When Sophie Campbell launched Supergirl for DC’s All-In era, she didn’t just go back to basics with the Girl of Steel – she set out to build new relationships for Kara Zor-El that were largely independent of her cousin’s Super Family. This entailed bringing back the Danvers (Kara’s adoptive family) and giving her new friends in the form of Lena Luthor, Lesla-Lar and Luna. Supergirl’s first 10 issues focused on building these relationships. Now, Supergirl’s All-In second phase is about tearing those relationships down.
Since Campbell gave readers a full year to fall in love with Kara and her new group of friends, this makes the threat of her losing those relationships in Supergirl #11 that much more impactful. It’s an excellent example of using emotional investment as a means of raising the stakes instead of going the usual route of threatening the end of the world and averting that with a cosmic deus ex machina. This is also a bit ironic since this new arc is coming at the heels of the recently concluded DC K.O.
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Campbell does acknowledge in issue #11 that Kara participated in that event and that DC K.O. #5 ended with Superman disappearing from the world to parts unknown. Whilst Campbell does show that Kara is emotionally wrecked by her cousin’s absence, she also doesn’t focus too much on K.O.’s aftermath to not confuse Supergirl readers. Instead, she leaves it up to Supergirl readers to separately read the event to find out Superman’s fate and picks up where Kara’s story left off in issue #10.
By revisiting Kandor (which is where Kara last left Lesla), Campbell isn’t just preserving the continuity of her own series and keeping it accessible to readers – she’s making the stakes more personal for Kara. The latter comes out in full force throughout Supergirl #11 with the full introduction of Black Flame, Lesla’s cousin. But what adds an extra layer of drama isn’t just Lesla’s betrayal but the reason that it happened: the loss of a loving home and resenting her generation’s science-induced gene mutation.
One thing Campbell excels at throughout issue #11 is presenting Lesla as an emotionally complex character. More specifically, she shows that Lesla is still feeling betrayed by Kara but also misses her. She is also presented as feeling guilty for aligning herself with her cousin, whom she knows intends to do harm to the Kandorian Science Council. This development allows Lesla to have depth as a character and feel more lifelike, given how childlike she is.
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Kara is also presented as being a mixed bag of emotions. Between losing her cousin, feeling like she failed Lesla, and pushing herself to be a better superhero, Kara is also shown to have a lot on her plate and is barely holding it together. This comes through with Campbell’s solid character building and especially her artwork. With Campbell back on art duties in issue #11, she does most of the heavy lifting in drawing out the emotional stakes through the use of body language and facial expression.
The thing that stands out about how Campbell draws Kara, Lesla, and Black Flame throughout Supergirl #11 is how strongly she conveys the emotional burdens Kara and Lesla are carrying compared to Black Flame. This creates an interesting juxtaposition between two women who have experienced the freedom of life outside of a bottle and one who hasn’t. Whereas Black Flame only knows life as a Kandorian prisoner of her own city, she tends to see problems and solutions in very black and white terms.
Campbell perfectly captures this dynamic by presenting Black Flame as having only one emotion throughout: that of anger and resentment. She also presents Kara and Lesla constantly changing their looks to convey how mixed they’re feeling about the Kandorian crisis. Kara wants to believe Lesla can be good but doesn’t trust that she will be. Likewise, Lesla is shown wanting to do the right thing but is afraid of angering her cousin.
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The finishing touch on this emotionally driven conflict is Tamra Bonvillain’s colors. If Campbell is already capturing intense feelings of anger, guilt and uncertainty amongst all three characters with her pencil work alone, Bonvillain drives it all home with excessive use of red. Not only do Bonvillain’s colors create a harrowing sense of dread and danger, but they also make the betrayal Kara experiences at the end of Supergirl #11 feel much more poignant.
Though Supergirl #11 ends on a cliffhanger, the selling point for issue #12 is less about the immediate danger Kara faces and more about whether or not her friendship with Lesla can be salvaged. This not only gives Campbell’s third arc a strong jumping-on point for All-In Act II, but it creates a strong emotional hook for subsequent issues as well.
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