Customer Reviews

Supergirl Vol. 2: Candor

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Unlike a lot of people, I really liked the Supergirl: Power trade paperback. It was a fun, flashy story with somewhat of a twist and great artwork to boot. This book failed to follow up on any of these precedents whatsoever. DC added in a few excerpts from Superman, JLA, and some other comics which were apparently supposed to fill the reader in on some of the goings-on around Supergirl. What we get is an absolutely incohent book that will leave you going "huh?" with artwork that ranges from great to utterly bland. I cannot recommend this book unless you're a diehard Supergirl / Power Girl completist, and even then I'm sure you're gonna be quite disappointed.

It only gets two stars because of the artwork

As everyone else says, these story makes absolutely no sense. It exhibits the same problems that are occurring more often in the series: "Let's just have stuff happen and ignore whether it fits into anything". It's like they were making it up as they went along hoping no one would notice they didn't know where they were going.

They made it clear that the black costume Supergirl was a physical manifestation, not an illusion. She could physically interact with other objects (including the "real" Supergirl) and they saw her and talked with her. Where did she come from? Who knows? What was she? Dunno. At the end, when she disappears when confronted by "Truth"--Why? Where did she go? Apparently we aren't supposed to be concerned with these howlers.

BTW, DC, you've got to know better this, but you seem to keep ignoring it (or maybe your authors and editors really don't know it): You don't just run out of air when you find yourself in a vacuum, your internal organs rupture fairly quickly because your internal pressure is still there but there's no corresponding external pressure. Even more basic: YOU CAN'T TALK IN A VACUUM!

Right here we have a lot of what is wrong about modern American comics. Too many cross-over events, too many inter-company continuity adjusting...it seems almost impossible to simply pick up a tradepaper back and enjoy a good story.

I have always loved the character Supergirl, and though I was out of the loop for American comics for the past few years, I have been slowly picking up some of the older series. I really enjoyed the re-introduction of Kara Zor-El in Superman/Batman, Vol. 2: Supergirl, and her storyline in Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes. I wanted to give her solo series a shot, and so I picked up Supergirl Vol. 1: Power which was pretty good, although the clichéd "bad girl" version made an appearance...right there is a sure sign of an author who doesn't know what to do with a character...ooooo...make them evil!

I was looking forward to seeing the series develop, though, so I picked up this next volume, "Supergirl: Candor" and I got...a mess.

To start off with, this is an incredibly disjoined volume collecting stories "featuring" Supergirl but not a continuation of the "Supergirl" monthly comic. Collected here are "Superman/Batman #27," "Superman #223," "JLA #122-123," "JSA:Classified #2" and finally "Supergirl #6-9." Just as many of the stories focus on Power Girl as opposed to Supergirl and the Maid of Might is often just the sidekick.

If you aren't familiar with ongoing DCU continuity, you are going to get lost and fast. Supergirl goes from being attacked by OMACs (pre-Infinite Crisis) and agreeing to go into space with a resurrected Donna Troy to joining Superman in his Fortress of Solitude (in the Amazon jungle? Huh?) where she fights someone called Blackstar who is the part of some future battle we don't see the continuation of. Then there is one random story set on Earth-2 where Superman and Batman change bodies with Power Girl and the Huntress; Supergirl doesn't pop up in that story even in a cameo.

As to the three issues that are actually from the ongoing monthly...they make no sense either. By now we are at the "One Year Later" storyline, and for inexplicable reasons Power Girl and Supergirl are inside the Bottle City of Kandor fighting against Earth-3's Ultraman who is alive and kicking for some reason...

Some of the individual stories in "Supergirl: Candor" were OK (mainly the Power Girl stories, to be honest), but without context too many of them are just confusing and frustrating. I don't know why they packed so many different comics together here instead of just continuing the ongoing "Supergirl" series which is the expected route for trade paperback collections.

It looks like with the next collection, Supergirl Vol. 3: Identity the series gets back on track, but this collection could easily be missed.

Compared to the first Supergirl story arc, this book isn't as bad as most make it seem. First off, we get to return to Kandor which hasn't been seen since Godfall (A pretty good Superman read). The adventure in Kandor is interesting and has Power Girl and Supergirl take on the identities of Flamebird and Nightwing, heroes from Krypton's past. I admit when I first heard of this I wasn't sure it would be good but it really surprised the heck out of me.

The true gem is the way KAra Zor-el was displayed in this arc. We were shown how powerful Supergirl was in her first trade but this collection goes into her character more then her abilities. Supergirl is unsure of her role in a world that looks up to her cousin, Superman. The writers here do a good job of not only displaying a teenaged superhero who might not want to put on the cape because she has the power to make a difference. Instead we see a girl who hasn't grown up yet, She runs from responsiblity and avoids the one person who cares about her the most.

As far as the extra story thrown in involving the JLA, I guess that was DC trying to show what Supergirl was doing before the crisis and how she was recruited by Donna Troy. The thought of making sure the reader knows what happens before OYL is appreciated but they could of just easily put a paragraph explaining what happened (and saved money)

People can say what they want about this title but I feel the writers have done an excellent job of making the Girl of Steel as human as possible. The upcoming thrid volume of Supergirl is even better.

Like some of the other reviews I left this book with a "Huh?" expression across my face.

I simply didn't get it. I simply didn't. The intro of Power Girl with some odd Legion interaction seemed very intriguing, but then the story line was never followed up on. I thought to myself, well, maybe they'll come back to it later.

Nope.

Then there was the whole Superman-Batman episode, which had me scratching my head even more. I simply didn't understand its significance.

The most bizarre story had to be the installment where the dual super-heroines visit the bottled city of Kandor within superman's fortress. It read like bad dystopia-sci-fi, which is essentially what it was. I couldn't help but wonder what Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster would think of what became of their 1930's creation, or what classic Superman artists like Carmine Infanto thought of the near-adult content put into what used to be a kids' comic. The whole book, and this segment in particular, struck me as a teenage boy fantasy gone bad.

I have to admit, I had a soft spot for Supergirl growing up because I was a shy guy. I bought Superman comics hoping to get a glimpse of the Maid of Might and her on-goings. How did a beautiful, sensitive and strong young woman handle bad guys? She had a kind of feminine steel and determination which eased her acts of law enforcement, but did not weaken her. I mean, what guy doesn't fall in love with that?

But DC's "Supergirl Candor" comes across as not only incoherent, but a marketing scheme gone wrong. The emotions in the story seem really out of whack, just like the stories themselves. There's no level of consistency or balance.

Again, the Kandor sequence is so out of place. The introduction of aliens to Krypton's last city doesn't bother me. In fact, it seems to make a lot of sense for a civilization that may or may not have been star faring, but at the very least highly advanced. But, where were the rest of the Kryptonians to oppose the "new overlord"?

And are all the female minions just over five feet tall well endowed hotties wearing skin tight outfits? Okay, again, the teenage boy fantasy. But, even if I was still 18 years old and hyped up on my hormones, I'd like to think that this dreck would roll off my intellectual duck's back. Particularly the girl-girl interplay, which I found pretty unappealing. Supergirl is supposed to be a responsible heroine, not some sex-kitten with an attitude.

And the final story just didn't click at all. Maybe it was a warning to young girls about abusive men or something. I don't really know. It just seemed like the rest of the book, incoherent. Supergirl becomes a bad girl? Perhaps a little cliche, and perhaps it connects with the female Supergirl reader, but, speaking as a traditional male reader, I have to urge people to give it a pass.

But, whatever. This book is what it is, and like another reviewer said don't waste your money unless you're a die hard Supergirl fan (like I used to be many years ago), and even then I'd personally warn you check out a copy at the library.

Am I the only one who had no idea what was going on? Not only is it confusing between the stories but the individual stories are confusing. I can't find enough continuity to figure out what's happening.

(I wasn't even that impressed with the artwork.)

I agree with the other reviews that say this is an example of a hodgepodge of crossovers and loose story threads that never seem to find a conclusion. However, there are two reasons to love this title, and this book specifically. One is the artwork. It's brilliant. Amazingly detailed and perfectly proportioned. The fine lines, colors and details fit the superman universe so perfectly they shouldn't be missed.

Secondly, when the character of supergirl was created she was little more than a gimmick. It was yet another super-character to tag on to the trend. As such, they never bothered with an inner world. But for the first time the authors have with this title created a three deminsional character that is fully believable, with real emotions, thoughts, and issues of her own (rather similar to what smallville acommplished with louis finally). This is a welcome change from typical super-stories. While this collection is certainly not perfect, it is quite enjoyable for what they have achieved and i want to see more in this vein.

Title says it all. As the other Supergirl books, it's beautiful art. However, the book takes place halfway between the recent Crisis and then it has a very abrupt shift in story in the middle of the book and it makes it hard to pick back up.

i also didn't hate supergirl: power and thought it was pretty good, even though i'll admit it was a bit wacky with the premise of let's make a black costume supergirl fight everyone. but who knows what's going on in this book. it seems to be a collection of unrelated stories.

This is a great collection. Supergirl is an underated DC Comics title. It recently hit issue 50 with little fanfare. Great title though and frequent appearances of Superman, Power Girl, and Batman. Recommended.