The Daring new Blog of Supergirl

Spurred on mostly by a friend texting me “Kara name everyone at the Thanksgiving dinner table please” after reading the most recent issue of Supergirl, I decided to take a look at the whole guest list and share with anyone else who may be confused by some of the invites. While most of the table is filled up with characters that had appeared in the past few issues, there are a couple interesting choices Sophie Campbell made that I’d love to go a bit more in depth on.

For anyone just wanting names for each of these guests I’ll go through them first here, but if you want to know more about each of them keep reading! Starting with all the animals down below, Kandy is the bunny, Krypto is the dog, Streaky is the cat, and Titano (Tinytano now) is the small gorilla. Starting in the bottom left and going clockwise; Siohban Smythe (SIlver Banshee), Conner Kent (Superboy), Lena Luthor, Kara Danvers (Supergirl), Lee Serrano, Leegra (Princess Shark), Eliza Danvers, Jeremiah Danvers, Luna Lustrum, Lesla-Lar (Luminary), Kal-El (Superman), Lois Lane, and finally Cassie Sandsmark (Wonder Girl).

Kandy the Super-Bunny is one of the more recent additions to Supergirl lore. She first appeared in Supergirl (Vol. 8) #1 just a few months back. Kandy is the animal companion to Luminary, sort of Lesla’s version of Streaky the Super-Cat. She is also from Kandor so when she grew to full size and came to earth with Lesla she too gained powers normal to any Kryptonian living under a yellow sun.

Krypto has a much more storied history going all the way back to 1955 in the pages of Adventure Comics #210. Krypto was introduced as the dog companion to Superboy and would serve as Kal-El’s super-pet companion, and showed up alongside the man of steel last summer in the Superman movie from DC Studios. While Krypto has shown up along side Supergirl in numerous stories since her time in Action Comics, he was generally more associated with Superman than with Supergirl. The Woman of Tomorrow mini series showed Supergirl and Krypto as close companions and it seems like the general public links the Super-Dog more with Supergirl than with Superman these days. A few years before Woman of Tomorrow, during the vol. 7 run of Supergirl, Superman has Krypto join Kara in her space faring quest starting with issue 21 and this seems to be the start of the Supergirl/Super-Dog team that we’ve come to know.

Streaky the Super-Cat is one of the oldest character’s shown in this image as his stories go all the way back to Action Comics #261 just a few month’s after Supergirl’s debut. As opposed to Krypto, Streaky has always been paired with the maid of might. He has shown up more recently alongside Power Girl in her most recent ongoing, but with Supergirl’s new title the orange cat is back in Midvale where his stories began. If you’d like to learn more of Streaky’s history I did a whole post about him a few months ago you can read here.

Titano, while looking like an ape in most appearances, is actually a genetically modified chimpanzee that can shoot kryptonite beams from his eyes. He has most often been an antagonist to Superman and has made several appearances both in main DC continuity and in elseworlds titles. Titano, or Tinytano as he is now called, didn’t start his heroic deeds until very recently durring the events of the current Supergirl title. He was shrunken down and dubbed “Tinytano” in issue #3 of the series.

Moving to the cast at the main table we start to see representatives from a wide array of Supergirl stories including our first guest; Siobhan Smythe. Siobhan is the New 52 version of the Silver Banshee and was a major supporting character in Supergirl’s life as she got acclimated to Earth. Silver Banshee as a character first appeared in Action Comics #595, however this was Siobhan McDougal who seems a bit more villainous, whereas Siobhan Smythe generally tries to help Supergirl while keeping her Banshee side more at bay. She has shown up more recently alongside her current boyfriend, Jimmy Olsen, in the most recent Superman titles. Siobhan here clearly represents the New 52 era of Supergirl and we’ll see plenty of other time periods represented coming up.

Superboy, the Kon-El version at least, first appeared in Adventures of Superman #500. Kon is the clone of Superman and Lex Luthor and has been a member of Young Justice and Teen Titans. Him and Supergirl haven’t had many adventures together but I feel like the above panel from the “House of Kent” storyline sums up their relationship fairly well and is their first meeting after Kon’s reintroduction to the main DC Universe after having been taken out during the New 52 relaunch when he was replaced with a similar Superboy. Superboy did have a few adventures with the Linda Danvers/Matrix Supergirl alongside Young Justice, so he could sort of be a representative of that era of Supergirl’s life but that wasn’t really Kara so it probably doesn’t count.

Lena Luthor, or more specifically Lena Luthor II, is the daughter of Lex Luthor and she first appeared (as a baby) in Superman (Vol. 2) #131 before she was soon sent into the future and grew up in the clutches of Brainiac 13 during the events of Superman Y2K. Lena was fairly absent from comics for the next 2 decades until she showed up in Superman (Vol. 6) #7 where she was shown working at Supercorp. She would have some interactions during this time with Supergirl and is now living in Midvale after seeing her father once again be way more evil than she prefers. While she isn’t the same Lena Luthor that showed up in silver age comics (that was Lena Thorul that I talked about here) it does seem like she could represent that period of Supergirl’s life as well as being her current best friend.

I’ll skip talking about Supergirl herself because I figure you probably have a good idea about who she is. Next up is Lee Serrano who was probably my favorite to see here. Lee is a non-binary character introduced in Supergirl (vol. 7) #19, (I talked about it during pride month in this post) who is representing the Rebirth era of DC comics, although they really haven’t shown up much aside from the one story.

Princess Shark is another very recent addition to Supergirl’s mythos. She showed up in the debut issue of the current series but we only just find out more about her history in this very issue so you should go and read that if you haven’t already!

While the Danvers have been an important part of Supergirl’s life for quite a while, them being named “Jeremiah” and “Eliza” is a much more recent update. Jeremiah and Eliza Danvers are the names of Supergirl’s adoptive parents as shown in the CBS/CW show and in comics they first appeared as such in Superman/Wonder Woman #29 and are shown as scientists working at STAR Labs. They have been fairly regular members of the cast in the most recent Supergirl title.

Luna Lustrum is the newest character at this table having only just made her debut a few months ago in issue 4 of this series. Not much is known of her at this point however she is able to read auras of people and she seems friendly with the whole cast of main characters so I imagine she’ll stick around for a while.

Much like Supergirl herself, I feel like I don’t need to tell you who Superman and Lois Lane are they’ve been around in comics for nearly 90 years and have been staples of pop culture for nearly as long. I do think it’s weird that Superman showed up as Superman not Clark Kent here, especially seeing that he came with Lois Lane. It’s possible this is because of Lex doing that thing in Action Comics 1050 where he made it so that if anyone found out that Clark Kent was Superman they could suffer severe brain damage. This was done mostly as a plot point to make Superman have a secret identity again and hasn’t really been brought up since but if this is the reason we got Superman and not Clark I would give Sophie major props for her attention to continuity. I also like the fact that Clark, Lois, and Conner are all in Midvale for Thanksgiving, which seems to imply that Jon (their son who grew up in a volcano) is in charge of watching Otho and Osul (their children who grew up on a slave planet) and that fact is just hilarious to me. In all actuality all three of them probably are safely away in Smallville having a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with Ma and Pa Kent.

Cassie Sandsmark, much like Lee Serrano, was a character I was overjoyed to see show up here. Cassie was Supergirl’s best friend in the pre-Flashpoint era of DC, and the pair had quite a few adventures together. Cassie is of course the second (or third if you count Diana) person to hold the title of Wonder Girl and she first showed up in Wonder Woman (Vol. 2) #105. Supergirl’s pre-Flashpoint origin has her living and training on Themyscira for a while soon after landing on earth which is most likely where the pair met. Their relationship seems to have become almost nonexistent since the New 52 reboot, so her being here is a great step to making the pair close friends once again. This friendship between Kara and Cassie (as well as Kara’s relationship with Stephanie Brown) is the main basis for my short lived Blonde Justice comic strip (that you can read in full on this page).

Thanksgiving was a pretty common occurrence on the Supergirl TV show and most seasons had a full episode dedicated to the holiday so I’m glad to see that tradition continue here. This issue was a great low stakes story that showed a lot of Supergirl’s history while letting all the cast get a great chance to sit back, relax, and have a wonderful day together. I hope this post gave you some good information about these characters and I hope you’ve been picking up and enjoying the Supergirl comic because I know I have. See you next time!

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!