Pick of the Brown Bag
August 20, 2026
by
Ray Tate
Welcome to the Pick of the Brown Bag, a comic book review column conceived, written, edited by yours truly Ray Tate.
Alas, this was not the summer of Supergirl. A damn shame. My last post gave you a review of the new Supergirl movie. For this entry, I look at the new ongoing comic book series as well as Supergirl's interaction with the rest of the Superman Family.
Though Sophie Campbell is the absolutely smashing writer/artist of Supergirl, it's important to realize that she's not the only influence on Supergirl's comic book adventures. Presumably this responsibility relies with the creative director of DC Comics.
Whomever they are, the Powers That Be turned Supergirl into Supergirl incarnate. Meaning, Kara isn't just the Rebirthed Supergirl of the New 52, she's also the Supergirl that debuted in 1959. She remembers everything that her previous selves remembered.
Except when, the Powers need her to conveniently forget.
Although there's nothing wrong with Gail Simone's story, Supergirl has "met" Mary Marvel dozens of times. In fact, she's met her so many times, Mary Marvel meets Supergirl is almost cliche.
One of the more existential and traumatic things Supergirl remembers is her original avatar's death.
Supergirl's mental-wiring must be astounding. It's on a Time Lord's level.
That fellow in the middle is Dick Malverne. A character from the original Midvale stories who ended up with a debilitating disease in a Solo Supergirl story. Solo was supposed to be just a sandbox where creators could play. None of those stories were supposed to be canonical. Nevertheless. Supergirl remembers everything. Except when she doesn't. Like I said, convenient.
With that in mind, in the most recent Superman Unlimited series, she re-encounters the original Superboy, who doesn't remember beans.
My presumption then is that Supergirl is the only hero in the DCU that remembers her entire existence from different realities. Well, she and Ambush Bug who always was aware of different realities. Try making a movie of that.
One of the smart things the Powers That Be did is that they restored her existence to the multiverse. So everybody knows Supergirl died. Everybody remembers or has seen photos of the funeral.
The Powers also explain Jeph Loeb's Superman/Batman story was pivotal and counted as well. Darkseid is Mr. Resurrection. He kills his followers and resurrects them at the blink of an Omega Beam. So, I can almost buy the Darkseid business involving Supergirl. Almost.
Mark Waid furthermore expounds that substitute Supergirls such as Peter David's Supergirl appeared in the interim between the original's death and her resurrection. They attempted to fill a contextual void as well as a creative real world void. Such an explanation is unexpectedly elegant. I don't usually look for elegance when it comes to rewriting or retrofitting a hero's history.
I must distinguish resurrection from Rebirth, since the Powers That Be, shucked much of the New 52/Rebirth fresh slate material.
She wasn't dainty enough I suppose. Though they incorporated the stupidest part such as that time when Supergirl became a Red Lantern...
...and her formerly dead Dad getting turned into a cyborg killing machine. Both of these events made me temporarily drop the book, but hell, what do I know. I'm a Supergirl fan.
Some of the things that the Powers kept intact are infuriating. Supergirl's Midvale Orphanage business.
Back in 1959, the writers and producers of the Supergirl comic book were looking for a way Supergirl could have her own distinct adventures from Superman. So, they thought the orphanage idea was just a dandy way to keep Supergirl mostly isolated from her cousin. These guys couldn't predict that orphanages would be shut down for a very good reason.
Sophie Campbell recognizes just how bad this makes Superman look. I presume that Superman actually did this in the cousins' recent shared history. Unless Superman is Superman incarnate as well.
Alex Danvers, Supergirl's sister on the television series, also had choice words to say about Superman's decision to drop Supergirl in the hands of strangers: Eliza and Jeremiah Danvers, D.E.O. Agents reintroduced as Supergirl's affectionate D.E.O. watchdogs in the New 52 by writer Steve Orlando. Reworked as adoptive parents.
Anyway, the new Supergirl series is a mostly all-ages comic book. I would say it bears a similar tone to an Archie series. Though with less emphasis on hormones.
Supergirl returns to Midvale, which is her original hometown. As in Smallville, a Luthor makes her home there. Though this is a considerably less lethal and downright friendly Luthor.
Supergirl/Lena shippers should know that this is the daughter of Lex Luthor and named after his sister Lena. So she is Lena the Second, and a naturally born Luthor. Which makes her an outlier. Case in point, Superboy from the post-Crisis is the science love child of Superman and Lex Luthor. No, no. I'm serious.
Supergirl didn't really have a rogue's gallery. Mostly Superman's enemies also wanted to kill her.
One of her exclusive villains was Lesla-Lar, a Kandorian junior mad scientist who envied and despised the Maid of Might.
Sophie Campbell's Lesla-Lar differs from the original. She possesses more depth. Campbell outlines the rationale that's missing from the original's repertoire.
Lesla-Lar first admires Supergirl when she saves her life, but that admiration turns slowly into envy and jealousy. Lesla-Lar's parents really did a number on her, and her insane cousin Zora alias Black Flame finished the job.
Lesla-Lar thus pulls a single white female and tries taking Supergirl's place in Midvale while she's away on business--perhaps during the events depicted in Tom King's and Bilquis Evely's Woman of Tomorrow.
She offers Lesla-Lar her friendship, and the troubled Kryptonian becomes a member of Supergirl's entourage.
Sophie Campbell's Supergirl is a problem-solver. She looks deeper into every situation to find a positive outcome. She even stops herself from bashing Lobo into smithereens.
Supergirl's signature move is to pick up a large heavy object and use it as a mallet, against those who can take it of course. She also has the tendency to stop large heavy objects from smashing people into pancakes, However, when Kara needs to, as I have said before, she can be vicious.
Don't feel sorry for Black Fame. She truly sucks and had this coming for a long time. Plus, she's Kandorian. She can take it.
Another frequent guest star in Supergirl: Princess Leegra. A shark princess who seems like a refugee from some weird seventies anime.
Leegra began as a low-rent menace for Supergirl to fight, but Campbell leaned more toward making her comical and tipped her over to the good side. Turns out she wasn't bad, just puppetteered by a Sea Hag. The girl with the chalk skin by the way is Crush, Lobo's daughter. So, she's half Czarnian since Lobo killed the rest, and her mother remains unknown.
Among their annoying nit-picks, some critics complained about Lobo being in the latest Supergirl movie. Either not enough or too much, or why is there a Lobo in Supergirl film when he's not in her comic book.
Supergirl #20
Certainly Lobo's renewed presence reflects from the Supergirl film, but Supergirl and he met before. Not so much as Mary Marvel, but they definitely knew each other. Crush represents another mirror. She's the nicer daughter just like Lena.
Anyway, you should give Supergirl a try. Sophie Campbell writes fun, short Supergirl stories while building on an ongoing background comic strip styled cast of characters.
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