Written by Nick Spencer and James Peaty
Illustrated by Bernard ChangSUPERGIRL welcomes aboard writer Nick Spencer (JIMMY OLSEN, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS, Morning Glories) and artist Bernard Chang (WONDER WOMAN, SUPERMAN) for a Girl of Steel story unlike any other! Someone is trying to kill the young heroes of the DC Universe! Who is this villain, and how can Supergirl stop him? Maybe her friends can help — namely, Batgirl, Blue Beetle, Miss Martian, Static and…Robin?! Buckle up, folks, because this one puts the pedal to the metal on page one and doesn’t let up for a second!
Sterling Gates is off his critically praised run on the title despite many pleas from the Multiversity staff to stay, and as we rev up for a new run we don’t even get a full issue before Nick Spencer leaves, being replaced by James Peaty. Does this bode well for the book, or is it a sign of horrible things to come?
With the first issue under our collective belts, take a look behind the cut for the review.
Sterling Gates without a doubt created the definitive run for the new Kara Zor-El. After almost 2 years of the title existing after Jeph Loeb’s “Supergirl” arc in Batman/Superman, the title finally had stability and a voice to it as Gates gave Kara more meaning and depth. Redefining the character and putting her amongst the people as well as integrating the character into the larger Superman storylines, Supergirl was at an all time high. Now with her own band of rogues, friends, and family, we were given a truly great female-oriented book (that was criminally overlooked by fans). However, with Gates’ departure from the book – which was incredibly sad – DC handed us the olive branch that is redhot writer Nick Spencer, who is knocking it out of the park with younger character titles like Morning Glories and his Jimmy Olsen back-up. To hear that he wouldn’t be staying beyond half an issue was odd, and certainly lowered expectations for the issue.
However, the good news is that the book continues to be a great read. Supergirl #60 begins with a rather blatant and obvious tonality shift. Gates always had a very steady pace to his stories, with the focus always being on developing Supergirl, but as the issue begins we are given three (eventually four) intertwined and shifting stories that all somehow connect. With a new villain, a Lois Lane interview, and Supergirl saving a boy falling from a building, the story very quickly branches out from a straight linear path to a rather intricately and carefully plotted storyline showing four different timelines that could be disjointed and confusing in most circumstances, yet play out rather nicely here. It’s a rather stark contrast to Gates’ run, but with a new writer onboard, you’d expect some changes – and changes we get. Thankfully, it’s all good.
Additionally, the new plot for the story is quite interesting, and Spencer’s influence is obviously felt. A brand new app is created to allow the tracking of superheroes (described as the FourSquare of superhero apps), and is being used by our new “influential” villain Alex (referenced in dialogue as Alex The Great, a reference to the Greek leader) as a way to take down Supergirl and other young heroes, with a mysterious tie to Cadmus only slightly alluded to. While the app thing seems similar to what what Spencer has done in the past when it comes to integrating the modern hipster lifestyle into comics, it doesn’t play out too wearily. In fact, the only thing in the issue that generally seems odd storywise is the new villain Alex, who will assumedly have more explanation later on, but while the book does a good job of giving out a strong teen/young adult vibe, at the moment his interaction with other kids his age (especially with the young lady who comes by the table) seem a tad odd, if not borderline fantasy/too odd to be believable. The story also throws Supergirl against a cavalcade of villains seen in her book recently, none of whom make sense together and all of whom assumedly have a different and sinister meaning to their appearance. It was always assumed that Spencer would bring his proclivity to writing younger characters with modern spins and references to the comic, and it’s felt right in the first few pages, holding a strong resonance throughout the entire issue. While Spencer didn’t write the entire issue and will not be staying beyond this one, the issue does hold up quite similarly to Spencer’s smash hit title, Morning Glories.
Continued belowWhile Nick Spencer isn’t the main writer of the comic, it still feels like an issue he wrote, and that can only speak lengths and volumes about the unassuming talent of James Peaty. Peaty has a difficult task ahead, having to live up to both the tremendous run by Sterling Gates as well as the popularity created by Spencer, but if he is able to so unassumingly slip his writing into this issue in a way that seems almost discernible from Spencer’s rather notable writing styles, this bodes extremely well for the future of the title. Of course, we won’t be able to truly tell if this really is the future of the title until the next issue. Spencer wrote at least some of the issue, so while Peaty did finish it out in great style, the trick will be to see if he’s able to keep up the pace with the next issue. However, the inaugural book came out quite well, and with luck next month’s issue featuring Damian Wayne and Stephanie Brown will feature the same sharp and quite age-appropriate dialogue as well as complex and interwoven storytelling that ultimately made this a great issue right out the bat from the new creative team.
Speaking of, we now have Bernard Chang instead of Jamal Igle on art. Igle had a great style present that he kept up through the entire run, and the one issue that deviated from Igle to Chang’s art was fairly good, but not too great. Fortunately, Chang’s first issue on his official run ends up being quite pretty to look at. While the opening splash sequence of Supergirl flying gives off a rather unusual pose (at least for flying) and a couple of the other sequences play out a bit odd in the pose department as well, the majority of the issue is rather pitch perfect for the content. The title definitely has a young and fresh vibe to it, and Chang’s panel structure used to convey the somewhat complicated timeline ends up being really quite interesting to look at. The pacing is a tad abnormal from what you might expect, with difference scenes intersecting on a single page as opposed to per page, but it works out magnificently due to the angles and scenes shown by Chang’s art. With a much sleeker and stylish pen given to this issue, Supergirl #60 is off to a great start in the art department.
We waved a tearful goodbye to Gates and Igle’s fantastic run on the book, but despite having rather high expectations for the team on the block, we’re off to a good start. Supergirl is by far and large one of DC’s most underrated titles, and now is an excellent jumping on point for new fans. The younger superhero is quite possibly the single greatest story trope to explore (and even exploit) within the storytelling medium, and the bar has been set. Even with Spencer’s contribution being minimal and subsequently now over, his influence on the storyline is quite obvious and felt, and Peaty certainly has his work cut out for him for the arc. It’ll take another issue to solidify, but one issue in and it’s already safe to put your trust into the new team of Peaty and Chang. One can only hope that the arc will stay as solid as this first issue was, and – barring future disarray in the DC court – another long and healthy run on the title. It’s certainly looking that way from where I’m sitting.
Final Verdict: 9.4 – Buy
