Open Mike Night: Supergirl Rebirth #1

Supergirl Rebirth #1

Written by: Steve Orlando
Pencilled by: Emanuela Lupacchino
Inked by: Ray McCarthy
Colored by: Michael Atiyeh
Lettered by: Steve Wands

Published by: DC
Cover Price: $2.99

Mike Weaver: Previously on Krypton, Zor-El banished a man named Lar-On to the Phantom Zone to protect Argo City from his dangerous red Kryptonite disease, despite the fact that Lar-On seemed more or less fine at the moment of his exile.  In the present day, the Department of Extra-Normal Operations is planning to fire Zor-El’s daughter, Kara, into the sun in an effort to regain her super powers, ultimately hoping to theoretically fill the void left by Superman’s death.  They use a Phantom Zone powered technology to throw her into the sun, which allows Lar-On to escape the Phantom Zone, go on a mini-rampage as a werewolf, then get calmed down by the returning Kara, who has regained her powers.

The DENO outlines its plans for Kara, including assigning two agents to be her handlers/”parents”.  She’s also assigned to go to high school and such, but we see only a page or so of that.  In the end, we discover that Zor-El survived the destruction of Argo City, and is now some kind of insane cyborg.

Usually we talk story first, but I had some serious problems with the art.  I know that background characters often get less detail in panels, but in this comic, that was really bad.  If a character wasn’t the feature of a panel, they had more or less the same level of detail as a generic smiley face.  It’s really a shame because the foreground was usually pretty good, but I couldn’t get as into it because the background was just so lazy.

Mike Maillaro: Yeah, I hate when artists just do the whole “faceless” background characters thing.  It always comes off as real lazy.  I have actually seen comics where they truly had no faces at all.  This wasn’t quite as blatant, but it still stands out.  Like you said, especially since the foreground art was so solid.

This comic was a real mixed bag for me.  I actually liked the storyline, but it also felt very Silver Age.  Another random survivor of Krypton ends up on Earth...this one with a connection to Supergirl’s past and a werewolf to boot.  For years after Crisis, Superman was the sole survivor of Krypton.  I genuinely miss that.  It made the character very unique.

I also like the characters, but it seemed strange to shoehorn in the DEO just to make the connection with the TV series, since this comic has virtually NOTHING else in common with the TV series.  No adopted sister.  No Martian Manhunter.  No Wynn. No Jimmy Olson.  This version of Kara is a high schooler, not working for Cat Grant.  It seems like they should have either stayed away from the show, or moved closer to the show.  This comic exists in a very strange middle ground…

Weaver: It’s worse than that with random Krypton survivor...it seems like Krypton itself is more “nuclear wasteland” dead than “blown up in a million pieces” dead.  I don’t like that.  One of the most iconic Superman images is his little rocket ship zooming away from exploding Krypton in the background.  This is what most people picture when asked about Superman’s origin, the last survivor of a blown up world.

Plus this survivor is a werewolf...from the Phantom Zone...which I thought was only for the worst of the worst, not for basically quarantine.  Which also they have a ship powered by the Phantom Zone cribbed from Kryptonian tech that frees him, which...alright, let’s reflect.  Krypton saw the Phantom Zone as the ultimate punishment/cryogenic area, but had warp drives that routinely break people out of it.  Sounds worse than Arkham.

That said, I did enjoy the story of the issue.  As I have not watched the TV show, I wasn’t encumbered with what they cribbed or did not crib from it.  However, there were just a lot of little things that while they worked for this story raised red flags for me, and are likely to either get retconned or ignored at some future point.

Maillaro: Pretty much it was just the presence of the DEO...which is very different in the comics.  And the names of her “foster parents” who serve a much different role in the show (especially since for most of season one Jeremiah was believed to be dead).   And that it is set in National City.  

Argo City’s status was particularly confusing to me.  The prologue to this issue says it is after the “destruction of Krypton” so clearly Argo City survived...only to be destroyed later.  And as Weaver said, it’s clear that Argo City wasn’t totally wiped out either.  So what does that mean for Krypton?

It wasn’t a bad comic, just a lot of little things that made me concerned that DC didn’t have a clear sense of what this book is and should be.  I had similar concerns with last week’s Superwoman.  I also continue to hammer home the point that when we have a female headliner character, they really should try to get more FEMALE writers on those books.  

Weaver: That’s always such a mixed bag for me.  I remember a Rogue miniseries written by a woman that clearly had no grounding in comics and casually retconned things at a breakneck pace, and let’s throw Reggie Hudlin’s Black Panther in here too.  That said.  There are a bunch of qualified good women comics writers, and I think we need to see more female leads written by them.  I think it’s what made Birds of Prey so good when Gail Simone was writing it.  At the same time, I don’t think that women writers for the sake of being women is always a good thing.  However, there exist women writers out there that are good and could do more work, so why they don’t try to tap one of them for Supergirl, I don’t know.

For scores, I’m really on the fence about everything.  I’ll give it a 3 all around, my vote of “Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!” while still having enough to enjoy about it.

Maillaro: Yeah, I am thinking 3.5 for writing and 3 for art.  I do think there is a ton of potential here, but I genuinely have no idea if they can reach it.  It’s a shame, because Supergirl is positioned to be a major character in DC right now between the TV series and the death of Superman.  Hopefully they can strike while this iron is hot.

Summary: For the most part, this was a solid first issue, but it can't seem to decide if it wants to be like the TV series or something else entirely.  A compelling story, though it seems to be a bit of a throw back to the Silver Age.  Some questionable "background" art, which really distracts from the look and feel of the book.  I do think this book can be great, but the first issue was definitely shaky at times.

Final Scores

Maillaro: Okay, I my suggestion for this week is kind of a weird one.  You know I love Disney’s duck books (actually, you might not know that now that I say it outloud).  Donald has a alter-ego called Duck Avenger...which is basically him as a superhero, but he uses it to help him run scams and do bad things.  Duck Avenger didn't appear too much in mainstream American comics, but IDW is reproducing some of those comics as Duck Avenger #0.  It’s a weird one, but I think it’s fun exploring.

Weaver: I am totally 100% for this.  I love Donald Duck, and this sounds like an excellent angle.

Maillaro: Sounds good!  Talk to you soon!