Supergirl #2 Review – The Need for Family
It’s no secret that Kara El is less than happy living on Earth as Kara Danvers, the adopted daughter of two DEO agents. She hates how primitive the culture and technology is on Earth. As a typical teenage girl, she resents her adopted parents trying too hard to be her parents. She’s angry that her cousin is now dead. She doesn’t want to bond with the other Clark or the Super-Man in China. What she wants, no one can give her. She wants to return to Krypton and live once again in Argo City with her family.
However, while tripping around in Clark’s Fortress of Solitude, Kara runs into a cyborg-zombie of Superman, one she has fought numerous times before. But this time, the cyborg seems more sentient, and he swears he doesn’t want to hurt her. Even crazier, he claims to be her father, Zor El, returned. She refuses to believe him, but she’s not able to entirely ignore his pleas.
The famous Cat Grant enters stage right at this point, offering one lucky high school student a chance to work at CatCo if they can tell her what the company’s biggest obstacle to success is. Kara tries to answer, but she doesn’t answer quickly enough and the prize is won by another student. Cat does notice Kara’s effort and invites her to CatCo anyway for another potential job interview. She claims it’s because she researched into Kara and noticed her aptitude with science, but knowing Ms. Grant, she has her own motives.
Once again, Kara is left struggling with her decision. Does she join CatCo? Will this give her the opportunity she truly wants?
All of Kara’s confusion and outright rejections against those who reach out to her are founded in one thing: Kara’s strong desire to find family. For the moment, she is too rooted in her past to see those who are welcoming her into their family. Just as she’s trying to sort out her Earth family and school, her “father” shows up, swearing he has rebuilt Argo City for her. All progress she has made is instantly wiped away. He may truly be a reincarnated version of her father who did break free of Brainiac’s mind control, but is he the family she truly needs?
One look at that last panel in the issue will remove all doubt about where Kara should go.
On the one hand, Kara is acting like a stereotypical angry and emo teenager. I personally wanted to high-five Cat Grant when she told Kara to leave her angst at home. On the other, she’s a sad and lonely teenager who wants a place to call home. Many teenagers claim to have similar feelings, but Kara’s situation is undeniably different from the usual teenage outrage. I couldn’t help but feel sad for her and understand the rash decisions she makes as well as why she pushes her adopted parents away.
For a comic that was initially advertised as Supergirl trying to fit in on Earth and fighting a cyborg-zombie Superman, it’s proven to be far deeper than I could have imagined. Perhaps DC should find better marketing writers for their comic summaries.
Title: Supergirl #2
Author: Steve Orlando
Artists: Brian Ching and Michael Atiyeh
Publisher: DC Comics
Publish Date: 10/12/16
Acquired via purchase
