Panelhopper Reviews The New 52: Supergirl Vol 1

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As long-term readers of this blog will know I have, for most of my life, been more of a devotee to Marvel than DC comics. However, being a true lover of comics, I never truely dismissed DC and their characters. Batman was my first comic book hero after all and, although I came to feel more at home in the Marvel universe, I kept a close eye on as much of the goings on of the DC universe as I could.

However, the one thing which provented me from truly becoming a bi-partisain reader, was what I felt to be the confusing nature of DC's internal continuity, which had often made it difficult to tell just which version of the characters I was reading. It was with these misgivings in mind that I welcomed the recent New 52, wherein DC entirely rebooted their entire line of Characters from scratch with all new 1st issues, retooled designs and a new internal timeline of events, making all of their main heroes younger and less well known both to each other and the world at large (Although the individual origins of the characters themselves remains unchanged). This, I knew, was my chance to enter the DC universe from the beginning, which I gladly did, snapping up the first volumes of the characters I had always wanted to read, namely: Supergirl, Superman, Batman, Batwoman, Justice League, Wonder Woman, Grifter and Red Lanterns.

So, My first review will be...Supergirl.

Supergirl has always been of more interest to me than her cousin Superman, precisely because she feels the loss of Krypton far more acutely. To Superman, the home and family he lost are more of an idea, they may give him a sense of sadness, losing the one place in the universe where he would have felt normal, but he has a life on earth, which he often fights to protect. Supergirl however, comes to earth having lost everything but with no clear memory of why and experiencing immense power she can barely control.

This first volume does an excellent job of conveying these ideas. Kara Zor-El may be Supergirl but she is also a teenager, far from home and very much alone. That is not to say that there is no action in these first 6 issues, in fact there are some truly interesting villians here, but the focus is mainly on Supergirl's struggle to adapt to our world, I think the book is far better for it.

Overall, I thought this first volume was excellent, and a great introduction to one of my favourite DC comics characters.

Til Next Time,

Panelhopper 


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