manuelte's review against another edition
2.0
Early on we are introduced to a character who can speak Kryptonian, her powers, she says, are to fully master any language having heard just a few words. This expands to alien languages, and even animal calls. Amazing character, I think, they found a way for Kara to have partners and friends without breaking her alien background, and her partner being a linguistic instead of another tank works great. But before the issue is over she is revealed to be the Silver Banshee, a mystical powered character whose powers have nothing to do with language, and is now another boring superhero with an unclear power set that runs in her family.
The rest of the book is basically background for Kara, a couple of unimpressive battles, and a tie in to a Superman/Supergirl story to come. All in all, not a great book, even though I keep wanting to like it because we need more female heroes that are well written. Alas, that is not the case here.
The rest of the book is basically background for Kara, a couple of unimpressive battles, and a tie in to a Superman/Supergirl story to come. All in all, not a great book, even though I keep wanting to like it because we need more female heroes that are well written. Alas, that is not the case here.
leesapollo's review against another edition
4.0
Apart from the banshee storyline which felt a little out of place, the ending was a real cliff hanger as we go back to krypton and learn of Kara's last few hours....the underwater fortress? Brilliant! Hope she takes permanent residence :)
katieb94's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
rhganci's review against another edition
4.0
More than maybe any of the other DC books, SUPERGIRL seems like an ongoing serial narrative, lacking but not needing periodic arc conclusions. Green and Johnson instead seem to explore one question situation-by-situation: what do you do when you wake up with all of the powers of Superman and your entire world gone?
There were are couple of things about this volume that I thought improved upon the first: the mythos of Krypton, and the circumstance of Kara's alternate path to Earth, came into play to just the right extent. Without having to reinvent Krypton, Green and Johnson give us a lot of memory and dream contexts, underscored nicely in issue #12 with a full-on deep dive into the ocean itself in search for that lost knowledge. The dream sequences from her own pre-pod memory were terrific, featuring an actual dragon and the full dragonslaying motif. If there's a better metaphor for an impossible situation, human storytellers haven't discovered one, and Green and Johnson go all in on its familiar role in building the discourse of heroics. Kara gets battle armor and what can only be described as a pair of Kryptonian lightsabers for her own battle against the monster, both of which are awesome and not as weird or out of place in as they should be in the story, but the context of father-daughter legacies as well as the quest for lost knowledge makes them more appropriate than not. I thought the episodes dealing with the Smythe family and Kara's role in resolving that conflict was a nice, thematically-related and well-told passage of story, one that continued to focus on the key issues of the character: violence, language and displacement. The whole book does a terrific job of balancing these elements as it works to explain and deal with the story structures that the first volume (issues #1-7) established. Additionally, the zero issue flashback was a really enjoyable look at how Kara ended up in the pod that brought her to Earth, and the manner in which it clarified her conversation with the red crystal back in V1 was a nice gesture on the part of the writers to fulfill promises made earlier in the story--it affords them the reader's confidence, especially as earlier plot elements begin to come back under higher-stakes circumstances.
The artwork again struggles to find its footing, as the color stylings keep changing. Mahmoud Asrar does great work, but as there's no consistency from issue to issue as to how they are colored, the storytelling suffers a bit from it. Tonally, the watercolors are best, because the faint haziness links into the sense of displacement that Kara feels waking up as she has. When the colors become more monochromatic, the pages become a little sharper and the story doesn't flow as well--this will continue to be an issue for the book going forward, and it is my hope that the artwork finds a consistent look as questions are answered and the realms of exploration that Kara can venture into are expanded.
There were are couple of things about this volume that I thought improved upon the first: the mythos of Krypton, and the circumstance of Kara's alternate path to Earth, came into play to just the right extent. Without having to reinvent Krypton, Green and Johnson give us a lot of memory and dream contexts, underscored nicely in issue #12 with a full-on deep dive into the ocean itself in search for that lost knowledge. The dream sequences from her own pre-pod memory were terrific, featuring an actual dragon and the full dragonslaying motif. If there's a better metaphor for an impossible situation, human storytellers haven't discovered one, and Green and Johnson go all in on its familiar role in building the discourse of heroics. Kara gets battle armor and what can only be described as a pair of Kryptonian lightsabers for her own battle against the monster, both of which are awesome and not as weird or out of place in as they should be in the story, but the context of father-daughter legacies as well as the quest for lost knowledge makes them more appropriate than not. I thought the episodes dealing with the Smythe family and Kara's role in resolving that conflict was a nice, thematically-related and well-told passage of story, one that continued to focus on the key issues of the character: violence, language and displacement. The whole book does a terrific job of balancing these elements as it works to explain and deal with the story structures that the first volume (issues #1-7) established. Additionally, the zero issue flashback was a really enjoyable look at how Kara ended up in the pod that brought her to Earth, and the manner in which it clarified her conversation with the red crystal back in V1 was a nice gesture on the part of the writers to fulfill promises made earlier in the story--it affords them the reader's confidence, especially as earlier plot elements begin to come back under higher-stakes circumstances.
The artwork again struggles to find its footing, as the color stylings keep changing. Mahmoud Asrar does great work, but as there's no consistency from issue to issue as to how they are colored, the storytelling suffers a bit from it. Tonally, the watercolors are best, because the faint haziness links into the sense of displacement that Kara feels waking up as she has. When the colors become more monochromatic, the pages become a little sharper and the story doesn't flow as well--this will continue to be an issue for the book going forward, and it is my hope that the artwork finds a consistent look as questions are answered and the realms of exploration that Kara can venture into are expanded.
jo_lzr's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
linklex7's review against another edition
4.0
Pretty decent vol of New 52 Supergirl. Where the title character deals with Silver Banshee and her family. You also get an origin story for New 52 Kara. Not quite the heights Supergirl could reach, but still better than vol 1.
earth_and_silver's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
caoimhin42's review against another edition
5.0
Never read Supergirl before but I do enjoy the New 52 series and this is a nice addition to it all.