Supergirl: Many Happy Returns
Written by Peter David
Art by Ed Benes and Alex Lei
As if Arrow, The Flash, and Legends of
Tomorrow weren't enough to sate me as a superhero-loving couch potato, I
decided to jump into CBS's Supergirl
series as well. For the most part, the series contains the same strengths and
weaknesses as the other three DC shows, but seems more sincere in a way I can't
quite put my finger on. Kara (Supergirl) is a genuine cape and skirt heroine
who honestly wants to do a little good in the world. I can see the issue a lot
of viewers might have with the plucky protagonist: she's just too damn nice.
It's a strange complaint, but with comics being what they are and what they
have been for a couple of decades now, her innocence probably rubs a lot of
folks the wrong way. In the age of Edward Snowden and the NSA, a flying character
with x-ray vision comes across as an alien overlord keeping tabs on all of the
little people.
Supergirl's sweetness didn't turn me away, but it did get
me thinking about a previous iteration of the character. The Peter
David-written Supergirl series from
the 1990's featured a very different protagonist than the one we have on TV
now. For starters, she wasn't Superman's cousin, but rather an everygirl from a
small town who may or may not have been an angel or something. It's been a
while, her origins are fuzzy. David built an entire world within the DC
Universe for Linda Danvers to explore, complete with a rogues gallery all her
own. The series lasted eighty issues, the last six of which are collected in
the trade I picked out of my back issue bins.
The cover to the trade tells the story. Linda Danvers, the Supergirl we'd
been following for nearly ten years comes face to face with the
"Pre-Crisis" Supergirl, Kara Zor-El. Kara's emergence from the rocket
ship on the cover is a throwback to the very first appearance of Supergirl back
in the good ol' Silver Age. In the story, Kara is written as a complete Polly
Anna, innocent and naive enough to even attempt some of the feats she would've
tried back in a Silver Age Superman story. Linda even makes fun of Kara for
trying to push the planet out of the way of a meteor, citing the catastrophe
that would result and making reference to the de-powering of the Kryptonian
characters after the Crisis.
(Actually I think that started with Denny O'Neil, but it didn't really take
effect until John Byrne's Man of Steel miniseries.)
Stranded on our version of Earth, Linda shows Kara the ropes and even gets
her enrolled in the high school where she is an art teacher by day. I guess
that's another difference I should point out; Linda should really be called
Superwoman at this point, as she is a few years older than Kara and displays a
much more down-to-Earth, "been there, done that" personality type.
There is some debate between the two Supergirls as to how to approach crime
fighting and world saving, with Linda trying to teach Kara a lesson their
mentor Superman learned long ago: You can't save everyone.
The story rolls on with the Spectre getting involved and a cosmic-level
baddie named Xenon hunting Supergirls across the Multiverse. The Spectre
explains Kara's role in the Crisis and that she is destined to die. Events in
the story compromise Linda's civilian life and she decides to switch places
with Kara and go on to die in her place. Linda is transported to Kara's version
of the DCU, and gets to live out all of her Silver-Agey adventures. There's a
confrontation with Xenon involving both girls and a touching tribute to the
series as a whole at the end.
This was the first Supergirl comic I ever purchased and judging from my age
at the time and Ed Benes's depictions of the female form, it might've been
spurred on by nothing more than my adolescent hard-on. It turned out to be so
much more than a thirteen year-old's spank bank however, instead leading to my
discovery of the Pre-Crisis/Post-Crisis concept of DC's canon and increasing my
appreciation for the wacky stories of the Silver Age. Later still, I'd come to
love Peter David's skill as a writer. The characters feel real, or about as
real as comic book characters are allowed to feel in between fist fights.
The juxtaposition of the two Supergirls reflects the changing attitudes
toward super heroics in general. The late nineties and early 2000's weren't far
at all from the gritted-teeth and paramilitary gear of the Image heroes. Writers
like David clearly missed the fun and frolic of older stories, and were irked
by the idea that bright, colorful characters like Superman were incapable of
real pathos and moral quandaries. It wasn't long after this that my own taste
in superhero comics began to change, as I traded my love for Spawn and The
Punisher for more "traditional" superheroes like The Flash and
Superman.
I would gladly recommend this trade for anyone who likes their superhero
stories fun and light, but with gobs and gobs of character. But if you're
coming at the Peter David Supergirl with the current TV series as your only
reference point, be warned: this is nothing like that show. This is a character
from a time when DC's upper echelon were trying to distance themselves from silly
things like the Pre-Crisis Supergirl. Now they thrive on concepts like the
Multiverse, as evidenced by this season of The
Flash and Barry's upcoming encounter with Kara in a crossover episode.
(Which sounds pretty rad, btw)
Thanks for reading as always, and you can find me on Twitter at @ChrisBComics, where I plug all of my various
blogging efforts, as well as my serialized sci-fi/fantasy novel Panic Kingdom.
