Summer of Supergirl Special #1
Cover Artist: Belen Ortega
In 2025, we had the Summer of Superman, which included a theatrical film and a one-shot special that set up stories for his various series.
Now, in 2026, Supergirl gets her turn, with her own movie hitting theaters as I write this, and a one-shot special with three original stories.
How does the Woman of Tomorrow fare?
Main Man's Best Friend
Writer: Sophie Campbell
Artist: Belen Ortega
Colorist: Triona Farrell
The first and longest story comes to us from the regular creative team of the ongoing Supergirl series. If that book is always this much fun, then I think I might need to add it to my pull list. This story was a blast.
Supergirl, Leegra the Princess Shark, and "The Main Man" Lobo are on trial before some form of galactic court. Each has their own version of events, before Supergirl steps in and admits that the fault is entirely hers and Lobo's. In the end, the Main Man is sentenced to therapy… again. Apparently this is a common occurrence?
While he's away, Lobo's dog Dawg is placed in Supergirl's care. He's actually a very good dog, unless he sees Streaky the Super-Cat. So many super-powered animals… Anyhoo, the "rehabilitated" bounty hunter comes back for his Dawg, and wouldn't you know it, he and Supergirl end up throwing down again…
As I said earlier, this story was a ton of fun.
I'm a sucker for a good "No, this is the way it happened!" gag, so this story had me from the very first panel. From there, the whole court scene was hilarious, and did a terrific job showing what a good person Kara is.
I'm not a big Lobo fan, but he's used really well here. The joke about him apparently getting sentenced to therapy on the regular was very funny.
I absolutely loved the scenes of Kara helping out around her new home of Midvale. There were some cute moments, and I love how she took the idea of "Superman helps everyone" and got herself a little town of her own to do just that in. It means that when she and Lobo wreck the town in their brawl, we feel more for the people caught in the crossfire.
If this is how Supergirl is written in her regular series, then I definitely want to check it out. This was cute without being too cutesy. Kara is incredibly likeable, the artwork is very expressive, and it's just plain fun. So I can safely say this story did its job; it got me interested in the monthly Supergirl series.
This story was brought to us by the regular series creative team of Sophie Campbell and Belen Ortega, and I can now officially say I am a fan of this duo. Campbell's script keeps the pace moving, never lingering on anything too long, but giving us plenty of character moments and exciting action. Ortega's art is incredibly expressive, especially the faces. There are so many panels where I smiled or outright laughed at the way something was rendered. This is not a grim and dour story, and the colors by Triona Farrell make sure it doesn't look like one. Everything is bright and sunny, with the town of Midvale looking like a nice place to live. And Supergirl herself stands out over everything else, almost like a beacon of hope or goodness.
STORY SCORE: 9 out of 10
Lost Girls
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: Emma Kubert
Colorist: Trish Mulvihill
This story takes place "yesterday" and gives us the first meeting of Supergirl and Mary Marvel. It's another fun tale that makes the most of its limited page count, giving us some terrific character work and a touch of Silver Age silliness.
A group of disgruntled former LexCorp employees (is there any other kind, I wonder?) are wreaking havoc in Fawcett City with a female Amazo android. Why is it female, you may ask? I really have no idea. Supergirl is tired of studying and just looking for something to hit, so it's got perfect timing, no matter the gender. The android is able to approximate Kryptonite, which puts Kara in a bad spot, until the timely intervention of "Just Mary" (I really miss them being able to use the "Marvel" name).
The two are able to put the android down, and a quick costume change (including a hair-color-changing brush) later, they are finding out just how much they have in common…
This was a short one, but it was very sweet and had a ton of heart. When you think about it, Supergirl and Mary really do have a ton more in common than might appear at first glance. They're both orphans, they both live in foster homes, and they both feel trapped in the shadow of a similarly-powered man whom everyone in the world automatically associates them with. Any of those would be enough, but to have them all plus the normal teenage stuff—it's amazing they even get out of bed in the morning.
The fight with the android doesn't take up a lot of pages, but it serves to show how powerful and resourceful the two women are, so it serves its purpose. Their conversation, and the raw emotions at the heart of it, are the real meat of this story. I wish it had a few extra pages. I would have loved to see more of the two ladies interacting.
Writer Gail Simone makes the most of her limited page space, with the android fight being relatively quickly paced, and then things slowing down for the conversation that's the real heart of the issue. Her ear for dialogue is on-point as ever; you can almost hear the emotion in Mary's voice when she realizes she's not alone. The art by Emma Kubert is a great fit here. You can see just enough visual similarities in the two ladies when they're in costume, but when they're in street clothes, the differences are very apparent. Her characters are very expressive, which is important when much of your story is just two characters talking. The colors by Trish Mulvihill fit the brighter nature of both characters, although I think she put a bit too much makeup on them in their civilian identities. But that might just be a "me" issue.
STORY SCORE: 8 out of 10
Who is Supergirl?
Writer: Mark Waid
Artist: Cian Tormey
Colorist: Alex Guimaraes
Supergirl has a rather complicated continuity, given the number of times she's been killed or rebooted over the years. Not as many as someone like Hawkman or the Legion of Super-Heroes, but still plenty. So of course it falls to DC Historian Mark Waid to make it all make sense.
Conner Kent, aka Superboy, and Natasha Irons, aka Steel, are in charge of cleaning up the Super-Family entries in the Justice League database after a techno infestation. They are making good progress until they get to Supergirl's file. Fortunately, Jon Kent, aka Superman II, is on hand to help them sort fact from fiction. By the time they're done, Kara's complicated history makes a bit more sense, and Natasha has herself a new personal hero…
This was another short tale that plays "continuity cop" with Supergirl's complicated history. Using the idea of the newer members of the Super-Family being the ones going through the files, so they needed the most help determining what was correct, was a strong one. I'm not sure how I feel about Jon being the one who fills in all the holes, though. Canonically, he's only been around for eight or ten years, even with the age-up, so would he really know all of those things about his cousin? I get why they didn't use Clark here; this special isn't about him, but I wonder if there was someone better than Jon to use.
Also, as a big Conner fan, I really don't get or appreciate all of the shade thrown his way. I think it was supposed to be family-style ribbing, but it came across as pretty mean-spirited for the most part. I did think the last joke about Hal Jordan being a traveling toy salesman was great, but then again, I'm not a big Hal fan. In the end, this story does its job and sorts out Kara's complicated history into a coherent narrative, and shows the unique role that she occupies in the ever-growing Super-Family: the light that no darkness can extinguish for long.
This is the kind of story that only Mark Waid can write, and he does his usual great job with it. As I said before, I'm not sold on all the dialogue, especially toward Conner, but the focus of the story is really the continuity cleanup. The art by Cian Tormey is solid; some of the faces seem off, but nothing too awful. There are so many different periods of time being moved through in this story, and the art tries to approximate the style of each original story, which was a nice touch. The colors by Alex Guimaraes do the same, coloring the various flashbacks in a different style than the main story. All of these little details make the major periods in Supergirl's life stand out as they are placed into something resembling a cohesive order.
STORY SCORE: 8 out of 10
The Summer of Supergirl Special #1 is a very fun read, with three stories that all have one thing in common: showing us what a great character Kara Zor-El is, and hopefully enticing us to check out her ongoing series. It certainly did its job with me, and I will be picking up the current story arc to check it out. With creators like these working on her, the character is in very good hands indeed.