Accessible-y fun!
Creative Staff:
Story: Sterling Gates
Art: Bengal
What They Say:
When an escaped prisoner from Fort Rozz interrupts a football game, Supergirl is on the scene to take her down. But Rampage is mad about more important things than a sporting event-and no pesky superhero can stop her quest for revenge!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Having enjoyed the first half of the first season of Supergirl so far, problems and all, I was delighted when news hit that we’d be getting a digital-first series as well. The book gives Sterling Gates the opportunity to come back to the character for a while and have fun with Kara and it’s pretty obvious from this first issue that he is having fun. Similar can be said about artist Bengal, my first exposure to them, as there’s a rich dynasim to their artwork and coloring style that just brings it to life wonderfully. Books like this work relatively within the confines of the TV series but find their own life as well and this one is certainly staking itself out for some real fun.
That said, the first issue is a bit of a rough start yet one that I expected in a lot of ways. While there’s the kickoff of a story here for Kara to deal with, a lot of it is just recap and familiarization of this particular iteration since it’s coming off of the TV series. A few pages to the origin story for Kara, the For Rozz element, and some of how the DEO interacts with her is solid and well done, but for those watching the show it’s like the first 90 second recap at the beginning of each episode. Since this is trying to be accessible it’s pretty much a necessity and I hold no grudge against it as Sterling captures Kara’s voice from the show well here, as I can hear Benoist doing the narration in my head, and Bengal certainly gives it a lot of great artwork that leaps off the screen.
What we do get for new material is fun as it has Kara suited up and dealing with Rampage. The exploration of her own upbringing and the kind of quiet and peaceful life on Krypton in contrast not only with Rampage’s homeworld of violence but also the far more engaging world of Earth works very well. Kara is definitely a daughter of Krypton but she knows and understands the appeal of humanity and what they have to offer and will go the distance to protect it. It’s a good bit of the fundamentals laid out through some sharp narrative moments combined with lots of big action sequences. Rampage has never been a favorite of mine and I’m not expecting too much here in terms of character and story, but she’s the ideal opponent for Kara to be able to go fist to fist with at the beginning of this limited series.
In Summary:
The Adventures of Supergirl is a book I’m looking forward to because I enjoy the character but really don’t want to get involved in the mainstream sprawl of the DC universe. Heck, I don’t even know where this character stands, if at all, in the current continuity as I prefer the fringe and disconnected books. So getting a weekly taste of the character – from Sterling Gates no less – with some really great artwork and color work from Bengal is like the best of both worlds. Though there’s far too much familiar for me here, it does what it has to and it does it well and that’s what counts. I’m excited to see what’s next.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: January 25th, 2016
MSRP: $0.99
