Tag: Supergirl Surprise

Soon to be a major motion picture! Supergirl! Supergirl vol. 2 #17 is cover dated March of ‘84 so it makes sense that the cover would be advertising the Supergirl movie that would come out later that year. This issue was written by Paul Kupperberg, with art by Carmine Infantino and Bob Oksner, letters by Todd Klein and colors by Tom Ziuko and has absolutely nothing to do with the movie it advertises. Really exciting cover on this one, we’ve got Dick Giordano doing inks over Infantino, and it’s got a car getting absolutely obliterated by Supergirl. The main plot of this issue is a Doctor Metzner, Linda’s current employer, getting kidnapped by some goons and taken to an island called The Devil’s Maw. Supergirl of course gets him back home to Chicago, not before duking it out with the goons and Matrix-Prime first though.

While the Dr. Metzner stuff seems to be the action side of the plot, the conflict seems much more focused on Supergirl keeping her secret identity. From very early on in the issue we’ve got Linda contemplating her wig disguise as her neighbor, Joan, tells her she should mix up her hair. Linda also makes a bit of a jab at her cousin’s flimsy glasses disguise saying “I always figured he was just plain lucky nobody’s ever tumbled to his glasses routine!” Linda would also run into trouble moments later as she picks up heartbeats in her apartment with her superhearing.

Her overhearing the goons is of course not the trouble. She’s Supergirl of course she can handle 2 goons. It’s Linda, however that can’t seem to come up with an adequate reason to not go into her apartment when she makes it back with Joan. Thankfully Joan doesn’t seem too bothered by Linda’s lame excuses and rapid exit and we cut into the action portion of the issue.

I’m particularly fond of how Infantino and Oksner present Supergirl’s powers here. Especially the abstract representation of superhearing on page 10. The team also does some really interesting things with costume changes and flying and there’s a lot of detail and movement in every panel. Like I said however, the action isn’t the main conflict, the secret identity is. Supergirl has a pretty flimsy excuse: “I just borrowed your secretary’s identity for the afternoon” when Linda Danvers suddenly appears on the island and changes into Supergirl to get the doctor to safety.

Metzner doesn’t seem to buy the excuse however and even approaches Linda about it later as he remarks “the thing I still can’t get over is how much Supergirl resembled you when she was in that brunette wig!” Something Linda can now easily refute by tugging on her natural brown locks. A feat she can only just now accomplish thanks to a comb she invented that changes the molecules in her hair (this comb also shows up in in 2025’s Supergirl vol. 8 #1 that I wrote about here). We also get the introduction of the headband to Supergirl’s outfit this week which is hotly debated but I’ll hold off on my thoughts on it for another day.

With letters this month, found on “The Daring New Readers of Supergirl” page, being about issue 13 we get a lot of commentary on Supergirl’s new costume that debuted that issue. While most the writer/editor responses seem to note the response to the costume being “50/50” the letters here seem to skew a bit more towards negative. Her costume before was the v-neck/shorts combo that was her mainstay for nearly a decade and my personal favorite so I can see how it may be disliked by longtime readers. While the new costume isn’t my favorite I’ve got no issue with it myself and I’m quite fond of the little clasps and Supergirl in a skirt is nothing if not iconic. Aside from that I do want to point out 2 specific letters, one from a Brian that mentions his distaste of the overly wordy “The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl” title that the book had in its first year. I of course can’t get behind this statement, I love the “Daring New Adventures” tag, just take a look at the name of my blog. I next want to give some unfortunate bad news to Delmo who asks about what’s to come next year when the book hits its second anniversary. Unfortunately the book gets canceled at issue 23 and then Supergirl dies.

Just one ad to showcase this time out from Garcia I guess. While there were plenty of video game ads and an ad for some Warlord figures, it was this ad that featured both Spider-Man and Santa Claus promoting a fishing rod that really grabbed me. Absolutely bonkers to come across and it is quite memorable.

One last thing before I close out because I wasn’t sure where else to put it. This line from Linda to Joan seems to reference Linda’s time starring on the Secret Hearts soap. This was Linda’s job in the back half of Superman Family and a nice bit of continuity. If you made it this far, thanks so much for reading and I hope you stick around for more! As always feel free to send an email in to daringnewblog@gmail.com with any questions, comments, or suggestions!

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!

Back again for my monthly look at a random issue of Supergirl from my collection. For the month of May we’re looking at issue 27 of Supergirl volume 5 written by Kelley Puckett with art by Rick Leonardi, Dan Green, Drew Johnson, and Ray Snyder. This book was released on March 5th 2008. This issue is part of the arc where Supergirl promises to save a boy. At the time she just thinks she’ll save him like she would anyone else, but the boy has cancer and thinks she means that he will beat cancer with her help. The arc as a whole deals with Supergirl coming to terms with the idea of having so many powers but still being unable to save everyone. This is a common trope in Superman mythos most often show by Jonathan (Pa) Kent who dies in a way that Clark is unable to save him. The way this storyline flips the narrative is by having Kara refuse this idea and promising once again, after learning of the boy’s condition, that she would save him.

Now that we’ve addressed the overall narrative, we can now look at the plot of issue 27 specifically. The story opens with Supergirl promising the boy that she will not let him die. Quickly she notices time has come to a standstill and she notices someone new in the room with her, the only other moving thing in the room is a man in some sort of protective suit pointing a gun at her. He fires off the gun and Supergirl handily catches the bullet not realizing it was kryptonite. Weakened now, she is unprepared for the second bullet but is saved by Superman slowly catching up to what’s going on. Superman, presumably at superspeed, sees into the stopped time and shoots off his heat vision at the attacker rupturing his protective suit. Unknowingly to Superman and Supergirl this activates some sort of teleportation bringing Supergirl and the attacker back to where the attacker was from.

Now in an unknown environment with more people pointing guns at her and Kara having more questions than answers, she takes her initial attacker away and flies far from where they came from in an attempt to get some answers. Supergirl, now seeing more of her new surroundings, realizes this new place that looks so alien, also still feels like earth. After talking, she finds out that she is 400 years in the future and this man is part of a group that was trying to go back in time to stop Supergirl before she could drastically change the future by saving the boy with cancer. She is told that by doing this action she changes the course of history and in her attempt to make humanity better, she has made mankind feel like they aren’t human anymore.

It is at this time that she also finds out that the only way back to her time is through the Time Machine that was destroyed upon her arrival and the only person who can fix it has just taken a suicide pill. Rushing him back to try to fix the machine in time they are met with the machine already put back in order. Apparently, while they were out, a group called The Batmen had come in and fixed the Time Machine. These Batmen seem to be descendants or clones of Bruce Wayne and help Kara return home and give her the advice to “do what you think is right”. And this is where the issue ends.

I’m a huge sucker for alternate universes and possible futures so I’m quite fond of this issue that briefly looks into a future that might be. The story also addresses right and wrong and what makes people people. The narrative is left fairly open and doesn’t tell the reader how to think and more so just asks some questions of the reader and allows the reader to make their own decisions and think about what they think the right thing to do is.

I really enjoy a lot of the art in this issue, especially the sequence where Kara catches the kryptonite bullet and a lot of the full page images. I do feel that some of the panels, especially the faces and the figure work, seem a bit inconsistent throughout the book and I assume some of the inconsistencies are because of the large amount of artist credits. This is by no means a deal breaker and they seem to consistently get Supergirl right and show her in some great dynamic poses. This story is also from a time in comics where they seemed to have less dialogue and larger panels as compared to comics that came out in the 70s and 80s. This isn’t a good or bad thing but I will say this issue is a fairly quick read with intricate artwork depicting epic scenery. I also think the lighter dialogue helps give the reader time to sit and think about the subjects mentioned before in regards to how Supergirl should approach her current challenge.

This issue has been reprinted twice, first in the Supergirl: Beyond Good and Evil trade paperback released soon after the storyline finished, and again in 2018 in Supergirl Volume 3: Ghosts of Krypton. It’s been a while since I read this storyline in its entirety but I remember enjoying it and I still feel like it’s a great way to approach the theme of not being able to save everyone.

Come back on Monday for my next installment of Supergirl in the Multiverse, and next Friday for a brand new blog post about something entirely different. Supergirl Surprise will return again the second Friday of June. For any comments, questions, corrections, or thoughts feel free to leave a comment below or send an email to daringnewblog@gmail.com. Thanks so much for reading!

In a new feature of my blog called “Supergirl Surprise” I will go to my Supergirl comic boxes and pick an issue at random to read and talk about. My goal for these posts is to explore the issue on its own and on its own as a collection of paper and staples. As such I will be taking pictures of the comic as opposed to finding digital screenshots of the panels. I will also bring in pictures of the ads or letters pages if there’s anything that catches my eye.

Supergirl #5 has the cover date of January 1997 and is written by Peter David and has art by Gary Frank and Cam Smith. The story opens with our heroine visiting her, at one time, adopted parents Jonathan and Martha Kent.

This interaction gives some nice closure to Supergirl’s life before the new status quo introduced in the vol. 4 iteration of Supergirl. This Supergirl, Mae, is a protoplasmic clone from another dimension. More recently, when this comic had come out, Mae had merged with the dying human Linda Danvers. Showing her interacting with her past life in a way that feels almost alien to her as Linda now was a nice way to respect where the character was before and allow for the character to start anew.

We then fly from Smallville back to Leesburg, the home of Linda Danvers. Here we are briefly introduced to the new Dick Malverne who says “sometimes you recognize people’s souls from previous incarnations” which is of course a clever nod to the pre crisis Supergirl and Dick Malverne. To find out more about Dick Malverne take a look at my blog post about him here.

Meanwhile, in the background, a b-plot has been brewing that involves Chemo reforming in a lab in Leesburg. The A and B plots come together and result in a fight between Supergirl and Chemo. This fight results in a dialogue between the two where Supergirl tells Chemo he isn’t alive because he’s a collection of chemicals and the result of a freak accident. This conversation ends the fight and Chemo dissipates into the sky but Supergirl is met with a crisis of conscious wondering if she is alive or not when she is also just a creation that wants to be more and wants to be human.

This issue is a great look at Supergirl and her transition from the Matrix Supergirl into something more and helps further build the new world of Linda Danvers and Leesburg. This issue is the first appearance of Dick Malverne in the post crisis universe and has been reprinted in Supergirl Volume 1 TP from 1997, Supergirl by Peter David book 1 from 2016, and will be reprinted in the upcoming DC Finest: Supergirl – Body and Soul that realeases in October. This issue also came bundled with a Supergirl action figure based on Linda’s later white t-shirt costume that came out in 2005.

None of the ads really caught my eye but were mostly advertising PlayStation and Sega Saturn games. The letters didn’t intrigue me much aside from this one that called this new Supergirl title “Supergirl Vertigo-style” and “Twin Peaks on Kryptonite”.

The letters page also came with a little blurb that briefly caught readers up on the previous 4 issues of the title.

Thanks so much for reading my blog! If you have any thoughts, questions, comments, or corrections about any of my posts feel free to contact me via email at blogofsupergirl@gmail.com