Interview with a Newb #1

This is the first installment in a series where I will be finding somebody who is unfamiliar with comics and get them to read something that might be considered a good jumping-on point for a comic by either the writer or the publisher.

Since the first person to agree to do this would actually make a pretty good Supergirl for Halloween (if she bothered to do so) I thought I would go with Sterling Gate and Jamal Igle's first issue of Supergirl since I thought it would make  good first issue for somebody to new to Supergirl and this was my chance to see if that was true.

The newb in question is Mary and she's a seventeen year old high school student. Before reading this she had absolutely no comic reading experience that wasn't a comic strip in the newspaper. Supergirl #34 was her very first comic book...


And she really liked it!

I didn't set anything up for her but she was marginally familiar with Superman, Lois and the Daily Planet because she saw 'Superman: The Movie" when she was a kid. Of course I think it would be difficult to find somebody who doesn't know the very basics of the Superman mythos.

After she finished the comic she said that she liked it and after questioning her further she said that she would want to read more and wanted to know what happens next. The problem with that it the very next issue the New Krypton storyline started and I think reading Supergirl would be confusing if you weren't also reading Superman, Action Comics and World of New Krypton.

When I asked if she had any questions about the book she told me there were some parts that had her confused. She wasn't entirely sure why Cat Grant hated Supergirl (jealousy was the most basic answer although Mary did point out the accidental black eye too).

There was also this encounter in Tim Drake's cave under the Titan's Tower.

She wasn't entirely sure what was going on here. First off, she didn't know who Kid Devil was but also seemed to figure that it wasn't that important.

She was also confused about the fact that Batman was 'off the grid' and I told her that 'Batman R.I.P.' was going on. I didn't go into detail about RIP since that would probably be too confusing. I just told her that a group called the Black Glove were trying to destroy Batman completely.

She also wanted to know more about where the glasses came from so I told her about Superboy and how he had died some time before this comic.

She didn't even know there was a Superboy so I just told her about how he showed up after Superman died.

Then I went to far in my explanations and told her that Superboy had recently come back to life to which she replied, "comics are so confusing!" I can't really argue that. I know what's going on because I read a lot of DC comics and keep track of what's going on but Supergirl randomly talking to an unknown red guy about her new secret identity could be confusing to somebody new to the title.

I was happy to see how reader friendly this issue was so it really is a little unfortunate that she didn't really want to read more because of 'New Krypton.' I'm enjoying that storyline but I hope that when things get back to normal (after the conclusion of 'War of the Supermen' sometime in 2011 I guess) Sterling and Jamal will still be working on this title and maybe we'll see Supergirl and more of her new secret identity. There's always a trade-off with this sort of thing. I like following a big months or years long storyline run through a lot of titles but it makes it harder for new readers.

I guess we'll have to see how things work out. Maybe DC's Earth One series of OGNs will be just what they need for new readers to get hooked. As long as they market them right that is.

Until next time keep those death rays powered up!

BJ Dowd