A 12-page Supergirl/Superman beat-down? Sweet!
What They Say:
Get ready for a super-smackdown as Supergirl fights her cousin, the Man of Steel! What could cause these two to come to blows? Can the teenage Supergirl hold her own against the adult Superman? She does have a trick or two up those fancy new sleeves of hers…
The Review:
Supergirl is a series that seems to be taking more time to build up and get started than others. The first issue was good but there was nothing in terms of questions answered or story direction. Issue #2 is practically a mirror image of #1 in that respect. As mentioned in the tagline, 12 of this book’s 20 pages are spent with Supergirl and Superman duking it out. Over the course of these pages we get more of a better feel for Kara. Her personality is slightly revealed but mostly it is a detailed look at her confusion and disorientation as she learns about her new super powers on Earth.
The opening pages of the book provide the most intriguing aspect, the story’s time-lines. The opening pages show Kara on Krypton babysitting Kal-el, otherwise known as Superman. Kal-el is a mere infant here and the events are purported to have happened just three days ago! This makes me very curious to learn more about what happened to Kara and how she ended up on Earth. But the big fight is more important. After trying explain who he is, Superman garners Kara’s ire and the fight begins. The fight ends when Kara realizes she is doing damage to people’s homes and might harm innocents. At this point Superman tells her to follow him so he can explain more and she does just that. This is an understandable, natural event to happen but it feels slightly off because the writers did such a good job at making Kara distrust Superman and making her a disoriented teenager with unbridled rage that her just up and agreeing to fly off with Superman is…off.
The book ends with a teaser of, whom we can only assume to be, Lex Luthor getting his hands on what can only be ascertained as Red Kryptonite. This series has a lot of things working in its favor but its languid pacing are preventing the series from grabbing the audience’s attention fully. The artwork is still very attractive but off putting due to its very different style, and overall this is a good series that just hasn’t reached its full potential yet.
In Summary:
I am really enjoying this series so far. The writers are doing a fantastic job at developing Kara and giving her a believable personality. There is, on average, one really big, long fight per issue; and while these fights have been great so far, their length is preventing the plot to develop. Other series in the New 52 are written to move the plot forward within the fighting, within the action. In Supergirl, the sense of empathy for Kara is increased and our sympathy for her grows with each passing page, just not the actual plot. At two issues, Supergirl is the perfect definition of a trade worthy series. In a collected trade of 6 – 8 issues, readers will be able to get everything the creators are going for in one whack. They will get a sense for the characters and the plot and probably stay as readers. Whether they continue to wait for trades or start with the monthlies is unknown but starting the series with the monthlies can be trying for a few people. I’m sticking with it because the positives overwhelm the negatives greatly, but I just wish the story would get rocking already!
Grade: B