Superman’s always gotten a lot of different comic series over the years, but what about his cousin? While Supergirl is a pretty major character of DC, she’s usually more of a supporting character than the main one. When the Supergirl comic series started, it was definitely a good move on DC’s part and I had some really high expectations. Did it meet them? Time to find out!

The comic starts off with Supergirl crashing into earth and government agents quickly surround her. They’re inside of robots so that they’ll be (heh) “Protected” in case Supergirl is hostile. She’s definitely hostile and punches one of them far enough that he’s instantly out of sight. The robots were partially responsible for starting the fight, but Supergirl’s always quick to go into action. Supergirl is taking them apart pretty easily and she’s still indecisive about the battle. It’s not like she wants to pulverize the robots upon first waking up. Luckily…The Man of Steel arrives to calm things down.

Superman doesn’t do a great job of calming things down and he even refuses to give out his name until Supergirl says hers. It’s a classic “Superman” move that you would have seen a lot of, back in the 60’s. It was good to see him acting retro, but it didn’t really help the situation. After Superman claims that he’s Supergirl’s cousin, (Which I doubt anyone would really believe at that point) Supergirl nails him with a solid shot that sends him flying. They don’t really get to have a long fight, but Supergirl definitely lands in a lot of good shots. Superman flies off to do heroic things, while Supergirl heads into space as she follows a flying object.

It leads her to a spaceship where she meets up with..The Brain! He’s actually pretty powerful, but I’m not sure if I agreed with the fight. I think Supergirl would crush him, but at least DC tried to make him as a big threat. I definitely won’t be forgetting The Brain anytime soon.

Finally, the last group of comics involves the Worldkillers. They’re a team of immensely powerful individuals. Individually, they are already powerful, but together, they form one of the strongest teams in comics. Their group is small, but each of their members is pretty tough, Reign, being the strongest by far. The arc was pretty great and it definitely had the most action from the Supergirl comics. There was finally an enemy who could give Supergirl a good fight.

Supergirl makes for a pretty solid protagonist and I’m glad to see that she’s quick to fight in this version. She’s had many incarnations, but this one is probably the best that I’ve seen aside from the DCAU. She’s already mastered her powers to a degree and they are hinting that she’s stronger than Superman, or that she will surpass him. Reign mentions that Supergirl is the only threat on the planet. (I guess the Justice League won’t be able to help this time) Supergirl’s costume is pretty good, it’s very similar to Superman/Superboy’s in the New 52, but I miss the cape. The cape was always one of the best parts of the uniform.

The Worldkillers make for a pretty good villain group. Reign is a great villain and she’s the perfect adversary for Supergirl. She’s basically Supergirl’s version of Black Adam or Bizarro. Reign wields a sword, which is pretty cool. Beyond that, she has most of the same powers as Supergirl, but to a slightly lesser extent. She may have been defeating Supergirl in space, but they were far from the sun. On Earth, I think that things would go differently. The only member of the group that I didn’t like was Deimax. She’s basically a lizard creature who has super strength. Not very original and she didn’t have much in the way of character. One of the opponents could fire energy blasts and appeared to almost be made of light. (The character reminded me of Soul Saver Dragon.) There was also a plant type creature who seemed to have less super strength and long range combat abilities, but made up for it with her long reach.

The Supergirl comic series is definitely off to a solid start and I’ll be looking forward to seeing how things play out from here. The art is definitely solid and the action scenes feel pretty streamlined. There was one typo in the comic, which is pretty rare. I won’t hold it against the comic, but it’s something that you may want to watch out for. (To test your analyzing skills) I definitely recommend picking up this series if you like cool action scenes or just like to look at the art for battle scenes. Not to mention that the character roster is better than most and things are moving at a good pace.

Overall 8/10

Iron Man 2020 takes place in the slight future (Of Earth 8140), but most of the current generation of heroes are gone. The new Iron Man is Tony Stark’s cousin, Arno. It’s interesting to see how they depicted the future back in the ole days. Things have definitely changed a lot over the years.

The first comic deals with Arno attempting to stop a bomb from detonating. It would destroy just about everyone around so the stakes were pretty high. The only person who could diffuse the bomb was dead, so Arno was forced to go to the past and find him. Unfortunately, Arno ran into Spiderman and doesn’t handle the situation well. After he injures a innocent bystander, Spiderman is forced to go all out. It’s a very one sided fight and I guess that’s what we can expect. This issue was definitely the best from the collection and it also contained the best fight.

In the next few issues, Arno is hired to take down the Machine Man. Since the Machine Man’s tech is so old, it should be no problem to defeat him right? Well, it’s not the armor that makes the man, but the other way around. Arno is a really bad fighter and every fighter he makes contact with, tend to mop the floor with him. This mini series is really about the Machine Man and Iron Man doesn’t even get to fight until the final two comics of the arc. It’s good to see the Machine Man getting his props, but it was basically filler. In the next comic, Arno takes on Death’s Head since he was told to do so. He doesn’t ask any questions and he just wants money….he gets less heroic by the comic.

In the 6 issue mini series, Arno hosts a party with a lot of rich people, but he’s attacked by one of his old enemies. Iron Man scrambles his fighters and he goes out to fight the robots. They’re mostly cannon fodder and the head of the villains is an average human, so he can’t fight. The collection of comics ends with a What If comic. It was good to see Iron Man take him down a couple of pegs and he was in his cool 90’s design.

Well, Arno Stark is a pretty bad protagonist. The comic shows his decline from (Arguable at best) hero to downright villain. He starts out by trying to save his planet and then he becomes a mercenary for hire. He drops one guy off of a roof and blasts another guy straight out of this life. He’s basically a twisted Tony Stark, but not quite as cool as the former. His armor is also laughably weak. He loses to robots from decades ago and one good hit is usually enough to weaken his armor. I also can’t say that I’m crazy about the design. Especially in the six issue mini series, it was very bulky.

Spiderman gets a pretty good role and he’s probably the best hero in the comic. He shows us what a real hero is and he gets the job done. Once he enters rage mode, he makes short work of his opponents. Iron Man 2020’s armor never stood a chance against those punches. War Machine looks pretty bad, (Granted that it’s a What If comic) but I think that we’ve come to expect that much. The real Iron Man looks pretty good and his armor definitely holds up to the times.

Death’s Head was an interesting villain. It’s always good to see a Transformers character make his way into the marvel universe and he definitely gave Arno a good fight. His sidekick definitely seems like an interesting character and a comic series about their exploits could be fun.

This is a pretty solid collection of comics. I’d recommend it thanks to the classic art and generally quick moving storyline. It’s never boring and it’s always good to expand your marvel knowledge. There aren’t a lot of popular characters in the book, but Spiderman and Iron Man guest star appearances will have to do.

Overall 7/10