For Kara Danvers, the ability to lift a tractor over her head is indication enough that she’s different, but she’s unsure of just how different that may be. The first issue of Supergirl: Being Super has Kara playing the part of a typical high schooler. She’s got a couple of wildly quirky friends, a monster zit threatens her school photo, and her adoptive parents keep the space pod she arrived in in the barn.
This post contains spoilers for Supergirl: Being Super #1.
Supergirl: Being Super, written by Mariko Tamaki, introduces Kara Danvers’s Supergirl to a whole new storyline. For once, Kara doesn’t know that she’s from the planet Krypton and that her amazing powers come from her being an alien on Earth. This story is remarkably similar to that of her cousin, Superman’s. After all, Clark Kent lands on a farm, is adopted by humans, and doesn’t know (for a while, at least) why he has the abilities he does.
With Kara turning 16 in the first issue, dealing with Kryptonian puberty and running for the track team at her school, this series already seems aimed at an audience similar in age to Kara herself. Kara’s adoptive mom is charming and embarrassing, her father is reclusive and suspicious (most likely alluding to a plot point about his taking on that persona when an alien spaceship containing a small child landed in his cornfield), and her track coach adores her.
Kara lifts tractors over her head, runs like the wind, jumps from windows, and begins to deal with the effects of superpowered puberty in issue #1. And while her two best friends — “badass dyke” Dolly and the super athletic, health-conscious Jen — are worrying about history class, Kara is sick, lightheaded, and concerned about her glowing hands.
Not only is the art in Being Super (pencils by Joëlle Jones, inks by Sandu Florea, and colors by Kelly Fitzpatrick) charming and beautiful, it’s also realistic of a gaggle of 16-year-olds. So while Kara may have no idea yet where she comes from, thinking that her identity problems are just the usual teenage hormones, the artists and writers behind the project certainly have an idea of where she’s going.
The colors are bright, the characters are delightful, and Kara will certainly be in for a self-discovering adventure as Being Super continues.
Supergirl: Being Super #1 is now available.
