Supergirl 58

I read this on a whim. Even back in the days when I read superhero comics with any regularity, Supergirl was never one of my favourites.  Any memories I have of the character are tied up in reprints of the Maggin/Swan stories from the 1960s, and I usually envisage her accompanied by a menagerie of super animals.

The version of Supergirl presented here seems much steelier, geared towards a time when superheroes all seem to have clenched teeth and fists and anger management problems.

The storyline’s straightforward, for the most part. It’s Christmas Eve and Supergirl accompanies Cat Grant, a reporter, to an interrogation room to question the Dollmaster, who is suspected of being behind the disappearance of several children. In the process, he’s severely wounded by a psychotic Chucky-style doll. Afterwards, Supergirl flies off in a huff after an argument with Cat, and Cat in turns encounters a potentially sticky end. And that’s about it, apart from a dénouement that is supposed to be dramatic but which is frankly incomprehensible to anyone who hasn’t regularly been following this series.

Jamal Ingle handles the art chores. His work is typical post-Image school, with a strong sense of style, occasional horrendous lapses in depiction of body structure, and a tendency to overemphasise extreme emotion. Pleasingly, his Supergirl isn’t all grotesquely oversized boobs and flashes of buttocks and indeed there appears to be some sort of agenda going on between him and writer Sterling Gates to avoid exactly that. It’s attractive enough to look at, but there’s little here to make you think that he’ll ever stretch beyond being a slightly above average comic book artist.

Similarly, Sterling Gates does a clear, unflashy job with the writing. The dialogue isn’t absurdly dramatic but still has a stilted quality about it, and the plotline is clearly, if unexcitingly, handled. At the same time it is entirely unoriginal, with echoes of many other comics and films. A plus is that it tends to focus on female characters, but then they’re subjected to many of the same clichés that male characters are put through in comics, which tends to negate any positive aspects.

This is a serviceable but unexciting comic. There’s not much to fault but little to praise either.  I didn’t feel involved or intellectually stimulated while reading it, and when it was finished I had no desire to go back and look at it again, except for the purpose of this review. Perhaps I’m missing something, because others have praised this series highly, but I found it an unmemorable experience.