Sink Slowly: Supergirl – Volume 2: Girl In The World Does Not Progress The Heroine!

The Good: Most of the artwork, Moments of character
The Bad: Exceptionally simplistic plot, Story elements presented out-of-order/with gaps
The Basics: The New 52 story of Supergirl continues in Supergirl: Volume 2 – Girl In The World, which is plagued by fidelity to issues problems as well as gaps in the story itself!


As the DC Cinematic (or Television, anyway) Universe prepares to welcome Supergirl into the fold, I have been boning up on my Supergirl knowledge. Honestly, I’ve never been a fan of Superman or Supergirl, so I had limited knowledge of the franchise (despite being able to list powers and adversaries for Superman, I had no idea who the main antagonists in Supergirl were!). So, having read Supergirl: Volume 1 – Last Daughter Of Krypton (reviewed here!), I had just enough interest to pick up and read Supergirl: Volume 2 – Girl In The World.

Supergirl: Volume 2 – Girl In The World is plagued by a number of problems, not the least of which is that its serialized elements hinge almost entirely upon other volumes. References to Volume 1 are fairly infrequent, so it is easy to get into reading Supergirl: Volume 2 – Girl In The World, but when allusions pop up, they frequently come without strong enough triggers (for example, the artwork of the young man in Volume 1 who helped Kara Zor-El escape Simon Tycho was not so distinct or memorable that when he appears for a frame or two in Volume 2 he is instantly recognizable). As well, Supergirl: Volume 2 – Girl In The World has fidelity to issues, as opposed to fidelity to story, which is a state I dislike. As a result, Supergirl #0 tells the origin backstory of Kara Zor-El on Krypton after issue 12 is reprinted in Supergirl: Volume 2 – Girl In The World. This is a two-fold slap in the face; it should have been at the beginning of Volume 1 for fidelity to story, but after Kara Zor-El commits to solving the mystery of her origin, Supergirl: Volume 2 – Girl In The World simply spoon feeds it to the reader. What joy is there in discovery for following Supergirl when we, the readers, have all the answers so long before the protagonist?

That said, Supergirl: Volume 2 – Girl In The World picks up immediately after Volume 1, with Supergirl in the ruined section of New York City, having just defeated the Worldkillers. The military forces that were deployed surround Kara Zor-El and they are preparing to (attempt) to stop her when she is rescued by a young woman. Siobhan Smythe runs through the crowd and begins speaking Kryptonian, which allows Kara to start to bond and communicate with a human for the first time. Escaping the military, Kara and Siobhan start to relax together.

Unfortunately, while out at a club where Siobhan is performing, the pair is waylaid by a powerful magic entity. The Black Banshee attacks and, in the process, Siobhan reverts to her own magical form: the Silver Banshee. The Black Banshee is the mystical, cursed, form of Siobhan’s father and his power is the ability to absorb souls. Kara Zor-El’s soul looks mighty tasty to him and he attacks her . . . with unintended consequences for Kara, Siobhan, and the Black Banshee!

Following the attack by the Black Banshee, there is a vignette involving Kara getting waylaid by nanoarmor-protected soldiers from Simon Tycho and a somewhat baffling exchange in which Kara Zor-El and Kal-El (who reunite sometime between chapters?!) argue about how Kara may best pursue her search for the secrets of how she was saved from Krypton’s destruction. The book caps off with Kara Zor-El’s complete origin story.

Supergirl: Volume 2 – Girl In The World is as much Siobhan’s story as it is Kara Zor-El’s. Almost an entire chapter is given to detailing Siobhan’s tragic backstory and why she is running from her father. In that sidestory, Siobhan’s lost brother Tom is introduced, which seeds the way for him to return, thanks to Kara’s heroics. But before the relationship can actually develop or grow, Kara flees the city and the book abruptly ends.

Such is the problem with Supergirl: Volume 2 – Girl In The World: the volume is so plot-based that Kara Zor-El hardly has a chance to develop or grow as a character. Instead, she dukes it out, loses control, and finds herself bewildered. For those looking for a strong female protagonist, Supergirl is very much a mixed bag – her record in Supergirl: Volume 2 – Girl In The World is almost equal parts being the rescued character as it is having her heroically rescue Siobhan and Tom!

The artwork in Supergirl: Volume 2 – Girl In The World is good enough. The characters are all recognizable and the coloring is vibrant and looks good. Some of the supporting characters are hardly distinct, but Kara Zor-El and Silver Banshee/Siobhan look good throughout. In fact, the most serious art issues comes in the prequel chapter, where there is a panel that makes it look like an adult Kal-El, wearing a red suit, comes in and menaces Kara’s mother. While fans of the Superman franchise might instantly get it, newbies are left baffled.

All this adds up to a quick read which is unfortunately unsatisfying volume. Supergirl: Volume 2 – Girl In The World might minorly progress the story of Kara Zor-El and introduce her essential ally to the narrative, but it is simplistic, plot-centered and unremarkable.

For other New 52 titles, be sure to visit my reviews of:
Batgirl: Knightfall Descends By Gail Simone
The Flash: Rogues Revolution By Francis Manapul & Brian Buccellato
Green Lantern: Revenge Of The Black Hand By Geoff Johns
Wonder Woman: Guts By Brian Azzarello

3.5/10

For other graphic novel reviews, be sure to check out my Graphic Novel Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the graphic novel reviews I have written!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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An Intriguing Start: Supergirl: Volume 1 – Last Daughter Of Krypton

The Good: Most of the artwork, Moments of character, Moments of plot, Concept of the villains
The Bad: Villains are way too expository, Assumes a lot of knowledge of the franchise (not entirely accessible to new readers), Somewhat simplistic
The Basics: The New 52 reboot of Supergirl starts in Supergirl: Volume 1 – Last Daughter Of Krypton when the Kryptonian girl comes to Earth.


I was, perhaps, the most skeptical fan in the world of the DC Comics reboot of its stories a few years back. “The New 52” was a terrible idea and the execution of the idea has borne out my trepidation to the concept. And yet, every major superhero that DC Comics wanted to continue to invest in was reworked and reimagined and their stories were (for the most part) rebooted (with a number of problematic exceptions!). One of the characters whose story was entirely restarted was Supergirl. Her story has a pretty straightforward beginning in Supergirl: Volume 1 – Last Daughter Of Krypton.

Supergirl: Volume 1 – Last Daughter Of Krypton is one of those quick reads that is simultaneously very good at what it sets out to do and increasingly frustrating the more one considers it. The trade paperback anthology collects the New 52 Supergirl issues 1 – 7 and it does tell a fairly solid story, albeit a clear beginning with the promise of much more to come. And there are many elements to like about it, but it is by no means a great story or exceptional writing. It is, also, clearly geared toward fans of the Superman franchise as it makes passing reference to things like Kara Zor-El studying on Krypton for her trials which will make her a woman without any explicit reference to her age. The result is an instant sense of alienation within the narrative because exactly what stage of cognitive development Kara Zor-El is supposed to be at is unclear.

A space station orbiting Earth monitors objects from space that hurtle through the Earth creating a hole from near-Kansas to Siberia. They send a team of humans in mechanized suits to recover the object and its potential occupants from Russia, per international agreements the station’s owner has with the various governments of Earth. The mechs encounter Kara Zor-El, a young woman who is confused and thinks she might be dreaming. As the mechs attempt to restrain and capture her, Kara begins to experience dramatic physiological changes – she finds she is ridiculously strong, can see through things, can burn her targets with her eyes and can more or less fly. She encounters a man who claims to be Kal-El, her baby cousin, whom she saw only three days prior on Krypton. After a fight with Kal-El, Kara separates from the other Kryptonian when he rushes off to save the lives of some of the humans nearby.

That gives Simon Tycho the chance to engage Kara Zor-El. He lures her up to his space station with the information that he has the pod in which she arrived. When she gets there, though, Tycho tries to incapacitate her, using his artificial life form, The Brain. In subduing Kara Zor-El, Tycho learns about her outfit and in the ensuing battle, loses the memory crystal he recovered from her pod (and most of his space station and staff) to her. Kara flies off to a portal that takes her to the remnants of Argo City, where she was raised. There she learns the truth of the destruction of Krypton and she is discovered by Reign, a Worldkiller engineered by the people of Krypton (despite being outlawed). Reign wants to find out the truth of her origins – and the origins of the other worldkillers – and she and Kara bring their fight from the remnants of Argo City to New York City!

Supergirl: Volume 1 – Last Daughter Of Krypton is instantly problematic because of the language barrier. Kara Zor-El does not understand any Earth languages; her internal monologue establishes that. But the men in mech suits talk to her, Simon Tycho talks to her, and civilians talk to her and while she is not supposed to understand their languages, she behaves as if she comprehends them entirely. I get the instinct of knowing that mechs that start shooting at you are inherently bad, but Tycho tries to get involved with somewhat sophisticated ideas with Kara Zor-El and she more or less goes with it, not nearly as confused as someone blocked by a language barrier ought to be!

At the other end of the spectrum is Reign. Reign is established as a pretty cool, if obvious, adversary (it seems like it is supposed to be a big revelation that Reign is a Worldkiller and that Worldkillers are entities, not engineered objects of destruction). The problem with Reign is that she’s not terribly smart (she tells Kara how to defeat her and her posse) and she does not talk like an adversary at all. Reign is searching for her origins and she ends up delivering more useful exposition to Kara than a Bond villain! She details what she knows of herself, the destruction of Krypton, her plans, her (and the other Worldkiller’s) abilities, and that makes very little sense. In fact, after Kara encounters the Worldkillers at Argo City, their trip to Earth makes no logical sense. Reign is convinced that Earth is the refuge for the Kryptonian survivors and thus it must mean something to her own search. There is no logical correlation between those two ideas (in fact, if the Kryptonians were fleeing the Worldkillers, logic suggests that they would want to make their sanctuary the place farthest from anything useful to Worldkillers!). So, Reign seems to be phoning in her heart-felt quest to understand her own origins and find her home.

The final real problem with Supergirl: Volume 1 – Last Daughter Of Krypton is in the context of the larger DC Universe. I know I mention this whenever I read a book or see a show/movie set in the DC Universe, but I have to ask: Where the hell is the Green Lantern Corps?! The whole purpose of the Green Lantern Corps is to maintain peace and order in the galaxy. Somehow, a suspended animation pod travelling for decades away from the last remnant city of Krypton eluded them?! The Worldkillers managed to slip by them, unnoticed?! Kara Zor-El falls to Earth, leaves Earth and returns to Earth entirely without setting off any alarms within the Green Lantern Corps in Supergirl: Volume 1 – Last Daughter Of Krypton. Wow, the Oans suck!

Ironically, Simon Tycho is an instantly intriguing villain. His motives seem to be simple greed, but he’s using his fabulous assets for a surprisingly realistic purpose. Tycho notes that the major governments of Earth have given up on space exploration, so he – as a business enterprise – has decided to pick up the slack. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a good argument for private sector development like Simon Tycho, but there he is. He’s doing what governments bullied by low-tax right-wingers won’t; investing in research and development. What he does to Kara Zor-El is terrible, but at least he makes sense.

The artwork in Supergirl: Volume 1 – Last Daughter Of Krypton is generally good. Kara Zor-El is clearly recognizable throughout the book and the panels have a decent sense of movement and color to them. This is a good-looking book.

And there is just enough in Supergirl: Volume 1 – Last Daughter Of Krypton to make one want to come back to it. Technical problems aside, Kara Zor-El starts as an intriguing-enough young woman and at the beginning of her story there is a lot of potential to make her an interesting character quite different from Superman.

For other New 52 titles, be sure to visit my reviews of:
Batgirl: The Darkest Reflection By Gail Simone
The Flash: Move Along By Francis Manapul & Brian Buccellato
Green Lantern: Sinestro By Geoff Johns
Green Lantern New Guardians: The Ring Bearer
Justice League: Origins By Geoff Johns
Red Lantern Corps: Blood And Rage By Peter Milligan
Wonder Woman: Blood By Brian Azzarello

5.5/10

For other graphic novel reviews, be sure to check out my Graphic Novel Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the graphic novel reviews I have written!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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