Supergirl 1: Killers of Krypton
J**E
Much, Much Better than the Last Few Runs
Ohhhhh Kara. Ever since the 2011 reboot (and arguably even since she was brought back Post-Crisis), writers seem to have no idea how to make her "work". In her old series by Jeph Loeb and a few others, all that ended up being memorable was how, despite repeatedly referring to her being 15, she always wound up being drawn in the most cheesecake poses and clothing that I've seen for years now. Hell, in that series you were lucky if she was wearing clothes at all. To top it all off, she acted like a stubborn violence child pretty much all the time until Sterling Gates and the writers afterwards made her act like an actual person again.Then came the New 52... Or as I like to call it, the Dark Ages. This was when they just threw Kara in a skimpy leotard and literally just made her Vegeta from DBZ; she was nothing but a menace with no control over her emotions and no care for who or what she ended up destroying in her endless punching-sprees. Now, I adore Vegeta, but that type of attitude doesn't work for Supergirl.Rebirth was fine, but it's clear that the only directive was "make her like the TV show". Overall just very run-of-the-mill and bland, but nothing offensively bad like before.This particular book spins out of the Man Of Steel miniseries from a couple years ago by Brian Bendis. You don't necessarily need to read that, as the series itself wasn't very good, and the first few pages of this trade give enough explanation for why this story happens. Basically, Kara and Superdog need to take a magical battle-axe to space and investigate new information about why Krypton may have been destroyed.Kara now feels like a nice middle-ground between her previous (modern) incarnations, no longer full-on Supervillain like in the New 52, or the tame anime girl from Rebirth. It's a good balance in my opinion. This volume and the next are basically fun romps across DC cosmic, running from space cops and mingling with the Galaxy's seedy underbelly. It's a nice change of pace compared to the previous Rebirth series.
B**D
Decent work.
Supergirl is a character with an immensely interesting and pathos laden backstory that no one seems to recognize how it sets up powerful and interesting stories. The TV show stumbles into it sometimes, but abandons it so quickly that it often feels like an accident. The comics just want her to be sexy and punch other heroes.This series seems to be the first inkling in actual continuity where someone has finally gotten a whiff of the character's potential and set her on an investigation into Krypton's destruction. It even manufactured an interstellar conspiracy storyline for Kara to uncover. What a potentially interesting storyline!Unfortunately, I can't give too high a set of grades because the execution is a heck of alot clumsier than the premise. Kara seems to still always find herself punching things instead of talking. The writers seemed to have confused 'teenage girl' style problem solving with 'teenage boy/alpha male' style problem solving. I get it, it's a superhero comics, we have an action quota, but Kara's first, second, and third choice on how to resolve any situation is always punching. Justification seldom matters.Worse, the mystery, the heart of this entire book (and I presume those that follow) is looking pretty pedestrian. Far from solving anything, Kara is simply put on a scavenger hunt for plot devices - errr, I mean, MEMORY CRYSTALS! Sure, we get to see the author dream up alien world after alien world and I'm sure there will be a ton of action, but this is hardly a case for Sherlock Holmes. It's less a mystery and more a trail of Reese's Pieces leading to Elliott's room. I see Kara as James Woods moving along saying 'Oooh! Piece of candy!' at each one.The art is adequate and nothing more. I give it praise for not cheesecaking her (boy does it say something about comics that I feel the need to praise it for such a low bar), and the art style's choice of a very clean and simplistic character design instead of the Image-inspired excess of lines looks nice in some moments, but too cartoony in others. The frequent lack of backgrounds (too me) smacks of laziness. It's possible that this is just more artistic minimalism, pursuing that clean look, but so many panels are just characters standing against the comics equivalent of a green screen where no image is projected behind. Doing that from time to time is no big deal. This book abuses the practice.So that's what I think. It's decent, but I see other ratings giving it 5 stars. This is not a 5 star story. It's a 3-star story. It only feels like more because with the exception of 'Being Super', or the occasional good episode of the TV show, there really aren't many good Supergirl stories. And there SHOULD BE dammit! She's got one of the best setup backstories in comics. There's no excuse for her to be so consistently badly written! And so when a mediocre story like this comes along, it seems better than it is by comparison.
J**D
Getting better
Another soft reboot of the Supergirl series, this picks up after Man of Steel by Brian Michael Bendis. Supergirl is on a mission to find out who really destroyed her home planet of Krypton. I enjoyed the story the art was hit and miss the first couple of issue just looks like traced art but after that there are just guest artist and all of them do a better job than the first artist. Slight costume change Supergirl gets her original blue skirt back also they change the "S" on her chest back to the traditional Superman looking "S", the series is definitely getting better! Giving 5-stars for the writing 3-stars for the art.
A**M
Supergirls' Cosmic Odyssey Starts Here
Out of the revelation in Man of Steel that the destruction of Krypton was an intentional act of genocide, Supergirl leaves Earth to bring justice to those responsible.I was dubious about Bendis' retcon of Superman's' destruction but we get a good drama about Supergirl's emotions and her decision to take action. Its perfectly believable within the context of how her temper has been portrayed, and it sets up the first part of a well-round cosmic odyssey. Well done.
B**B
Awsome Book. Must have for all Supergirl fans. The Art and story are great. A1 The axe is funny.
Must have for all Supergirl fans. The Art and story are great. A1 The axe , the way it' s used and everything involving it is really fun.
U**D
Enquête pour Kara
Kara connaît l'identité de clui qui a détruit Krypton, elle détient même son arme, cependant une question continue de la perturber, pourquoi ? C'est alors qu'elle se met à chercher des réponses.Son enquête l'emmènera sur Mogo après un léger détour vers ses amis Kal et Hal qui ne peuvent pas tellement l'aider, Kara se retrouvera dans un sérieux schmilblik avec le corps des Green Lantern... puis va se retrouver confronté à un bien curieux adversaire. L'histoire ne se termine pas dans ce volume 1, le lecteur reste sur sa faim, il est vrai que l'on en sort pas tellement avec des réponses mais au final bien plus de questions !Côté artistique c'est vraiment joli, un peu "plat" mais j'aime beaucoup la mise en scène des personnages, cette nouvelle série se veut surtout fun et met le bon fond de Kara sur le devant de la scène, 4 étoiles car c'est solide, j'en demanderais plus sur le second volume.
S**T
Super
Great book, great art
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