changed her look. She is way more goth now, almost 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' in appearance. I guess if you are rebelling against your family, sometimes you change your look. And for some reason Streaky has shacked up with her.

She and Linda are already friends and work towards figuring out Lesla's purple goop weapon that basically unmade Supergirl's outfit. 

A couple of things here. One, HOORAY for Streaky! Second, I really like Lena as a friend for Supergirl. It is classic from the Silver Age through to Cosmic Adventures.

But lastly, Lena is already talking about how she and Supergirl make a great team. How their relationship isn't like the Lex/Superman one.

I hope ... and I mean HOPE ... that Campbell doesn't infuse their conversations with 'is this flirting' energy. Because I can tell you, I saw how the 'Kara/Lena ... are they a couple?' discussion basically ripped apart the Supergirl TV show fandom. Like, destroyed it at times.

I don't need a fractured Supergirl fanbase. I want us united behind this book. 

Sulking in her lab, Lesla creates a Black Kryptonite powered gun to make Supergirl chaotic, anti-social, and stupid. A Black K reference! You might recall that it was Black K that split the Loeb Supergirl into two people, one rather chaotic and anti-social. Another continuity cut. 

But look at the following panels. We see her slumped in her chair, exhausted, nearly crying as she strokes her bunny. She clearly feels unloveable, probably from a lifetime of being ignored by her parents, and is lashing out.

Do I need a sympathetic Lesla rather than the simple catty one from the Silver Age? Maybe.

That self-reflection ends quickly. We are back to a Lesla ready to attack. I will say this outfit is very similar to the one Lesla wears in her last Silver Age appearance. Spoiler alert, things don't end well.

Meanwhile, Supergirl and Lena go through the box of Kara's old costumes to pick one to wear. Campbell dives right in giving us 6 old costumes of Supergirl's - five from wondrous Adventure Comic series and even the Crisis-era one - before finally settling on the classic 'hot pants' one from the seventies. But it is an early version! Those are slippers, not boots!

I am utterly charmed but this last page and seeing Supergirl in this classic costume. I just love how Campbell draws her.

A lot happens in this issue! A lot. Action! Characterization! A heroic Supergirl saving people and wanting to help her enemy! Origins! Costume changes! And more history homages! Such a change from the more recent back-up strips and specials and the ponderous pace there.

This is the sort of Supergirl adventures I want to read. 

Overall grade: A