Supergirl Special #1 - Comic Review

 

The Superman family are going through a resurgence at the moment. Action Comics is showcasing the extended cast, and the use of back-up features give other characters a chance to shine. Steelworks gives a couple of the human heroes the spotlight. Superboy: Man of Tomorrow took Conner on a space adventure full of discovery. Power Girl has her own series. And there's the Superman solo title too. One character who's headlined their own titles in the past but is absent at the moment is Kara Zor-el, Supergirl. But, it looks like the new Supergirl Special is doing a thoughtful dive into the character and might be setting her up for new things going forward.

One of the biggest challenges that the Super family have faced internally is Supergirl and Power Girl, and how the two women interact with each other and the effects they have on each other. Being the same person from different realities, and having to figure out what that means is enough to cause anyone a headache, and it's one of the main focuses of Kara's story in this issue.

Mariko Tamaki paints a very human Supergirl, one who can't help but fall to the cursed allure of doom scrolling, going through social media and newspaper articles to see what the world is saying about her and her Earth-2 counterpart. She's depressed, she doesn't seem to know exactly how she fits into the world. These feelings aren't helped with the super twins ask her questions about what Krypton was like, questions she's not able to answer as her memories of Krypton are fading away. Over the course of the book we see how this is weighing on her, and how its altering the ways she's interacting with her family. She's surrounded by loved ones, but is alone.

The book takes this focus on character and run with it, to the point where there's pretty much no action at all. There is a scene where the family respond to an building collapse, and Kara has to deal with falling debris and rubble, but this isn't a book where a villain bursts in part way through, or the hero gets some catharsis by punching someone. Instead, the characters have to talk about their issues, they have to confront them in the same way you or I would, and it helps to humanise these larger than life characters. 

Skylar Patridge creates some great art in this issue, with Marissa Louise providing colours. The scenes of Kara's memories of Krypton look great, with architecture and colours that instantly stand out from what we see in the rest of the issue for the stuff set on Earth. 

This is a decent issue, but it does feel a little like we're retreading some of the ground already covered in the Power Girl focused back-ups in Action Comics, and the Power Girl series. I don't like the new thing of putting these two characters at odds with each other, especially when they should be friends. Thankfully, it seems to be put to bed by the end of this special; though as I'd already thought that it had been sorted out who knows if this will come up again.

Overall, this is a decent issue for fans of the character, one that doesn't rely on action of combat, and instead understands the strengths of tighter, character focused stories.

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