There are a lot of comics out there, but some just stand out head and shoulders above the pack. With “Don’t Miss This” we want to spotlight those series we think need to be on your pull list. This week, we look at the Marc Andreyko run currently working its way through “Supergirl” with a multitude of artists, most prominently Kevin Maguire, to bring together an interstellar Kryptonian detective story.
Who Is This By?
Marc Andreyko is known for his work on “Manhunter” from 2004 to 2010 (including a co-feature in “Batman: Streets of Gotham” in the latter two years), through which he created the character of Kate Spencer as the first female DC character to assume that identity. Andreyko has also worked on a 5-issue true crime limited series called “Torso” at Image Comics with Brian Michael Bendis in 1998 and 1999, and wrote for the first four issues of “Wonder Woman ’77” in 2016.
The artist of the first few issues of the run, Kevin Maguire is known for his work on such comics as various incarnations of the Justice League, “Batman Confidential,” along with many others across other comic books like “Captain America.” He is particularly noted for his grasp of facial expressions and character acting.
What’s It All About?
The story of what happened to Krypton is a classic part of the Superman family origin story. Kandor was a bottle city brought out by Brainiac, but by and large, the actual fate of Krypton itself is most often an accident caused by the nature of the planet itself and/or the government tying itself up into knots over the idea of trying to either evacuate the planet or try to stop what would happen. On rare occasions, Krypton’s destruction was deliberate, but always by a single rogue actor or the actions of a single people who could be easily identified.
What if the one claiming responsibility for the destruction of the planet was not acting alone, but on behalf of a far wider conspiracy? What if he was, while perhaps hating Kryptonians and thus having that prejudice be potentially enough for some reasoning of planetary destruction, acting because of a far wider scheme? In that case, who is to blame: the one who actually carried it out, or them and everyone who they were working for? And if the latter, how could one find them?
With the morphing axe of Rogol Zaar in her hand and a new, darker outfit, Kara Zor-El, the cousin of Superman, sets out alongside her Kryptonian dog Krypto to find “the Circle,” the vast conspiracy that is responsible for empowering a mass murderer like Rogol Zaar to destroy Krypton itself. In the process, she finds her way to places like a classic bad guy bar, to Mogo of the Green Lantern Corps, and more, sometimes having to deal with the bizarre properties of Rogol Zaar’s axe, and also needing to sometimes hide her own identity through a hood or otherwise to prevent her mission from being discovered.
What Makes It So Great?
Far from the adventures with the Department of Extranormal Operations centered around National City that populated Steve Orlando’s run across four trade paperbacks, any trappings to connect “Supergirl” to her television show are stripped away with its revival as a series.
Rather than delving into government corruption and the ever-changing perception of Supergirl as a heroine to the people of Earth, the true strength of Andreyko’s run is in how unashamedly different it all is, delving not into traditional superheroics on Earth or even against classic threats to the House of El, but an entirely new swathe of villains and locales, ranging from the Guardians of the Universe to a classic wretched hive of scum and villainy to other areas, all of which drive Kara Zor-El deeper into the mystery as she works to uncover the conspiracy without being found herself.
On the whole, one of the best parts of this run is that it is not a strictly Superman family story, but one involving the cosmic DC Universe as a whole on a certain level. Not being constrained to a standard Kryptonian-aligned locale like the Phantom Zone, Metropolis, or National City, the story feels more like a far wider, more sweeping tale that just happens to involve Supergirl at its core, and to thrust her into a story for which she has limited preparation.
Continued belowHow Can You Read It?
This is an easy book to catch up on. As of today there are only five issues out, the fifth, #25, released today. As for what came before it to lead into this interstellar journey, readers can start from “Action Comics” #1000, specifically the story called “The Truth” by Brian Michael Bendis and Jim Lee, which continues into elements of “The Man of Steel” by Bendis and Ivan Reis, all of which are available wherever comic books are sold.
