Commissioned by Michael
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| Fun Fact: I actually co-wrote some fan fiction in the comments section of the comic this panel comes from. Used to do that all the time in High School. |
Supergirl is perhaps the quintessential example of an interesting character with a limited number of interesting stories. Consider for a moment her origin: a family discovers that their home planet is going to be destroyed and there is no way for them all to escape it. One side of the family sends their infant son to some other world while the other sends their teenage daughter to protect the child. When she eventually lands, she discovers that due to sci-fi weirdness, the infant has grown up to maturity without her. There is so much potential you could do with that from the nature of Supergirl being inherently a failed protector fantasy to highlighting the differences between the two and how they approach things to Kara having to acclimate to the culture of this brave new world with such people in it.
Instead, most writers tend to opt for the same five issues of Supergirl being a fish out of water who has to assimilate to Earth culture and be more like her big cousin. Sometimes, they’ll decide that this makes her angry and have her smash various things or have her almost become a disciple of Darkseid or that one weird period where she was programed by her father to be a school shooter and wanted her to kill Superman or something, I don’t know. Other people can explain it better than I can. But regardless, the story ends with Supergirl aligning herself with the Earth and blah, blah, blah.
That isn’t to say that those five issues can’t be good or even interesting. Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade, for example, is one of the most delightful series featuring the character, exploring the ways in which assimilating to life on Earth is actually difficult with bullies, friends turned enemies turned friends, and cosmic entities from the fifth dimension who want to take over the universe for the lols. It works because it does new things with the character that still fit within the core of the character as, to some degree, a failure in one area and how such a character can succeed in others. We see Kara’s growth throughout the series and how she tries not to emulate her cousin, but be a good friend.
Sadly, most runs tend to see her as simply a second run version of Superman and thus must contrast him through being dark and edgy and angry. Which I suppose brings us to the subject of this post: the Supergirl arc Red Daughter of Kypton, wherein she becomes a Red Lantern. You see, when those five issues are done, writers have a tendency of spinning their wheels having no idea what to do with the character other than have her act as “Superman, but a girl.” Some writers will come up with good solutions like putting her into a Coffee Shop AU where the focus is on interpersonal relationships or have her go on weird adventures with friends and family.
Other writers, as is the case here, opt to toss her into someone else’s story. That’s not to say that this is inherently a bad solution to the problem of “I CAN ONLY COME UP WITH ONE STORYLINE FOR THIS CHARACTER,” but it is an obvious one. One that, at best, gives us decent works like the current run on the character where she’s running around space with a giant battle axe of doom with her pet dog and for some reason the Omega Men are still alive despite mostly dying at the end of Tom King’s run. (Have comics writers finally embraced hypertime as the only sane way of having a continuity? Of course not, but it’s nice to dream.) But then there are times where she’s being thrust into stupid fucking plotlines where she’s in love with some blatantly evil asshole named H’El and also being written by Scott Lobdell!
Red Daughter is more in the middle of these two, opting for a rather mediocre story about space empires or something. I finished it about an hour ago, and I can’t remember a single thing that happened other than something involving a suit that takes over people and skinny Lobo was there for some reason probably explained in his book. It doesn’t have much to be said about it, such that I spent more time in this article talking about Supergirl as a character within the DCU than it. One can see what it’s trying to do with Supergirl finding a healthy outlet for all the rage that’s simmering inside her, but she just does typical space superhero stuff before flying into the sun, cleansed of her anger. Which just seems a bit pat.
Flipping through the book, it occurs to me that there is a way to make the book a bit better and that’s through the character of Siobhan Smythe, AKA Silver Banshee. Her deal is apparently some sort of Hulk like transformation wherein she becomes a superpowered creature of the night due to a family curse. While typically a supervilalin, this incarnation is apparently friends with Supergirl and is working on dealing with the superpowered dark side. She’s given a lot of prominence in the first issue, such that she’s literally given the narration that’s typically reserved for Kara while she’s too busy going “RAR! ANGER! RAR! BLOOD! DEATHKILL! RAR!!!” You would think that such a character, one who has anger issues but can control them, would be more prominent to the story as a whole.
Nope. Dropped as early as possible and never heard from again (beyond one panel where she just walks out without doing anything). What should have happened is that the two work together to deal with the uncontrollable rage Kara’s going through instead of just dunking her into a pool of evil. Maybe have one bit where Siobhan gets overtaken by the Silver Banshee persona and Kara has to talk her down or have [flips through book and sighs] Atrocitus tempt Kara with a sense of belonging or to show her the true power of the red lantern ring and have her reject it. Better yet, have Dex-Starr be the one to do it so we can have him fight off his twin brother Streaky, who got superpowers due the events of Grant Morrison’s Acton Comics, and have it end with Streaky being part of Supergirl’s family on earth. One made up of weirdos who don’t belong anywhere else and work together to better themselves.
Alas, not all things are meant to be. History of Supergirl, I suppose.
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