It had to happen: the Supergirl retrospective has reached its tragic finale.
This time I’ll cover her appearances in the issues prior to her death. Then we’ll move to her last issue, followed by a couple of posthumous pre-Crisis appearances, and we’ll end the entire retrospective on a positive note with her very first Silver Age story.
Crisis on Infinite Earths #4 (1985)
by Marv Wolfman & George Perez
Crisis is a story of truly immense scope: going through the details of everything would be a colossal endeavor, so to reiterate: I’m covering JUST the Supergirl moments here.
We actually begin with Supergirl (she doesn’t show up in the previous three issues), who responds to a call from Batgirl. We actually saw that call in DC Comics Presents #86.
It’s a nice scene that really sells you their friendship. Batgirl hasn’t shown up a lot in my retrospective, but the two did share a few adventures in other titles.
At this point in time “The Killing Joke” had yet to be published and wouldn’t be considered part of the main continuity for a while; that’s why Batgirl can still walk during Crisis.
(NOTE: I originally stated that Killing Joke had already been published, but reader A.Gerard correctly reminded me that story wouldn’t come out until 1988).
The very same conversation is replicated in DC Comics Presents #86 with minimal changes.
While I totally get what Supergirl is trying to do, it’s a little hard not to understand Batgirl’s viewpoint: the heroes without powers don’t really get much to do during Crisis.
It’s a legitimate problem, but to be honest I prefer this approach rather than the modern approach to have people like Batman being directly involved in absolutely everything.
Regardless, it’s a very good scene that sells both Supergirl’s heroism and positivity and Batgirl’s moody pessimism. She’ll slightly get over it as the series progresses.
That’s the last Supergirl scene in Crisis #4, but I should probably note that it’s also the first appearance of the heroic Doctor Light.
She’s going to be important later.
Crisis on Infinite Earths #5 (1985)
by Marv Wolfman & George Perez
Not a whole lot of Supergirl in this one, which is understandable since EVERYONE is in this. Just look at the cover!
Even Peter Parker gets a cameo! Seriously, try telling me it’s not him between Lois and Superman.
She only shows up for a single scene in the 30th century to witness the failed merging of the various Earths.
Supergirl actually had quite a few appearances in the Legion books in this period, which I’ll cover when I eventually reach that point in their own retrospective.
Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 (1985)
by Marv Wolfman & George Perez
It’s a pity that the Anti-Monitor will get a completely different look soon, because his original design is TERRIFYING.
Crisis has reached Earth-S, which is where the Fawcett characters live. And at that point why not have a Supergirl versus Captain Marvel fight?
Yeah things are pretty bad when Captain “Wisdom of Solomon” Marvel is the unreasonable one.
I get that they wanted to showcase Supergirl, but it’s a pity she’s not fighting her precursor Mary Marvel instead of Wonder Woman.
The fight doesn’t even get a proper ending, because Earth-S ends up being pulled together with the rest of the surviving Earths.
Historical significance: 10/10
Supergirl doesn’t do much in these specific issues, but it’s hard not to give this one the highest score considering everything will be seen through the Crisis lens.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Just looking at the Supergirl scenes, not really.
Does it stand the test of time? N/A
I don’t think it’s fair to give a proper score when I’m not reviewing the entire issue. That being said, the Supergirl scenes hold up fantastically well.
CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS 1985
THE KILLING JOKE 1988
That’s what I get for going by memory: in Italy the two stories were published around the same time and I forgot to double check the American publishing date.
You’re absolutely correct and I’ve updated the review accordingly.
I would love to see you also reviewing the War World issues. They feature Supergirl too.
You mean DCP #27 to #29? Since it’s the introduction of Mongul I’ll eventually cover it in the Villain Origins retrospective (though it’ll take a while before I get there).
Yes, that would be amazing to cover! I look forward to it! Cheers!
Archeologist: Receba no teu ân##,seu c###ino. Esta edição de Crise nas Infinitas Terras marca a estréia de John Constantine no universo DC e não em Swanp Thing de Alan Moore. John(de terno verde) está discutindo com Mento sobre os rumos da Crise. A tua ma’ fé é de dar nojo. John não é um mero “B-Lister da DC” como tu pensas, seu otário
On the off chance that this is not a troll post or spam comment:
A) This is an English speaking site. I write in English even if it’s not my first language, please have the courtesy to do the same in the comments.
B) Please no serious cursing. Comment edited to remove it.
C) I don’t mention Constantine in the review, at all, so what are you even talking about?
D) Nowhere in the site I ever stated or implied that Constantine is a B-Lister. What are you even talking about?
E) I don’t follow Constantine close enough to be sure whether his first published apperance is here or on Swamp Thing. The consensus seems to be that the Swamp Thing appearance comes first, but I’m not knowledgeable enough to weight on it.
F) Considering the likelihood that this is a troll post or a spam comment, I have removed the email. If this is a sincere post, I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt because I’m genuinely curious to know that in the review made you write this comment.
A primeira aparição de John Constantine nos comics foi em Crisis, na verdade, ele ainda não havia dado as caras em Swanp Thing. Alan Moore havia dito pra Wolfman e Perez quem era o personagem e pediu para mostra-lo pela primeira vez nessa saga. Marv descreveu a Perez o personagem, especificamente que ele bebe e fuma. Então, tinha de mostra-lo fumando. Constantine ainda não havia sido criado e Perez não sabia qual a referência para desenha-lo. Disseram a ele que John foi baseado no ex-Police Sting e Perez simplesmente o desenhou a partir daí, mas John no painel está de terno verde e não o seu visual clássico: beige trench coat, white shirt and red or black tie. Alan deu uma grande força para Crisis e queria que a estréia do personagem fosse na saga. Swanp Thing #37, considerada a primeira aparição de John Constantine, saiu no mesmo mês de Crisis On Infinite Earths #4. Curiosamente foi Perez quem concebeu o uniforme genérico de super-herói a Zatanna(o amor da vida de Constantine) dos anos 80, embora John prefira a top hat e as fishnet pantyhose. Eu não fiz questão nenhuma de assistir a série Arrows quando adaptaram Crisis já que não incluiram Constantine nela(focaram na queridinha da Supergirl de Melissa Beinost). A única coisa que Matt Ryan realmente queria era uma Zatanna para o seu Constantine live action mas foi estupidamente negado. Ryan intepretou alguns papéis horríveis de John Constantine, mas eu não o culpo inerentemente devido aos roteiros ruins mas porque os produtores do show tinham em suas mãos um JohnZee que deveriam dar a ele desde o primeiro episódio mas não o fizeram.
Still no clue what Constantine has to do with the review, since I don’t even mention him, but okay.
I don’t know enough about Constantine to have an opinion on the subject. For what little I’ve read about them, I do like him and Zatanna as a couple.
As I said in the previous answer, please post your comments in English. This is an English-speaking site, the vast majority of my readers speak English and I don’t speak Portuguese (I had to go through a translator)… if you post a comment, I assume you want me and other readers to be able to understand what you’re saying, right?
But also because of the way the anti-spam filter works, the comments that are not in English have a very high chance of automatically ending up in spam. Just to give you an example, this comment specifically was automatically flagged as spam and I had to manually un-flag it in order to approve it.
I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt one last time: comment in English or comments will be blocked.
Lovers forever John Constantine & Zatanna DC couple
“spam”, foi por isso que emigrei para o Instagram, pro Facebook, pro VK e pro Orkut ao ver a hipocrisia de Elon Mosca e a sua”liberdade de expressão”. O X (antigo Twitter) virou um antro de pornografia mas o cara não tem o direito de refutar posts dos blogs que essa platoforma rotula ele de “spam”. Elon Mosca suspende e bane jornalistas e críticos de sua plataforma
Oh I’m most definitely NOT a fan of Musk, believe me.
Just write in English and avoid the level of profanity of your original comment and you’ll be fine for the next comments.
I’ve added a section relevant to the comments on the QUESTIONS page.