The Daring new Blog of Supergirl

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!

Released in 2021 is a Supergirl mini-series that I’ve come to realize is what would happen if you mashed together All Star Superman and Dark Knight Returns and then put it in a skirt. Written by Tom King, with pencils and Inks by Bilquis Evely, colors by Matheus Lopes, and lettering by Clayton Cowles. I will try to avoid any major spoilers, and this won’t be a full synopsis so if you haven’t read it yet you should be perfectly fine to read through but be aware there may be some minor spoilers while I go through the finer points of the story and characters. This story is a space epic, a tale of loss, and the story of a little girl out for revenge. While being the titular character, this story isn’t really a Supergirl story. It is instead a story about Ruthye and what happens when she encounters the Maid of Might at a crucial moment in her life.

Ruthye Marye Knoll, a character introduced for this series and one that I mentioned is the focal point of the tale. She is the youngest of 7 and the only daughter born to a rock farm on a planet with a red sun. While Ruthye was literally raised in a barn, she seems to be well educated and speaks quite eloquently. She talks in the way that a 12 year old who reads a lot of books would. By this I mean she seems to have an extensive vocabulary, but doesn’t have a full grasp of the world. Ruthye has spent the entirety of her young life before meeting Supergirl knowing just of her rock farm. She had no idea of piggyback rides, alien life, or washing her hands. Upon finding her father’s dead body, Ruthye has one goal in mind; find Krem of the Yellow Hills and end his life. Throughout the story Ruthye is called stubborn, small, and soft but most of all she is just a girl. While Krem, and the Brigands, and any other foe they come across uses these facts to belittle her, Supergirl is also shown as such and she is still Super.

Supergirl herself in this story, specifically how she is portrayed seems somewhat controversial. This story includes her drinking, swearing, and even calling Superman a “@%#@”. On a surface level, this is a very different Supergirl to the pre-crisis girl of steel and the Supergirl from the television series. This is also a significantly less wholesome characterization to what we normally think of when we think of the Super family. However, a Supergirl who swears isn’t new. I’ve read a significant amount of Supergirl stories from many different eras, and I’ve seen even as far back as the Daring New Adventures (Supergirl Vol. 2) series from the 80s Supergirl giving us at least a couple “damn”s and all the ongoing series since have at least some amount of Supergirl dropping some expletives. I will say that this specific story does have quite a lot more than any other Supergirl story I’ve read and at some points it seems a bit much. Also at one point in issue 5, Ruthye is shown having learned the proper use of “#%#@” which is a comical line but doesn’t make Supergirl the best role model.

Let’s talk about Supergirl being a role model. Kara Zor-El is a girl who witnessed the destruction of her world and everything she knew and then had to witness it once again all before she was 16 (quite expertly told in issue 6 of this miniseries). Once on earth, she became a hero to the world and would quickly become one of the most well known people on the planet. This is someone who never got a moment to be a kid, to grow up and goof off and make mistakes. So when we see our hero at the start of this story, drunk off her ass, it needs to be considered that maybe this is the first time that she’s gotten to unwind since her planet’s destruction. Even in this state though, she still sees a girl in need and helps her.

A lot of my favorite moments from this story can be described as Supergirl seeing someone in need and helping them in a personal and specific way. The story is galaxy spanning and we see numbers of different planets and locations and it’s obvious Supergirl and Ruthye travel together for quite a while, but the story really is a very small and personal journey about Ruthye tracking down Krem. There is no doubt throughout the story that Supergirl cares for Ruthye, sometimes it’s shown with a firm fist to an unwanted bus passenger, sometimes its a strict denial when telling Ruthye what to do, but my favorite way we see care shown is in the soft moments. Ruthye isn’t familiar with a piggyback ride, but Supergirl gently walks her through it it helps reassure her of the safety. Early on in the story, but still after months of traveling, Supergirl realizes that Ruthye has no idea how to wash her hands. From the first time reading this scene, this has been my favorite moment of the whole story. There is such a care shown from Supergirl in this scene, and she treats the situation so gently. Lines like “Mother used to make me count to suzhav out loud,” and “If nothing else, Kryptonians are clean. Were clean,” really say a lot in this scene. It’s this remembrance of Krypton that sets Kara apart from her cousin, and the specific dialogue here puts Kara in almost a motherly role to Ruthye here. There are a few moment in issue 4 where we see this soft compassion show but another of my favorite moments is when the pair land on Tillus, a planet that had been ravaged by the Brigands. Where they land there’s a single person shown with the duty of digging dozens, possibly hundreds, of graves for all those lost to the Brigands. Through dialogue we learn both that this task has to be done by sundown to prevent the need for a mass grave, and also that his daughter is one of those lost. Supergirl asks him if she can help, and while he initially refused he does let her help. Supergirl not only finishes the task for him, she mentions that she isn’t perfect and may have made mistakes, and above all else she found his daughter and offers to take him to her grave. Later that issue we’re also shown that strict motherly nature, that I mentioned earlier when, Supergirl and Ruthye are on Tyrrrcoomn. This is a planet that kept very specific records and videos of the sheer brutality of the Brigands attack and when Ruthye tries to view the footage Supergirl responds; “You don’t have to see this, and I do, and if you don’t have to, you won’t. That’s the end of it.”

Moving on to the parts of the story I don’t like. As I mentioned before, the swearing and drinking doesn’t really bother me, and even the use of red kryptonite as a recreational drug doesn’t feel too far out of the realm of possibility in the DC universe so it’s use in the story also works for me. Ruthye’s dialogue, especially on rereads, has a bit of pretentiousness to it. It feels wordy for the sake of being wordy, and the fact that all the narration, framed as a book that Ruthye had written, is in this wordy style and quite dense in a lot of places doesn’t help the fact. My most recent reread of the story was done while skipping over the narration boxes and only focusing on the dialogue and artwork and it was a really interesting way to read the story that still works perfectly fine. I don’t particularly love how Comet is portrayed in the story, although that may just be because I’m not terribly fond of Comet in general. I don’t like that Comet was reintroduced in this story just to be killed a couple issues later, and I feel like a Kryptonite bullet shouldn’t have been able to kill him seeing as he isn’t a Kryptonian and if a kryptonite bullet can kill him, then any sort of bullet could kill him and that doesn’t feel particularly super to me. The line from Supergirl when she drops back down to the planet; “He was a man…He was cursed to the body of a horse…It’s complicated” is a really bare bones way to explain the Super Horse to readers that most likely have no idea who he is, but it’s doesn’t really tell you much. It did make me want to read silver age Supergirl stories so I guess it did work on some level. Both of these points are kind of easy to overlook, but my main issue with the story is that throughout the story Supergirl is only ever Supergirl. Ruthye only knows her and refers to her as Supergirl, and any new person she meets or any new planet she arrives on it’s always just “I’m Supergirl”. “Kara” as a word appears exactly once in the story. Issue 7 and 8 mostly center around 2 set pieces, the Brigand ship where Supergirl is fighting the Brigands and a beach where Ruthye and Comet are watching Krem who is tied and gagged to a tree. A narration box reads “…we came to what was then known as Florinine but has since been rechristened: Kara’s Beach”. This being the only mention of the Kryptonian’s name makes less sense seeing as how Supergirl seems to not use this name at all throughout the months long journey that is told here. Supergirl as a character hasn’t really used a secret identity successfully or for any prolonged period of time since the 90s, and a lot of the story telling since, especially when she’s not on earth have her calling herself “Kara”. There is something about her exclusive use of her heroic name that feels like she’s trying to appear better than or more important than everyone else in the story and that doesn’t track with other Supergirl stories I’ve read. If I had to find some excuse, it could be that since this is Ruthye’s retelling of the story and she was a child throughout the tale, maybe Kara did often use her name and Ruthye only saw her as this heroic icon and tells the story with her as such. That being said, nothing in the text confirms this and is only my personal explanation for why she would only go by Supergirl throughout the tale.

Referring to this story as “what would happen if you mashed together All Star Superman and Dark Knight Returns and then put it in a skirt” at the start of this post was somewhat of a joke, but there are quite a few similarities to each story that I wanted to briefly mention. Dark Knight Returns was one of my favorite comic stories when I was 16 and it’s a great story for when you’re 16 and into comics. I say this to say that I am very familiar with this story and there are more and more similarities the more I started thinking about it and looking into it. The aforementioned Supergirl only going by Supergirl and not Kara is a similar thing to how Batman is portrayed in DKR. Each story also has the titular hero picking up a young girl and becoming a mentor figure while also not presenting as the best role model. We also get swearing and bad ass brutal fights in each story, and the above pictures show the hero of each story bursting through a wall to pulverize a goon. The All Star Superman references are a bit less direct, but still present. Both that story and Woman of Tomorrow tell a single overarching story while having episodic adventure each issue. Both stories also feature a lot of silver age comic references told in a more modern interpretation, specifically stuff like the red-k, comet, and the general depiction of aliens in Woman of Tomorrow.

Let’s talk collected editions! Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow was initially relased as 24 page single issue comics from June 2021 to February of 2022. The first collection was a trade paperback version in July 2022, this would collect all 8 issues, a cover gallery for the variant covers (the main covers were included throughout the story), and a 3 page sketch gallery from Bilquis Evely. This is a rather bare bones trade but the sketch gallery at the back is a nice touch and I always love Evely’s art. July 2024 would give us a really nice hardcover deluxe edition of the story. In addition to the 8 collected issues, and variant cover gallery, we get a much more robust 32 pages of Bilquis Evely sketch pages including thumbnail sketches for dozens of pages and covers, as well as sketch pages for some of the variant covers, an introduction from Tom King, and the original draft for issue 6 of the story. Honestly a really robust collection with some really great extras and brand new cover art on the slip cover makes this a great addition to the collection. If you are deciding between the 2 versions of the story I would absolutely recommend the deluxe edition, everything that’s present in the tpb version is included in it and so much more. Digitally, through the DC Universe Infinite app, the story has also been re-presented as a DCGO comic. If you are unfamiliar with DCGO, it is webcomics that have been optimized for reading on a standard smartphone. I have not gone through the entirety of the DCGO version of the story but from what I have seen I wouldn’t recommend it. The artwork has to get cropped in a lot of places to fit the format, and Evely’s art really shines as large splash pages or sweeping imagery that isn’t done justice in this format. Solicited for a January 2026 release is a DC Compact Comics version of the collection. Looking at the page count this will probably be exclusively the issues reprinted and won’t include cover or sketch galleries, but it will have a $10 price point like all of the Compact Comics line and it’s really a steal at that price.

For those unaware, it has been announced that a live action cinematic movie based on this story is in production as part of the DC Studios movie Universe that currently includes James Gunn’s Superman (2025). At this point there has not been any trailers released, but we have seen the above image as well as some behind the scenes pictures. Supergirl, as portrayed by Millie Alcock, shows up very briefly at the end of Superman and we get to see her playing with Krypto, swearing, and a line from Kal tells us that “She goes to planets with red suns to party”. I am planning to go into this movie with a fairly open mind, however I do want to bring up a couple thoughts on it while on the subject. Jason Momoa has been cast in this film as Lobo. Lobo doesn’t show up in the comic but I could see him fitting well into this story. I don’t want him in much of the movie or if he does show up I hope it’s as part of the Brigands’ crew. I am still up in the air in regards to the Super-Horse, it seems like it could be something that gets cut from the plot, but it is a rather crucial part of the story. As I mentioned earlier, a lot of Comet’s inclusion in the story revolves around the reader being familiar with the horse from the silver age, and I’m not positive that will work well in a more mainstream audience. My main concern is how Supergirl will be portrayed in the movie, the brief showing of her in Superman (2025) makes her seem really reckless. I hope more than anything, we get that really gentle compassion that I loved so much from this story, and if that gets into the movie I think I’ll enjoy it.

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow has become one of the most popular Supergirl stories since the movie got announced. While it’s not my favorite Supergirl story, I do enjoy quite a lot of it and I think it tells a compelling story. The art is far and above some of the best Supergirl art I’ve seen and I will always hold Bilquis Evely in high regard. Ruthye’s character goes through quite a lot of changes throughout and it’s interesting to follow her and see how someone views Supergirl from the outside. Supergirl herself also seems to grow as a character throughout the story in perhaps a more subtle way. I think this is a perfectly serviceable introduction to Supergirl as well and it seems like a great way to start her reintroduction into the big screen, and hopefully serves as a good way to set her apart from her cousin and to get more people excited about other fantastic Supergirl stories. Let me know what you think of the story by leaving a comment or sending an email to daringnewblog@gmail.com.