Supergirl: Survive #1 Is a Rushed But Interesting Origin Remix for the Hero (Review)

As is the case with most DC Comics characters, Supergirl has had a variety of origin stories over the years, but there is one that core story that is at the core of Kara Zor-El’s story. Hailing from Krypton’s Argo City, Kara and other residents survive the destruction of Krypton for a time drifting through space before a meteor shower damages the city’s shielding and prompting her parents to send her towards Earth—and her infant cousin Kal-El—to save her life from the lethal Kryptonite radiation. Now, with Supergirl flying onto movie screens in just a few more weeks, the new Elseworlds story from DC, Supergirl: Survive, is offering a new twist on that story, one that sees Kara and baby Kal in a fight for survival in a universe that doesn’t care if they live or die.

Written by Ethan S. Parker and Griffin Sheridan with art by Rod Reis, Supergirl: Survive #1 doesn’t exactly reinvent Karr Zor-El’s story in big ways in its first issue, but what it does do is offer up an introduction to what feels like an interesting new perspective on who Kara is, one that focuses less on her survivor’s guilt and appearance as Kal’s “younger” cousin, and instead offers up a Kara that is smart, capable, and just an ordinary teenage girl trying to not only process the end of the world as she knows it and manage to keep herself and the one person she has left alive while not even being sure exactly how she got there in the first place.

Rating: 3 out of 5

An Interesting If Rushed-Feeling Introduction to a Potentially Great Story

The first issue functions as a very quick introduction to Kara and her life before everything gets turned horrifically upside down in an instant. We’re introduced to Kara as just your ordinary teenage girl: she loves her baby cousin; she goes to the Kryptonian equivalent of high school where she has important projects and exams to contend with as well as the most terrifying thing possible to all teenagers in the whole universe: the school dance and dates. It’s a refreshing little glimpse of who Kara is before her whole world comes apart—especially her budding relationship with Ben-Lo.

But sprinkled into the structural background of the story is that things are very wrong on Krypton. We get a disagreement between Kara’s father and aunt regarding how Kal was born and the planet itself being in trouble. We get some sort of “atoms attack” drill at school, and even a glimpse at the dangerous and fraught political landscape of Krypton with Emperor Zod railing on television, calling protestors terrorists. Before Kara—or the reader—can really make sense of any of it, they have to escape and Kara and Kal are placed in a prototype ship and sent into the stars, presumably bound for Earth. It doesn’t quite work as intended when the ship is damaged and crashes nearby, close enough for Kara to see the destruction of her whole world.

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It’s all interesting, but it is also done very quickly, so much so that it feels like we are speed running through this setup so that things can really kick off in the next issue. On one hand, given that this is a miniseries, getting through the lead up to why Kara and Kal are fighting for survival is a decision of utility. It frees up the remaining issues for stories about said survival and, presumably, about how they pair may ultimately end up on Earth. The rapid-fire clues about exactly how bad things are on Krypton also works well if you considering from Kara’s perspective. As a teenager, she isn’t necessarily as focused on or concerned about the bigger world issues as she has her own small problems to content with that, to her, feel like the world. But for a reader, it’s jarring to get bits and pieces of things and try not to overly connect them to previous origin stories we’ve read before; this story is supposed to be its own thing, after all. It all gives the reader enough interest to want to stick around for what’s next, but it also isn’t ideal.

The End of Krypton is Stunning (And Bodes Well For Art In Future Issues)

What really stands out about Supergirl: Survive #1, however, is the art. This is the most “real” Krypton has ever really seemed in that this take on the doomed world feels much more like our world. Kara’s school, the city, everything is very reminiscent of our own world and while there are obviously some alien and high-tech hallmarks throughout, giving Krypton this look and feel that is familiar to our own world really helps to give the book a bit more of an emotional charge to it. Yes, this is an alien world, but it looks and feels a lot like our own, right down to political divides. It’s a nice visual buy-in for readers.

It’s also something that bodes well for the next chapter of the story, where Kara and Kal have to find a way to survive on wherever it is they’ve found themselves. The last moments of the book shows them potentially in danger from whoever or whatever inhabits where they just crashed. Given the quality of the art in this book, it’s exciting to think that we might be getting an equally high quality, possibly new and unexplored corner of the DC universe next as we continue Kara’s story.

Ultimately, Supergirl: Survive #1 is a decent comic. The idea of an alternative take on Kara and Kal’s escape from their doomed home world is always an interesting concept and while so far it doesn’t feel too revolutionary, there is also something really refreshing about seeing Kara as a whole person in a way that we don’t usually get to. We get to see what she lost and see what she is willing to do to survive. It’s a more emotionally resonant start to things and while the issue could have benefitted from slowing down a little and giving readers more context, it’s a solid start and I’m interested to see where this goes.

Supergirl: Survive #1 is on sale now from DC Comics.

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