New Comic-book Night - 4/17

It's Wednesday, and that means it's New Comic-book Night.  Once again, one of the comics that normally comes out this week (JLA) did not (I'm not clear on why that is), and Katana is still delayed (it's coming out next week apparently).  But two of the three titles that I actually have on my comic-shop's pull list did come out today: Supergirl 19 and Justice League 19.  I picked them up late this afternoon, and I've already read both.

These two latest installments have been a definite improvement over the recent issues of these titles.

Supergirl 19 - The Supergirl series has been in the absolute toilet since #13, first with the cringe-worthy H'el on Earth crossover into the other S-family books (#14-17), and then with the highly questionable "aftermath" issue, written in obvious haste (and without any coherence) by a fill-in writer.  It's truly a shame that Mike Johnson is leaving Supergirl after this issue, and that he wasn't allowed to write the stories he wanted to for the last half-year.  This issue is the best since #13, and shows just how good this book could have been if it hadn't been for the H'el crossover.    It's a shame after starting up this new story-line that Mike will not finish it.  Also, the way the book ends, leaves no doubt in my mind that Mike was basically forced off the book.  If he was leaving voluntarily, surely he would have planned an "ending" to wrap things up instead of starting a new story arc and then leaving one issue into it. That said, Supergirl 19 is well worth a read.  This series, despite being about Supergirl, was hovering on the brink of being yanked from my pull list (an event that should be unthinkable -- heck it should violate the laws of nature).  That's how bad it had gotten. Issue 19 redeemed it (and convinced me that all the "bad" in the last few issues happened because people other than Mike Johnson were calling the shots).  I'll be around for a few more months at least, to see what the new writer does with it.

Justice League 19 - JL has had its ups and downs.  The first story arc was incredibly strong for five issues and then fizzled at the end (with a very disappointing treatment of Darkseid).  This then started to become a pattern, with each story arc building up well and then coming to an abrupt, unsatisfying conclusion without a real climax.  The most recent of these was the Throne of Atlantis crossover with Aquaman.  Then we were treated to an issue 18 story that was all over the place, and honestly between that and Throne, I was starting to question Geoff Johns' writing (which had, up until JL #14, been quite strong with the exception of those pesky climaxes). Issue 19 redeemed Johns as well here.  He did a good job with the story. This issue is probably a lead-in to yet another crossover (Trinity War), which is set to consume the Justice League family of titles this summer. I can only sigh.  Enough with the crossovers.  This one seems like it may be interesting at least (much more so than Throne). However, Johns needs to work on his conclusions/climaxes or this is going to be just one more disappointment.

Overall, I was fairly happy with both books.  Although neither is a 10 out of 10, we've at least been able to move up out of the 6s and 7s (or worse) that these titles have been hovering in over the last few months.

New Comic-book Night - 3/20/13

It's "week 3" of the month, and that means my largest haul of new paper comics, at least for the moment.  This week's "pull list" included Justice League 18, JLA 2, and Supergirl 18.  In addition, I picked up the trade paperback containing issues 6-9 of the previous Supergirl series, Supergirl: Candor.  Combined with last week's purchase of Supergirl: Power, I now have the stories contained in the first 10 issues of that series (0-9), plus a few other stories in which that version of Supergirl appeared.

I've not read Candor yet, but I have read this week's new offerings, and they are a mixed bag.  Strangely enough, JLA, which is the new kid on the block, and is written by Geoff Johns, was the strongest book this week.  I'll provide brief reviews of each issue.

Justice League of America #2

 After getting off to a slow start in issue #1, where hardly any of the team members got much screen time, we finally see the team coming together in this issue.  I'm still not quite sure that Catwoman makes much sense on this team, but I am greatly enjoying Star Girl, who seems to be one of the few classical superhero characters left in the DC Universe, and Martian Manhunter, who is always interesting.  There's a nice cliffhanger ending in classical comic-book style as well. This one's an 8/10.

Justice League #18

In the main story, the JL has decided to let new members onto its roster, and this issue has them all showing up at the JL base (which is a space station orbiting the earth) and meeting each other.  We see one of the first "Metal Men," who malfunctions, and watch a great number of heroes interact.  The basic premise is interesting enough, but it is executed very badly.  They're going for humor as the heroes interact, but a lot of the jokes fall flat.  In the Shazam! backup story, which is finally back after vanishing for a couple of issues, we see Black Adam terrorizing the city, and Freddy tells the rest of the family about Billy Batson being Captain Marvel (I know they don't call him that any more, but that's the proper name for the character). The Seven Deadly Sins also make their appearance.  Although I enjoy the Shazam! backup feature, I really think it is misplaced. They should have just made a 6-issue Shazam! mini-series rather than adding it as a backup feature to JL. I give this one 7/10.

Supergirl #18

I was looking forward to this issue, hoping that, with the atrocious H'el story arc finally over, and with her finally admitting the destruction of Krypton and knowing how to speak English, Supergirl would start to attain some level of normalcy, which the book has not had yet since it started a year and a half ago.  Sadly, DC just seems unwilling, or perhaps unable to make Kara act like a normal person, or have any sort of normal down-to-earth experiences.  Instead, she's suffering from Kryptonite poisoning after the events of H'el. There are hints in this issue that they may be doing this to "depower" Kara so that she is not equal in power level to Superman (if they are doing so, it is both lame and sexist, and they will earn even more of my derision than they already have).  Supergirl gets attacked by a lava creature that apparently comes from the Superboy comic.  That part is a typical mindless superfight.

But what I really hated about this issue was Kara's behavior, which continues to be utterly inexcusable. She is a complete hot-head, who won't listen to anyone else and does just whatever she pleases.  She doesn't think, doesn't plan, just goes off half-cocked all the time.  This aspect of her personality is decidedly unappealing, and it is starting to make me actively dislike this version of Kara, rather than just being disappointed in it.  They may call this character "Supergirl" and "Kara Zor-El" but from where I sit, she is even more of an impostor than the old Matrix character, who at least acted like Supergirl should act.

I'm not sure why the writers and editors have decided to make Supergirl such a hot-tempered, unsympathetic, down-right jackass of a character.  Perhaps this is how they view teenage girls. Perhaps they just don't like the character and therefore aren't inclined to make her likable.  But at this point, I'm getting very close to giving up on the Supergirl series. And that's pretty amazing, when you consider all the money I have spent getting every single back-issue of The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl (series 2), and Peter David's 80-issue run about a character that was called Supergirl but wasn't even Kara.  At this point, honestly what I would really love to see is original, pre-Crisis Supergirl from Daring New Adventures show up in this timeline, and kick this new Kara's ass all over the planet.  Hell, I'd root for Matrix Supergirl in that fight at this point. And again, for someone who loves the original Kara so much, that's really saying something.

Here's hoping the new writer with issue #20 can do something positive with this character. Right now, she's just a complete and total brat of a teenager. And that's not a very respectful way for them to write this venerable character.  I give this issue 6/10.

New 52 Supergirl... Year 1

Having gotten back into collecting and reading comics only recently (just under 2 months ago), I am still playing catch-up with the latest incarnation of the +DC Comics universe, "The New 52." When I decided to start reading comic-books again, it went without saying that I would have to check out the latest series devoted to my all-time favorite superhero -- Supergirl.  This young lady has had at least four different incarnations over the years, each slightly different in powers and personality (more than that if you count Power Girl, who is basically Supergirl from an alternate dimension, and has had three or four of her own versions).

I'll talk about the different faces of Supergirl in a future post. Today, I'm going to concentrate on just the current "New 52" series Supergirl, in its first year (or slightly more than that) of existence.  My comments will cover issues #1-13 as well as #0 (which was not published first, as you might expect, but was published in between #12 and #13).  I currently have all the individual issues except for #7, but I also have the TPB covering issues #1-7 as well (I bought that first, then decided I wanted physical copies of every single issue), so I have read all 14 stories.

The first 14 months worth of Supergirl

In her present version, Supergirl's chronicles are written by Michael Green and Mike Johnson, and drawn (except for issue #8) by Mahmud Asrar.  I have to say, that I was concerned about this series from the beginning, because the hype on DC's website and other pre-launch materials I had read indicated that the authors had a vision of Supergirl behaving like what can only be described as a "bratty teenager."  Now, I realize Supergirl is a young lady and as such, she can and probably should often display the brashness of youth. But there's no reason to turn her into an obnoxious brat, and I was afraid they might do that, based on what the authors said in press releases and blog posts.

However, the way the story unfolds doesn't really give you the impression that Supergirl is a brat.  She wakes up having crashed to earth, with no memory of how she got here, and it takes her the entire first story arc (Supergirl issues #1-7, collected in the TPB "Last Daughter of Krypton") to even begin to get a handle on what is going on.  Confused and disoriented, unable to speak the language, and last having seen her cousin Kal-El when he was a baby, Supergirl does lash out (at Superman, among others), but she doesn't do so in a nasty way.  She's confused; she's scared; she has no idea how powerful she is, or how her powers even work.  Most of the time, because she can't understand the language, she is just trying to defend herself. And it doesn't help that one of the very first humans she encounters, wealthy Lex-Luthor-esque villain Simon Tycho, captures her and tries to use her as an experiment.

Over the first year-plus of the comic, Supergirl slowly starts to figure things out.  In issue #0, we see her origin, fully told for the first time, and the pieces start to fit together.  And in issue #13, Supergirl finds a "Sanctuary" created by a part of her spacecraft -- her own version of a "Fortress of Solitude" hidden at the bottom of the ocean.  The computer there helps her finally recover most of her memories (so that what we read in #0, she finally remembers in #13, which came out the very next month).  She's even called "Supergirl" for the first time (by Tycho, who says that is what the press has named her).

The individual stories in each issue of Supergirl have been very good so far.  The writing is first-rate, and the two Mikes have done a good job with character, dialogue, using Kara's narration like a "voice-over," and with the villains she has faced.  However, up until #13, I felt like I was, in an odd way, reading the story of Kara Zor-El but not Supergirl.  This Kara was nice and all, and she looked and had powers like the old Supergirl, but she didn't act anything like the original.

But that all changed in #13.  Perhaps because the Sanctuary reminded her of home, because it brought back her memories, or because it somehow "grounded" her, the Supergirl we see in #13 reminded me very much of my original favorite character, especially the way she tricked and outsmarted her enemy in that issue, rather than just beating him silly.  In fact when I got to that scene, I smiled and said, "Now that's my Supergirl."  I could easily have pictured the "old" Kara, right from the pages of The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl, written by Paul Kupperberg, beating her enemy in exactly the same way, and even saying the same words this new one said.  My immediate reaction after I closed #13 was "More please." Not just in the sense that I want to read more issues of the Supergirl title, but more issues like that -- more issues where Kara acts like that, like the old, original Supergirl I remember and love so much as a character.

Therefore, in terms of story and character, I have to say that as a dyed-in-the-wool, and extremely traditionalist, "original-Kara-Zor-El" fan, and an ornery one at that, I have been pleasantly surprised by the New 52 Supergirl series, and I declare myself (so far) to be satisfied with how they are treating this character.

I still think they have made some mistakes with Kara, such as making her take so long to learn even a word of English (I don't care how realistic it is, having her constantly misunderstand what people around her are doing is getting old).  And I think she should have spent more time with Superman earlier on (though she did meet up with him in Superman #6 and again in Supergirl #12).  And I think they have to be very careful about how much she pines for Krypton or they're going to make her seem like a whiner.  And that is not the Kara I know and love -- the original Kara was not a whiner. She was made of sterner stuff than that (indeed, I would argue she was made of sterner stuff than Superman ever was).  However, these mistakes are not insurmountable, and they seem to have a good foundation with the character up to issue #13.

All of the above is about character, and story, and primarily falls on the shoulders of the two Mikes (Green and Johnson).  Now I would like to say a word about the art.

I have mixed feelings about the art, because the art is a mixed bag.  The overall look of the comic's art is very angular and rough. I absolutely detest the way Asrar does cloth, such as Supergirl's cape, which he insists on having float about her in ways that defy the laws of physics and gravity (Supergirl may defy those laws with her powers, but her cape shouldn't).  Indeed, in many panels, the cape looks like it's made out of wood rather than cloth, giving the impression that the thing is just hanging there in a fixed position rather than billowing behind Supergirl in the breeze.

Asrar frequently seems to have trouble with her hair as well, making it appear that her hair is of different lengths from one page to the next.  Everything about the way Asrar draws seems to be all hard planes and angles, including the "S" shield on her chest, which is too angular and does not look enough like the traditional "S" symbol of the House of El. In many panels the art looks, well... sloppy. And I'm not a fan of that style.

On the other hand, Asrar frequently does a fantastic job with Kara's face, especially on close-ups.  With a few lines he can convey a wide range of expressions on Kara, which has the effect of humanizing her.  The close-ups of her face not only make her look beautiful (pretty much a requirement for drawing Supergirl over the years), but convey a certain level of sweet innocence in the character.

Asrar gives Kara an expressive face, and when he draws her close-up, he really does something special with the features, especially the eyes, that I rarely see from other comic-book artists (George Perez being a notable exception).

Asrar's drawings also seem to look a good deal better when he inks his own work (which is unusual for me to say when I don't like an artist's basic style, because a good inker can often correct that). In the few issues where someone else has inked Asrar, I think the result has been decidedly worse. So as long as he continues working on Supergirl, I guess I'd like to see him do both the pencils and the inks.

Therefore, I have mixed feelings about Asrar's art.  The "distant" shots, where the frame of view is zoomed out, frequently look sloppy, and the full-body shots of most characters are too angular and straight-edged, making them look too "flat" for my taste.  But his close-ups of Kara's face are excellent, and I would probably miss those if someone else took over the art.  Thus, I'm not sure what to think about Asrar. A part of me wants to see +DC Comics  put a new artist onto the book, but a part worries that if they do, I'll lose all those great shots of Kara's face.

And so, the New 52 Supergirl title is a bit of a mixed bag, although generally pretty good.  The stories have been excellent, and the characters have been interesting, although I think the authors are going to need to be careful not to make this new Supergirl seem like a bratty teenager, because a few times they've been walking the line with that.  They seem to have started to slowly transition her to the Kara I remember from years ago, so I encourage them to continue that, and hopefully they will slowly move her more and more in that direction.  I have mixed feelings about the art (except for #8, which was drawn by my favorite artist, George Perez, and left me wanting more like that). It's decent, I suppose, and it certainly could be worse, but it's nothing to write home about.  Overall, the total package is not bad, and Supergirl is currently behind Batgirl on my list of favorite series, weighing in at my second favorite.

Now, a series getting to the second-highest spot on my list sounds very strong, but remember... Supergirl is my favorite character in comics, ever.  That means any comic-book starring Supergirl starts with a couple of "free points" -- basically, the Mikes and Asrar are graded on a curve, and a pretty large one at that.  If this were any other character, it would probably drop a few notches just from that.  Of course, having a series about my favorite character is a bit of a double-edged sword.  The creators can also, perhaps more easily than with almost any other character, lose my loyalty, by having her do things that are too far out of character for Supergirl as I remember her (i.e., doing things the original Kara would never have done).

In the end, though, this series, up to #13, has been pretty good, and I can recommend it to both people who have been reading comics for a while (as a very good, complete reboot of a famous character) and to people who have never read any comics (it will confuse you at first, but it's supposed to, and by #7 you will start to figure things out). It's worth a read, at least.