The hits of The Summer of Supergirl keep coming with the release last week of Supergirl:The World, a hardcover collection of short Supergirl stories from creative teams from around the globe with stories often touching on the culture and history of the creator's home nation. It is an interesting and rather highbrow concept and one I would never have believed that DC would do for my favorite character. But here we are.
There are a smattering of creator names I recognize but most I don't as I don't read too many international comics. I love the Joelle Jones cover here, a sort of squint and you'll see a reverse Superman from Superman #1. Even the whirl of clouds on the Supergirl cover evokes the round panel encircling Superman.
Might be perhaps a bit too much Krypto in the book but that most likely is because of Krypto's involvement in the upcoming movie.
There are fourteen stories in the book but I won't be reviewing all of them. But I did like how the title pages and indicia pages include thumbanils from all the stories inside.
I enjoyed the book a ton but it is pricey at $24.99.
The book opens with 'The Chicken', the American story by Mariko Tamaki and Skylar Patridge.
This is the best Supergirl story Tamaki has written! That is a low bar but I like her how Supergirl helps a bullied girl appear brave and freak out the other kids tormenting her.
The draw here really is Patridge drawing Supergirl. I have loved Patridge's work on Action Comics and Lana Lang. She really does a great job with Supergirl here. Patridge has done a bunch of Supergirl stories with Tamaki but the fun portion of this story allows her to shine.
The story from Spain is 'Supergirl Y La Maliciosa' by writer/artist Aneke. The story is beautiful with Aneke's loose pencils perfect for this young Kara trying to enjoy Spain and its culture. Love this page in particular of Kara walking through a museum.
The story involves Kara encountering a legendary witch and helping the woman be forgiven for a prior sin. Nice little story.
The story from Italy is titled 'Dark Reflections' by writers Francesca Michielin and Irene Marchesini with art by Federica Croci.
The art is a beautiful painted story but it leans a bit too hard into the troubled personality we had in Woman of Tomorrow. Here Supergirl has sent herself a mirror but is haunted by all the different aspects of her personality, never really knowing who she is.
There is nothing about this that links this specifically to Supergirl. Put this person in regular clothes and the story reads the same. I wonder if this was a pre-existing story idea for this team and Supergirl was just bolted on to it.
Gorgeous art though.
From Argentina comes 'Touch Ground' by writer Tomas Wortley and artist Rocio Zucchi.
This one is a solid story for a number of reasons. We'll start with the cartoony, almost manga-esque art which puts Supergirl in a sort of Elseworld/Ame Comi style costume. The action takes place in a street festival making it a wild environment.
But she also is fierce in defending the helpless, hunting down and pummeling the Toyman who has been maiming young female victims to make them look like dolls. Love the open handed slap Kara delivers here.
Before she can go to far in trouncing the villain, Supergirl is talked down a bit by a young girl fan at the festival.
"Strong Girls Can Make History" is the story from Finland by writer Johanna Sinisao and artist Rosi Kampe (one of the few names I recognized). This was my favorite story of the book.
Here Supergirl is thrown back in time and temporarily powerless in 1908 Finland. Claiming she is a circus performer (to explain her costume, changed into something more period tasteful by the family that takes her in), Kara joins the family and learns about how women have few rights in this time.
Here she notes how far things have come in the present while witnessing the world of the turn of the century. Pretty solid story with Kara standing up for herself and others, inspiring other women of the time to demand equal rights.
Kara being a circus performer reminded me of how 30's Superman was designed to look like a circus strongman. Supergirl being an inspiration was another great part of the story. And we do get a take on the Action Comics #1 cover in the story too. This one shined.
Comic and Supergirl veteran Mahmud Asrar wrote and drew 'Home Sick Home' for his native Turkey.
This was another winner. First off, I really loved Asrar's take on Supergirl in the New 52 book, even if the stories weren't fantastic. Seeing him back on Supergirl for even a brief story made me happy.
The story is also fun with The Joker taking over a Turkish forest spirit, making it into a kaiju stomping around.
But the best part was seeing the solar flare power again! A throwback to New 52 making Asrar drawing it perfect. She explodes inside the beast, tossing the Joker out and leading to the villain's defeat.
Solar flare!
From France comes 'Breathless' by writer Kid Toussaint and artist Josi Jurion. Breathless, of course, is the name of the classic French art nouvelle vague film by Godard. So nice title.
Here Supergirl is just trying to have fun on the Seine when she accidentally runs into Rampage. It leads to some brawling all while Kara complains that this fight is delaying her because 'he is coming'.
Fun ending to this one as the 'he' is a friend she is basically playing hide and seek with.
The art is appropriately fun for this story plot.
The stories careen from silly to serious. So we go from the sunny 'Breathless' to 'Down in the Mine' by writer Anna Krzton and artist Kasia Nie from Poland.
Here a mine collapses, a frequent event in Poland apparently. Luckily Supergirl is there to help try and save everyone. In a turn to the more supernatural, Supergirl seems to run into Skarbek, a sort of guardian spirit of miners, who leads her to some people trapped deep in the Earth. I liked this wrinkle.
Supergirl is able to save everyone with few injuries and joins in another local fair, enjoying the food and dance of the land.
I love Supergirl being shown as a hero in stories.
The last story I'll cover is from Colombia. 'Song of the Humpbacks' is written and drawn by Sara Rodriguez.
In it, Supergirl helps stop a bunch of corrupt fishermen from using alien text to lure whales into an area to be illegally killed. This Supergirl is striving to do what's right but also seems to be searching for some other Kryptonian culture that also survived. It ends on a bit of a downer with her looking at the Earth and saying she is far from home.
I didn't cover stories from Serbia, Cameroon, Mexico, Germany, and Japan but they have a variety of art styles and story angles, much like these ones veer from comical to serious.
I guess it is hard to complain about a book showing how much the world loves Supergirl. Thrilled DC did this.
Overall grade (all 14): B
The manga story in the back (front?) is a reprint from Superman Meshi, which was part of DC's 3 manga series from a few years ago. (I have some of those in their printed editions, but not this one, which is digital #20. It's up on DC Universe Infinite.)
ReplyDeleteI liked the little cultural references we got in this lovely HC book from around the world. I thought the stories were a bit weak and sometimes the storytelling was too - I had thought these would be from the top industry comic talent from around the world, but looking at the bios, there's a mix, with some veterans but many, like in the DC seasonal anthologies, that are relatively new and untested in the comic medium. (Though they are writers and artists in allied fields, at least.)
The best part was the generally excellent art. Even if storytelling wasn't always great, the work looked marvelous. And the great "covers" (each story is prefaced by a splash page that would be the cover if printed standalone). I wouldn't mind seeing much more of this kind of art, and less of Sophie Campbell's eccentric approach, in our regular monthly series. (And, put Rod Reis on a monthly! I don't think he usually does interiors though.)
T.N.