Written by Michael Green and Mike Johnson
Illustrated by Mahmud Asrar and Bill ReinholdThe ship that brought Supergirl to Earth — her one remaining link to Krypton — has been stolen! Can The Girl of Steel navigate a strange new planet to find it? And will she uncover the trap set by a deadly new villain in time to save herself?
Faster than a speeding bullet, Supergirl is back! In the third issue of the new, DC’s re-introduction of the new Supergirl continues, with 40% less Kryptonians! Where does Kara head this time? Why to space!
Check the cut to see how she makes it through the book! As a note, mild spoilers are discussed!
This book is probably one of the best books starring a female character. As a whole, I think there are more good solo female led books than bad ones, and this book continues that trend with some of the most fun writing in the new status quo. She’s a new character (again) so she has to get her new origin out of the way. What’s good about this is that her origin, while still tied to Superman, isn’t as dependent on him being there, like he was in the Superman/Batman arc from 2003/2004 with Wonder Woman and Darkseid. Giving Kara her own voice works better for establishing her as her own character, rather than “simply” the girl Superman.
The internal dialogue works perfectly with the new set-up as well. Like I mentioned before, the Superman/Batman arc relied too much on the eponymous characters to introduce her, and as a consequence, she was relegated to a plot device in her own origin. While I still enjoy the origin and that book for what it was, I can still recognize the problematic elements that hindered her development. In this book, she is the main storyteller, everything is her reacting to and learning about the world she now inhabits, rather than two dudes reacting to and learning about her reacting to learning about that same new world.
She’s not dumb either. OK, while she was never dumb, she was originally written as a tad vapid. Instead she’s delving right into the DCnU, and being proactive in what she wants! The pod she arrived in was taken by a new antagonist that bears a striking similarity to Lex Luthor. This might be more of a drawback than it seems long term, however, because rich businessmen/mad scientists HAVE been done in the DC Universe before, and he’s no Lex Luthor. But in the meantime, he IS a compelling character with an acerbic wit about him, plus the delightful, but achingly familiar attitude of being better than others because of his intense wealth. He’s a Trillionaire, mind you, so how rich will Batman and Lex Luthor be? BALLS RICH, that’s how rich. The .00000001% is what DC seems to be going for, it seems (how ridiculously rich? My copy of MS Office doesn’t think “Trillionaire” is a word). But part of the appeal is his evil Howard Hughes persona, the “screw-you-I-live-in-a-space-station” mentality that will make him the most compelling going forward.
However, while I enjoy most of the character work, from Kara to Simon, Superman’s characterization doesn’t read like it should. I’m a big fan of the character, I cry about Kal-El and the other Kryptonians more than I probably should, and it’s not in-character for Clark to be as…manipulative as he is in this book. It’s great he’s reaching out to his cousin, instead of running away like he does on the Young Justice TV Show, but if there’s something he WOULDN’T do; it’d be attempting to coerce her like that. But other than that, it’s all good, even the little brain/goo man that Simon developed worked out to be a fun (if short) fight scene that shows off just how dangerous Tycho is while showing off how powerful Kara is! Perfect!
The art too, wow. It’s absolutely gorgeous. Mahmud Asrar and Bill Reinhold’s pencils and inks look absolutely stunning, with some of the best pictures that never look static (which can be a problem in comics sometimes), in fact, it’s full of life, and speed, exactly as someone who moves at damn near the speed of light should be rendered. The faces and reactions are done in a lifelike detail, and beyond that, everyone is so ATTRACTIVE. IT’s seriously some beautiful stuff, check it out. Even the aforementioned brain/goo man looks gorgeous in his own…gooey way. Good stuff, ladies and gentlemen and those in between.
Continued belowThis book has its faults, that’s for sure. But aside from a nitpick coming from a Superfan of The Original Kryptonian, it reads really well. Let’s just hope that it doesn’t get stuck in the same rut that the previous runs found themselves in. Go for something new guys without simply adding another comma to some guy’s bank account!
Final Verdict: 7.5 — Buy
As an afterthought, it sure is interesting that the first place where Kryptonite makes its debut isn’t in a core Superman book, but in the SuperGIRL book. That was a nice touch.
