It’s New Year’s Eve in Midvale and Linda (Supergirl) Danvers and her gal pals have been invited to rich girl Clarissa’s party. It’s a no-booze affair, as Clarissa is trying to give up alcohol, and Linda is fine with that. Lena Luthor? Not so much.
Super-scientist Lena decides to give Kandorian chum Lesla-Lar a taste of what being drunk might be like, with a special concoction. Unfortunately, a thirsty Linda also has a drink, and the effect is immediate, her lowered inhibitions showing as she spots the guy she was lusting after at a previous do. Lesla, meanwhile, starts showing off her super-strength.
As Lesla gets out of control, Lena alerts Linda to the problem, prompting her to slip away and change to the Maid of Might. She’s not on top form.
Later, after things have calmed down, Lena admits some rash actions.
Next day, Linda looks into why Lesla is shrinking, but, as she can’t work it out, turns to Lesla’s parents back in Kandor.
They’re awful people.
Will Lesla have to remain in Kandor forever? Will Mr and Mrs Lar start acting like parents rather than jailers? And what are the intentions of the familiar face who greets Lesla on the final page?
Well, being a Supergirl fan of old, I can safely answer that last question with ‘not good’, but let’s save that until next month.
But let’s agree that the youth disease is writer Sophie Campbell going a long way back into pre-Crisis lore, nodding to 1968’s Superman #158.
What’s going to happen in this case, though? I wouldn’t put it past Lesla’s rotten ‘rents to have secretly treated all the Kandorian kids as a way to keep them bottled up and un-Super.
This issue is a bit of a downer; it starts with Linda in good spirits and ends with her feeling super sad. Last issue was pretty gloomy for our heroine too, with an overwhelmed Linda taking to her bed, as happens this time. I really hope next issue sees a sunnier Supergirl, the mood matching earlier issues. I didn’t enjoy the teenage angst, with Linda angry at an uncharacteristically stupid Lena. And if I want drunk Linda I’ll read Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow.
I wish this blog had female commenters – I really want to know if an ultra-tattooed pretty boy with half a haircut is attractive to straight ladies. And just who is he, we almost get a name this time but it never comes. Sophie Campbell has been kind enough to assure me on Bluesky that’s he’s not the hideous H’el.
One surprise this issue is that on the stroke of midnight, when people kiss to welcome the New Year, Lesla snogs the aura-reading Luna Lustrum. That’s out of nowhere, I think, and it seems to dismay Lena.
It’s great Linda has a supporting cast, but they are dominating proceedings, rather, I’d like the odd issue of Supergirl away from Midvale, fighting supervillains on the world, even universal, stage.
Campbell’s not on the art this time, but Joe Quinones is a quality fill-in, providing full-colour illustrations – at times the finish reminds me of Mike Allred’s work. The storytelling is good, the action works, Supergirl looks great, but Linda appears odd, with sharper features.
The middle panel below interested me.
The mystery man has lost his tattoos, his features look pink and blobby, his eyes like black sockets. A Durlan forgetting to keep his guise up in a moment of surprise, or the victim of a moment of an artistic shortcut?
I do like Linda’s new jacket, with the snakey S-symbol. A clue to something coming up?
Letterer Becca Carey does good work, as ever, with a clever touch being the wobbly speech-balloon Supergirl logo to represent her wobbly state.
We are blessed with a Campbell cover, that’s some excellent foreshortening. I’m not keen on the black fingernails, mind.
So, another well-produced issue, even if Midvale is a little less cheery than usual. Let’s hope the clouds part next time.
Too Dangerous For a Girl 2 
I think I’m the only one who liked H’el.
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Very possibly! How did you feel about Power Boy and Earth Man?
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I thought Power Boy deserved a redemption arc and Earth Man semi got one. As a plus, his character made more people hate Shady almost as much as I already had.
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After what Power Boy did to Supergirl, he deserved prison.
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It was a damn shame they wasted the obvious visual connection to PG.
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That outfit was so stoopid!
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It feels like Quinones has adapted his style slightly to fit more with Campbell’s. I was always a bit worried that having Sophie as writer and artist would lead to the need to use other artists, given how things went with TMNT, if she shared with Quinones or someone similar I’d be happy.
It’s interesting how she approaches drunk Supergirl as it feels a bit like a repudiation of Woman of Tomorrow, in saying Supergirl getting drunk isn’t a good thing.
Stu
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That’s a great point, Supergirl should be high on life, not alcohol. I still hate that notion that Kara would have to drown her sorrows on her 21st birthday.
I think you’re right about the art adaptation, the work seems less organic than Quinones’ work on the likes of the Zatanna/Blxk Canary boo, Stu.
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Sophie’s current run is so forgettable that it has no right to throw shade at Tom King’s run because even there Supergirl shows little of her complexity. In the current run, Kara is one-dimensional, empty, and without personality.
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Anj here.
Whoa! Superman #158 is a deep cut! Amazing!
It is interesting to me to see how both Lena and Lesla seem self-destructive in this issue and also seem to want to be held unaccountable in some ways for their actions.
This is another emotional issue without a ton of action so hoping we get a villain throwdown soon. But it is clear that Campbell cares about Supergirl.
Lastly, Quinones is a great fill-in choice. Jibes with the overall feel of the book.
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Maybe we’ll get a nice done-in-one annual with a big villain slugfest!
I hope the girls’ relationship calms down soon. And I hope they get the odd male pal, and not the cliched token gay chap… well, maybe as part of a wider friendship group.
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With the entire team of women working on this comic, I was shocked by how sexist it was! It dumbed down the female protagonist and was incredibly sexist, yes.
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If it’s any consolation, Jon Kent was dumbed down in his Kids Are All Fight showcase this week.
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With the entire team of women working on this comic, I was shocked by how sexist it was! It dumbed down the female protagonist and was incredibly sexist, yes.
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Speaking as a woman, the guy is mysterious and attractive, yes, and speaking as a woman again this run is extremely sexist because it infantilized and dumbed down the protagonist to make her palatable? And she became an infantilized adult who even lost her intelligence to the OC, Lex’s daughter, to have space in the plot… besides in this run she has toxic friendships and acts as a babysitter for these friendships poor Kara seems to be in captivity in the countryside forced to babysit two annoying girls who don’t respect her! Kara deserved better writing and art #freekara #freekara
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Thank you, I asked and I received. I don’t feel Kara has been dumbed down so much as written with a slightly different character emphasis here. In the Superman books, JLU etc she’s second-in-command of the Super Family, maybe in Midvale she can relax a bit and slip into private life fun, and occasional angst.
But I do want some big slugfests here!
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Look, Kara was so downgraded that she didn’t even know how to fix a cell phone even though she came from a guild of scientists who, in other runs, performed surgeries and experiments, demonstrating her above-average intelligence. So yes, I see this as sexist, which fits into the current approaches to heroines in DC. They are either infantilized to the maximum, almost to the point of not existing, as is the case here with Kara, or they become “traditional wives.” The only one in the current line who escaped these retrograde approaches is Zatanna the writer truly loves the protagonist and wants to see her evolve, not regress, as is the case with this current phase of Supergirl, which has downgraded her decades of evolution, chasing retrograde confetti from the 60s Silver Age and, of course, the bad nonsense of the failed CW.
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It is pretty frustrating when you hate a run, I think I managed maybe three issues of the recent Power Girl series. Lord, that was awful.
I expect within a couple of years Supergirl will have a different creative team, hopefully it’ll be more to your taste.
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