DC Comics doesn’t do a whole lot of movie synergy, but you can’t convince me that Supergirl: Survive isn’t attempting to capitalize on the upcoming Supergirl film. That said, given the creative team behind this book, one can expect a well thought-out story with a solid pitch rather than a cash grab. An Elseworlds tale for sure, Supergirl: Survive #1 is about Kara Zor-El and a baby Kal-El on Krypton, just one day before the planet explodes.
A big question mark hangs over Supergirl: Survive: how to pull off a Supergirl comic without our hero getting any powers. The first issue is nearly entirely set on Krypton, opening with Kara meeting Kal-El after his birth. Artist Rod Reis draws and colors her as a normal teen dealing with parents preoccupied with the state of the world. Meanwhile, Kal-El has a bit of flair and cuteness that makes him look special. In a few panels, we can quickly see that Kara cares for and loves Kal-El.
After the opening, Ethan Parker and Griffin Sheridan follow Kara at school. Much like Earth, Kryptonians have lockers and classes to get to, oh, and the awkwardness of asking someone out to a dance. Kara is depicted as quite ordinary, without any special charisma or flair. She’s nervous about asking a boy out and has an annoying friend pressuring her to do so. Given how normal Kara seems, it’s safe to say the creative team is making it clear she’s a stand-in for the reader, and we’re all in for a ride of normalcy turning into sci-fi pulp action.
Kal-El is quite cute.
Credit: DC Comics
The middle section of the issue delves into the politics of Zod and how things are quite bad politically. By the end of the issues, Krypton is destroyed, and the main focus of the story kicks into gear. That is, Kara is a normal teen with a sci-fi blaster, in charge of keeping Kal-El alive on a Kryptonian moon.
That premise works, but it also doesn’t lock in until the final page. The entire issue is perfectly fine, but it feels like it takes way too long to get to the main point. While the characters at Kara’s school may factor in later, the state of Krypton suggests that all of it was more like padding than it added to the narrative.
Given the focus on Kara’s very average teenage life, I also found the dialogue either mundane or even a bit confusing. In one exchange, Kara says to her crush, “I’m not complaining. I hate para-dimensional sliding.” He replies, “You’re funny,” with little emotion on his face, as if he didn’t mean it at all. Her reply, “No, I mean, well, if you insist,” is downright bewildering. The fact that it takes four pages to show us Kara enter class, awkwardly talk to her crush, and then have him ask her out seems incredibly long-winded, to boot.
Art by Rod Reis is good, although the mundane scenes do stick out as mostly uninteresting. Reis uses some circular call-out panels to show items in Kara’s locker, which is neat, though they don’t actually matter or add much. Scenes that stand out, however, are one where Zod looks like a lunatic giving a speech, and then the big escape from Krypton sequence near the end of the issue. Capping off the excellent visuals is the final page, which sells the series’ big premise.
Supergirl: Survive #1 succeeds most when it embraces its unique setup: Kara Zor-El stranded after Krypton’s destruction and tasked with protecting an infant Kal-El without the benefit of superpowers. Unfortunately, readers must wait until the very end to reach that exciting premise. The opening spends substantial time depicting Kara’s ordinary teenage life, which helps establish her as an everywoman but often lacks urgency or dramatic momentum. Rod Reis elevates the material throughout with expressive character work and memorable spectacle, particularly once Krypton’s fate begins to unfold. While this debut chapter feels slower and more padded than it needs to be, the final pages provide a strong reason to return for issue #2.
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