Amadan na Briona

"Gah! My Eyes! I can see through everyone's clothes! I don't want to see through everyone's clothes!"

Supergirl, like all superheroes, has been through many incarnations. This volume collects in its entirety the six-issue run of "Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade," in which she is an eighth-grader sent to a boarding school by Superman after she "accidentally" gets rocketed from the Kryptonian city of Argo to Earth.

First of all, it's very much a children/MG series, not really part of DC's continuity. (As far as I know, Lex Luthor has never been revealed to have a little sister in the "real" DC Universe.) It's silly and comic and aimed at a very juvenile audience. In the first couple of issues, "Linda Lee's" trials are mostly those of being an unpopular dork in middle school, thus making her a stand-in for, presumably, many of her girl readers who will sympathize with the poor girl who's wonderful and special and yet everything keeps going wrong for her to make people think the worst of her.


Initially, her nemesis is "Belinda Zee," who is literally her evil doppleganger, created by exposure to red kryptonite. Since this is a MG comic book, Evil Supergirl doesn't try to kill her or take over the world... she just spends all her time making Linda Lee look stupid in school.

The later issues actually involve more superheroics. Time travel. Superman and Lex Luthor make an appearance in the climax. It's silly and complicated but fun, and there are quite a few references to the DC Universe; one of Superman's oldest and most classic enemies (besides Luthor) turns out to be the Big Bad, and Supergirl gets a visit from the 30th century. And while being a six-issue run for kids, the issues were mostly self-contained, there was a story arc that built up from issue one to the finale.

I am only giving it 3 stars because for me it was too juvenile and only moderately entertaining. However, I'd definitely recommend this series for the middle school comics reader in your family. In light of the disaster that DC comics has been lately on so many fronts, it's nice to see they can occasionally remember to publish fun, kid-friendly superhero comics.

"Was that a horse? Wearing a cape?"