Supergirl Surprise #4: Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #17

Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #17 was written by Mark Waid, had art by Barry Kitson, Mick Gray, and Natahan Eyring, and was lettered by Phil Balsman. This book is cover dated June 2006 and was part of the 5th volume of Legion of Super-Heroes that started the year prior. Supergirl took over the title as co-star and would remain in the book, and the 31st century, until issue 36 of the title.

The story mostly centers around Supergirl as she has just arrived in the future and how the rest of the Legionnaires feel about her. On either side of the spectrum we have Invisible Kid infatuated with the Girl of Steel who even offers to give up his flight ring for her, and Light Lass who seems quite frustrated that a perky young blonde can just waltz into the Legion just because of the S on her chest. Throughout the story Kara seems perfectly capable as a Legionnaire, stopping a robotic threat to the city that had the Legion and the Science Police overwhelmed all in just 4 pages. Later on she encounters an earthquake and not only stops the disaster with a whistle, she also finds the source of the quake in a young man named Seiss who didn’t know he had created subsonic disruptions while having indigestion.

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, however, as Cosmic Boy makes the point that with all the trauma Kara has just been through in what seems like such a short period of time to her, she thinks that her entire life right now is a dream. This, coupled with Light Lass’s general dislike for Supergirl, puts the Legion in a tricky position. Obviously the girl seems a touch unstable, but she is doing a lot of good so they finally decide to make her an honorary member of the Legion. Honorary because they are unable to provide a new flight ring for her seeing that Brainiac 5 is currently M.I.A. That is until Atom Girl shows up with a special gift for Supergirl from Brainiac 5 himself, a flight ring.

I’m not usually a fan of the Legion and generally get bored by the stories. This issue, and series, on the other hand was a lot of fun to read, and it definitely helps that Mark Waid is such a great writer. The story explores how Supergirl must be approaching so many crises in a row since leaving her home planet behind. This plot is expanded upon even more in later issues of the title wherein Supergirl does come to the realization that this isn’t a dream and she has to come to accept that. That’s not the case for this story though as Supergirl is given a world where she is a great hero, always has an easy solution to every problem, and gets anything she could wish for. There is also a scene, after he is saved by Supergirl, where Seiss is approached by the dominators in what is probably a set up for a future story but it’s not overly relevant to this issue specifically. There’s also a nice moment after the robot battle where Supergirl uses her heat vision on a piece of rubble to give to a nearby Science Police Officer as a souvenir. The issue really packs a bunch into such a small space and it really makes it feel worth the money spent on it.

I’d previously only read these Legion stories as collected editions since I got those first for my collection and I think they left out these title pages that I’ll show above. It’s a way to introduce potential new readers to the Legion characters in an interesting way that shows there’s just a handful of Legionnaires to focus on this time but there’s way more on the team. I do however think it’s a weird set of Legionnaires that are picked for the line up this issue mostly because of the exclusion of Light Lass and Invisible Kid who seemed to be rather relevant in the story especially over Saturn Girl who I think only has one line. So while I like it visually it may not be the best explanation of characters in this issue specifically.

Looking briefly at the ads I noticed this one for HeroClix which I never had as a kid and I don’t think I was aware of them until a bit more recently but I have heard of them and this ad made me want to look and see if there’s a Supergirl HeroClix. Looking into it (very briefly) it looks like HeroClix is not only still making new figures, but there’s also quite a few different Supergirls out there that I’ll have to keep an eye out for!

Thanks for reading! As always feel free to send in any comments, questions, suggestions, or corrections to my email daringnewblog@gmail.com. See you next time!