Books : Superman/Batman Vol. 2: Supergirl

In association with Amazon.com

Rating:

- Excellent Artwork, Decent Story
This book is packed with eye candy courtesy of Michael Turner, and worth a read just for that reason. But I had some major issues with Loeb's Superman and his abrupt, almost pathetic desperation to connect with another surviving Kryptonian. His behavior seemed grossly out of character and thoughtless. Additionally, we see him making sweeping decisions that will impact his life in huge ways, yet his own wife (Lois Lane) is barely mentioned. I'd buy it used.

Rating:

- Corny character made cool
This comic has excellent art, and is well written. I have never been a fan of any other super other than Superman. I'm still not a fan of the Supergirl character but this story is pretty decent, and like I said the art is excellent. If you are a fan of Batman/Superman you will still like this book. Batman looks awesome in this book.

Rating:

- A shame
This was a shame. I think supergirl is a cool character and can be done well, but this just makes clear that DC has no idea what to do with her. There is no characterization, no back up characters and the story can only loosely be called a "story." The art is cool and it seems that is all this book has to offer. It's a real disappointment, especially after Peter David's run on the previous Supergirl (linda danvers) which was excellent. Stick with Many Happy Returns, possibly the best supergirl story ever (along with Crisis on Infinite Earths).

Rating:

- Excellent!!!!
Esta coleccion de Superman/Batman quita el aliento, te cautiva y quiere devorarlo lo mas pronto posible, es super excelente la combinacion de dos grandes superheroes incluido el increible BATMAN. Supergirl....WOW!!!! Altamente recomendable.

Rating:

- not a good start for the new Supergirl
If you were to ask many long time comic book fans what they know of Supergirl's history you might be surprised to hear them ask which Supergirl you were talking about. Just thinking about all the twists and turns this character has gone through is enough to give you a migraine. She has to be one of, if not the most, retconned character in comics. Most of us knew her best as Superman's cousin Kara the last survivor of Argo City. She went on many adventures with and without Superman but she eventually joined the 30th century hero group the Legion of Superheroes where the character had the chance to grow. She later lost her life in battle against the Anti-Monitor in the Crisis on Infinite Earths miniseries, and by the time this reality altering series was over she had never even existed as far as DC Comics continuity was concerned.

This trade collects issues 8-13 of the Superman/Batman series. The story opens as Batman is diving in the waters off Gotham City collecting remnants of a recently destroyed Kryptonite asteroid. While arguing with Superman over a comm-link he finds a recently abandoned space ship with Kryptonian markings. He has to cut his examination short however when someone steals the Batboat and crashes it into a pier. He eventually catches up to the thief to find a teenage girl with super powers. He subdues her with some of the Kryptonite he found and takes her back to the Batcave for an examination. When she comes to and tries to escape Superman talks to her and finds out she is his cousin Kara Zor-El. She stays at Superman's fortress in quarantine as her powers grow since Batman is suspicious of her story. We later find out that her ship was supposed to follow Superman's as he left for Earth. She was to be his guardian but her ship was buried in debris when Krypton exploded and she drifted through space in some kind of hibernation until she eventually reached Earth.

As Clark Kent is showing Kara the outside world Wonder Woman, Harbinger and Artemis ambush them. They insist of taking Kara to Themyscira (home of the Amazons) for training because Harbinger had a vague vision that bad things would happen due to Kara being on Earth. Harbinger appears to be right when she is killed while trying to prevent Darkseid's minions from kidnapping Kara. With the help of Big Barda they travel to Apokolips to rescue the now brainwashed Kara. When they return home Kara learns to accept her new life on Earth and her role as Supergirl.

Jeff Loeb tried to cram too much into these stories. There is no pacing and no build up to the character. Its like he was saying here is the new Supergirl so just accept her. And I have to question the way he handles this story. Why is Superman such a wimp? He lets others push him around and can only stand by and brood. You're Superman for crying out loud. Show some backbone. And I know they have been writing Batman as an even bigger paranoid obsessive than usual lately but this needs to stop. He is such a jerk nobody would put up with him no matter how smart he was. Kara says her ship never left of its own power so how did it survive Krypton's destruction. It is suggested Supergirl might be more powerful than Superman is, but the only sunlight she was exposed to prior to landing on Earth was artificial. We also see that in less than a month on Earth she has learned several languages. How is this possible? Kryptonian technology? But since we are on the topic couldn't Kryptonian technology have taught her everything she needed to know about Earth on the way there? She was supposed to be Kal-el's guardian so why not arm her with as much information on Earth as they had. Worst of all is how she managed to survive inside a Kryptonite asteroid. Long term Kryptonite exposure equals death.

Michael Turner has made a name for himself in comics but I can't stand that sketchy art style he uses. It seems he puts little effort into showing us the texture of objects and his characters have little variety in facial expression and emotion. It is only due to Peter Steigerwald's coloring that the art is able to come across as moody. On the plus side though Turner does draw a good Batman.

I think the biggest problem with the Supergirl character was that she was never anything more than a pale imitation of her famous cousin. Whatever depth the character might have had was never strong enough to let her step out of Superman's shadow. Whether this Supergirl will be the one that stands the test of time in the DC universe or is just the latest version to come down the line remains to be seen.

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