Supergirl #8 review

How’s that for a captivating cover? Hallowe’en is past but Christmas is also a time for spooky stories, and Supergirl is certainly confronted by a ghost from the past here.

This is not your average ghost, being cyber rather than spectral, but Supergirl is a very strange and special girl so why wouldn’t she be haunted by herself. Sort of.

Let’s sort things out. Sophie Campbell’s typically well-plotted tale begins with a flashback to the day young Linda Lee met Eliza and Jeremiah Danvers at the Midvale Orphanage.

This is a job for…

And after the mission is completed, it’s a time for goodbyes. The Linda robot has been a faithful friend, but her job is done.

Today, it’s Christmas at the Danvers home. While her adoptive parents are introducing Lesla-Lar to festive traditions, Supergirl is in a funk. Eliza is used to this mood, Christmas reminds Kara of the people she lost when Argo City, her Kryptonian home, was destroyed. But Eliza yet worries that maybe her daughter isn’t happy staying in a small town.

Kara doesn’t sleep well that night, but neither does she hear the intruder who turns the modest home upside down. Supergirl and Luminary – Kandorian Lesla in superhero training pants – track the mystery person down to a tree that’s very familiar. And shambling from that tree, the stuff of nightmares, repeating one line: Mistress, why did you abandon me?’

Poor Kara. Poor ‘Linda’. The sense of confusion from ‘Linda’. The realisation from Kara that the pain is her fault – this isn’t a toaster, it’s a metal being with some level of sentience. Kara, whether she meant to or not, abandoned her friend, someone who was always there when needed, and asked nothing in return. Sound familiar?

Linda didn’t always enjoy being in an orphanage. Imagine being stuck in a tree. For years.

It’s too late to save ‘Linda’, but it does give Kara a chance to pass on a superhero lesson to Lesla, who bats back some advice of her own. Kara is trying to be stoic, but I suspect she’s devastated, even when the issue closes on a warm note.

So, ‘Not a creature was stirring…’ is a melancholy tale, but one that had me smiling because it’s so darn good. Are we told why ‘Linda’ reactivates, and subsequently crumbles, now? No, but we don’t need it spelling out – presumably she has sensors linked to Supergirl’s presence, and now the Girl of Steel is back in Midvale, her mind snapped back. But the lost years have seen her body break down.

As someone who read a bunch of those orphanage-based tales as a kid, I found this comic very affecting. Maybe Kara’s brainiac buddy Lena Luthor will grab Linda Robot’s mind chip, ‘unfuzz’ it and give her a new body.

How interesting to see the old orphanage, empty and run down. I’d love to see Kara and friends renovate it and run the place as a youth club for kids or something. The place was Linda’s refuge, surely she won’t be happy seeing it in such a distressed state. There could even be a role for revived ‘Linda’ – with characters such as Kara, Lena and Lesla, this series is all about second chances.

I’m so pleased Campbell gives the Danvers something to do this issue, especially Eliza, who seems to be sporting a new metal hand for cooking. I’d forgotten our heroine came, reluctantly, for a brief visit in Supergirl #1, and here it is, winter, and she’s still around (and collected a Kandorian, super-rabbit and mini-super gorilla along the way, to join old pals Streaky and Krypto). Apparently you can go home again.

Speaking of that debut issue, look back and it’s striking how Campbell has cut down on the wordage, learning to trust necessary information can be conveyed by her artist – usually herself, but here Haining, who has worked on such DC books as Spirit World and Lazarus Planet. I like the storytelling a lot, it’s direct and the characters are attractive, my only quibble is the big old Manga eyes, which look weird when everything else is so naturalistic. I’d love to have Haining back for further fill-ins.

The colouring of Alex Guimarães is delightful, I particularly enjoyed the exaggerated flashback dot screen that screams ‘OLD COMICS!’ Keep an eye out, too, for the subtly sensational snow. And Becca Carey’s no-nonsense lettering is perfect for this winter’s tale.

Lovely as Haining’s work is, it’s great that Campbell’s art isn’t entirely absent – she gives us the creepily compelling cover.

Supergirl #8 isn’t your typical Christmas comic, but it is a fabulous one.