Recently I read Supergirl issues 51 to 74 for a guest spot on Anthony Desiato’s Digging For Kryptonite podcast. This was the first time I’ve gone through most of these issues (I went through the Our Worlds At War issues a few years ago for a guest spot on the DCOCD podcast) since they first came out and while some of the issues dragged a little it ended up feeling like I was catching up with an old friend.

One of the weird things I’ve come to realize lately is that as much as I like the Kara Zor-El Supergirl I’ve never really connected with any of the versions of that character that I’ve been exposed to. I have read a number of pre-Crisis stories that I enjoyed. I really liked the Sterling Gates/Jamal Igle run from the late 2000s and I was a fan of the Melissa Benoist television series, but there was never that moment where I was like, “Oh yeah! That’s what this character is all about. I see it now.”

I fully admit that all of this is me and not the character. Kara is fine. I’m the one that can’t make the connection.

Between re-reading those issue and having a great talk with Anthony (which he’s releasing this Friday) I finally realized what the real issue was.

I had “my” Supergirl, and it was the post-Crisis version. Specifically the Peter David version of the post-Crisis version.

A lot of this has to do with when I started reading the Superman books and the fact that I was, at the risk of sounding like a boomer talking about the late sixties, there when the post-Crisis version of Supergirl first appeared. I vividly remember sitting on the couch and reading Superman #16 after getting it from The Super Fresh and seeing the scientists finding a woman dressed in the Supergirl uniform in the arctic at the end of the issue. It was shocking. I didn’t fully appreciate it because I wasn’t a pre-Crisis reader, but I knew who Supergirl was and I knew that this was the new version of Superman and that he didn’t have a cousin so who the hell was this?

And I followed that character through The Supergirl Saga and the protoplasm era during and after Exile and then her return in Panic in the Sky and all the way up to 1996 when the character was in the wilderness. After her relationship with Lex fell apart (which doesn’t really get into how messed up that whole situation was) the writers that worked on the character struggled to find a direction. They workshopped a few things in real time, but it wasn’t until Peter David came into the picture and started writing her ongoing, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this July, that suddenly she had a direction and a purpose that was all her own.

And I loved it.

Which explains why I haven’t “vibed” (as the kids probably no longer say) with any other version of Supergirl in a meaningful way. Because I had “my” Supergirl and it was the Peter David version. I’m not saying every issue was gold (see previous paragraph where I say the issues I read would drag from time to time) and I will admit that some of the humor hasn’t aged all that well. But, in the overall, it was a great series that was a mix of super hero action and the supernatural and a young woman that had a lot of problems finding out exactly who she was.

I really love that series. And now I want to revisit the first fifty issues. I just don’t have the time at the moment with other things I’m working on.

But it’s on the list.

And, just to be thorough, here’s the black and white version of the house ad I posted above.

The house ad is great, by the way. The line, “They told her to get a life. They didn’t say whose.” is a fantastic hook and the clothes and the skateboard scream, “It’s the nineties!” I love it.

More to follow…