I am very shocked when I say this, but I really enjoyed this issue. Normally, this wouldn’t be something unusual for me to say about a Supergirl comic…if I was talking about Peter David’s run of Supergirl, which I adored. But the current Supergirl?

This run of Supergirl has been…rocky, to put it nicely. The first few issues were controversial due to the art (which depicted a ridiculously skinny and sexualized Kara- and this is even by comic book standards, the girls bones were jutting– in a skirt the length of a belt and some lackluster writing depicting Supergirl as an angsty, bratty teeenybopper without a kind bone in her body…though the writers probably thought she was “dark” and “edgy” with the all her boring daddy issues. It got to the point where the editor was begging women to read the title. Yeah.

DC actually listened to it’s fans and improved the art by putting the excellent Renato Guedes and Tony Bedard in for some fill in issues, and then some more artists that drew Kara like a human being and not a sex puppet.

The writing, though better, remained lackluster. Supergirl lacked a supporting cast and any real direction or interest as a title.

DC has promised to fix all that with this new run by Sterling Gates and Jamal Ingle and give Supergirl a real place in the Superman mythos.

This issue looks for a promising start. It addresses the criticisms about Supergirl in a much less patronizing way than Supergirl #18 (which was basically Joe Kelly’s rant that the fans wanted Kara to have no flaws at all and that’s why they didn’t like the book…completely missing the point) and sets up a conflict between Kara and the reporter Cat Grant.

I genuinely sympathized with Kara’s struggle to find her place in the world in the story, and I really liked her interaction with Lana. There was a very neat scene with Superman where the two of them had coffee on the rooftops, and for the first time I really got a feeling of affection between those two, and mutual understanding.

The last page sets up a status quo I think could be taken in a very interesting direction. It’s certainly a solid jumping off point for other stories to be told.

The art was beautiful as well. I’ve always liked Jamal Ingle’s work. The characters are well defined and expressive, and Kara doesn’t look like she comes from Planet Blow Up Doll.

The comic was by no means a masterpiece, but it was solid and fun to read, and that’s important. What’s more important is something that happened when I was in my local comic book shop a while ago. A girl I knew from school as a fellow comic book geek was flipping through a Supergirl trade. She showed me a page where Kara was showing off her amazing ability to wear a thong and look like Paris Hilton.

“I don’t get how I’m supposed to relate to her,” she told me.

I couldn’t relate to that Supergirl either. I could relate to the Supergirl in this comic. And that, my friends, is a good sign. Let’s hope it continues.