For this month’s Supergirl Surprise, instead of consulting a random number generator I instead opted to ask my husband to go through by Supergirl boxes and pick out one that he was drawn to. That book was Supergirl Vol. 4 #57, “Sharper than a Serpent’s Tooth”. This book was by Peter David (writer), Leonard Kirk (penciler), Robin Riggs (inker), Gene D’Angelo (colors), and Bill Oakley (letters), and had a cover date of June 2001. As I have continued on in this Supergirl Surprise adventure I’ve come to really enjoy reading stories as single issues and seeing how the story both fits into a larger narrative and also stands on it’s own. “Sharper than a Serpent’s Tooth” is a great example of this.
This story is part of the back half of Peter David’s run where Buzz and Linda are trekking across the country getting up to shenanigans as they track down the essence of the Earth Angel that was once Supergirl. This issue picks up where the previous issue left out with Buzz in the clutches of a giant bug monster, however the 22 pages presented here have a really solid story told all by themselves. We find out that this bug monster, Dominique, is actually the demonic spawn of Buzz himself many years before when he was fully powered up as a demon. There is a good few pages at the start of the story where it seems like they are beginning to come to an understanding with one another, but they part later in the story with Dominique slashing Buzz with her poisoned stinger.
“But where is Supergirl throughout this story?” is a question you ma be asking. Why she’s torturing information out of a young lady of course. The above panel is a nice exploration of the difference between Superman and Supergirl with the lines “But… S-Superman wouldn’t kill anyone!” and “Too bad he’s not here.” Thankfully the young lady, Mara, does not get eaten by alligators and instead tells the girl of steel where Buzz is being held.
Supergirl and Dominique fight, the rest of the family including Mara realize that they’re all awful people even if Dominique is the only one that looks monstrous, and Supergirl takes Buzz to safety at the end of the tale. There’s some other stuff that happens and some good dialogue throughout but at the end of the day its just a great excuse for Supergirl to fight a big bug.
During the early portion of the story when Buzz and Dominique are talking, Buzz mentions that she doesn’t have to look like a monster and if she puts her mind to it. We are able to to see Dominique putting this to practice on the final page so it seems that Buzz was able to give her something even though he is generally an awful person.
A few miscelanious moments from the issue I wanted to talk about just briefly that didn’t fit well in the synopsis. First up we’ve got Supergirl employing a biting technique to get away from Viktor. I don’t know why but superheroine’s biting in combat is one of my favorite things to see in comics. Next we have just a brilliant string of dialogue where Buzz asks (rhetorically) for a cigarette and surprisingly Dominique hand him a pack. After finding out the pack came from a dead body, Buzz asks what he died from and “lung cancer” is of course the answer which is a very common joke but is delivered quite well here. Last but not least we have Buzz confirming that Hitler was in fact the spawn of a demon.
As an added bonus to my husband picking out this month’s book, I also had him take a peek through the ads to see which was his favorite. He picked this ad for Pokemon Stadium 2 for the Nintendo 64. 2001 seems really late for a N-64 game but I’ve heard a lot of good things about this title and it’s predecessor. Looking through the rest of the book, there weren’t really any good ads aside from this one but luckily we do have a couple letters to look at.
First up, from Mark Moore, we get a a short list of questions that are successfully answered by the editor Mike McAvennie, but in the past 24 years we do have a bit more to talk about with these questions. First up, the Elseworlds title that is referenced here is Supergirl: Wings if I’m not mistaken. Kara Zor-El in 2001 was nowhere in DC Comics, but a pre-crisis (sort of) Supergirl does show up at the end of the run and Kara Zor-El would return to main continuity in 2004, but the closest we’ve gotten to silver age Supergirl in my opinion is Sophie Campbell’s current run on the maid of might. Question 3 seems to be asking about a pop rock star Supergirl with tie in tv show somewhat akin to Josie and the Pussycats if I had to guess and the editor responds with “There are no plans for a Supergirl movie, TV series, or (hopefully) a pop rock album.” While Supergirl has yet to have a dedicated album (from what I know) she did have a 6 season television show a few years back and is set to star in a major motion picture next year! The other letter, from Clint Crawford discuses his desire for a “costume that will make her stand out from the rest of Team Superman”. Much like the editor, I cannot understand how the costume in use by Supergirl doesn’t stand out. Of the many long term costumes Supergirl has worn through her longstanding career, this costume with the white shirt and blue skirt seems the most varied from the rest of the blue and red Superman Family costumes.
I hope you had a fun time reading through another issue of Supergirl with me and I hope you join me again next time! If you have any comments or suggestions for future blog topics you can email me at daringnewblog@gmail.com or leave a comment below!
In short, Earth-44 is a universe where members of the Justice League are merged with members of the Metal Men. Characters like Gold Superman, Platinum Wonder Woman, Iron Batman, and others make up a team called the Metal League. The Metal League is a team of robots designed and built by Doc Will Tornado based on heroes from comics he read as a kid.
A version of this universe does show up in Infinite Crisis: Fight for the Multiverse and there is a Supergirl-44 much like the Arcane Supergirl from all the way back on Earth-13 of Supergirl in the Multiverse. The Supergirl-44 that is shown in the comic however is relatively unexplored and I’m personally not that big a fan of her look. For my drawing this week I have put together what I’m calling Electrum Supergirl. For her design I’m leaning a bit more into the classic Metal Men (and Metal Women) look and using electrum as opposed to gold to help set her apart from Superman.
As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. Electrum Supergirl is standing in front of a large computer displaying “INTRUDER ALERT”. Electrum Supergirl is deflecting laser blasts coming from offscreen. A motif in the top right has Electrum Supergirl’s symbol with a 44 on top of it.
The Doomsday Special was a one-shot comic tying into the main Superman titles under the banner of Action Comics Presents. This book was released in 2023 and was written by Dan Watters, with art by Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira, and Adriano Lucas, and letters by Dave Sharpe. There was another Action Comics Special that came out around the time of Action Comics 1000, but this is the only book under the “Action Comics Presents” title. Action Comics, for the past 85 years, is most often associated with Superman, but other heroes have taken up the headlining spot in the book periodically and Supergirl is no stranger to the title. The story obviously centers around Doomsday, but this is not his story and the protagonists are instead Supergirl and the Martian Manhunter.
We open the story with a terrifying nightmare that Kara is having that obviously seems to still be affecting her the next morning at breakfast with Clark. After noticing Kara is a bit off, Clark asks her what’s up and the pair begin talking about the subject of her dream; Doomsday. Clark goes into his history with the creature and Kara fills us in that on Krypton he was a kind of “shik’lrith” or “urban truth” however she also refers to the stories about Doomsday as “campfire stories”. The super-twins come in after the history lesson and pull Clark away and Kara leaves the apartment with the mindset that “It was only a nightmare…what else would it be?”
Unfortunately for the girl of steel, she is met with the Martian Manhunter who informs her that it was no dream but was instead a Kryptonian message that the Martian received and relayed to Supergirl. The pair join minds to further piece together the message when suddenly they are transported to a fiery horrible place that could only be Hell. Supergirl is unconvinced saying that rationally Hell can’t exist but J’onn says “Humankind believes in it. So it is real.” So here we have a Kryptonian and a Martian in a very human Hellscape against their will and the first thing Supergirl does is see someone in need and saves them. Supergirl more than anything else wants to help all these damned souls but it is an unsurmountable task and our hero is soon overwhelmed before witnessing the reason they’re in Hell.
Doomsday has not been suffering in Hell like many others banished here but has instead been thriving, finding more and more ways to be killed and revived stronger, finding more beings to torment, and being named “KING DOOMSDAY”. Snatched away before their demise, Kara and J’onn meet with The First of the Fallen who we find out is the reason the heroes have found their way into hell. The First of the Fallen informs them that Doomsday has become stronger and stronger and is well on his way to become King of Hell where he could use that power to break out of Hell and go back to Earth. The First of the Fallen has brought the heroes to Hell for the selfish reason of not wanting to give up his throne and uses the threat of Doomsday on Earth to convince the pair to help him push Doomsday back.
With a new goal in mind, the heroes set out on their mission. Supergirl, now adorned with Hell armor, takes the fight directly to the beast while the Martian uses his psychic powers to help sway the minds of the damned. Supergirl is outmatched and struggles against the monster, but she is able to fight back enough for J’onn to start the residents of hell towards the gates where they begin to make a seal. By the time Doomsday realizes the ploy against him, there is already a solid wall of flesh keeping Doomsday stuck where he is. Doomsday is furious and he is about to take it out on the maid of might helpless in his clutches when he is met with an empty set of hell armor between his claws.
Now back on his throne, The First of the Fallen no longer needs the heroes and has sent them back to earth. Back in the land of the living, Supergirl worries about the value of life if a place like hell could really exist, but J’onn convinces her that humanity is still in good hands because those fallen souls, even after all they’ve been through, still joined together to protect the living and if that’s not hope what is? The story ends with a page reminiscent of Doomsday’s earliest appearances where we see him punching his way out of hell with a tease that Doomsday will continue past this. There is also a short Bloodwynd story included in the back of this issue where we’re introduced to a new version of the character who is called “A Superman for Hell”. The story is fine from what I remember but the main story of the book is what we’re focusing on here since it’s the story with Supergirl.
The story can be summed up as “Supergirl goes to Hell and fights Doomsday” which is definitely an interesting idea for a story and it absolutely delivers. The art throughout the book is really stunning and does a great job of visualizing Hell with great coloring and heavy inks. I’m particularly fond of how the artists draw our 2 main heroes, Supergirl is drawn really pretty and the Martian has a distinct alien look to him and the characters show a wide array of emotions quite successfully in the 30 pages of story. Dan Watters seems to have a really solid grasp on Supergirl in my opinion, he captures her heroic nature quite well and we get some good insight to her Kryptonian heritage as well. While Clark Kent isn’t in much of the story, and Superman only shows up in flashback, I really like how Watters portrays him. I’m also quite fond of the Doomsday logo on the cover, the angled line that goes between the letters M, S, and D is a really great bit of typography that gives the title a bit of character without being anything overwhelming. If I’m not mistaken, this is the first and possibly only use of this logo but I would love to see it used more. The cover as a whole however doesn’t really excite me. I mean no disrespect to Björn Barends and it does seem to be well rendered, it’s just not for me. The book had quite a few covers released for it including a couple retailer exclusives, but my favorite for this book was the Jon Bogdanove on which I put at the start of this post. Unfortunately this was a 1:50 incentive variant and I was unable to get it when the book came out.
The Hell armor that Kara puts on about halfway through the story is a great look. The design is great and my only complaint is that we didn’t get more of it. It also sticks to a red and blue color scheme but goes for a blue cape as opposed to her standard red but it’ still a really solid look. Going back to the tease of Doomsday breaking back to earth, Doomsday did find his way back fairly soon after this and would face off against the man of steel himself and the newly powered up Lois Lane. His return did result in a pretty intense battle between the power couple of steel, but was soon sidelined when the Time Trapper showed up and revealed himself as a much further evolution of Doomsday, so the ultra powered up from hell version of Doomsday that shows up in this story doesn’t really amount to much so rereading this book doesn’t quite have the weight to me knowing where Doomsday ends up after this.
Let me know your thoughts on this story or your thoughts on Doomsday as a whole by commenting below or emailing daringnewblog@gmail.com. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time!
Threatened by scarlet acid rain, a somehow more menacing Gotham is inhabited by the supernatural creatures know colloquially as vampires. Earth-43 has gone by many names since its inception including Vampire World, and Earth-1191 but is most know for the story that introduced the concept: Batman and Dracula: Red Rain. The general concept for the universe is that vampires are real, and throughout the events of Red Rain, Batman himself gets infected with this undead disease. While the initial trilogy of stories from this universe focus pretty strictly on the Dark Knight, more recent iterations have explored a wider DC roster of characters to encounter a vampiric foe.
The maid of might has yet to show up in this universe in any version, although a Ultraman does exist in the most recent version of Earth-43. My concept for this universe’s Supergirl is not as a vampire, but as a vampire slayer. My thoughts are that Kara Zor-El lands on earth after surviving the destruction of her home-world and is quickly met with a vampiric threat. Kara soon realizes her enhanced powers on this planet can come in handy to take on this unnatural threat. She takes to studying how to take out these monsters and finds out her cousin is one of these monsters and sets her mission on taking him out.
As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. Supergirl of Earth-43 stands in the foreground, her iconic look of a blue tunic and red skirt is further adorned with a dark red overcoat, she holds a wooden stake up in her left hand. The background shows stone walls leading to a dark hallway with a coffin at the end of it. The top right corner features a motif of Supergirl’s S symbol with a 43 on top of it.
The collected edition of Supergirl stories by Mariko Tamaki and Skylar Patridge was released on September 23rd, 2025. The stories that are collected here are The Supergirl Special from October 2023, and the Supergirl backup stories from Action Comics from October-December of 2024. All of the stories are written by Mariko Tamaki, Skylar Patridge covers penciling and inking duties for everything aside from the stories from Action 1076 and 1077 when Meghan Hetrick took over. Coloring was done by Marissa Louise and lettering by Becca Carey.
While the Special and the Action backups can each be read individually and either works perfectly fine on it’s own, the stories do play off each other quite well and the collection as a whole works quite well as a continuous story. The major theme of the Special deals with the conflict of a universe with both Supergirl and Power Girl living and operating at the same time in the same universe and also in the same city. The Special also features a lot of Supergirl reminiscing about her life on Krypton after getting questioned about it by Otho-Ra in the early pages of the story. The Action Comics backups instead show Supergirl on a secret mission to transport a prisoner across space, but the events of the story once again reference Kara’s specific backstory in regards to Krypton and Power Girl plays a crucial part in the climax of the story.
The Supergirl Special was very exciting for me when it came out, Mariko Tamaki has long been my favorite Supergirl writer ever since Being Super and I’ve come to really enjoy Skylar Patridge’s artwork in the past couple years, and with Jamal Campbell’s cover (which was also used as the collection cover) it was a no brainer to pick up. Opening with Supergirl reading through social media posts about herself and Power Girl when Otho-Ra and Osul-Ra, the Super-Twins, fly up to her and ask her about Krypton. This begins stirring up memories, but the twins soon change subjects and lead Kara back to the Kent’s apartment for “Sunday Dinner”. After dinner, Jon comes up and continues the conversation about life on Krypton. Here we get a bit more information about what Argo was like, and we also find out that Kara ran track when she lived on Krypton, most likely a nod to Tamaki’s Being Super story. Before Kara gets too much into telling this story, she gets nervous and flies off back to her apartment.
Following the girl of steel back to her apartment, we continue this flashback as a dream and we see Kara reliving the destruction of her home before being jostled awake by and emergency call to action. Supergirl and Power Girl are both on the scene and Supergirl, while trying to save civilians, makes a competition out of it and we wee a bit more of the flashback to the race. Earlier, the race had seemed like a sure victory for Kara, but now we see that she tripped right before the finish allowing competitor Elsa to win. This sequence is paired with Supergirl racing Power Girl to the top of a burning building where Supergirl also falls short. A brief, albeit angry, dialogue between Supergirl and Power Girl is seen after which leads to Supergirl once again heading back to her apartment.
Kara enters her home, not met with solitude, but with Lois Lane and a tray of cupcakes. A really charming string of pages where we get a bit deeper of a look into Kara’s mindset where she reveals she always feels like she’s coming up short and not being what she was meant to be, Kal’s protector. Lois helps ease her worries some by telling her that Kal didn’t need a protector and that Kara showed up to be exactly what she needed to be. It was a very mom scene for Lois in the best way. Immediately after Lois leaves, Power Girl comes in through the window. Kara and Kara have a nice discussion where Power Girl reveals she is often mistaken as Supergirl and that line of dialogue finally breaks the tension between the pair and we get a conclusion to the flashback where Kara admits to her father that she lost the race, and Zor-El comforts his daughter letting her know that the race doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Likewise Kara and Kara share a final scene where they each claim the other is their favorite.
Moving into the main story now, we get a return to Supergirl’s roots in a way. Action Comics #1070, from October 2024, was the start of a 12 week storyline where the title would be released weekly. The main story was titled “Phantoms” but the reason we’re talking about it here is because each issue also had a 10-page backup story featuring the maid of might in a story called “Universe End”. For nearly the first decade of Supergirl’s existence in comics she had an almost uninterrupted run as the backup feature in Action Comics. So the combination of weekly Supergirl stories in a time where she didn’t have any ongoing storylines, and the fact that she was back in Action Comics was really exciting for me.
The story itself does a good job of making use of the 10 page format, and Tamaki and Patridge really successfully pull off cliffhanger endings and solid stories each issue. That being said, reading it as a collection is a much more enjoyable experience if for nothing else the ease of reading. As presented in the collected edition, one story leads right into the next and reads as a single 120 page storyline only broken up by the use of full-page splashes at the start of each new “issue”, but full-page splashes aren’t exclusive to starts of issues so it’s not jarring to suddenly hit them and it doesn’t feel like it breaks up the story at all.
Starting somewhat mysteriously, we find Supergirl setting off on an apparently secret mission and we see our hero wiping memories of those around her so they cannot know what she is up to, and then she shoots off into space in what may be a one-way trip. We soon find out that this secret mission from Superman is to transport a prisoner to their “final prison”. This is Prisoner 8912, who has been charged as “The Destroyer of Worlds”. Supergirl’s mission is by no means a simple prisoner transport as she is soon met with conflict from all manner of foes who seek to have the prisoner for themselves. The first of these conflicts results in the death of the judge responsible for the prisoner’s sentence, which turns Supergirl’s mission into a solo mission.
The prisoner is quite flighty after joining Kara’s care and it seems like being captive at all even without restraints or a prison cell. It is when the two, along with CRB (Courtroom Bot), are on a spaceship where the prisoner mind-melds with Supergirl and shows the destruction she has caused and asks the girl of steel to kill her. From here, Supergirl of course doesn’t grant her this wish, but instead learns more of this prisoner’s past and we learn that she is but half of a whole, and her counterpart is out there in the universe and when they combine they cause the destruction of planets.
The pair are siblings, the brother; Rage, and the sister; Fear. Together they bring annihilation, and annihilation that has thus far taken 157 worlds. Fear was captured and imprisoned after attempting to flee from her brother’s clutches because she no longer wished to cause so much loss, and her desire for Supergirl to end her life is a further extension of no longer wanting to be a part of annihilation. Fear, after telling Kara “If you will not do this willingly. I will give you no choice”, uses her powers to make Kara think she’s back trapped in her rocket on her way to earth. Power Girl, back on earth, uses her psychic connection with Supergirl to snap her out of the trance but not before the trio of adventurers crashes onto a swampy planet where they are met with none other than Rage.
At this point we get the only real fight in the story as much of the tale has been pretty calm so far. Unfortunately, Supergirl isn’t doing so hot in this encounter and is easily tossed around by Rage. While our hero is knocked down, Rage takes the opportunity to bring his sister back under his control. Before any annihilation can begin however, Kara figures talking is a much easier way to take out this baddie than hitting and convinces Fear that Rage’s way isn’t the only way.
Fear, Supergirl, and Power Girl via psychic connection, form together into an amalgamation that is now powerful enough to take on Rage. Though powerful they are together, Rage is still overwhelming to them. Split once again, Fear is again convinced that there is only one way; Rage’s way. Supergirl once again finds the words to solve a problem fists can’t. Supergirl tells Fear that instead of merging into Rage, she can instead take control and take Rage into herself and once again become one with Rage but now in control of her and their actions. We head into the resolution of the tale with this new being telling Supergirl; “I asked you to kill me. Yet somehow you have killed me and saved me.” Supergirl reports back to the United Planets and tells them her mission has been completed, and we get a sequence showing the Prisoner and CBR on the courthouse satellite where it is implied that CBR has taken over as judge and has been tasked with observing and understanding what it means to destroy a world. The story ends with Kara and Kara together once again and there is a bit of dialogue between them discussing why the mission had to be undertaken by Supergirl and Supergirl alone. Supergirl says she hasn’t asked Superman specifically about it, but she feels like she understands and she thinks it’s because of her specific experience on Krypton and her understanding that “out of pain can come something greater and longer lasting.”
This is a rather subdued Supergirl story, and for the most part we don’t get Supergirl preforming any super-heroics. Instead we get a lot of Supergirl showing a more gentle approach to the situation and her instead talking through interactions. Tamaki’s approach to writing is quite successful and I never had any issue with the way Supergirl was portrayed and I thought the entire team involved with the book did an exceptional job with differentiating between Supergirl and Power Girl. Supergirl and Power Girl have existed simultaneously in comics since the mid 70s, and since the 80s have existed on the same universe. However the didn’t have much in the way of interactions until the early 2000s and the post-crisis Kara Zor-El. Since then however a lot of their stories where they show up together revolve around them fighting one another. This story has none of that, even the competitiveness between the 2 in the Supergirl Special, doesn’t involve the 2 punching one another. I think this is part of why I enjoy this comic so much, it just feels like a fresh approach to the character while never feeling like a drastic shift from the iconic heroine. When I initially saw the solicitations for this comic I felt that the Supergirl Special’s inclusion was just because it had the same creative team as Universe End and to pad out what may have been a rather light trade, but reading this collection as a single story really works and the special works as a great introduction and first act to the story and sets up Kara and Kara’s relationship that is a vital part of Universe End.
I mentioned earlier that the story didn’t have a lot in the way of action, but I don’t think this a bad thing. On a whole I don’t really have any issue with this story, I was excited for it every week as it was coming out and rereading it when the trade came out was a great experience, and I had an enjoyable time reading it again to cover for the blog. The only downside I can think of are that there wasn’t any more story after this. Mariko Tamaki and Skylar Patridge have a wonderful approach to the girl of steel and the tease at the end of Universe End stating “Supergirl’s Daring Adventures will continue in 2025” made me think the team would go on to put out an ongoing Supergirl title. I am loving the current book by Sophie Campbell and I really couldn’t ask for a better ongoing Supergirl title, but I would love to see this team work on Supergirl again some day.
The collected edition itself is extremely bare bones, no sketch gallery, no introduction, and not even a cover gallery. This book is basically just the Supergirl Special (2 of the covers to it are put in here, the Jamal Campbell one and the Ramón Pérez one) and 120 pages of Universe End in a neat 176 page trade. The only additional content, if you can even call it that, is this ad on the last page promoting some other Supergirl collections. I this this is a fantastic lineup of stories to accompany this book and to give readers that may be new to Supergirl a place to start. I talked at length about Woman of Tomorrow last week (read here) but I do feel like it’s a decent way to introduce the girl of steel to a wide audience. Being Super is hands down my all time favorite Supergirl story (covered here) and by the same author as Universe End so it pairs nicely together. And then to close out the set you have the DC Finest collection that covers all the Supergirl stories from her first 3 years in a really clean collection and includes a couple stories that had never been reprinted before this edition. I would absolutely recommend Universe End to anyone and if you haven’t read the story along with the Supergirl Special, the two are great companions and work together to form a wonderful narrative. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time!
The Daring New Blog of Supergirl 