Review time! with ‘Supergirl volume 1: Misadventures in Midvale’

“Oh, my life is changing every day in every possible way”

Sophie Campbell takes over the reins of Supergirl for a while with this trade, which she writes and mostly draws. The other artists are Rosi Kämpe and Paulina Ganucheau. Tamara Bonvillain is the main colorist, with Marissa Louise and Kendall Goode also pitching in, while Becca Carey letters the entire thing and Brittany Holzherr edits the hell out of it. DC charges $17.99 for this, and it clocks in at 120 pages (which is logical, given that it’s 6 issues and 20 pages for DC single issues is the norm these days). Let’s take a look at it!

I can’t remember when Campbell first came onto my radar — I suspect it was at some point back in the day when Famed Podcaster Kelly Thompson was raving about her work, but it was a while ago, and since then, I’ve gotten a great deal of her work. She’s a terrific artist and a pretty good writer, and she writes comics that tend to be somewhat uplifting and joyful, so I figured I’d dig her Supergirl. She has a ton of fun with this book, as Kara goes back to Midvale to see her parents and finds that things have changed, and not in a good way. She does, of course, decide to stay on, hence the name of this volume. You can’t misadventures in Midvale if you aren’t there, you see?

I read the first issue and enjoyed it (was it all because of Princess Shark???? … you be the judge!), as Campbell does a “day-in-the-life” kind of thing with Kara to show how her life’s going before she heads off to Midvale, where she finds a Supergirl who’s been Supergirling around for a bit and who has even co-opted Kara’s life, calling herself “Linda Danvers” and living with Kara’s parents, who don’t remember Kara. Oh dear. It turns out that the faux Linda is Lesla-Lar, a young woman from Kandor whom Supergirl rescued in the first issue. Lesla has some serious self-esteem issues, so she thinks that if she becomes Supergirl, everyone will love her, but of course, she engineers some problems just so she can solve them (yes, she’s Syndrome from The Incredibles, but that’s ok). It seems to work, until Kara shows up, and they fight. Kara knows Lesla isn’t bad, though, so she shows her grace and tells her she will help Lesla figure her life out. Meanwhile, Kara asks Lena Luthor for help, and it turns out Lena is in Midvale, too, so they get together and begin to help Lesla. Lesla does some bad things, like zap Supergirl with Black Kryptonite (which turns her into “Satan Girl” for a bit), but eventually she adopts the name “Luminary” and tries to be a better person. Part of the fun of the book is that Lesla is really bad at being a good person — she tries, certainly, but she just doesn’t know how to go about it, so she does some dumb things but also some not dumb things, as when she overreacts to a creep who’s basically sexually harassing a girl at a club. It leads to an ugly situation, sure, but if you can’t punch a creep sexually harassing a girl at a club, who can you punch?!?!? There’s also an adventure with some of the super-animals wandering around (Lesla comes with her own super-pet, a bunny named Kandy), which I did not love because I simply don’t find super-animals as adorable as, it seems, most people do, and finally a Halloween adventure in which Supergirl is menaced by Nightflame, a manifestation of her darkest impulses. Oh dear. Campbell does a nice job putting a good amount of action in the book but allowing Kara and the others to find solutions that aren’t just about who’s stronger, which seems to be a trend in DC superhero comics recently and which I wholly agree with. She also does a very good job with the relationships between Kara, Lesla, and Lena, as they’re different kinds of people but work well together. Because MOAR GIRLS = MOAR BETTER, the young woman who is harassed at the club seems likely to become a bigger part of the narrative going forward, too, and she’s also a different kind of person, so she should fit nicely into the dynamic. Campbell has always been able to create compelling characters, so it’s nice to see Kara having an interesting supporting cast.

Campbell’s art is superb, as usual. She designs characters so well, so we get a meek and mild Lesla whose outer persona masks the rage inside, and when she gets to Earth, that rage becomes manifest in her physical appearance (she doesn’t become monstrous, but she does “Hulk out” a bit, which visually shows the emotions roiling inside her when she’s in Kandor). Her Lena is FIERCE AS FUCK, with a superb haircut and style, but then again, Campbell has always been great at designing people who look fierce as fuck, so it’s not surprising she does it here. She has a good time redesigning Supergirl’s costume. although I don’t love the one she initially comes up with and like the one later on much better. Her Satan Girl design is also way cool, even though she’s eeeeevilllll, and the monster that the creep at the club turns into is also very nicely done. Of the two guest artists, Ganucheau has a more simplistic, cartoony style which I don’t love, while Kämpe has a rougher, jagged style that’s vaguely reminiscent of Dan Mora, and her work on the Nightflame story is quite good. I know that Campbell is still drawing the book and is still getting guest artists, but I haven’t paid attention to who DC is getting. If it’s Kämpe, it should be all right. I guess I’ll find out when I get the next trade!

This is a fun, solid superhero comic. I wonder if Campbell has a bigger story in mind, of which this is only the prelude, or if she’s content to have Kara deal with smaller issues, but I do like the short, uncomplicated superhero stories that she’s doing, as we don’t get that too often these days. I can’t help thinking about Tom King’s Supergirl series, because that’s the basis of the movie, so it’s clear DC is behind that, and this Supergirl seems nothing like that one. Are they the same character? Should we just assume everything Tom King writes is part of the “Tom King Elseworlds-verse” and has no bearing on the “regular” version because King enjoys turning all his characters into big ol’ fucking jerks? (And let’s be clear: Tom King’s Supergirl series is awesome. But she’s still a bit of a jerk.) I don’t worry too much about this stuff, but it seems like DC does worry about it, but then they do nothing to address it. It’s kind of weird. But anyway, this is a charming series. I hope Campbell can do as long as she wants to!

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆