I was wondering if this one-off comic would redefine Supergirl. Give her a new mission, maybe a city of her own, some supporting characters. Instead it redefines ‘special’.
Because special this ain’t, unless ‘special’ means ‘dull’, ‘contrived‘, ‘pointless’…
It’s Sunday afternoon in Metropolis. Kara Zor-El is moping at the chatter about her on the socials.
The Super-Twins find her and ask about her childhood, but she can dig up just one specific memory.
She never won the race.
That night Supergirl is called to help the other Supers evacuate a building after an explosion. Kara spots someone trapped on the roof and zooms upward, only to find Power Girl passing her.
This page, beautifully drawn by Skylar Patridge, sums up the nonsense of Mariko Tamaki’s story. Supergirl and Power Girl are not schoolgirl rivals at a track meet. Power Girl would not try to ‘steal’ Supergirl’s save. Supergirl would not grab the leg of someone on their way to a rescue.
The moment results in Supergirl getting bashed by a big piece of building,
What happens to the person in trouble, we never see. Dead, presumably.
Supergirl arrives home to find Lois waiting for her with baked goods, realising she needs cheering up
‘I was always one step behind…’ Has Tamaki ever read any Supergirl stories? Of course she has, she wrote the alternate Supergirl origin story Being Super, and it’s pretty decent. Running was a bit of a thing there too.
So why is this Kara such a moaning Minnie, not knowing where she fits in, defining herself by her ability to best others? That’s not Supergirl. In the Silver Age Kara was a science whiz, spending her downtime experimenting on Kryptonite to find a cure. In the past few years we’ve seen that she was a top scholar in Argo City. In recent months we’ve seen that she’s the historian of the Super Family, the repository of Kryptonian knowledge and wisdom.
But here all she remembers is losing a race (to someone with the very Kryptonian name of ‘Elsa’) and, as an afterthought, leaving Argo City as it blew up.
Then there’s the rivalry with Power Girl – why? They are alternate versions of one another, but they aren’t twins. Power Girl is several years older, people should be able to tell them apart – certainly if Power Girl is properly drawn. And with Kara having started at Earth 2 Golden Age power levels, Supergirl should be stronger and faster.
There are a couple of references to Supergirl almost getting herself killed recently – I remember her being hospitalised in Action Comics #1053, that wasn’t her fault. Why is Kara being treated like an amateur, apparently unable to judge her powers? Or is there something going on with her strength levels we’re not told about? Are the psychological problems she’s having hobbling her effectiveness? Tamaki outlines a problem but doesn’t colour in the details. The core issue is that she was given a purpose, to look after baby Kal-El, but by the time she reached Earth he was an adult.
Yep, it’s ‘Superman’s Babysitter’ again. How many times must Supergirl come to terms with this relatively recent addition to her lore?
Happily, Lois, being the new Ma Kent, has a pep talk to hand.
And that’s it’s. She feels better, Power Girl drops by, they agree they share a destiny – whatever that means.
Forty pages, with more of them devoted to a flashback of Kara running a race than doing super feats. Would a supervillain be too much to hope for in a supposed Supergirl Special?
Tamaki isn’t a bad writer. Jon is nicely presented. That Lois page is great in context of the story, it’s just that the story is so unnecessary, and so daft (at one point we learn that Lois and Clark are serving Sunday lunch on paper plates so no one has to waste time washing up – this is a kitchen with at least six people possessing super speed). And decompressed – if this double-sized book takes you ten minutes to read I’d be amazed.
Mind, enjoying the art might happily extend the reading time. Patridge produces many lovely pages, well-observed facial expressions – I especially like this panel, nicely set up by Tamaki’s script, even if the Super Twins shouldn’t look quite so ‘twinny’ – they’re not actually the same age.
And Patridge is tiptop at drawing kids running, which is just as well…
Colourist Marissa Louise also does a fine job, paying attention to how Kara’s hair would look at different times of day, and giving a dreamy tone to the Kryptonian flashback scene. And Becca Carey’s lettering choices are well thought out.
The issue ends with Kara calm and smiling, back to the way she is in current issues of Action Comics. So what was the point of this issue? To annoy Supergirl fans? The off-characterisation, the weird way the people of Metropolis apparently look at Supergirl and Power Girl, the played-out Superman’s Babysitter bit… I could happily have gone without reading this comic, which stretches out a 20pp story – and that’s being generous – to twice the length.
Jamal Campbell’s strong cover shows a cheery Supergirl, ready for business. I wish she’d been in this issue.
I’d love to know what other Supergirl fans think of this Special – super or superfluous?
Too Dangerous For a Girl 2 
I hate these writers on both Power Girl and this “Special”
I don’t get this? Is every super-hero now going to be turned into a whining “gotta look at my alleged trauma” kind of thing? Why does PG come off as some kind of beaten down victim and why would Supergirl be so f’ing self centered?
At this point I think I like the angry New52 Supergirl better than this.
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I agree, at least she had a bit of fire.
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In the most recent Steelworks, she was also flattened immediately, and Clark told Conner to get her to safety. The same task he was given in Action 1053.
She was just knocked out in Hawkgirl.
And her powers fritzed badly in Lazarus Planet.
I don’t remember if Kara was athletic on Krypton. Anj will know! But, who cares? It’s ridiculous. She was an advanced science study. And has been off in space, powerless, and still effective.
It’s hard to believe that Tom King’s version was better than this.
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I don’t recall Kara ever being shown as into athletics on Krypton, I imagine she was as interested in sport as much as your average Earth kid. She was racing against her mother in that Legion cartoon I reviewed last year – she was racing Alura, who came across as psychotically competitive.
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Anj here.
Pointless. Not entertaining. Ignoring the past 3 years under PKJ and Williamson.
Why is she upset at PG? Because Instagram told her to be?
Imagine trying to stop each other from saving a person in peril because of a petty rivalry? Imagine another pointless scene about baked goods?
How can Kara remember nothing of Krypton when she is the Kryptonian scholar in the other super-books. How can she be upset at PG when they just did this rivalry in reverse in the PG special and they hugged it out?
I am a Supergirl fan and I am sad she got this solo book. And I am fearful this is a template for upcoming Supergirl stories.
Baffling.
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I can’t imagine what goes through the DC Editor’s mind when they get a script like this, if they actually read their own comics they’d see immediately that this is no Supergirl. Please God they don’t do a Power Girl and immediately announce an ongoing.
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What are these “editors” of which you speak? Perhaps you are thinking of the traffic managers at DC and Marvel who, whenever they receive a script or art, give it the most cursory of glances before rubber-stamping it as “Approved” and sending it off to be printed?
Seriously, I am so glad I didn’t buy this book. It sounds like an even bigger train wreck than the Power Girl special.
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That’s a glum characterisation of the editors’ job these days, Ben! And you’re probably right, sadly. Bring back experienced, educated editors fighting for their passion projects.
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DC used to have editors as recently as the New 52 dictating story to creators and driving away veterans. Tom King was also held in check with his insane mischaracterizations writing the Vision mini and I’m pretty sure that was down to Tom Brevoort.
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I take no pleasure in making the observation, trust me!
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I’m still gathering my thoughts about this but this story led nowhere for me. At the end I was asking myself, “That’s it?!?!” Such a weird story for a character that has so many areas to explore. Sad to say that Supergirl was treated even better in the Power Girl special. In that book, we see Power Girl reading Kara’s journal and Kara writes that she views Power Girl not as an adversary or competition and that they share a bond that no one else has. I read that as Kara being welcoming of Power Girl to the Super Family. Kara doesn’t seem to have any qualms about her. So this whole story is a very strange plot out of nowhere just to manufacture some drama. When does this story happen? Before or after that Power Girl Special? This just leaves me confused and disappointed.
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‘Confused and disappointed’ is a very fair reaction. You’ll likely move on to ‘annoyed’. Honestly, I’d rather be reading early Seventies Supergirl, with Kara crying because she can’t get a date.
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Well, you know the drill. It’s Supergirl, so I’m all set to give a story a little more slack that you and Anj generally are. You both keep Kara pretty close to you as a favorite, and in my case, she’s just a character I like. So in a book like Woman of Tomorrow, I was much more willing to go along for the ride than you guys were.This, though? We’re on the same page, except I didn’t really like the art, either. (You bring up some good points about it’s good qualities, so maybe I was giving it short shrift during my read. But there’s nothing about the story that makes me want to revisit it.)I do have a theory about what stories like this (and the Power Girl backups, and presumably the series) are about, though — what’s going through editorial’s mind. I don’t think it’s an editor not doing their job; I think it’s an editor whose priorities are different from those of our segment of the readership. These are all really touchy-feely “finding yourself/accepting yourself” type stories — and it’s my understanding that they sell like hotcakes in the DC Young Adult graphic novel series. Those seem to do really well for that audience. So…what editor wouldn’t want to bring some of those sales to the mainstream DCU? I don’t think this is a matter of simply ignoring the character as presented in other DCU-set comics; I think it’s more a matter of intentionally trying to capture that YA audience with a story style they’re comfortable with, and bring them into the DCU.Now, I could be completely wrong about this. I haven’t read those OGNs, so I’m obviously (and admittedly) talking through my hat about this. But it’s my supposition that this is an attempt to build some crossover from a different DC fanbase. Which is a laudable goal. But it’s definitely going to create some comics that feel clumsy and solipsistic to older readers, as this one did for me, or ones where we’re simply not the intended audience. Which is fine. I’ve got more than enough to read, anyway.
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The YA OGNs I’ve read do have the themes you mention but they’re generally drawn and written markedly better than any of the Power Girl or Supergirl output. If this is an attempt at what you’re suggesting I get it and I’ll concede I’m not the target audience. Redoing the Karas rivalry almost identically but in reverse this quick though was way too soon even for Mort Weisenger.
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Thank you Rob, this all makes so much sense – comics for young people who are searching and sensitive… wait until you see the Jon Kent back-up in this week’s Action Comics, it fits your theory perfectly. I do think Supergirl WoT must be the exception because it’s so relentlessly nasty in time.
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Oh, my beautiful paragraph breaks! They were intended to be there, but formatting stole them away! Sorry for the giant block of text.
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I have to cu and paste from a Notes app to get paragraph breaks when I want them.
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With thoughts as good as these you could run the words together and I’d be smiling.
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