Page 33, vol I, #5

Supergirl is back.

Actually, that line isn't entirely accurate. There are two Supergirls (well, three) and none of them have gone away… well, they have, two of them at least. The third hasn't been around long enough to go away yet.

Yeah, like any comic character more than a couple years old, the continuity is difficult to keep straight.

The third Supergirl series was about the protoplasm that used to be called Matrix, and was written by Peter David at the beginning. This brilliant brain who reshaped the Hulk for everyone also managed to make Supergirl (formerly just a backup character, really not any better than Krypto the superdog or even Beppo the Supermonkey, and possibly much less interesting) one of the coolest characters ever. She didn't die or "leave" per se, but she did retire.

There's also Power Girl, who is supposedly Kal-el's cousin. Maybe. No one will get that straightened out with Supes himself.

And now there's Supergirl, Kara Zor-el. She is Kal-el's cousin. She left at the same time, her father (Kal-el's father's brother) launching her as a teenager so she could watch over baby Supes. Only she got put into suspended animation while embedded in a chunk of the former planet Krypton. Recently Batman found her and released her.

That's who is back. Only, really, I mean the series.

She's no really no more convoluted or unbelievable than your average superhero. Reading superhero comics requires a major suspension of disbelief on any grounds. So while this bizarre set of relationships can be bewildering, we hardly count that against the character.

However, she's also Supergirl. Did you ever see that movie? Talk about cheese. The girls weren't even all that hot. It just… failed to make any connection. And where was Superman in all that?

However, as I've said, Peter David showed us that Supergirl could be a pretty cool character. Obviously, it would be a bit silly, even for comics, for the writers to make Kara another "earth-born angel," like Matrix was, but we have to be open to the fact that they might be able to do something neat.

Issue 2 of the new series is out now. Is that too soon to make a judgement? In terms of viability of the title, no. But in terms of the cool factor? Possibly. Supergirl series III was determined to be very cool by issue 3. It didn't take more than that. Of course, representing God as an 8 year old with glasses and carrying around a baseball bat made things kind of neat. Having her merge identities with a mortal with a very sordid past was brilliance. David managed to recreate a character completely, a character that already had two strong traditions behind her of varying success, and he did it without restarting her continuity. It was exciting and cool, and continued to have an interesting story for years.

Kara's new series may or may not be as cool or exciting. I don't advocate a complete re-working of the character. After all, she was introduced and started fighting crime in her blue and white pajamas during the last Supergirl series. Which means she has an established origin and it's a little soon to start re-writing her already.

One of the problems with new comic series is that they like to have crossovers a bunch to get people to read it. It may seem like a digression I'm taking here, but stay with me. It's almost an inevitability, or the marketing department starts to call out for ritual blood sacrifice (blood that can then be used for inking the Super-characters' capes). Supergirl series III managed to avoid it for 2 whole issues. Issue three actually only had Gorilla Grod, which wasn't really going to attract readers. Yet it stood. Supergirl series IV, however, didn't even try to do the same.

Issue one featured the JSA and Superboy, and included a punch out between Supergirl and the old Superman nemesis Solomon Grundy (as well as between Supergirl and Powergirl). Issue two has a punch out between Supergirl and Superboy, where she manages to dislocate his jaw. It also shows her knocking the crap out of Wondergirl. The rest of the Teen Titans show up too, as well as Robin and Starfire. It's a second string celebrity fest for Supergirl!

It's quite annoying, because on the surface, this is all I saw. Why can't we get to meet the character starting her own series without having to learn about every other two-bit superhero in the world? Give her some time.

The other thing that got on my nerves is the "something dark" phenomenon. This is where an author (in any medium—film, comics, fiction) says there's "something dark" about the protagonist. It's a specific type of "telling, not showing." What's dark about her? Come on! That she's new on the block? That's she's a teenager? Gee, that's new ground. There is one line that mentions her not remembering something—who knows what, since she seems capable of giving a good account of her life history—and Batman not trusting her (but who cares? Who does Batman trust?).

As a teenager, she is written pretty well, though. She's got a short temper, problems with authority without being the rebel without a clue, and she's awkward socially sometimes. She has trouble making friends in this new club she's in, and it's interesting to see that.

The final verdict? I'm going to keep reading. You know why?

Because before I finished issue two, I realized something. There's only a bad guy in this series for a few pages, and he's never a serious thread. That's interesting and different in a superhero story, where bringing on the villain of the month is standard faire. Even the guest appearances have a point. They seem gratuitous, as I mentioned, but They're going somewhere. Most of the people Kara conflicts with are people who share part of her origin: Powergirl and Superboy; even going toe-to-toe with Wonder Girl is in this vein, since instead of using Superman as a role model, Supergirl is pretty much under Wonder Woman's tutelage this time – which is in itself a very interesting take on the character. She's trying to figure herself out, and she has more teen problems than acne. She's a stranger in a strange land, literally. She doesn't know much about where she is or how to adapt. Add that to the coming of age, problem, and you've got a conflict that's being developed on several different levels at once.

She doesn't idolize Superman, and she almost resents the transfer of those expectations to her. Not enough to take off the "S" incidentally, but it's hard to use a man as a role model who couldn't even crawl when you first saw him, and then the next time you see him, you haven't aged, and he's a full adult and married. She doesn't have any history with the Kents, either, which has been a stabilizer in more than a dozen superheroes in the past.

In the end, I don't think the crossovers are completely gratuitous. Probably Jeph Loeb was asked to write them in, but he makes excellent use with them developing his themes, and he's got some excellent character dynamics.

So Supergirl is back. Indeed.

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Written by SaintEhlers on October 17th, 2005