I heard about the magazine online, and so when I found myself in a Walmart, a place I avoid ever being as much as possible, I figured I might as well see if they carried it. After finally finding their small magazine section, I saw that they did indeed have a copy, displayed just as you see it in the image above.
The cover is by Dan Mora and taken from the variant cover he drew for last year's Supergirl #5; as you can see, it puts the star in the exact same pose that her cousin struck on the cover of his magazine, which is right next to hers.
You can't see it because the football magazines are blocking that part of the cover, but the cover copy reads "Four Acclaimed Comic Book Stories By All-Star Writers and Artists!" Curious what those four stories might be? Let's take a look, shall we...?
But first, there's a prose introduction by Jim McLauchlin, under the headline "The Maiden of Might" and the subhead "More than just Superman's cousin, Supergirl has carved her own path." Now, I just saw that nickname used on the back cover of Supergirl: The World last week and noted that it was well past time to retire it.
The word "maiden", as you know, has two meanings: A virgin or a young, unmarried woman. Maybe it made sense to the old men running the publisher in the late 1950s to refer to Supergirl as such back then, but it's 2026, and we really shouldn't be defining a young woman by whether or not she's had sex or is married.
I mean, Carol Danvers became Ms. Marvel in 1977—Ms., not Miss—I would hope that DC in 2026 could be at least as progressive as Marvel was during the Carter administration. Instead, might I suggest we stick with The Girl of Steel (or Woman of Steel) or Woman of Tomorrow...? The latter is how she is referred to on the cover of a recent issue of Lobo.
You can't see it because the football magazines are blocking that part of the cover, but the cover copy reads "Four Acclaimed Comic Book Stories By All-Star Writers and Artists!" Curious what those four stories might be? Let's take a look, shall we...?
But first, there's a prose introduction by Jim McLauchlin, under the headline "The Maiden of Might" and the subhead "More than just Superman's cousin, Supergirl has carved her own path." Now, I just saw that nickname used on the back cover of Supergirl: The World last week and noted that it was well past time to retire it.
The word "maiden", as you know, has two meanings: A virgin or a young, unmarried woman. Maybe it made sense to the old men running the publisher in the late 1950s to refer to Supergirl as such back then, but it's 2026, and we really shouldn't be defining a young woman by whether or not she's had sex or is married.
I mean, Carol Danvers became Ms. Marvel in 1977—Ms., not Miss—I would hope that DC in 2026 could be at least as progressive as Marvel was during the Carter administration. Instead, might I suggest we stick with The Girl of Steel (or Woman of Steel) or Woman of Tomorrow...? The latter is how she is referred to on the cover of a recent issue of Lobo.
The introduction is fine, a rather basic, even generic introduction to the character that alludes to her many names and the many places she's been a hero, without actually getting too deep into her kind of crazy history.
The current status quo of the current Supergirl is that she's the original, pre-Crisis Supergirl who died in Crisis on Infinite Earths and was then resurrected in a 2004 Superman/Batman arc (actually, that was a reboot of the character at the time, but it's been retconned into some kind of resurrection), which McLauchlin puts thusly: "Years later, Supergirl got a reset and returned to her former heroic glory."
I assume the stories chosen were ones that someone at DC thought would be among the best introductions/jumping-on points, a sort of comic book equivalent of a sampler platter or a beer flight. You can try part of a bigger story arc here and then, when you reach the end, there's a kinda sorta ad telling you which collection you can find the rest of the story in. (In that regard, then, I suppose any story chosen had to be part of a collection currently in print).
They also, wisely, ignored the post-Crisis, pre-2004 Supergirl, the Matrix version, so that even if elements of the continuities might feel a bit wonky here and there, all four comics star the same basic Supergirl, the Kara Zor-El, cousin-from-Krypton version.
They also, wisely, ignored the post-Crisis, pre-2004 Supergirl, the Matrix version, so that even if elements of the continuities might feel a bit wonky here and there, all four comics star the same basic Supergirl, the Kara Zor-El, cousin-from-Krypton version.
I've read two of these, but not the other two. I am, of course, a terrible person to ask what the best four Supergirl issues might be to stick in an anthology like this, due to my lack of familiarity with the character.
I think half of these make perfect sense, the other two much less so; I probably would have put her first appearance in there if for nothing other than historic context, as DC Finest: Supergirl: The Girl of Steel means there's a trade to connect to that, but, if the target audience here is kids, I can see why they might not want to use a comic book from when those kids' grandparents were the target audience.
What I do know about it is that it was apparently the major inspiration for the upcoming Supergirl film, so yes, putting it in here probably makes a strong degree of sense. I see Krypto on the cover of the first issue, but, scanning the others, I don't see Lobo. Is he an addition to the story made for the film, I wonder...?
Supergirl #1 (2025) by Sophie Campbell This one I have read, and I think it makes perfect sense for an anthology targeted at potential new readers like this. Not only is it, and the trade paperback collection in which it is included, seemingly addressed squarely at new reader and all-ages appropriate, but it's also the current, ongoing Supergirl book, so if one happened to read it in the magazine, it would be fairly easy to either pick up the back issues and/or the first trade (Supergirl Vol. 1: Misadventures in Midvale) and a handful of back issues to get caught up and then start following it monthly (or, like me, following it in trade). I reviewed Misadventures in Midvale in this A Month of Wednesdays column and then talked further about it here.
I think this was still part of the New 52 continuity, which got shakier and shakier as time went on; at the very least, at this point, DC had not officially decided that the New 52 continuity reset was itself to be reset.
Is this a good one for a collection like this? I wouldn't think so, but I suppose it's better than 2011's Supergirl #1, debuting the New 52 Supergirl and maybe her worst costume ever, a one-piece that inexplicably had a red triangle pointing to her crotch.
Superman/Batman #8 (2004) by Jeph Loeb and Michael Turner The final inclusion strikes me as an odd one, and makes me imagine whichever editors who were assigned to putting this book together were casting about for what to put in the book after Woman of Tomorrow #1 and the first issue of Campbell's run.
Is this a good one for a collection like this? I wouldn't think so, but I suppose it's better than 2011's Supergirl #1, debuting the New 52 Supergirl and maybe her worst costume ever, a one-piece that inexplicably had a red triangle pointing to her crotch.
This kicks off the six-part "The Supergirl from Krypton" story arc, which was a complete reboot of the Supergirl character, a story that pretends that the pre-Crisis and post-Crisis versions just never existed, and that Kara Zor-El had just arrived on Earth for the very first time and would become the very first Supergirl. I hate stories that attempt reboots like this in-universe (like John Byrne's 2004 Doom Patrol reboot, or Marvel's 2007 "One More Day"/"Brand New Day" Spider-Man reboot), as they retroactively render so many past stories into a weird limbo; if reboots follow events that alter the very fabric of time and space like Crisis, Zero Hour or Flashpoint well, they might still be lame stories, but at least they have a degree of in-story logic to them.
Anyway, Supergirl lacks a great degree of agency here, and is something of a pawn as Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Darkseid all have different ideas of what is best for the powerful new player in the DC Universe...and not only Darkseid but also Wonder Woman resort to violence to effectuate their plans.
It's been a while since I read this first chapter, but, if memory serves, Supergirl isn't in it much, and not only never dons her costume, but is also in various states of undress throughout.
Jeph Loeb is, of course, Jeph Loeb, and here he pens another jukebox musical of a comic book story, giving his artist the opportunity to draw a large swathe of characters. In addition to those mentioned already, Barda is in this—wearing a towel, having just come out of the shower—as are the Female Furies and, in the last chapter, a whole bunch of heroes, as the JLA, JSA, Titans and Outsiders all gather meet Supergirl for the "first" time.
The late Turner has a very distinct and appealing style, although I remember reading this and thinking him a better cover artist than interior artist at the time, especially when it came to character design (Barda, for example, looks exactly like Wonder Woman and Kara, and is only distinguished by being a bit taller).
I think the major criticism of his work as it applied to this Supergirl was how sexualized he drew her. In an attempt to marry her Superman: The Animated Series costume and her classic one, she ends up in a crop top and micro skirt, a costume she would continue to wear into her own 2005-2011 series. (And which, glancing at some of the earlier covers, I see initial series artist Ian Chuchill and cover artistTurner seemed to draw even skimpier there).
While "The Supergirl From Krypton" might not be a great Supergirl story, there are two strong selling points, one of which is no longer relevant.
First, it reintroduced a new version of the character and immediately deeply embedded her in the DC Universe at the time (although as this was prior to Infinite Crisis and Flashpoint, and thus some half-dozen continuity-altering events, that universe has been rebooted out of existence over and over again).
Second, the entire arc and the guest-starred filled Superman/Batman #1-6, by Loeb and artist Ed McGuinness, is now available in Superman/Batman: DC Compact Comics Edition for $9.99, an extraordinary value (This magazine is $16.99, by the way, which means you're paying about $4.25 per comics that originally sold for $4.99, $3.99, $2.99 and $2.99, respectively. Is that a value? For reprints? I don't think so, but then I am very, very cheap...)
Anyway, do you, dear reader, have suggestions for Supergirl comics that might have been better choices for this magazine anthology than those that ended up within it...?
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