The first point noted is that Jamal Igle is currently scheduled to pencil Supergirl #59, and that there was no official word on who is art duty on Supergirl #60. Not good.

Supergirl #57 is being drawn by Bernard Chang and concludes the BizarroGirl storyline. This includes an appearance by the Bizarro Justice League.

Oh, yuck. I am not a fan of Bernard Chang’s art, to put it mildly. I’ve never been happy when he’s guest-pencilled on other books.

Jamal slipped a Bizarro Sterling Gates into Supergirl #56. The Bizarro Sterling sees Supergirl and says ‘she am so ugly’.

Ahahahah! Can’t wait!

Lots more juicy details about the upcoming Supergirl Annual and more are in the post, check it out!

I thought commenting was fixed – probably should have tested that. Turns out the OpenID plugin was to blame. Never could get that thing to work anyway. *tosses in the trash*

Updated Aug 31: I put in my preorder for this on the weekend. There is apparently a 7-month preorder window on this statue, and they are manufactured to order, so don’t wait!

Looks like the figure has received a new colour glaze since the original pics were published online. Very nice!

Don’t forget the Amanda Conner Power Girl bust and the Superwoman action figure both coming out on October 6! Orders have already gone in for these, but thankfully I was able to get a request in for a backorder at my go-to place, Maxx Collectibles. I also backordered the Stephanie Brown Batgirl action figure out this month. *fist pump*

TV Guide: Smallville Suits Up Supergirl!

Smallville offers an exciting glimpse of what’s to come for Clark Kent in the show’s final season with the October 8, 2010 return of Laura Vandervoort as Clark’s cousin Kara, who has been MIA for almost two years. “Kara returns in a very heroic way,” Laura tells me. “When I found out this could be my last episode, I thought it would be great to see a quick glimpse of her in the uniform before she takes off.” Lucky Laura’s getting her wish!

“You really see her as Supergirl,” says exec producer Kelly Souders. “Not the whole outfit, but her wardrobe will have evolved even a little more than Clark’s. She’s less Kara and way more Supergirl.” Watch for Kara to don her new look for a photo shoot after she becomes a media darling following a heroic save that reveals her flying capabilities to the world. To protect her superhero identity, “You’ll see Kara in the [brunette] wig and glasses [as] a bit of an homage to her other identity from the comics, Linda Lee Danvers,” Laura says.

Might Clark be inspired to further define his own blurred personas? Souders hints, “Kara has a lot of input down the road in Clark’s transformation into Superman.”

The print version of the TV Guide article (posted to the KryptonSite forums by Angela) shows a fuller body shot of Kara in her “Supergirl” outfit and a wider shot of Kara in disguise next to Clark in his officewear than the online article’s images.

So she won’t really be in costume (“Not the whole outfit”) but in what looks to be an early prototype Supergirl costume that she dons for a photo shoot after being accidentally revealed to the public. Oh Smallville, you’re such teases! (That’s a lot of bright blue and red pieces of clothing hanging behind Laura Vandervoort on set – is that a blue dress or cloak I see?)

Kara has a lot of input down the road in Clark’s transformation into Superman.

I think this is more in their heads than something that’ll make it to screen. But, yeah. In my personal Smallville canon, I can picture a slightly older Kara taking the lead in defining their superheroic identities and debuting as Superwoman shortly after she arrived on Earth. Clark would in turn be inspired by her to don a costume a few years later (I understand he has a costume in a box already). (My Smallville fanon also features a university-graduate Clark with a journalism degree ;-)

Hat tip to Sterling Gates!

A surprisingly chipper cover for such a dark issue. I’d have expected something more like Supergirl #9. Supergirl flying with jets is very nice, very Silver Age, but like last month’s cover it doesn’t fit the issue.

Story

When Jimmy “Turtle Boy” Olson is doing a better job at heroing than the star, things are bad. Also, I want to give BizarroGirl a hug. But she’d probably hate that.

I see Supergirl’s bio has changed:

Sent in a rocket from the remains of Krypton, seventeen year old Kara Zor-El arrived on Earth years after her cousin, Superman. Now living in Metropolis as Linda Lang, she fights for truth, justice, and the American way as SUPERGIRL.

I like it except for the obnoxious “American way” bit. It was cute when it was the “Kryptonian way” (even that was a bit silly). Interesting that they’ve officially aged her a year. I don’t know how I feel about that. If she must go to university, I’d like her to be a prodigy.

Jimmy as action hero doesn’t work for me at all so the opening sequence made me groan. “Jimmy Olson is cool!” No really, DC editorial, he’s not. I laughed out loud at Perry calling for the Science Police, “Olsen’s been kidnapped again!” Sorry Jimmy! I much prefer when bad things happen to you :)

I understood Kara’s reluctance to get involved in the fray in the last issue, but it was hard to have any sympathy for her upon realizing that she’d walked back to the apartment in the midst of the chaos to hide in her sound-proofed room. I felt Lana’s anger and frustration as she gave her that ultimatum: either wallow in self-pity over something she had no control over, or get out and save whoever she can. Get counselling later, this is no time to stop being Supergirl!

As Jess puts it:

Yeah, yeah, Spider-Man no more, can we just get on with it? This new direction for Supergirl does not seem very new. I do like that Lana is basically like “No, you can help, so you have a moral obligation to help. Now stop whining.” That fits in nicely with my personal interpretation of Superman (and the whole Superfamily). It’s not about Jesus, it’s not about being a superior being, it’s about each individual doing what he or she can to make the world a better place.

Yay, Lana doing Lois-duty at the Planet!

Why is a S.T.A.R. Labs janitor calling the Planet about BizarroGirl’s spaceship crashing through their offices? To remind us about what’s happening and set up Lucy’s escape, I guess.

Lucy recruiting the unpaid intern for the business section, just so she could keep the pictures of BizarroGirl secret, was amusing. Cribbing from Jess again, “the Daily Planet continues to not function like any newspaper in the entire damn world when it comes to staffing matters”.

Loved Cat overhearing Lana talking to Kara on the phone in the lady’s room. Uh-oh! (Although how stupid can Lana be not to notice the multiple stalls with closed doors?)

Faced with literally the dark image of herself, Kara goes to her Secret Superheroine Closet of Awesome and opens it with a Kryptonian passphrase. Cool.

I squeed like crazy over this splash page. I love the idea that Kara keeps all the Supergirl memorabilia that’s defined her over the years in this one room: the brown wig from her Claire Kent secret identity, the red headband she tried out for a couple issues, the two Daily Planet frontpages showing the extreme ends of her public relations, her Flamebird helmet (inexplicably coloured purple), a Superman doll (cute!), an Amazonian spear, and much more. (Anj identified some of the more obscure items on Supergirl Comic Box Commentary.)

Hanging from the ceiling in the centre of it all is her uniform, the gold edging glinting in the sunlight. Gorgeous.

Supergirl’s back.

And just in time: Jimmy, Dr. Light and everyone else from S.T.A.R. Labs have been captured by BizarroGirl and (somehow) shackled to the tunnel wall. Loved the scariness of BizarroGirl shushing Jimmy: I’d hate to see who she’s hiding from.

The cop abducting children for “dinner” was very creepy in a Terminator 2 way.

The Supergirl/BizarroGirl fight was awesome. Great job by Jamal Igle. (Also, a much smarter and more enjoyable take than Supergirl/Evil Supergirl from the beginning of the series.)

This BizarroGirl is far more of a serious threat than the usual bizarro, and a truly tragic figure. Can’t wait for this week’s issue!

Criticisms

Love the cracked skin, red eyed, scraggly-haired BizarroGirl on the final page laughing at a petrified Supergirl. But seriously, stone “solid vision”? What was that about? Science is sitting in a corner somewhere weeping, “The opposite of x-ray vision is infrared vision, not (more) solid vision!”

I missed Nei Ruffino’s colours on this issue. The fill-in colourist gave everything this awful orangey tint that made it seem like perpetual twilight and everyone had a bad fake tan.