August 2018 Solicits

I have covered the new direction of Supergirl around the time it was announced but shortly thereafter, the solicits were officially released. I haven't had much time to cover this recently given the explosion of news. So here I am finally getting around to the August books. Here is a link for all the DC solicitations on Newsarama: https://www.newsarama.com/40028-dc-comics-august-2018-solicitations.html

And here are the super-books  on sale at the end of the summer, starting with the new direction of Supergirl.

SUPERGIRL #21
written by MARC ANDREYKO
art by KEVIN MAGUIRE
cover by TERRY DODSON and RACHEL DODSON
variant cover by AMANDA CONNER
blank variant cover available
Mourning the loss of the Kryptonians wiped out by Rogol Zaar, Supergirl decides to play detective and sets off into deep space to learn more about the would-be usurper. Using whatever tech she can scrounge, Supergirl builds a star cruiser, and after intel from Green Lantern, she blasts off into the cosmos with Rogol Zaar’s deadly axe to solve the mystery—along with a traveling companion you won’t believe!

I suppose I will need to read the book before making any broad statements about this direction. This is completely different. A space detective? Again mourning the loss of Kryptonians? Building a star cruiser?

I don't know if we have learned who the traveling companion is yet so that mystery intrigues.

I do like that we get an Amanda Conner variant. And a blank cover! So DC is putting some publicity push behind this.

Five Supergirl Villains I'd Like To See On The Show

I have been reporting on the Supergirl show, covering the news about casting, leaked plots, etc.

But I haven't really done too many posts about what I am hoping to see in the show. My plan was to do that as the show neared.

Blog friend Count Drunkula recently asked me to post about the top 5 villains I would like to see on the show. I was struck my the muse.

So here are the 5 villains I would like to see appear on the upcoming Supergirl show. I will put a caveat to this post. I wanted to post about Supergirl specific villains that I want to see. I could, for example, say I would want to see Poison Ivy. But Ivy isn't a Supergirl villain. I also wanted to include villains that have had an impact on the character as well, appearing in different incarnations of Supergirl if possible. And I also wanted the villain to have the power to stand up against a Kryptonian.

First off, a tip of the cap to the also-rans who didn't make it to the top 5: Lesla Lar, Black Flame, Nasty Luthor, and Brainiac.

We'll go in reverse order, leading up to the villain I want to see the most.

Number 5: The Gang

Okay, the Gang is a little known villain group from the earliest issues of Daring New Adventures. These were humans who somehow gained powers. Brains has her intelligence. Ms. Mesmer can hypnotize. Bulldozer can run into people and bowl them over. And Kong is super-strong.

Outside of the Daring New issues, we only saw them in 2 panels in Sterling Gates run.

However, they are often the butt of jokes for Supergirl-haters. So I would love to see them on the show to get a little respect. Also, I think one of the things that could hamper a Kryptonian is numbers. A true Gang of super-humans would have more of a chance against Supergirl.

Number 4: Blackstarr

Blackstar also was first seen in the Daring New Adventures run and had the pure power to stand up to Supergirl. Blackstarr had solved the universal equation of physics and as a result seemed to have some command over matter and energy. She fought Supergirl to a standstill a couple of time. As a result she is a proper villain who could challenge Kara.

And the idea of Blackstarr survived. In the panel on the left, from Action Comics #850, Supergirl fights Blackstar (in a possible future). She also was seen in the background of a panel in Sterling Gates' run as well.

Number 3: Satan Girl

Now we are getting into the cream of the crop of recurring Supergirl villains.

Satan Girl has appeared in three different incarnations of Supergirl's history. She has, albeit in different forms and identities, fought the Silver Age Supergirl, Peter David's Earth Angel Supergirl, and even the Sterling Gates' Supergirl.

While the name is a little wonky for television, you could definitely figure out how to put her in the show. The latter two incarnations are magic-based villains. A magic-based villain could definitely stand up to Supergirl and battle her.

Since she has been around in different incarnations, I would love to see her on the show.

Number 2: Reactron

Reactron is another villain who started out in Daring New Adventures of Supergirl (boy, Paul Kupperberg put his stamp on the character). A nuclear based powerhouse, he was able to hold his own against Supergirl and even the Doom Patrol back then.

In the Sterling Gates' run and during the World of New Krypton mega-arc, Reactron returned as a gold-kryptonite powered assassin. He played a huge role in the super-books throughout that storyline. In particular, he became a nemesis for Supergirl, killing her father Zor-El, and hounding Kara for years.

While I doubt that Gold Kryptonite would make it onto the show, you certainly could make him science based or nuclear powered. He could be a decent enough threat to make him interesting.

And my number one hope to appear on the show ...

Number 1: Silver Banshee

Banshee is a magic-based death demon and as such can be a true danger to Supergirl. We have seen the Banshee encounter Supergirl in Peter David's run, the Sterling Gates' era Kara, and even the New 52 Supergirl. She has been a sympathetic, a friend, even a frenemy. You could play up any or all of those characteristics.

She is visually stunning.

But most of all, she has a power set that would make her dangerous.

And so that's my top 5 villains I would like to see appear in the Supergirl show.

Who would you like to see?

Supergirl Annual #2 Easter Eggs

Supergirl Annual #2 re-imagined and re-created the Supergirl/Brainiac 5 relationship which is such an important part of both of the characters' histories. One thing that I really liked about this issue was that it looked forward, bringing the current Supergirl and Legion together for the first time and adding romance with Brainy to the current Kara's life.

But as a Supergirl fan and amateur comic historian, I loved how it also looked back at the older adventures of Supergirl and the Legion, acknowledging them with some Easter Eggs sprinkled through the issue. Heck, there were even some more modern homages in there as well. It just showed how much Sterling Gates knows about and appreciates the character's history when the small things are included. It many ways, it reminded me how Landry Walker had historical flourishes throughout Supergirl Cosmic Adventures in the Eighth Grade.

Of course, one giant Easter Egg was a new version of Satan Girl and her Crimson plague vexing the Legion. I just reviewed her original appearance in Adventure Comics #313. Here are the Easter Eggs I found in Supergirl Annual #2. Let me know if I missed any!

When we first hear about Supergirl joining the Legion and having adventures with them, we see some snapshots of what she has been doing. The first is 'finding ancient artifacts'. I love Supergirl flying from underground, wielding Excalibur.

That was a nice nod to Action Comics #276 - written by Jerry Siegel and drawn by Jim Mooney. I review that issue here: http://comicboxcommentary.blogspot.com/2010/04/back-issue-box-action-comics-276.html

In that issue, Supergirl first joins the Legion in the Silver Age. One of her challenges includes finding Exaclibur, which she does in this panel.

In the Annual, we also see Supergirl wearing one of Brainiac 5's force field belts while she shatters incoming Kryptonite asteroids.

It mirrors, in many ways, an occurrence in Action #276 again, where Brainiac 5 risks his life by giving Supergirl his belt so she can shatter a massive Kryptonite meteor about to strike Earth.

And we see Supergirl leading a flock of ghostly doves against an ethereal menace.

I love the Gandalf-ian 'You shall not pass' as she faces this threat. And the flock behind her really makes this a special panel.

It clearly is an homage to Action Comics #287 story 'Supergirl's Greatest Challenge', also by the creative team of Siegel and Mooney.

In that issue, Supergirl has to somehow defeat 'The Positive Man', a bitter scientist whose warped experiments made him into an energy creature.

Supergirl realizes that to defeat a 'Positive Man' she needs a 'negative' creature. When the scientist's home world was destroyed by the experiment that made him The Positive Man, it also made a negative bird of some sort. Supergirl is able to lure the negative bird into The Positive Man, destroying them both.

It is sort of silly and incredibly, that is only the beginning of that story which really deals with a doppelganger Legion taking the place of the real Legion and putting Supergirl into the Phantom Zone. In fact, she is only able to escape and turn the tables because Streaky's descendant Whizzy has telepathic powers. He has been put into the zone as well but is able to use his telepathy to get someone to save them. What a wild story!

In a panel, I am sure will be discussed for some time, the animatronic Jimmy Olsen tour guide talks about Supergirl's adventures in the past including her tragic death saving the world from a great threat.

I guess it isn't really an Easter Egg ... more like a big old egg farm. But that description sure sounds like Kara's death in Crisis on Infinite Earths #7, written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by George Perez.

As Supergirl flies through the museum's wing dedicated to her, she flies past her Rogue's Gallery. We see the Insect Queen and Silver Banshee and Superwoman. And then a couple of other villains we haven't seen in her title yet.

The woman next to Superwoman is Blackstar, or at least the Blackstar as seen in Action Comics #850, written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Renato Guedes. In that issue, Supergirl is in the 31st century with the Waid reboot Legion and looking back in time to 'potential' historical events. In part of the story we see her and Superman squaring off against that version of Blackstar.

We've seen other versions of Blackstar battling Supergirl as well. I have always hoped we'd get another version of her into continuity.

And the statue next to Blackstar in the museum in Ms. Mesmer. She was one of The Gang, a group of villains from the Daring New Adventures that I have talked about before here: http://comicboxcommentary.blogspot.com/2010/06/poll-results-gang-back-issue-box.html

Ms. Mesmer had pretty powerful hypnotic powers, even being able to place a post-hypnotic suggestion into Supergirl at one point. How interesting to see her there. I think at some point Sterling Gates talked about liking her character a lot so maybe he had some plans for her.

The last Easter Egg I found in the issue was Brainiac's ramblings as he is being tended to by Supergirl. They are almost direct quotes from their first interaction, again in Action Comics #276.

Here is the 'sacrifice' line, when he had risked his own life by giving her his force field belt.

And here is the 'please remain and be my girl' line.

As a card-carrying old-timer, I like when homages are done right. I don't necessarily like simple retellings of older stories. And I don't think they should be so crucial that if you don't recognize it as an Easter Egg that it lessens the story or makes it more difficult to understand. So these were just right. They were there to be appreciated if you could but not necessary elements to the story.

I always think the inclusions of these bits of continuity add to the depth of stories as well. DC is filled with legacy characters so when I see flourishes like this I know the creator is aware of where this character is coming from, thus they know where the character should be going.

As I said when reviewing the Annual, I am glad that Brainy and the Legion are in this Supergirl's mythology again. Thanks to Sterling Gates and Matt Camp for throwing these extra goodies in the issue on top of that.

Poll Results: The Gang; Back Issue Box DNAoSupergirl #4

One of the things I love about this little blog of mine is hearing all the different opinions and ideas that people have about Supergirl. That especially seems to happen whenever I run polls on the site. No matter then question, there isn't usually a runaway winner. And more often than not, the poll votes are scattered across the board. Often times I feel strongly about my own answer and end up being surprised at the final outcome.

This is one of those times. First off, as always, let me thank the 49 people who stopped and voted. I have to be honest, I didn't expect so robust a turnout for this question. So thanks so much. The more voters, the more powerful the information gathered from the poll.

This poll question was 'which older Supergirl villain would you like to see re-imagined in the current continuity?' This was really a no brainer for me. I thought and still think that Blackstarr needs to be a Supergirl rogue. She came in second.

Surprisingly, The Gang (from The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl) garnered the most votes ... 14 of 49 ... taking 28%. I didn't think they had a chance. Blackstarr got 9 votes. And interestingly enough, Black Flame came in a close third with 8 votes. Of course the sample size is small. But let's be honest ... 49 of us voted on Silver Age Supergirl villains. We definitely make up a powerful focus group.


With what I feel is a clear-cut victory for The Gang, I felt I owed them some proper respect. And so, here is The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl #4, the first appearance of The Gang, written by Paul Kupperberg and drawn by Carmine Infantino and Bob Oskner.

A quick aside about the cover. Despite being released in 1983, the cover has a Silver Age feel to it what with Supergirl's reflection giving away her secret identity. I love the text box with the fancy 'secret' cursive. It looks like the font from a romance title. I also think it is sort of cool to see that the cover artists are Keith Giffen and Mike DeCarlo. This must be early in Giffen's career because it doesn't have the distinct look of his Legion art.

The issue starts off with a bang as the Gang crashes through the wall at the Chicago Aerospace Technology Show. Putting into action Brains big plan, the Gang goes to work. Ms. Mesmer puts most of the security force in a trance while bruisers Kong and Bulldozer take out the rest.

With no one left to interfere, the Gang gets what they came for, an experimental satellite. Although weighing several tons, Kong is able to hoist it with one hand.

Unfortunately, Brains plan did not take into account that Supergirl might show up. Kong and Bulldozer try to take her on but Kara is in a different strength class. She starts to toss them around and appears close to victory.

Before Supergirl can wrap things up though, she encounters Ms. Mesmer for the first time. Spinning a multicolored disc on her costume, Mesmer barrages Supergirl with waves of color and light which surprisingly hypnotizes the Maid of Might.

It is pretty impressive for a pre-Crisis Kryptonian to be hypnotized like this.


While the trance felt like it lasted only a second to Supergirl, it in fact lasted about 5 minutes. During that time, the Gang was able to abscond with the satellite and get away.

Boy, Supergirl didn't get much respect back then. Here a police officer chastises her for succumbing to the hypnosis attack and letting the villains escape. In fact he says he is going to put it all in his report.


It turns out the Gang weren't interested in the satellite for themselves. They seem to be villains for hire. Here Brains confronts Lester Adams, the crime boss who contracted the Gang to steal the technology. Brains is a bit upset because despite finishing the job and dropping off the satellite, the Gang hasn't been paid.

Adams tells her that he uses a messenger middle man when it comes to payment to keep his hands clean. This job's messenger is John Ostrander, a struggling actor who just so happens to live in Linda Danvers' apartment building.

And yes, John Ostrander is named after comics writer John Ostrander.

Adams advises Brains to call upon Ostrander for her money. Perhaps Ostrander is trying to steal from the gang.

In the meantime, Linda is surprised with a visit from her adoptive parents Fred and Edna Danvers. There is a nice conversation between the characters showing how much Linda has grown in the last few years.

Specifically, Linda talks of how she has grown as a super-hero, not rushing into every small little problem that arises, only becoming Supergirl when she is truly needed. She talks about having a 'sixth sense' about which circumstances require her assistance and which don't. It reminded me of the earliest Silver Age stories where Supergirl talked of having 'super women's intuition'.

I like how Fred Danvers pushes her a bit, wondering how Linda would feel if she didn't jump in to help and someone got hurt. It was so interesting to read this converation and this issue now knowing what I had just read in the current series where Linda and Lana have a very similar discussion.

As if on cue, Linda picks up on some trouble that reaches her threshold of needing to intercede and leaves her parents.


Supergirl picked up on some screams with her super-hearing and is shocked to find that it emanates from her own apartment building. At first she is worried that someone has deduced her secret identity. But it becomes pretty clear that the person in danger is Johnny O and who is attacking him ... the Gang. They want their money.

Of course, Ostrander has no idea what they are talking about. He thought this was an innocuous package he needed to drop off not a cash payment for super-villains. What's worse is he can't find it!

The fight continues to tear through the building. Kong and Bulldozer's signature attack seems to be the old high-low attack. Supergirl is impressed with how organized the Gang's attacks are, as though they have been working together all their lives. While they aren't doing much damage to her, their attacks are keeping her down and ineffective.


But then we see the devious hidden attack that the Gang has for Supergirl.

During the fight, Supergirl sees her reflection in a window and the reflection is of Linda Danvers! Has her secret identity been compromised? Could she be fighting like Supergirl while still in the garb of her Linda?

It turns out that Ms. Mesmer placed a post-hypnotic suggestion during that trance in the early part of the issue. Mesmer's suggestion was that Supergirl would see her greatest fear in any reflection she saw. It turns out that Supergirl's biggest fear is that her secret identity will be discovered. Seeing Linda in the window is so confusing and terrifying enough to make Supergirl fly off, leaving Ostrander in the grasp of Kong. Quite the cliffhanger!

I have to say this was a pretty good issue of Supergirl for a couple of reasons. For one, and it is a running theme throughout the Daring New series, Supergirl is confident and strong, acting like a hero and rushing into danger. That said, I love that conversation with the Danvers. It shows a mature Supergirl. She realizes that if she ran to every emergency she would be Supergirl 24 hours a day and that wouldn't be mentally healthy. I never felt that Supergirl was shirking her duties in this series like the dancing Supergirl seen earlier in the current series. This is a savvy super-hero who knows when to let the usual authorities handle the usual problems.

As I have aged, Carmine Infantino's art style has grown on me. I do think that Oskner's inks add to the overall product. His Linda is beautiful.

And the Gang was an interesting new group of villains to face Supergirl. By making it a 'many on to one' scenario, it added to the drama of the fight. The story wrapped up in the next issue so maybe I'll review the second half at some point.

Anyways, thanks again to everyone who voted!

Overall grade: B