I’ve added a summary of the story from SUPERMAN/BATMAN: Supergirl. I received my copy of SUPERGIRL: Power from Amazon yesterday, and the first thing I noticed was that they didn’t use the SUPERGIRL #2 variant cover as the trade cover (as solicited). That’s too bad. It’s much more appropriate and timeless for a debut volume than the scene of Supergirl and Dark Supergirl at odds, from the SUPERGIRL #5 variant covers.
The entire book is chock full of superhero infighting as Kara and everyone around her struggle with the question of whether she is “good” or “bad”. I never get the sense of why they’re fighting, they just are because that’s what superheroes do or something. The tension between Supergirl and every other character who meets here is inexplicable and feels forced.
Kara’s arrival has not been as welcoming as she expected, and she is frustrated and angry about the way that everyone, starting with Superman and Batman, has been trying to control and use her for their own gain. Kara’s own fuzzy memory, coupled with the (again, unexplained and unjustified) suspiciousness of others towards her, leads her to doubt herself so much that she literally splits into “good” and “bad” Supergirls” when hit by black Kryptonite. That plot device might be interesting if we actually knew who this character was, but pulling out this gimmick so shortly after meeting her just falls flat. We have no investment in the character yet and no way of appreciating how out of character “Dark Supergirl” is, when we’ve only just met her. It reminded me of the second episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (“The Naked Now”), which was disliked by fans when it first aired because it had the crew acting out of character, before their characters had been established.
I do like the art in this book a lot more than Michael “Witchblade” Turner‘s character designs in SUPERMAN/BATMAN (ugh). The women and girls still look like young supermodels, but much of the blame can be placed firmly at the feet of Turner for creating that ridiculous costume and figure for Kara. I don’t have much to say about the story. The amount of fight scenes is over the top, and the plot doesn’t make a lot of sense. The storyline never really concludes in a satisfying way. It just…ends. We are left with an ambiguous Supergirl who has a lot of anger but is otherwise fairly one-dimensional. SUPERMAN/BATMAN told her story from the point of view of the two male leads, and here in her own series I still don’t feel getting inside Kara’s head.