New 52 Review – “Supergirl #1”

The third Superman family title hits this week.

General Information

Title: Supergirl #1

Author: Michael Green and Mike Johnson

Illustrator(s): Mahmud Asrar (pencils), Dan Green with Asrar (inks) and Dave McCaig (colours)

Cover Date: November 2011

Cover Price: $2.99

Buy the digital edition.

Premise

A meteor shower hits Earth, not far from the “Kansas event.” A containment team arrives to deal with the impact, and try to contain the girl who crawls out of one of the craters. The scared and confused teen fights back, not realizing how much power she actually has.

High Point

This is the response I’d expect to a meteor shower of this degree in the modern world, especially if the history established in Flashpoint holds. On top of that, Supergirl’s reactions are exactly what would be expected.

Low Point

The long term direction of the title still isn’t entirely clear.

The Scores

This isn’t too original. We’ve seen this basic arrival of Supergirl before. I give it 2 out of 6.

The artwork quickly grew on me. I wasn’t completely thrilled with her character designs on the first look, but Asrar’s storytelling abilities soon won me over. Supergirl runs a gamut of emotions in these few minutes, and you can see them all. I give it 5 out of 6.

The story is just getting started. I’ve always been a sucker for that moment on a character’s origin when he or she realizes the power they have and that his or her life will never be the same again. That’s the entire issue. I give it 5 out of 6.

The characterization is off to a good start. This is, deep down, a girl not that different emotionally from human girls. What’s dramatically different is the first impression she gets of the world, since that comes from six people in super powered armor trying to “contain” the “event.” This is going to put her on a very different path from the other character wearing that S. I give it 5 out of 6.

The emotional response is strong. It’s got that moment I’m a sucker for, and puts us right in Supergirl’s corner with the assault from the start. To top it off, it naturally ties the rest of the New 52 into the title; when her superhearing kicks in, she hears lines of dialogue from other titles that hit this week. I give it 6 out of 6.

The flow is very smooth. The art goes from panel to panel very nicely, and the entire issue is one scene. I give it 6 out of 6.

Overall, the title’s off to a strong start in my opinion, though I can easily imagine others complaining about lack of story content. If the goal of the title is to focus on the “fish out of water” character study I hoped it would be, then this is the start they needed to have. I give it 5 out of 6.

In total, Supergirl #1 receives 34 out of 42.

The New 52

Here are handy links for the reviews of all 52 new #1 issues:

Bureau 42