‘Supergirl’ #2 almost feels more like a continuation of ‘Supergirl’ issue #1 than its own stand-alone comic.  The book opens with a nice interlude, flashing back “three days” to Kara on Krypton, taking care of her infant cousin Kal-El.  It’s another lovely sequence that once again makes this Supergirl a sympathetic and likeable character.  And she needs it, as in the rest of the book, she makes that hard.

When Superman tells her who he is, naturally, she doesn’t believe him and attacks him.  After all, to her, she was just holding her infant cousin days ago, so there’s no way this adult stranger whose accent “sounds like he learned Kryptonian from a text book,” could possibly be telling the truth.  She lashes out repeatedly, even though Superman tries to reason with her.  As in the last issue, her powers continue to emerge and her bewilderment at them is a refreshing take.  She attacks Superman several times, until she realizes the amount of damage she is inflicting to the surrounding populated area and calms down.  In the meantime, a very important artifact has been stolen from her pod.

Like I said, this felt more like a continuation of last issue.  This, coupled with ‘Justice League’ #2 makes me think maybe DC should have made every New 52 comic double sized, to deliver more story and development.  I found ‘Justice League’ #1 too light and feel the same about ‘Supergirl’ #2.  It’s honestly one long slug fest and I found myself getting impatient with Kara.  Kal kept trying to talk to her, but she kept lashing out.  The continued introduction of her powers also felt very much in keeping with that same thing happening last issue.  Her freaking out at the discovery of each one is a unique approach, but I’d already seen it, so it lost a bit of the charm.  There’s very little development of the menace in this issue.  He isn’t revealed, but I’m guessing it’s Lex Luthor.

I find the art quite good, though it isn’t the sleekest.  It wasn’t flashy, but it was certainly serviceable.  I find myself tiring of these New 52 costume designs, though.  Superman’s is really an eyesore with all those superfluous (pun intended!) lines running all over the place.  I will say, I’m getting used to the shorts being gone, but I think the belt needs to go back to yellow.  And I just hate seeing Supergirl without a skirt.  That leotard just isn’t working for me.  And those leggings with the knees cut out are and always have been stupid looking.  I wonder how long before DC loosens the reigns and lets artists start changing these.  Probably too long.

Another thing I think that made me not love this issue was that Supergirl, relatively speaking, was just re-introduced in the old DC continuity, so we just saw her origin.  They also recently released the animated ‘Superman/Batman: Apocalypse’ DVD, which was a stealth Supergirl animated movie, detailing the exact same story.  I’ve seen Supergirl’s origin over and over!  Okay, this one is set in the New 52 and Superman isn’t wearing trunks and Kara’s not wearing a skirt.  Yes, there are some fresh moments that are great, but overall, it’s the same story!  They should have squeezed this all into one issue and gotten on with something completely new.  It’s a case of the current decompressed style of storytelling backfiring.  Decompressed storytelling only works if you’re telling a new story, not one I’ve already read a dozen times!  Just get her a secret identity, Linda Lee or Linda Danvers, enroll her in school and then have something new happen.  There!

Or maybe I’m just too impatient.

Verdict: Borrow

SUPERGIRL #2
Written by Michael Green & Mike Johnson
Pencils by Mahmud Asrar
Cover by Asrar and Dave McCraig