Comics Review: Supergirl-Being Super

Supergirl: Being Super did it.  I can’t take new comics anymore.  Here we have a comic trade paperback with a character I like, beautifully rendered, featuring a somewhat reasonable origin story, and it was awful.  I had resisted it the first time I saw it at Barnes & Noble, because I’ve been burned so frequently in my new comic purchases, but I couldn’t resist it a second time. 

By Page 2 when I started reading it, I realized I’d made yet another mistake.  Kara introduced her weight-challenged, indeterminately ethic best girlfriend as a “Bad ass dyke.”  Later, there was a pointless confrontation between her and young straight white male.  This was, of course, meant to emphasize who the real villains are: guys who didn’t give the women working on this comic the time of day in high school.

Given that there’s a promotional blurb on the cover from The Mary Sue, I really should have guessed what the inside content was going to be like.  While having a pure Agenda character in the story, who no doubt resembles somebody on the comics’ production staff if not perhaps an outright author insertion of herself, this was a mild disappointment compared to the rest of the issue.  This Agenda promulgation of “alternative lifestyles” is de rigueur, but no excuse for the poor storytelling that followed.

Essentially, a super-powered, but ignorant of her origins, Kara Danvers grows up in a small town on a farm with two earnest, good-hearted foster parents.  We know this setting can work for a comic, because it worked for ten years on the show Smallville.  Unlike the show, while Supergirl is not in tights and there is a “freak of the week” villain, she does know how to fly.  Unlike the show, Kara is able to instantly and suddenly use all of her superpowers competently when needed.  Superman does actually show up at the end of this, so this story is not part of the Replacement Agenda; it’s just unoriginal.  That’s no sin in writing however, especially in comic books.  It only becomes a problem when it’s badly done.

This trade only covers four issues, but is surprisingly thick.  The story, however, is surprisingly light.  It’s your typical decompressed/storyboard Bendis’ Marvel comic.  It’s maybe a little more dense than that, but not by much.  More than that, so little happens compared to the page count.  Comics are meant to be fast-paced, regardless of the subject matter.  European and Japanese comics will even bear this out.  Quite simply, this was boring.  Nothing happened as Kara moped for page after page.  We’re not even talking existential angst; she was just disinterested or sad most of the time.     

The story here was two issues at the most.  The rest was whiny padding.  It’s not carefully establishing the characters, allowing for reflection on events, or some other excuse.  It’s just lazy, uninteresting, and wallowing in self-indulgence.  She’s not so much confused about her origins as apathetic.  The most is egregious crime was that that was exactly how Kara came off to the reader. 

She’s a confused victim for most of the story, but invulnerable and super-powered.  It’s not a good sympathetic combination.  On Smallville, Clark’s powers were hindering his pursuit of the girls he wanted to be with.  That’s at least somewhat sympathetic.  Thankfully, Kara has a strong moral streak that keeps her from abusing her powers to seek revenge, and instead uses them to save others.  At least they got that much right about her.  

The artwork being so great sort of made it worse.  Perhaps this is why I’m so irritated by this.  I wouldn’t have wasted my money, if it didn’t look so good.  It was so enticing to look at and then disappointing to sit down and read.  It’s almost pure wasted potential of quality material.  Even Kara popping a zit looks artistic.

Given her appeal, one really has to question why Kara wasn’t the object of desire for all her male classmates.  Hey, that would have been an interesting angle to explore in the story.  She had probably been told to stay away from boys by her foster parents because of her powers.  You’d think maybe she would have made her looks more plain so as not to attract attention, but this wasn’t the case.  She didn’t seem to have an unpleasant personality either.  Certainly she fell for the first Krytonian boy she met.  Maybe earth boys don’t do it for her, but they’d certainly want her.  You’d think she’d have a male friend or two, but this was noticeably absent from the story.  (And what does that say about the author?)  This was definitely an unexplored avenue. 

 

All the elements of a classic are here: great character, great art, great setting (albeit stolen), and a great story (derivative and bungled in execution).  There were too many clichéd moments and gaps in story logic which were the product of lazy writing.  I’d detail some of the breakdown, but just to be fair, there are some minor twists in the story that I don’t want to spoil.  This really just needed some editing.  Somebody in charge should have sent this story back and said, “Nice idea.  Needs work.”  Actually, I didn’t even see an editor listed in the credits.  Was it in some really small print or hidden?  Or perhaps there really wasn’t one, which would explain a lot.

 

Ultimately all of my criticisms could probably be snarkly dismissed by saying, “Well (in a haughty voice), this wasn’t written for you (said accusingly)!”  And it’s true.  There’s a cottage industry on Youtube of reviewers, guys pretty much like me, who pick apart stuff like this and then refrain, “Why do today’s comic books have to suck?” 

This Supergirl comic and nearly every other new comic are written for . . . let us charitably say . . . people not like me.  (I’m trying to avoid using the labels I’m thinking of.)  This Supergirl is aimed squarely at young millennial girls.  There’s still a bit of innocence and a soft touch to the story to where it might be relatable for that audience without being overly heavy-handed in peddling the Agenda, which would likely be a turnoff for them.  You might consider this a primer for more hard core Agenda comics for when those girls get older.  There’s no reason why this book couldn’t have had a broader appeal with, frankly, a mature, experienced adult editing the material, but that wasn’t DC’s goal for this version of Supergirl.   

In any case, it’s not for me.  The Youtube Reviewers decry, “Why are you comic book companies chasing off so much of your audience who wants to buy your product?”  These companies have spent decades orienting their product to a certain audience and are abandoning them, in some cases, with extreme prejudice.  It’s hard not to feel betrayed.  I’m not going to get into the deeper motivations or the business decision-making here.  I’m just throwing up my hands and walking away.  If the major comic book companies want me back, they’re going to have to come to me; I got no reason to go to them.  If nothing else, I’m writing this to remind myself in the future when I see the next pretty version of Supergirl in the comics.      

Perhaps I’m even angrier because this isn’t the first reboot attempt at the character I’ve read lately.  Last time, I was again drawn in by the fabulous artwork.  (See what I did there?)  The story featured Supergirl as a rebellious “bad girl,” trying smoking and getting a Kryptonite tattoo.  (Shouldn’t that tattoo have killed her?  If I got a plutonium tattoo, I’m pretty sure it would be the last thing I did.  That’s basically the equivalent.)  She mostly fought other heroes for no reason and herself (literally, she was split into two).  I skipped over the next itineration where I think she was an outright psychopath, and not as attractively drawn.

One small sidebar, this book did finally allow me to draw a connection.  Kara grew up in Midvale.  I finally remembered that’s where Josie and the Pussycats are from.  It’s like a suburb of Riverdale, like Greendale where Sabrina is from.  In a high school flashback TV episode of Supergirl (don’t get me started on that show), one of her classmates was named Josie. 

Unfortunately for me, I bought and read this trade over my last vacation.  I also bought a used season of Alias, which I’d never really watched when it was aired, but had wanted to when it was on.  Now that I’ve watched four miserable logic-defying episodes, I don’t think I can make it through the rest.  I don’t know why JJ Abrams was given the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises based on this work.  Between these two bad experiences, I really felt the need to unload, when I might have otherwise let them pass individually without comment.  Sorry for that.  This review was so much trouble to write (and I hope it doesn’t show), it was almost like being traumatized again by the material.

Contrary to what I just wrote, I will post a couple more reviews of some recent comics I did like, but even then, some actually reinforced my points of disillusionment.