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Supergirl #8 comic review

By Andy Frisk
April 18, 2012 - 22:32

Kara has just saved the Earth from the deadly Kryptonian Worldkillers and is, of course, met with fear and suspicion by the New York City SWAT team, as are most mutants…uh, I mean, Kryptonians in the world of The New 52. Fortunately, a girl with a magical talent for understanding and communicating in any language (even pigeon…yeah, she can talk to birds too), who ends up becoming The New 52’s version of Silver Banshee (and man can she wail), steps in and at least talks Kara into flying away. Siobhan (the future Silver Banshee) even manages to get Kara out of her super suit (no not like you dirty minded readers are imagining), and into some civilian Earth clothes and, in the process, almost gets her to have a good time on the town…until Siobhan’s father shows up to ruin all the fun.

So despite being a stereotypical and totally silly looking atypical “Irish girl,” The New 52’s Silver Banshee is pretty cool, but are all the young girls from Ireland 1990s alt-rocker wannabes who sing in coffee houses, wear combat boots, leather jackets, have multiple silver ear rings, and wear Celtic knot shirts? I guess Perez, Green and Johnson really had to be sure that everyone had no doubt that Siobhan was Irish by dressing her like every Irish alt-rock chick cliché ever. I can forgive them though since this new Silver Banshee really is the coolest character introduced in any of the Superman Family of books since the change that killed off my Superman (with the possible exception of the new Steel over in Action Comics).

So despite the fact that this Kara is much more shallow than the Kara that recently ceased to exist after Flashpoint, i.e. the Sterling Gates and Jamal Igle Supergirl, she is getting more interesting as each issue goes by. By giving her a new BFF this issue in the young Siobhan/Silver Banshee, she might finally begin to become likable as well as interesting. DC Comics really needs to get her settled pretty quickly though and establish a relationship for her with Kal-El. If not they’re going to just continue to ruin and drive away legions of life long Superman fans with all this new “angst” direction they are determined to take with those who wear the S-Shield.

Enough has been said over the years about George Perez’s beautiful sequential art. I couldn’t add anything new to it. It is beautiful as ever. In fact, I wouldn’t mind seeing him as Supergirl’s regular penciller.

So, why is Supergirl much more readable than Superman right now? Simple, Superman has been so bad, with the exception of its excellent first issue, that almost any book out there right now is better than Superman. This life-long Superman fan continues to lament…and wait…

Rating: 5 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12