The second collected edition of Sophie Campbell’s Supergirl comic came out a few weeks back with Supergirl: Hometown Horrors which collects issues 7-10 and the recently released Summer of Supergirl Special. While I really loved the first arc of this series, collected as Misadventures in Midvale, I’ve come to realize that it does suffer a bit from being tied so specifically to Supergirl’s silver age stories. This collection really feels like it’s where Sophie Campbell really gets to shine and start telling some really fun stories. This collection is mostly consisting of one off stories which pairs nicely with the Summer of Supergirl Special which itself is a trio of standalone tales. A surprising bit of consistency I noticed however, was that there is a bit of a connecting thread between most of these 7 stories with a theme of Kara as an orphan.
Sophie Campbell writes all the main issues and the first story in the summer special, with Gail Simone and Mark Waid as writers of the other stories. While Sophie was the main artist in the first collected edition (Misadventures in Midvale), this collection featured a wider array of artists which I’ll specify as we go through the stories. I wish it was a bit clearer in the collected editions who the creative teams were, possibly included in the covers before each issue or even just if they had the specific issues listed on the creator page. Instead we just have the creator credits reprinted as they were in the initial issues, which also includes creator credits for all the variant cover artists which aren’t shown until the end of the collection.
Issue 7, Unfortunate Souls, has art by Sophie Campbell, colors by Tamara Bonvillian, and letters by Becca Carey. This is the Thanksgiving issue which I talked about briefly last year in my post Thanksgiving Guests in Supergirl #7. We’ve got a couple storylines going in this issue, Supergirl is helping Princess Shark break her curse and getting a sea hag reunited with her leg/child, while Lesla is at home with the Danvers greeting all the guests as they come in for Thanksgiving. There’s a bit of a running gag going through this book where everyone seems to be dancing around the subject of genocide that the European colonialists brought when telling Lesla about Thanksgiving and then Lena just lays it all out. Lesla also gets the scene in this book about Kara’s orphan life when she lashes out at Superman about the subject and Superman explains how he might not have handled it in the best way, but he did it out of care for her.
Next up is Not a Creature was Stirring where we see that winter has come to Midvale with a blanket of snow falling over the town. Haining brings the art this time out, Alex Guimaraes colors, and Becca Carey letters. This issue focuses pretty heavily on Kara’s orphan life with depression setting in pretty heavily as she reminisces about her lost friends and family from Krypton. The story also focuses on Kara’s Linda robot that she often used when living at Midvale Orphanage but had forgotten about along the way. There’s some great Kara/Lesla interaction here as Lesla finds out more about earth life as well as learning more about her mentor, Supergirl. The story ends with Kara still having some sadness about the holiday in general, but finding some joy in the little moments like s-shield shaped cookies made by Lesla. I really liked Haining’s art on this story and felt she really nailed the wide array of emotions throughout the story.
Resolutions is of course the January issue and named so after New Year’s Resolutions. Joe Quinones handles all the artwork duties this time aside from Becca Carey’s letters. Quinones has since been a fairly common presence in the title, helping out with the recent Kingdom of Zod issues of Supergirl in the past couple months. Clarissa Giltedge is throwing a New Year’s party and Lena (who isn’t 21 yet) is upset that alcohol isn’t allowed. Lesla, curious about the effects of alcohol, helps Lena put together a concoction with a base of periwinkle Kryptonite so she could feel a similar effect. This goes poorly. Lesla shows off her powers, her and Supergirl fight, Lesla kisses Luna, Kara kisses an un-named pretty boy, and Kara and Lena get into a pretty nasty fight. We don’t get any orphanage content in this issue, but we do get the introduction of a new problem; Lesla is shrinking and apparently this is an issue that the Kandorian science council is well aware of and doesn’t care about. Lesla is back in Kandor, Lena and Kara aren’t talking, and it seems like Lesla is about to take on a new mentor in her cousin Black Flame.
Issue 10, the final standard issue of the collection, continues with Quinones art, but Dave Sharpe covers lettering this time out for the story “My Bloody Valentine”. This issue continues on from the previous with Lena trying to make up with Kara with Mac n Cheese sandwiches but she is surprised to find out that Kara is on a date with the long haired hottie from the New Year’s party. There’s quite a lot of Lena and Luna interaction here which is nice to see. We also get Pink Kryptonite in this story which is causing Kara to be in love with the pretty boy. The Pink-K is possessed by new Kryptonian Nela-Nar who is looking to find eternal love. Lena gives Kara an Anti-K suit, Nela-Nar is trapped in some good, and while Kara and Lena still aren’t on the best of terms, they are once again talking to one another.
Next up is what I personally think is a story that should’ve been included elsewhere or at the very least in a different way. Main Man’s Best Friend is Sophie Campbell’s story from the Summer of Supergirl Special, with Belen Ortega art, Triona Farrell colors, and Becca Carey letters. This is the continuation of Supergirl’s guest appearance in Lobo #4 from earlier this year and to me personally it doesn’t work as well without the context of the Lobo story. I feel this story should only be collected alongside the Lobo comic, otherwise you’re only getting half of a 2-part story. The story follows Kara taking in Lobo’s dog, Dawg, while Lobo is in a correctional facility for the havoc he caused in the Lobo issue. Lobo comes back a changed man, realizes Dawg feels abandoned by Lobo, Lobo and Supergirl tear up the town fighting each other, and then everyone finds happiness and togetherness though Midvale Munchies Mac-n-Cheese Sandwiches! It’s a really cute story and it’s got Princess Shark and Crush going on a date together so who can complain.
Next is my favorite story from the special, Lost Girls from Gail Simone (writer), Emma Kubert (penciller), Sandra Hope (inks), Trish Mulvihill (colors), and Ariana Maher (letters). This story tells of the first meeting between Supergirl and Mary Marvel who team up to fight an android named Unit. The real draw of this story however is when we get to see Mary Broomfield and Kara Danvers getting to hang out together. Kara and Mary bond over both being “the most powerful girls in the world” while still being “overshadowed by the ones who love us most” Kara with Superman and Mary with Captain Marvel. Their similarities don’t end there, they also bond over both being orphans. This is a particularly spectacular issue that I have some future plans to cover, but this is absolutely worth checking out.
The last story in this book is Mark Waid’s “Who is Supergirl?” With artist Cain Torrey, colorist Alex Guimaraes, and letterer Steve wands. I touched on this story a bit with my Supergirl Timeline post but in short, Superboy (Conner Kent) and Steel (Natasha Irons) are in the JLU watchtower trying to sort out Supergirl’s seemingly convoluted history. Superman (Jon Kent) comes in to help clear some things up and we get a bit more insight into why Kara was put into Midvale Orphanage and we find out that it was her idea, not Clark’s, so that she could be around kids her age and more easily integrate into Earth life. It’s a charming story but it’s rather short and doesn’t feature Supergirl aside from images.
The collection closes out with a variant cover gallery and 2 sketchbook pages, one from Joe Quinones and one from Belen Ortega. On a whole the collection feels particularly bare bones and more so is just 5 comics stapled together without much extra thought put in. This collection is not however without perks, the context of this collection centering around Kara’s life as an orphan was an exciting thing to see, and if you’re looking to pick this up new, it is a cheaper alternative. Retail price for the collection comes in at $17.99 and the books collected total to $21.95 and the Summer of Supergirl Special was less than 3 months old before the collection came out. Also the books collected total showcased 3 non-standard colors of Kryptonite with turquoise (turned Supergirl into a mermaid), periwinkle (cased similar effects to intoxication to Lesla and Kara), and pink (forcing Kara to fall in love with a boy).
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