SUPERGIRL #0

STORY: Michael Green and Mike Johnson
ART: Mahmud Asrar

For as good as Supergirl has been, it's starting to become a bit long in the tooth. I know that's a heavy accusation to make, but it comes after a few months of so-so issues, this entertaining yet oddly unsatisfying "Issue Zero", and the anticipation of the upcoming "H'el on Earth" crossover between Superman, Superboy, and Supergirl. It's an odd time for this series, and it shows. Last week's Superboy #0 was a steaming pile of crap that really wasn't worth the read. Supergirl #0 manages to one-up it's male equivalent in every possible aspect, even if it wasn't hard to accomplish in the first place. "The End of the Beginning" is a misnomer, somewhat, as it's a story about the 'end' of Krypton, as well as the 'beginning' of Kara's decades-long journey to become Supergirl of Earth. In reality, it's the 'beginning of the beginning' of Kara's new life, and (arguably) the 'beginning of the end' of Krypton. Oh, diction and syntax - you've reared your fascinating little heads yet again. But enough about the grammatical technicalities of the English language.

Supergirl #0 takes readers back to Argo City on Krypton - the most advanced and prosperous city on the planet, envied by all others. Part of the city's success is attributed to Zor-El's genius power generators that provide limitless energy to all peoples of the city. Though Michael Green and Mike Johnson don't just make him come out and say it, there are heavy implications that Zor-El's generators are responsible for causing the damage to the interior of the planet, resulting in a global increase of earthquake activity. As we all know, Superman's dad - Jor-El - was the one who discovered that Krypton was dying. At first, it seems like Zor-El is just clued-in, and simply wants to save his family. After a few pages and some shifty behavior, it becomes evident that Zor is to blame for the destruction of Krypton, hoping that the force field he built for Argo City would hold against the eruption of an entire planet and earn the errant scientist his presumed redemption. Of course, part of his delusional self-fulfilling prophecy concerns making sure his daughter gets out alive.

Similar to Jor-El's ship for his son, but a lot more eggy, Zor-El places his sleeping daughter into the pod in preparation to send her off-world to orbit a yellow sun until she could be retrieved. The situation becomes a questionable again when Zor is forced to drug his own daughter to see through his plan. Green and Johnson do an excellent job portraying the slowly unhinging Zor-El as he gets closer to his endgame and loses more of his grip on reality.

In a rather surprising twist, Kara's mother - Alura - is visited by none other than...Superboy? With no explanation whatsoever (not even an Editor's Note telling me to wait until next week or anything!), the person who looks exactly like Superboy warns Alura to seek out her daughter and say goodbye. Alura arrives at her husband's lab right as he's about to close the pod and launch Kara into space. Alura shoots Zor-El and attempts to retrieve her daughter before a dying Zor launched the pod. Honestly, this was the biggest letdown of the issue, and it's a big letdown because it's the climax of the entire issue. For the past twelve months, Green and Johnson have done a great job with emotional nuance. The entire scene between Zor-El and Alura is an emotional bombshell that acts as a catalyst for the entire Supergirl series. At least, it's supposed to be.

Green and Johnson drop the ball here, and the entire sequence comes across and hollow and meaningless, mostly because we only know Zor-El as a nutjob now, and we don't know Alura at all. Sure, there are universal human stories at play here, and sometimes that's enough. Unfortunately, Supergirl #0 needed a bit more detail and characterization for a scene like this to work, and it just didn't. It's a painful end to an otherwise solid issue. I'm still looking forward to Supergirl in the future because we'll likely never have to deal with either Zor-El or Alura directly ever again, so it's of no consequence, HAHA!

GRADE:

C+

(COMIC) SUPERGIRL #10

STORY: Michael Green and Mike Johnson
ART: Mahmud Asrar

Supergirl is one of the most overlooked titles in DC's 'New 52.' It makes sense; Kara Zor-El is not one of the heavy hitters in DC's lineup of heroes, but she's also not as obscure as, say, Blue Devil or Vibe. No, Supergirl has pretty much always got the short end of the stick since her inception. I mean, this iteration of Supergirl is it's sixth volume. This is the sixth time Supergirl has been rebooted. That's absolutely ridiculous. Along with these reboots has followed a totally incomprehensible character history. So if you think about it, the 'New 52' was best for titles such as Supergirl - those lost in their own continuity, with nowhere else to turn. Like I said before, Supergirl is chronically passed over in favor of bigger titles like Wonder Woman and Superboy. This sucks because Michael Green and Mike Johnson have been building a pretty stable and well-structured world for young Kara. With a little more than just "Superman's cousin" to carry her title, Kara has been tested since the moment she arrived on Earth - including flying back to a ruined Krypton and fighting on a chunk of what was left with barely any powers - and has consistently come out ahead due to her unflinching determinism.


For the past few months, Kara's been kickin' it with Siobhan Smythe, a ballsy Irishwoman with a penchant for mastering foreign languages (including Kryptonian), and a bit of an evil spirit living in her that's being hunted by her father, the origin of that evil. Silver Banshee has been a longtime mainstay of the DC universe - mostly making trouble for Superman over the years - who here is recast as an anti-hero who has been cursed with this evil power by her father, Black Banshee - a new character created by Green and Johnson for this arc and one that I've really enjoyed so far.


While Silver Banshee's powers have mostly been based on her sonic scream (similar to Black Canary), ability to manipulate sound waves, etc. Black Banshee - on the worse hand - is all about the totally evil magics. He powers himself through sucking other souls into his own. This doesn't mean he eats souls to survive; he actually incorporates other souls into his own to make it stronger...more evil. That's a pretty twisted notion, and one that Green and Johnson take to it's literal extension when Kara attempts to 'overload' Black Banshee with her sun-soaked super-body. This tactic has the opposite desired effect and powers up Black Banshee more than he's ever felt.

The side effect of this amount of power results in a little bit of Kara manifesting itself within Black Banshee's soul, a world turned into a warped version of Kara's memories of Krypton. Green and Johnson write some pretty jarring moments as Kara travels through memories of moments that never happened; perversions of the memory of her previous life. Eventually, Kara meets Tom Smythe, Siobhan's older brother who sacrificed himself to Black Banshee years earlier to save his sister. Kara uses her residual energy to create a sword for herself and goes after Black Banshee, who has constituted himself as a Kryptonian flamedragon in Kara's memory.

The ending is what really makes Supergirl #10 interesting. After Kara and Tom are able to wound Black Banshee enough to force him to yak them out of his soul, Siobhan rears her silver head and lets loose a massive sonic scream that sucks Black Banshee into her own soul! She gives her dad a taste of his own medicine and traps him inside her own Banshee soul. It's an ending that's not only satisfying, but also promising for the future. Leaving Black Banshee alive (albeit, imprisoned) all but guarantees he'll be back to give Supergirl and Siobhan trouble in the future.

I'm seriously into Supergirl. Each month, it gets better and better. It completely outshines Superboy and Superman. The final pages of the issue introduce a character who uses a suit to change his shape (Chameleon, perhaps?), whose mission is to kill Supergirl! If Green and Johnson keep going with the same tenacity as before, things look good for the future of Supergirl.

Oh, and Siobhan reunites with her brother who was trapped inside Black Banshee for 15 years. That happens.

GRADE

A

(COMIC) SUPERGIRL #8

STORY: Michael Green and Mike Johnson
(GUEST) ART: George Perez and Bob Wiacek


Last month, Supergirl finished up it's fantastic first arc, "Last Daughter of Krypton", in which she woke up on Earth, went in search of Krypton, and fought the four Worldkillers created by Kryptonian scientists. It was a fun (if not somewhat fragmented) story that gave Kara a solid, well-written origin. Supergirl has been written and re-written so many times (the 'New 52' Supergirl technically counts as Volume 6) that it's hard to keep her continuity straight, even for die-hard fans.

This month sees the the reboot of a Superman villain who has received mixed reviews since 1987: Silver Banshee. Exhausted from her fight with the Worldkillers - and with nowhere to go anyway - Supergirl becomes surrounded by Metropolis police looking to arrest her. A young Siobhan Smythe intervenes, shouting that it was Supergirl who saved the city. After a short kerfuffle and a quick getaway, the girls bond when Siobhan learns to speak Kryptonian after hearing only a few short sentences from Kara, a gift for languages some people possess.

Siobhan gets Kara set up with street clothes and they head out to a bar where Siobhan is playing an acoustic guitar set. Usually, I'm a big fan of George Perez's artwork - it often reminds me of Silver Age books without seeming cheesy or overdone - but the pencils of Siobhan's performance make her look like she's drowning or making a "cooooo" sound with her mouth. Also, the silver lettering that identifies her singing are drawn jagged and nigh-broken looking. This is the kind of font I'd expect from a withered, old sorceress who cackles and sounds like a crow - not from a young Irish woman who claims she has a pretty voice.

Michael Green and Mike Johnson have created a whole new character for Supergirl, a way to make Silver Banshee more than a simple third-tier villain. Black Banshee arrives at the club, using his dark magic to stir up chaos in efforts to find his daughter, Silver Banshee, and in the confusion, Kara loses Siobhan. Of course, fans already knew who Siobhan was the moment she showed up earlier in the issue: Silver Banshee. Green and Johnson leave the issue on a cliffhanger for next month when it looks like Supergirl will team up with Silver Banshee, something I never thought I'd say.

GRADE:

B+

(COMIC) SUPERGIRL #7

Written by Michael Green and Mike Johnson
Artwork by Mahmud Asrar

Supergirl has been an interesting title thus far. Unlike it's sister title, Superboy, which continually stews in it's own victimized mess of a story, Kara Zor-El's tale has been interesting, fun to read, and informative since issue one. Along with most DC heroes, Supergirl's origins were rebooted. But unlike, say, the Blackhawks - which didn't really need a reboot - Supergirl's mythos has been hacked and chopped to oblivion over the years. Not only have there been four different Supergirls (all of whom have since been washed away), a fifth incarnation went on to become Power Girl! Needless to say, Kara was in desperate need for a definitive backstory.

Michael Green and Mike Johnson have taken the most essential elements of Supergirl's history - being from Krypton, Superman's cousin, etc. - and worked them into a fantastic new story about the Worldkillers, a group of genetically-modified warriors synthesized from Kryptonian technology and created to destroy entire planets. It's a bold move to create new characters like these, but Green and Johnson walk the fine line of power levels and successfully give readers enough information without being overbearing.

This month, Kara finally faces off against all four Worldkillers, with Reign (whom she met back in issue five) taking point as their leader. I want to quickly point out the use of title labels to provide information to the readers. Each one of the Worldkillers is named and described by ability and function when destroying worlds. Normally, I'm staunchly against blatant 'telling' instead of 'showing' when it comes to basic information like that; I'd rather the characters convey the information to each other. In this case, readers are given an idea of who these creatures are simply to provide a basic narrative framework. Eventually, Kara learns that the plant dinosaur (their names really aren't important) secretes a powerful poison, but beyond that, all she needs to know is that they're kicking the crap out of her.

And really, that's what this issue is about; Kara vs. the Worldkillers. Some choice words from Reign inspire Kara to use the Worldkillers' abilities against one another. After successfully wounding the strong one (again, not concerned about the names), Supergirl successfully sends the Worldkillers on their way, but not before learning that there was a fifth, empty containment pod when the four of them awoke in the Kryptonian lab all those years ago.

Unfortunately, there's not much in the way of a conclusion, with Green and Johnson instead opting to give those last few pages to Reign's "I will be back" speech. If the writing and artwork stay as consistent as they have through this point, Supergirl might just become one of the 'must read' books from the 'New 52.'

GRADE:

B+