By Corinne McCreeryAlright, so my idea is to do comic reviews when we don’t have new episodes of Supergirl for me to recap. With the exciting news of Sterling Gates returning to a book that he made great, I wanted to start with his previous run on the book. But since his run starts in the middle of a series, I thought it might be best to cover what came before he took over. Thus, I came to the idea of doing a bunch of short reviews for the arcs leading up to his first arc, but then as I was reading I realized I had too many thoughts to do short reviews, at least for the first book I’m doing. That might change with the next few, but for now, I'm doing one trade paperback per review.
Now my love for the character of Kara Zor-El starts with the Silver Age version, and that’s where my love runs deepest. But when I really got into comics, that version of Supergirl had been long dead, and the version running around was not the Kryptonian cousin of Superman, but an alternate universe version of Lana Lang that was actually a protoplasmic, shapeshifting being with telekinesis. That version of Supergirl never stuck to me, even though the costume is very much the most iconic look that the character has ever had. In the ten or so years that followed my introduction and immersion to comic books, I discovered Kara, first through Crisis on Infinite Earths and then through other appearances. I fell in love with this character that no longer existed, and wound up sorely missing her in the current universe. Then it was announced that the second arc of the Superman/Batman book by Jeph Loeb was going to be introducing Superman’s cousin back into the modern continuity, and it is with that book that these little comic reviews will start. Superman/Batman: Volume 2 - Supergirl collects issues 8-13 of the 2004 series Superman/Batman, written by Jeph Loeb with art by Michael Turner and colors by Peter Steigerwald.
Jeph Loeb has always been a bit hit or miss as a writer for me, as there is stuff of his that I absolutely love (Batman: The Long Halloween, Batman: Dark Victory, Superman: For All Seasons, the Marvel “Color” books) along with things that I’m more ambivalent towards (most of Superman/Batman, Batman: Hush) and things I absolutely am not a fan of (His more recent work at Marvel mostly). One thing that I’m unendingly thankful for with him though are the changes he brought to the Superman mythos of the modern era during his long tenure on the Superman books. He brought us back to the old version of Brainiac and introduced us to things long gone from the Superman story, like Krypto the Superdog and, most importantly for me, Kara Zor-El.
With Michael Turner, I fall on the side of fandom that, while appreciative of his contributions to the medium, I don’t really care for his art. I do think he’s fantastic at doing covers, but am not really a fan of his interior pages. One thing that really bugs me with Turner’s art is how similar all of his men look. His Bruce and his Clark are nearly indistinguishable. I’m also not a fan of his wildly anatomically incorrect women, but this is comics and that sort of thing is sadly pretty normal.
Onto the story in this book. For a bit of context, this book takes place in the immediate weeks following Superman/Batman: Volume 1 - Public Enemies. That book brought an end to the tenure of President Luthor (yeah, the world’s greatest super villain got elected President. The 2000’s were a weird time). The important part of that story involved a giant Kryptonite meteor hurtling toward Earth, and Luthor blaming Superman for it. Turns out, he wasn’t entirely wrong. Though he did go off the rails at the end injecting himself with a mixture of a super-steroid and synthetic Kryptonite and suiting up in his classic green and purple battle armor for the first time in decades to fight Superman man to man. Again, this was the standing President doing these things. COMICS EVERYBODY!
So they were able to break the giant extinction level meteor into thousands of smaller meteors, and Superman gets quarantined to keep him from getting killed by the resulting Kryptonite shower. As Batman is taking care of the major chunks of Kryptonite, he comes across an open rocket in one of the pieces, and at that point the alarms on his Batboat go off. His boat gets hijacked and we are introduced to a naked blonde girl who gets accosted by some lowlifes in an alley. She uses a variety of super powers to make short work of them and get some semblance of clothing. Then she gets confronted by Batman with Kryptonite and taken to his cave. Superman is there when she wakes up and in Kryptonese explains that she is in fact, his cousin.
Batman is very mistrusting of the girl who calls herself Kara Zor-El, and makes no qualms about letting Clark know that. Clark finally takes Kara out in the city after she’s been cooped up in the Fortress of Solitude for about a month. We get a brief segue to Apokolips where Darkseid’s Female Furies are training, and he tells them to fetch the “Girl who fell to Earth.” As Clark and Kara walk through the park, they are attacked, and for a few pages it seems like it’s the Furies doing their master’s bidding, but it turns out to be Wonder Woman and the Amazons.
Turns out, Diana was working in conjunction with Bruce to take Kara to Paradise Island to train her. We open the next issue yet another couple of weeks. Which to me, mostly says that the Furies are pretty danged inept at their jobs. Kara is starting to forge friendships with some of the Amazons, and is becoming quite the warrior. Finally the minions of Apokolips attack and how. Darkest sends an army of Doomsday clones to distract the big three heroes. And as much as I said I didn’t really like Turner’s style before, I have to hand it to him that this fight scene is brilliant. It’s dynamic, fast paced and a lot of fun. His Doomsdays look terrifying, and his Superman is a force to be reckoned with when angry. As I said, the Doomsdays were a distraction, and the Furies and Darkseid successfully kidnap Kara to Apokolips.
The next issue is basically just the Trinity recruiting Big Barda (and Batman jacking some of her husband’s gear), and then fighting their way to Darkseid. Batman sets up some bombs, and Superman confronts Darkseid and a fully Apokolips wardrobed Kara.
A Kara that in fact turns out to be brainwashed by Darkseid. We get another issue that is pretty much all fight scenes, first between Kara and Clark; and then Darkseid beating the snot out of Batman. Batman plays his trump card of the bombs, and Darkseid releases control over Kara. We get a couple tender moments between Clark and Kara and then between Kara and Bruce. Kara gets her very ‘00s costume with the midriff showing (this is one of the three costumes that was alluded to in the pilot episode of the show) and Clark and Kara fly off to Kansas to show it off. Darkseid attacks them, claiming he promised not to interfere with “Her” life, but not with Superman’s, and fires off an Omega beam at Clark to kill him, and Kara jumps in front of it, sacrificing herself to save her cousin. And so ends this version of Supergirl, before she even really got started.
Then we get an issue of a really peeved Superman just going all out against Darkseid, culminating in burying him in the Source Wall. We get back to Kansas to see the Justice League (including My Favorite Martian) repairing the Kent house. Batman gives Superman an urn with the bits of Kara that he could find, and Superman flies off to Paradise Island and tells Kara that she’s dead and Darkseid is dealt with. Wait. What? Turns out they faked her death to draw Darkseid out and deal with him permanently. The issue and trade end with Supergirl getting introduced to the heroes of the DCU.
So that’s the reintroduction of Kara Zor-El to the DC Universe after almost 20 years of being away. I wish I could say I had unconditionally, but that would be untrue. I have problems with the art, and I have some problems with the story as well. Mostly, I don’t really like the trope of brainwashing this new character immediately and turning her evil, if only for an issue. But there are things I absolutely love too. I love the JLA helping patch up the Kent farm after the fight. I love the little character moments between Clark and Kara and Bruce and Kara. And mostly, I love that this book brought back a version of my favorite character, so that new stories could be told with her. For that I’ll be forever thankful to Jeph Loeb and Michael Turner.
Corinne McCreery has been a fan of comic books for over twenty years, and a fan of Supergirl in particular for just about that long. Other comic characters near and dear to her heart are the members of the New Teen Titans (Especially Nightwing), Kitty Pryde and Roy Harper. Other non-comic related interests include water skiing and tattoos, of which she has five, three of which are comic related. One of the best days of her life came when she met Dean Cain, and was able to recreate the famous Crisis on Infinite Earths cover with the Man of Steel that she grew up with. Currently she lives in Oakland, CA; a transplant from South Dakota. You can find her online on tumblr at effyeahsupergirl or Twitter at @corimarie21, where you will likely find her live-tweeting the west coast airing of Supergirl every week.
