Comic Review: Supergirl Annual #1

Written by Sterling Gates

Art by Fernando Dagnino and Raúl Fernandez

Plot: To begin, Supergirl gives a shot at her new secret identity, Linda Lang. She finds herself (as superheroes tend to do) in the middle of a hostage situation. Afraid to come onto the scene as Supergirl for fear she would be arrested as an illegal Kryptonian, she decides to infiltrate and stop the criminals as Linda Lang. As successful as she is, she finds herself putting two lives in danger, a mother and her child who are more than they seem to be.

We also have a second feature to this issue, the origin of Superwoman, who we all know as Lucy Lane, sister to Lois Lane. We find out why she became the secret weapon of project 7734, and we are left with a very interesting plot twist.

My Thoughts: All I can say is WOW! Gates once again brings a tremendous story to the pages of Supergirl. The beginning pages are an amazing social commentary on fear and how people deal with it. In and eight panel spread of two pages, we have examples of prejudice, racism, ignorance, fear, shallowness, ignorance and violence. For as long as Superman has been on Earth, and how long people trusted him, it all changed in a snap when a bunch of Kryptonians killed an Earthling. All those people were ready to point finger at who seemed to be the most likely culprit. It is such an interesting and truthful commentary on human nature.

What I appreciate the most about the story is, even though Kara is a superhero and has experienced events that most adults never will; she still has the same worries and makes the same mistakes that your average teenager does. With her experience fighting crime, she still doesn’t make the best decisions in the world. However, with that being said, there was no way she could have known that among the hostages there was a mother and son who were among the inhabitants of Kandor. Now I’m sure we all can understand the mother’s frustration, but she would have been caught anyway. But since Kara was at the fore front of it all, the mother took her anger out on her.

The second part of this issue was also very entertaining. I loved the back story about how Lucy, being the younger sibling, did not receive the attention from her father that her sister Lois did. It was horrifying how her own father put Lucy in that type of danger just to fulfill his vendetta against Superman and the Kryptonian race. None of it mattered to Lucy, she was just happy to finally have the respect and attention from her father that she always wanted. And I’m very excited to see what the next issue of Supergirl will bring us since it looks like Lucy Lane never actually blew up. Will she be mad at Kara and/or her father?

Overall, one of the best issues this year. I love comics that make sociological commentaries that go against the norm.

5 out of 5 stars

This Month: Supergirl #45

Continuing from ACTION COMICS #881 – "The Hunt for Reactron" part 2! Can Supergirl rely on her

 seemingly unstable childhood friend to help her track down her father's assassin? Or will she ultimately get burned by Flamebird?