Supergirl rocks, dude. Regardless of whether or not it's Kara Zor-El or the Matrix/ Linda Danvers, Supergirl has always stood out, for me, as being a symbol of empowerment for the younger audience, much like how some would look up to Raven, Tim Drake, or Starfire. She's a teen (in most comic iterarions; the television series Supergirl is I believe 24 to match Melissa Benoist's looks and age) that has Superman's powers and is thrust into a world where Superman already exists and his enemies have already formed. Oh, and everyone wants to tell her what to do. Great! Supergirl. Rocks.
The worst Supergirl comics seem to be the ones where the writers tell Supergirl what to do. They tell her how she is going to feel and how she is going to dress within realizing that the character is already fleshed out. She doesn't need a huge identity crisis for the umpteenth time. It's as annoying as Peter Parker saving someone the same way he could've saved Gwen Stacy. We get it already!
Such is the case here. I was unsure if I should do a proper review for this comic or for Supergirl #12 from 2005. I wasn't sure which was, overall, a little more offensive to the character. I think for reasons of art and some plot that #12 is worse, as it has our lovely 16 year-old alien running around in skimpy clothing in various clubs and complaining that her life is out of order...all because she is lazy.
But this comic just seemed worse to me because it is both rather offensive to the character and has poor portrayals of teenagers and the youth culture. It makes teenage girls seem demonic and makes anyone going into high school worry about what their experience will be like. It tries to give a message that "if you be yourself, you'll be fine" after a very contradictory incident that shows otherwise. Also there are constant flashbacks to scenes of a conspiracy on Krypton, it seems?
Sadly, I can't get proper scans for this comic, so I have to review it in the same style that I do with the Valiant books.
The story is that Supergirl (Kara Zor-El...the modern one, I suppose, though her character is thankfully smarter and better in all ways now) decides that she wants to become more in line with the youth demographic she is a part of, and decides to start attending high school. We'll ignore all the logistical problems involved in this since by the end of the comic she spoilers drops out.
Like any smart person, of course.
She gets her hands on a brown wig and some classes and starts attending school. I'll give the comic credit: it does show her not fitting in well at all in school. She asks strange questions, isn't sure who to talk to, and seems out of place. Does the comic run with that at all? Nope! Instead she meets some friends, and they apparently hit it off rather well.
The immediate red flags should be raised due to the artwork, though. Ian Churchill's faces are atrocious here. Kara has this repeatedly goofy face throughout the comic...in fact, most of the faces drawn are just weird. All of the artwork in general is just "bleh" and leaves a foul taste in an already foul story. Everyone in high school is drawn more in line with people who should be in college. The girls has disproportionate body structures, nobody looks like they should be sixteen, and everyone is wearing clothes that you see someone wear on TV, not real life.
The people Kara sits with tell her to dodge some of the other girls nearby, as they are the stereotypical "popular" ones. Kara gives a look of concern, which is good, but then in the next scene we see her and Wonder Girl fighting a Soviet gorilla (comics are weird) and she's kinda iffy on the school thing and the people she's with. So, that little bit of character from before is just right out the window, I guess!
The whole scene with Cassie is just weird. It makes high school sound like purgatory. Maybe for some people it was terrible, but this is a pretty middle-of-the-road school. Nothing about it looks difficult. Fitting in? Not that hard if you just get to know them.
To be fair, Kara does make an effort to get to know the girls. It's done rather poorly and with bad artwork, mind you, but she does invite a girl that was off on her own, Sarah, to a party. It's not her party but she's still being nice. Of course, that all goes south when they draw circles on her to point out how overweight she is.
Which is so dumb. This is so annoying from a storytelling standpoint. I think I get where Joe Kelly, the writer, is trying to go with this: appearances aren't everything. He does keep repeating this motif of "everyone has a secret identity" to us, but there are so many better ways of showing this than having these girls shame another girl. What was the point of that? The point of that entire scene sets up even stupider conflict to come, anyway.
It's sickening that someone would want to publish this in a comic line directed mostly at teenagers. What kind of message are they pushing with something like this? We don't go to our super-hero comics to see teenage girls get ashamed by their appearance. The only scene in this comic that has any relevance being around is the one where Cassie and Kara are tussling with a Soviet gorilla. That should be awesome! Instead it's just "school sucks don't do it drop out now." Again: message!
Kara talks with her new boy friend and he says that he wouldn't want to be a girl and Kara agrees with him, both of them saying that teenage girls are confusing and therefore kinda evil.
But! It seems like things are better, as Kara seemingly mends things...only for Sarah to have been in on a plot to splash dirt on Kara, where she is called a "tramp" and "skank." Again: classy.
And thus, the comic comes to a close as Supergirl flies off, revealing herself to the school and telling everyone to just be themselves. It makes everything better. Except this comic showed quite a few times that it doesn't. In real life: yes, it does. In this comic: no, this comic just sucks.
I mean what did Supergirl have to do with any of this. This could have been a great issue where she explores the wonders of youth and school and really gets to know the people around her! Instead there's this nasty air of negativity around school from her friends that makes everything bad and malevolent. Yeah, screw seeing anything turn out fun. Let's just have a forced message at the end so our writer can get out any grief he may have had about his high school days.
Supergirl #10 is symptomatic of the entire Joe Kelly/ Ian Churchill run. Kara is portrayed as someone that's almost nice but is also kind of really annoying and doesn't know what she wants from life. Blame it on her being a teenager? Heh, she isn't. In the previous issue she even told her cousin Boomer that she was technically not a teenager, but just chose to call herself sixteen on Earth. Not only that, but she is drawn so poorly, adding to the negative story being told.
Thankfully other, much better, writers would get their hands on the character and stories soon enough. Supergirl is meant to be a symbol of the hope in youth, not the negative side-effects of going to high school.
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